Twenty Trip--Entering the Land of the Yellowstone

September 4th, 2012

After climbing all over the Beartooth mountain range (which was gorgeous. Did I mention that already?), we arrived at our Ultimate Destination.

(See? It's so lovely that even my o.k. camera took good pictures!)

^Proof that my parents were there as well.

I wonder how many millions of people have taken their picture with that sign, and where they're from, and what they got to see in Yellowstone?

This was one of my favorite signs of the whole trip--almost as good as "Be advised: stay on road" while going around hairpin curves in the Beartooths!

And you know what? The closest thing to bears we saw in that whole trip were...

 ...buffaloes.

Which aren't very close to bears.

At all.

I lay the blame for this entirely on my grandma, who was convinced that we didn't really want to see grizzlies. Even from inside the car and across the river. Even from across the valley. In fact, the only place we were allowed to see bears was inside museums. *sigh*
I guess I'll just have to go back sometime!

When we arrived in Gardiner, Montana, this was the view from our hotel room at 8:30 that night. 

And if we turned the other direction, we could even see the famous North Entrance's Roosevelt Arch!

Gardiner was an interesting town, but not one I'd like to spend too long in. The shops were nice, but so-so, and the restaurants were of course over-priced. It's a tourist trap, the food will be pricey!

The two nights we ate in town, we went to K-Bar Pizza. Good, good pizza! The restaurant/bar is in an old mainstreet building, complete with false front and plank sidewalk out front. The interior is covered in old (beer) advertisements, pictures, license plates, etc, and a huge mirror behind the bar. Down the wall from the bar, they have a work station and then a large woodburning oven. You can sit there and watch them hand-toss your pizza while you yell at each other over the loud music. The waiters were friendly and talkative, and I had a marvelous time people-watching.

And, of course, there was the delicious pizza. Can't forget that!

~Kiwi~

Twenty Trip--Beartooth Part Two

September 4th, 2012

After the scenic overlook Dad pulled over at our prompting just so we could "take a few pictures." Which we did. But what good are pictures of a hill from the bottom? Wouldn't they be much more interesting from, say, the top?

We weren't going to go all the way to the top, really we weren't. The top is a long ways up, and we didn't have time to go all the way up there. heh heh...

I really only meant to go a few yards up, just so I could point at a spot and say "This is The Highest altitude I have EVER been at."

That's what I wanted to do.

And yet, every time I started to do that, I thought "I could take just one more step and be even higher..."

We kinda sorta went all the way to the top. =)

That, if you can read it, was our exact location. 

If you look closely, you can see our car waaaaay down there. We were on top of the world!

And just to show we had been there, we stacked rocks. 'Cause that's what you're supposed to do when you go somewhere with rocks--you stack 'em. And if/when I go back there, I'll hike up and see if the rocks are still stacked! If they aren't, I'll ceremoniously re-stack them.

See, there is where we started,

and there is where we ended up!

Quite a hike in the mountains--it took a while to catch your breath after--but gorgeous.

Can't wait to go back.

~Kiwi~

Twenty Trip--Beartooth Mountains

September 4th, 2012

Have you any idea how hard it is to narrow all these pictures down into an acceptable blog-post-length? Especially when almost every snapshot has a story behind it?

I did try, though. At least give me credit for that.

We exited Red Lodge and took off down the Beartooth Senic Byway, which zigzags up the side of the mountains, circles around the top, then heads back down the other side. This was my first expedition into any real mountains (after this, Tennessee doesn't count anymore), so I was enamored with it all. 

In fact, Mom had to scold me several times because I wasn't holding still long enough to take a picture! I guess when one has driven for 3.5 days straight and consumed an unhealthy portion of the bag of peanut M&Ms, combined with awesome new surroundings, one can't help but MOVE!

Almost at the top, there was a rest/scenic pull-off that we stopped at.

As evidenced by this picture, I was dreadfully bored through the whole thing. Terribly dull.

I mean, it's not like the views were great or anything! What was there to be excited about?

(Other than being Queen of the Mountain, of course. That is always exciting.)

~Kiwi