Since we were camped near West Yellowstone, we traversed this part of the park several times. There are a lot of thermal features here, but we didn’t make it to all of them.
Some of the more popular destinations in the park get very crowded as the day goes by, even in September when the season is starting to wind down. One secret to getting in at those places without having to fight traffic and/or search for a parking spot is to get there early. It seems as though a lot a folks are late risers when on vacation – or they are just taking their time.
In Yellowstone, like many other places, early morning is a good time for photos, especially on chilly mornings in areas that abound in thermal features.
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.
Yesterday we had a bit of wind and rain. After the rain had passed, Karen spotted a rainbow through the skylight of the camper and I walked out to the highway to get to an open area where I could see it without trees, structures, or vehicles in the way. I ended up on the edge of the median of the southbound lane of US 50. The image is a composite of three photographs.
Nature is so amazing!
We’re traveling again. My contact job ended about 2 1/2 weeks ago and we left home 2 weeks ago. This time, I decided I was not going to try to keep up with the trip on a day to day basis. Each time I’ve done that, I got behind and ended up skipping some days.
I’ve taken a lot of pictures and video, including several fairly decent time-lapse sequences. Post processing is complete for about the first day and a half of our trip. I’ll be posting about the trip in more detail when we get back home and I’ll be doing it day-by-day to get the whole trip published in sequence.
We planned to be away from the internet quite a bit this trip. I pre-scheduled the videos that have been posted every three days or so through to the end of the trip. Karen is posting pretty much as we go on her blog, but she is also pre-posting for some of the times that we will be away from the internet.
Most of the time when we have internet access, we are camped in an RV park that has wireless and is near or in a town, like Grand Junction, Colorado, where we are now.
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.
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.”
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Lewistown, Chokecherry Festival, and Montana Bale Trail information:
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.
(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.
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.
This was our second visit to Devils Tower. Our first was an abbreviated, quick visit-and-get back-on-the-road side trip on our way home from a western vacation.
On this 2007 visit, we stayed 3 nights at the Devils Tower KOA campground, just outside the entrance station to the monument.
One of the trails that we took was a trail that goes all the way around the base of Devils Tower. Devils Tower is a sacred site to many American Indian tribes. All along the trail could be seen Indian prayer offerings (bundles and cloths).
The other trail we took was a full moon hike with a park ranger. I did have a couple of good images that turned out from that night, but they were from after we got back to the camper. One of them is the last image of the video slide show at the beginning of this post.
Photos (from top to bottom):
Prayer bundle in the forest at the base of Devils Tower
Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon), and Larry Butler (Josef Sommer) run towards Devils Tower, Close Encounters of the Third Kind scene right at the entrance station to the monument.
Devils Tower National Monument entrance station.
It’s interesting, now, how familiar much of the scenery in the movie is now, including some of the scenery outside the park. The area where the military encampment is shown to be in the movie is now the site of several better than average touristy type shops.
Devils Tower (Lakota: Mato Tipila, which means “Bear Lodge”) is a monolithic igneous intrusion or volcanic neck located in the Black Hills near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. It rises dramatically 1,267 feet (386 m) above the surrounding terrain and the summit is 5,112 feet (1,558 m) above sea level.
The day we decided to visit Deadwood, South Dakota, turned out to be during the “Kool Deadwood Nights” festival.
We had no idea that there was anything special going on until we got there. When we had trouble finding a place to park, we almost decided to head on down the road to see other places and sights.
Deadwood’s Main Street was filled with the chairs of people who were planning to attend the night’s entertainment. We have no idea who was performing that night and we were not prepared to stay that late.
Kool Deadwood Nights: Car lovers come together for four days full of classic cars, classic music and classic fun. It’s a 50’s and 60’s sock hop—Deadwood style. Enjoy parades, show and shines and FREE concerts on Main Street featuring the biggest names in rock ‘n roll history.1
Deadwood, named for dead trees found there when it was established, was illegally settled in the 1870s in territory granted to native tribes in the 1868 Treaty of Laramie. An expedition led by George Armstrong Custer in 1874 announce the discovery of gold in the Black Hills. The news, of course, triggered a gold rush, and gave rise to the lawless town of Deadwood.
The town’s early history forms the basis for the storyline of the HBO TV series named Deadwood.
In the late 80s, on our way home from a western vacation, we stopped for one night in Badlands National Park. The stop included a nighttime ranger guided walk.
Our 2007 trip was a daytime visit as we were camping in the Black Hills. It started out as a chilly blustery day, but, fortunately the weather improved as the day went on.
The badlands is a fascinating landscape of “sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires blended with the largest protected mixed grass prairie in the United States1.”
One of our first stops on our 2007 trip, after visiting family in Nebraska, was the Black Hills of South Dakota. While there, we visited Mount Rushmore national Monument.
We had stopped at Mount Rushmore once in the late 80s. We were on our way home from vacationing in Wyoming and Idaho and our visit to Rushmore was a hurried afterthought.
This trip, we took our time and got the full benefit of the visit. Mount Rushmore is worth seeing.
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 
The town’s early history forms the basis for the storyline of the HBO TV series named 
