July 20th to 22nd - to Yellowstone

July 20^th – Sun – Garrison MT

The wind blew all the smoke away so it was clear & sunny this morning. We had a lovely, lazy morning and I made breakfast for lunch. We made another trip into Deer Lodge and checked it all out. We toured the old prison and museums the last time we were here (recommended for anyone visiting here) so we made a stop at the grocery store and headed back. We continued into Garrison and found nothing there.

Our neighbor had been fishing and caught a 10” brook trout so we wandered down to the river to see if anyone else was fishing. Quite a few rigs were arriving and we ended up chatting with new neighbors for a while. Dinner and a quiet evening.

July 21^st – Mon – to Yellowstone

We left at 7:30 for the 200 (or so) mile drive to West Yellowstone. We are staying at Baker's Hole federal campground about 3 miles north of West Yellowstone which is the west entrance to the park. We did some checking yesterday on campgrounds in Yellowstone park and found that most did not have hookups. We stayed here in the past and knew there were electric sites but no water so we filled the fresh water tank before we left. We found a site (not many available with electricity), set up and headed to town with the truck since we needed diesel and the skies were cloudy & dark.

The first order of business was breakfast/lunch as it was nearly noon. Then we went shopping and actually bought some stuff. We stopped at the visitor center for more information and had a “snack” at Dairy Queen.

We had a few sprinkles on the way back and then the skies let loose once we were safely inside. We covered the bike & put out the awning. At one point Terry was trying to figure out what was making a popping noise and realized it was hailing. There were huge thunderclaps and lots of rain. Luckily we weren't planning to BBQ for dinner.

July 22^nd – Tues

I made breakfast before we took the motorcycle to Yellowstone Park. We stopped at the Visitor Center to see if the rain & thunder that was forecast for today was still on the menu but it didn't look too bad.

By now it was after 10 and there was a big line of vehicles to get into the park. We headed to the Old Faithful area with a few stops along the way. We have been to the park a few times before so we didn't stop at all the view areas. Also, some of the parking areas were full.

Amazingly, we didn't have to wait too long for Old Faithful to erupt. There were lots of people there and we wanted to finish driving a loop and get back before a possible rain shower so we headed for the bike & beat the crowd leaving the parking lot.

We really enjoyed riding the bike in the park. As the passenger, I can look around at everything and take pictures without worrying about bugs on the windshield and reflections in the side window. It even smells good – except for the sulfur from some areas. We didn't see much wildlife – 3 individual bison, one lone elk and a herd of elk in the distance. There were lots of cars parked where you normally see a herd of bison but everyone had binoculars or huge telephoto lenses so we didn't stop.

We stopped for a few groceries, topped up the gas in the bike and headed for the RV park – no rain! We didn't put on a lot of miles but spent a lot of time on the bike so were ready to relax.