Today is actually Tuesday, the 21st, but I'm only now having a chance to write about what we did on Sunday. The Buffalo Bill Museum was really wonderful. There was a good crowd, but at no time did I feel rushed. To tell you too much about it would be tedious--just believe me when I say that it was worth our time to see it.
The Jazz Festival continued and several groups played on the grounds of the museum. We split up for a while--David outside with the music while I stayed inside looking at cowboys and Indians. We watched the last hour of the music together. We spread out a blanket on the top of a hill under a tree and just listened while a young singer named Jeni Fleming sang a number of familiar big band, swing songs while being accompanied by an actual big band. It was unexpectedly good. It came at the right time, too--I was so tired of being on my feet all day in the museum. The festival was free, so we bought one of Jeni's CD's and have been enjoying it in the car.
After the festival, we went downtown and watched a gunfight in front of The Irma. It was a typical, touristy, corny thing to do. We later went to a not-so-good restaurant that was overpriced for what it was. We vowed to stick to pizza when in doubt--pizza tends to be pretty good everywhere.
On Sunday morning we packed up and left for the east entrance of Yellowstone. Before leaving we stopped at our new favorite store--Walmart--bound to have anything and everything you could ever want or need. We noticed that the parking lot was full of campers. We'd heard about free camping at Walmart but had never noticed it before. We also noticed that in these small towns surrounding the parks, anybody who has a backyard seems to turn it into a campground. They're not shy about what they charge either.
On our way to Yellowstone, the view was interesting. It reminded us of sandcastles at the beach--how when you build them and then get water and trickle it down over the sandcastle, it forms unusual shapes. That's exactly what the mountains look like. We passed by Yellowstone Lake, which is gigantic. We also rode alongside the Yellowstone River. We saw a number of buffalo on our way north to the north entrance of the park. It goes without saying that everything was exceptionally beautiful. We'd heard that most of the campgrounds were full. Rather than take a chance at having no place to stay, we had booked a site in Gardiner, Montanta--just outside the north entrance.
What a disaster our campsite was! It looked like somebody had dumped a few loads of dirt and rocks a few years ago. Somebody looked at it and decided they should put a campground there. It was a horrible place. Ugly, ugly, ugly. We couldn't get out fast enough in the morning.
The beauty we saw on Monday more than made up for the terrible campground. We drove down the western side of the loop. We went through Mammoth Hot Springs where we saw some of the most unusual sights we'd ever seen. Especially on the upper terraces, the views were awesome and other-worldly. Without even stopping to see anything in particular, though, the drive was interesting. You'd be driving along and just see steam rising from various spots. The entire area is geo-thermal. We saw mudpots--large and small areas of boiling mud. Now I know where Hollywood got the ideas for some of the scary movies I've seen.
We stopped for lunch at Old Faithful Village. They post the times they expect Old Faithful to erupt. She is usually active every 90 minutes or so. They expected her to show off at 1:04, + or - 10 minutes. She went off at about 1:20. We took a video and David will post it, sooner or later. If you looked around in a circle, you could see hundreds of people waiting in anticipation for the old girl to show her stuff. Everyone cheered when she finally appeared. The funny part was that Yellowstone is so vast, we never felt crowded when we were outside. Inside the gift shop was another story.
I can't describe how incredible the whole area is. You can walk out on wooden paths and see pools of brilliantly blue-colored water that is either simmering or boiling. What you see is like nothing we've ever seen before. The travertine terraces are yellow and white--outstanding.
All around the campground there are thousands of fallen lodgepole pine trees. They're as a result of a massive fire in 1988. It's a startling sight.
When we left, we went out the east entrance of the park and drove to Greybull, WY--just east of Cody. We saw vast areas on each side where there was virtually nothing, but it was lovely. It was flat with mountains at the outer edges. When we neared Greybull, we started seeing many fields with white boxes. We found out that they grow sugar beets and alfalfa here in Greybull and that the white boxes are all for bees. We found a really nice campground here and are going to have a hard time leaving today--it's so comfortable! It's owned by a Dutch couple. They added a little restaurant here and served Weiner Schnitzel last night. Very unexpected!
