The six photographs below are from two different trips – one in 2007 and the other in 2011 – from five different states.
Fence at Cliff Edge
Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming, 2007
Related Video: Devils Tower, Wyoming
Logs of Wolfe Ranch Cabin
Arches National Park, Utah, 2007
Related Videos:
Trail to Delicate Arch 2011
Trail to Delicate Arch 2007
Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 2011
Related Video: Garden of the Gods
Sunrise over Madison River, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2007
Related Video: Along the Madison River
Horse auction, Great Falls, Montana, 2007
Related Video: A Visit to Great Falls
Sandy Cove, Canton Lake, Oklahoma, 2011
Related Video: Sandy Cove
The northeast part of the park has few of the thermal features so prevalent in the rest of the park. This section is more mountainous than some of the other parts of the brush, with striking vistas of a wilderness of high peaks and deep valleys. Vegetation ranges from grasses and sagebrush to aspens and pines. All of the wildlife found in other parts of the park may also be seen here.
Our route for this video is shown in darker red on the map. The dotted line represents a one-way dirt road – well maintained, and a favorite of ours – that crosses the Blacktail Deer Plateau.
With each visit we generally make the whole Grand Loop Road. Doing the whole loop all at once makes for a long day – and it truly is impossible to see everything in a single day.
If you’re a camper, my recommendation would be to stay at either Madison Campground or Canyon Village Campground. These are in the middle part of the long sides of the Grand Loop Road. This will eliminate a lot of repetitive travel over the same areas. In 2011, we stayed at Fishing Bridge for a week. It was plenty of time to see everything. However, we spent a lot of time just in transit, much of it in the Hayden Valley or nearby, caught up in excruciatingly slow traffic, generally caused by buffalo – or people slowing down or stopping to see the buffalo.
If you want to stay in the park, whether you are camping or staying a lodge, make reservations very early. The reason we ended up at Fishing Bridge instead of one of our preferred campgrounds was that we didn’t plan far enough in advance. Six months in advance may not bee soon enough.
__________
Yellowstone References and Resources:
Yellowstone is one of the most popular destinations in the U.S. and there are a lot of available resources, including books and DVDs
as well as internet resources. I’ve included links to a few reliable resources below and have more on my Yellowstone page at Haw Creek.
During our visit to Yellowstone National Park in 2007, we stayed in a campground near West Yellowstone, Montana, so, each day, no matter where we were going in the park, we traveled along the Madison River on our way in and, again, on our way back to the camper. Sometimes it was clear, sometimes, cloudy, but always a beautiful drive. One morning, the day I photographed the mists over the river, the temperature was several degrees below freezing – winter was just a few weeks around the corner.
The rest of the video slideshows from Yellowstone 2007 are arranged by regions of the park and will be posted here every three days over the next three weeks, followed by those from Grand Teton National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and Arches National Park.
Yellowstone National Park has long been a favorite of ours. I first visited in 1963, back when bears were a very common sight. Our first visits there as a family came in our second year of marriage, tent camping with a six month old with temperatures falling into the mid 30s at night. When we lived in Idaho from 1977 to 1980, we visited many times and have been back numerous times since we moved to Arkansas. We also spent a week in the park in 2010.
Yellowstone References and Resources:
Yellowstone is one of the most popular destinations in the U.S. and there are a lot of available resources, including books and DVDs as well as internet resources. I’ve included links to a few reliable resources below and have more on my Yellowstone page at Haw Creek.
September 2007
Music: “When it Rains” by Anna Coogan and North19
track added using YouTube AudioSwap
While in Montana in September 2007, we had plans to stop in Lewistown to get set up with a satellite internet system. The installer, Ron, had an extra RV spot at his home for friends, complete with hookups and invited us to stay there for a few days. The satellite system was a new model and there were a few wrinkles in getting it set up right.
Ron was a member of an on-line RV forum I participated in. Retired, Ron did satellite system installs for other forum members at one price no matter how long it took.
While there, we shared supper with Ron and his wife several times in their house and once at the Black Bull Saloon and Steakhouse in Hobson. We also took in the 2007 Lewistown Chokecherry Festival and the What the Hay “hay art” contest that stretched over 21 miles in Judith Basin County between the towns of Hobson and Windham. As, well they took us on a couple of other drives out into the Montana countryside.
“What the Hay” is now also called the “Montana Bale Trail.”
__________
Lewistown, Chokecherry Festival, and Montana Bale Trail information:
September 1st and 2nd, 2007
The music is “Back to Back” by Whitey Morgan and the 78’s, YouTube audioswap.
While we had been here before, in 2001, we had just been passing through on our way to Glacier National Park and had made reservations at a hotel in Great Falls for one night.
In 2007, though, Great Falls was a destination for a family visit. A brother, his wife and two sons were living there.
While visiting with family, we also saw some of what is left of the falls, went to a farmers’ market, saw an autocross competition, visited Giant Spring State Park, spent a little time at a horse auction and stopped at the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center.
__________
References for Great Falls:
(Music: Land of Promise, Terry Devine King, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, YouTube Audioswap)
We we camped for two nights at a campground just outside of Billings, Montana. We hadn’t decided on what to do or where to go on our “non-travel” day. Looking at the map, the Beartooth Highway looked like it might be interesting. While it was a ways to go, we decided to check it out.
In hindsight, I have only one regret for taking the drive that day and it’s only that I wished we were camped closer to the beginning of the climb into the Beartooth Mountains, perhaps somewhere around Red Lodge, where the Beartooth Highway begins. Other than that, the drive, said by some to be “the most beautiful drive in America,” was well worth it.
From Wikipedia:
The Beartooth Highway is the section of U.S. Highway 212 between Red Lodge, Montana and Cooke City, Montana. It traces a series of steep zigzags and switchbacks, along the Montana-Wyoming border to the 10,947 ft (3,337 m) high Beartooth Pass. The approximate elevation rise is from 5,200 ft (1,600 m) to 8,000 ft (2,400 m) in 12 mi (19 km) in the most daring landscapes.
When driving from the east to the west, the highest parts of the Beartooth Highway level off into a wide plateau near the top of the pass, and then descend to where the Beartooth Highway connects to the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway near Cooke City, which forms the northeast gateway to Yellowstone National Park. En route, one passes numerous lakes typical of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Area which borders the highway along much of its route.
The highway officially opened June 14, 1936.
Beartooth Highway references:
Click for Exit78 Pinterest policy.