On the Road to Yellowstone

Next we faced our longest drive of the trip from Glacier National Park to Yellowstone - across the whole state of Montana. We set off in the rain, as usual. We stopped in a small town called Choteau and chatted to a cowboy at the information centre. Then we stopped in Helena to do our grocery shopping and for lunch. We went to McDonalds and used the free wifi to check the route - just 180 more miles to go.

We eventually arrived at the north entrance of the park at around 6pm. Only to discover that every campground was full. It is Labor Day weekend but still we weren't expecting EVERY site to be full. We were sad and lost for a few minutes - it had been a very tiring drive. Then we turned around and drove to an RV park in the town just by the park entrance. There were no sites there either but the man there suggested a primitive national forest campground a few miles away so we gave that a try. We got one of the last spots, although several people came after us and managed to squeeze in. The camp host there was nice about fitting everyone in.

There was no water at the camp and we hadn't come with enough for drinking, cooking and washing up so we had to have sandwiches and salad, chips and dip and potato salad for dinner. With chocolate brownies for dessert. It was a real hardship.

At some point between Helena and Yellowstone we had driven out of the rain,  so for the first night in what has felt like forever we went to bed dry without rain hammering on the roof. We also got to see all the stars instead of just clouds.

The next day we got up and drove the few miles back to the park. We stopped in Mammoth Hot Springs first. After taking photos of the elk lying around near the village we walked around the thermal springs.

Blue Sky - finally!

After Mammoth we drove out to the Lamar Valley hoping to spot some wildlife. We saw some deer, more elk and a lot of bison.

We had lunch at the Yellowstone River picnic area and then drove to the Canyon Village to find our campsite. This one was reserved so no danger of being homeless tonight.
After organising our camp we drove to the nearby Grand Canyon of Yellowstone to hike Uncle Tom's trail down to view the waterfalls.

Some Yellowstone road shots

Yellowstone Falls

Part of Uncles Tom's Trail

Upper Falls

We also walked to the upper falls viewpoint and along the canyon a little - getting away from the crowds. We made a quick stop at Artist's Point before we returned to camp for dinner. Our favourite: Marie and Rosie's special chilli - again!  Third time on this trip. But it is so warming!

After dinner we walked to the info centre to plan tomorrow's hike and then took the best shower of the trip so far at the canyon campground.  According to Marie. Rosie rates it the second best shower, but can't remember where the best was!

We returned to the van all clean and warm. The sun stayed out all day so we were very happy with that. It is still very cold though - it will probably get to zero degrees tonight.