Our intentions of driving into National Parks one way and
leaving via a different scenic route keep being scuppered! Take today for example. Leaving Cooney State Park, as I mentioned in
yesterday’s post, I figured we were roughly an hour and a half from the
North-East entrance of Yellowstone. We
headed through the town of Red Lodge, waiting to hit the beautiful scenery of
the 212…. When orange flashing lights ahead alerted us to a possible problem –
the road ahead was shut in 12 miles.
Handily, there was a ranger station we could visit to have our fears
confirmed. The only route into
Yellowstone at this time of year was via route 89 through Gardiner. From this point it would take 3 hours to
reach that entrance – back up to Interstate 90, west for about 70 miles, then
back south again. So much for having the
whole day to explore the park!
I was getting resigned to missing out on Yellowstone. Was it too much of a detour and too much gas
for a brief glimpse of only the North road of the park? For example, would we
be able to reach one of the most famous parts of Yellowstone, the Old Faithful
Geyser? But we may only be here once, and Simon was adamant that I should be
more positive - so we must fit it in! |
| The Roosevelt arch |
Off we drove.
Stopping for a brief lunch and battling with gusting winds (again, while
I was driving!) we finally reached the North entrance by the Roosevelt arch at 345pm. Straight away we saw
numerous deer and our first bison, close-up.
 |
| Wild bison... they are LARGE! |
Only issue – our grey tank was overflowing
and our water tank was near empty because the sneaky park last night had put
padlocks on all their taps so we were unable to fill up today. The lady at the
entrance station confirmed that the Mammoth camp ground is open but didn’t
think there were any facilities for dumping or
topping up water tanks. Yikes, we parked up to take stock of our
position. I could cope without a shower
(as long as Simon didn’t mind) and we had plenty of bottled water so we would
not go without essentials like tea and coffee.
It was the only RV site available to us.
The two in Gardiner were closed and when I tried my charms with the
owner of one of them over the phone I failed.
I offered her $10 for us to top up on water and use her dump station,
but no, she wouldn’t open, even though she is due to on 1st April –
that’s in only TWO DAYS!
Never mind. The
situation improved when we reached Mammoth camp ground, just five miles into
the park. There was water available,
phew! And also, plenty of space. So, we
selected a spot away from other campers and reviewed the map of
Yellowstone. What to do – go for a drive
this afternoon to explore the North road and leave first thing in the morning?
Or settle in for the night and do the touring in the morning? Ominous clouds and freezing winds, plus the
fact that we felt we’d driven enough today, helped us with the decision. Tomorrow it is! So, instead of visiting Yellowstone on
Tuesday afternoon as originally planned, we were now doing it on Thursday
morning. Hmmmm, our plans for the next
week may have to change to facilitate this delay. This time next week we need to be picking up
guests from the airport in Seattle! We
had a planning meeting, but it may all still change, so I’ll just let things
unfold.
Having been stuck in the RV driving all day I needed a
leg-stretch despite our decision. I
managed to guilt Simon into coming for a walk into Fort Yellowstone with me
because he would feel terrible if I got eaten by bears of kicked by an elk,
wouldn’t he?! We were out for just under
an hour in the biting cold but saw some bits that we now won’t have to
factor in during the morning. |
| View from Fort Yellowstone across to Mammoth hot springs |
 |
Back at the RV, generator use is only allowed until 8pm. So, we got dinner on, I had the hot shower I
was secretly hoping for and we got the heating on in preparation for an early
night without power. In fact, we had
another movie night as there was no chance of any TV channels or blogging
happening here in the middle of the mountains.
But I like being off the radar like this.
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