The Jazz Festival continued and several groups played on the grounds of the museum. We split up for a while--David outside with the music while I stayed inside looking at cowboys and Indians. We watched the last hour of the music together. We spread out a blanket on the top of a hill under a tree and just listened while a young singer named Jeni Fleming sang a number of familiar big band, swing songs while being accompanied by an actual big band. It was unexpectedly good. It came at the right time, too--I was so tired of being on my feet all day in the museum. The festival was free, so we bought one of Jeni's CD's and have been enjoying it in the car.
After the festival, we went downtown and watched a gunfight in front of The Irma. It was a typical, touristy, corny thing to do. We later went to a not-so-good restaurant that was overpriced for what it was. We vowed to stick to pizza when in doubt--pizza tends to be pretty good everywhere.
On Sunday morning we packed up and left for the east entrance of Yellowstone. Before leaving we stopped at our new favorite store--Walmart--bound to have anything and everything you could ever want or need. We noticed that the parking lot was full of campers. We'd heard about free camping at Walmart but had never noticed it before. We also noticed that in these small towns surrounding the parks, anybody who has a backyard seems to turn it into a campground. They're not shy about what they charge either.
On our way to Yellowstone, the view was interesting. It reminded us of sandcastles at the beach--how when you build them and then get water and trickle it down over the sandcastle, it forms unusual shapes. That's exactly what the mountains look like. We passed by Yellowstone Lake, which is gigantic. We also rode alongside the Yellowstone River. We saw a number of buffalo on our way north to the north entrance of the park. It goes without saying that everything was exceptionally beautiful. We'd heard that most of the campgrounds were full. Rather than take a chance at having no place to stay, we had booked a site in Gardiner, Montanta--just outside the north entrance.
What a disaster our campsite was! It looked like somebody had dumped a few loads of dirt and rocks a few years ago. Somebody looked at it and decided they should put a campground there. It was a horrible place. Ugly, ugly, ugly. We couldn't get out fast enough in the morning.
The beauty we saw on Monday more than made up for the terrible campground. We drove down the western side of the loop. We went through Mammoth Hot Springs where we saw some of the most unusual sights we'd ever seen. Especially on the upper terraces, the views were awesome and other-worldly. Without even stopping to see anything in particular, though, the drive was interesting. You'd be driving along and just see steam rising from various spots. The entire area is geo-thermal. We saw mudpots--large and small areas of boiling mud. Now I know where Hollywood got the ideas for some of the scary movies I've seen.
We stopped for lunch at Old Faithful Village. They post the times they expect Old Faithful to erupt. She is usually active every 90 minutes or so. They expected her to show off at 1:04, + or - 10 minutes. She went off at about 1:20. We took a video and David will post it, sooner or later. If you looked around in a circle, you could see hundreds of people waiting in anticipation for the old girl to show her stuff. Everyone cheered when she finally appeared. The funny part was that Yellowstone is so vast, we never felt crowded when we were outside. Inside the gift shop was another story.
I can't describe how incredible the whole area is. You can walk out on wooden paths and see pools of brilliantly blue-colored water that is either simmering or boiling. What you see is like nothing we've ever seen before. The travertine terraces are yellow and white--outstanding.
All around the campground there are thousands of fallen lodgepole pine trees. They're as a result of a massive fire in 1988. It's a startling sight.
When we left, we went out the east entrance of the park and drove to Greybull, WY--just east of Cody. We saw vast areas on each side where there was virtually nothing, but it was lovely. It was flat with mountains at the outer edges. When we neared Greybull, we started seeing many fields with white boxes. We found out that they grow sugar beets and alfalfa here in Greybull and that the white boxes are all for bees. We found a really nice campground here and are going to have a hard time leaving today--it's so comfortable! It's owned by a Dutch couple. They added a little restaurant here and served Weiner Schnitzel last night. Very unexpected!
See if this works this time. Glad you liked the museum. I think it's wonderful. Have you seen any bison??
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