A good place for American Dippers. One of my all-time favorite birds. They feed underwater in swift water. Sometimes they walk around out of the water and pick at bugs and grubs underneath the surface.
Sometimes they go all-in and dive underwater to graze the deeper streambed.
A good place for bison.
And ravens.
Catching bugs.
And Trumpeter Swans.
Smoke almost all the way here, but it suddenly got better the last hour of the day. A short layover at a lush city park in Ennis. Green grass for Jesse to run in, roll on, and shake off the road dust.
And on into town at West Yellowstone.
The weather is cool. The air is clear. Perfect.
We’ve always stayed at Grizzly RV park right in town for easy access to Yellowstone’s west gate. It’s by far the nicest park in the neighborhood. I looked online for reservations and they’re now $200 a night for a van. We booked at the KOA five miles outside of town instead. We’re very happy with this KOA campsite.
First things first, after setting up camp, a drive back into town for an early dinner of chicken fried steak at our favorite eatery, the Old Town Café.
So familiar.
Then a late afternoon drive into the park. Yellowstone is so crowded in the summer, but going in in the evening avoided any lines, a lot of the traffic, and many times we felt like we had individual spots to ourselves.
Didn’t go very far in today; Madison Junction and then off to the south for some mud, steam, and geysers.
And encrusted pinecones.
Jesse crashes out before we even finish getting set up for the night.
Hot. Gravel parking lot. Right next to the freeway. Just an overnight stop.
Still smoky.
Saw a 70 mph grizzly bear today. We were going 70, and the bear was walking up and over the roadside railroad tracks. At that speed, it wasn’t a long look, but it was clear. That was not a brown black bear, that was a for-sure flat-faced, spiky-coated grizzly. Our first bear sighting of any kind this trip.
What? It’s only a hundred miles to Flathead Lake? We love Flathead Lake.
Got one of the last remaining sites at the state park. When we arrived at the park though, we found out I had inadvertently reserved a walk-in tent site, with an off-level parking spot. Like way off-level. The park host was so nice, she moved us to an administrative site that they hold back for emergencies. Lucky us, we got a nice level site for the night.
A short walk to the lake.
A bit of a slope, to get down and back. I’ve been careful not to test my healing hamstring but it’s so much better it’s comfortable walking on level ground now, and it turns out a few hills don’t hurt either. We won’t try any running or jumping before August. Judy’s knee is good for level ground and uphills. It doesn’t like downhills much though.
We forgot about the smoke. South again tomorrow.
