Our trip to Yellowstone

[Soonrboy]

Fantastic.

Beautiful.

Spent a couple of nights at the Old Faithful Inn. No air conditioning, no tv. Can't recommend it, but wife loved it. Food was very mediocre.

Saw moose, bear, wolves, lots of buffalo, and alot of geysers and waterfalls.

Drove to Devil's Tower, saw it at night, very cool...we spent about 20 minutes there.

Then off to the Black Hills. Mt. Rushmore was impressive and the lighting ceremony at night was very patriotic. Crazy Horse monument is going to be very incredible, IF they ever finish it. The artist's family keeps refusing money from the government to finish it, so it is going to take forever.

Came home throught the badlands. We were so sick of looking at stuff by then, so drove through one loop of the park, spent about 30 minutes there in all.

3500 miles. 74 hours in car. The kids were troopers, thank God for DVD's.

I hope the kids remember it. First time I had been there, and loved it. If you ever think about going, it is well worth the trip.

[usmc-sooner]

Did you happen to make it to West Yellowstone? They have a place there called the Grizzly Bear Discovery Center it's pretty cool.

[usmc-sooner]

oh and if a bear rushes you don't run, play dead in the fetal position.


yeah right don't run my ***.

[Soonrboy]

We didn't make it there, sounds cool though. We were disappointed that we hadn't seen a on the day we were leaving, then about 4 miles from the gate, a bunch of cars were pulled over, and there was a bear rolling a log over. We acted like idiots like everyone else to get the picture.

When we saw the wolves, there was a crowd of about
50 people. We were about 100 yards from the car, my son had my keys in his pocket. Our car alarm started going off, scared off the wolves. We were not the most popular people in the park at that time.

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

Did you see a lot of the vast area in Yellowstone that was burned several years ago?

[Newbomb Turk]

We did a very similar trip in 2003.

Black Hills - Sturgis, Spearfish, Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Reptile Gardens.

Wyoming - Bighorn Mts., Shell Canyon, Cody.

Yellowstone is fantastic - I don't think most people realize how beautiful it is. From the valleys with buffalo to the grand canyon of the Yellowstone with the upper and lower falls. Old faithful is just OK, but the surrounding area is something to see. West Yellowstone is a nice town.

We finished with the Tetons and Jackson Hole - very impressive.

Our trip was 3300 miles.

[Rogue]

The area between West Yellowstone and Jackson is about my favorite part of the world. Jenny Lake = amazing every time!

I grew up a couple hours from there in SE Idaho so this thread makes me homesick.

[Newbomb Turk]

I grew up a couple hours from there in SE Idaho so this thread makes me homesick.

I don't know about SE Idaho, but on a separate trip through Coeur D'Alane and that skinny part of northern Idaho - wow, that is some beautiful country.

[Rogue]

I don't know about SE Idaho, but on a separate trip through Coeur D'Alane and that skinny part of northern Idaho - wow, that is some beautiful country.

It's Coeur D'Alene and that skinny part is called the "panhandle!" ;) Yup, it's beautiful and they don't much care for outsiders up there. Even those of us from other parts of the state are "outsiders" in some of the areas up there.

And most of SE Idaho is desert. Except the part bordering with Wyoming. See, the western slopes of the Tetons are in Idaho.

[Soonrboy]

we stayed in spearfish a couple of nights. What amazes me is the vastness of the areas. I mean you could drive forever and see very few houses. Especially from Cody to S. Dakota, down through Nebraska.

We stopped at Little Big Horn and listened to the park ranger tell the story. It was a neat spur of the moment stop.

[Soonrboy]

Did you see a lot of the vast area in Yellowstone that was burned several years ago?

Yeah, lots of dead lodge pine. Lots.

[Newbomb Turk]

panhandle!

what kind of whackjobs would name a part of their state "panhandle"?

[usmc-sooner]

we stayed in spearfish a couple of nights. What amazes me is the vastness of the areas. I mean you could drive forever and see very few houses. Especially from Cody to S. Dakota, down through Nebraska.

We stopped at Little Big Horn and listened to the park ranger tell the story. It was a neat spur of the moment stop.

Little Big Horn is cool. I've been there twice. Always gave me a weird feeling though.

[Newbomb Turk]

one of my favorite pictures from when we were in Yellowstone.

http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/1697/1303088imgzp8.th.jpg (http://img83.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1303088imgzp8.jpg)

[soonerhubs]

I love Yellowstone. One of the sad things about moving from Utah so soon was we didn't get our Memorial Day trip to West Yellowstone.

West Thumb is amazing as is Mammoth Hot Springs. My favorite part...definitely the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It's just so amazing and scenic.

[AlbqSooner]

When you visit Yellowstone for the first time think about the European fur traders and explorers who first encountered it. They had not seen pictures, read National Geographic, or heard much, if anything, about it. Then suddenly they come into an area of boiling mud, steam geysers, and such. Must have really blown their minds.