West of Rushmore

Hi again everyone. This is Blog entry #4 and today is Day 22 of our trip.

We are now camped at Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park in Montana. Taking the rest of today off to play catch up and rest up after several very active days.

Devil`s Tower WY - sun on the Tower on the morning that we depart

Little Bighorn Battlefield --the place where Custer finally succumed to the Native American foes

After we left Devil’s Tower we went to Hardin KOA in Wyoming. While there, we visited the site of The Battle of Little Big Horn which is also known as Custer’s Last Stand. Seeing places like this really brings history to life. There is a real attempt at this national monument to show both sides of the story, from the perspective of the Native Americans as well as the troops of the US Calvary.

The rest of the time, since my last blog entry, we have been staying in a campground way down in a canyon at a town called Gardiner, Wyoming. The town is at the northern entrance to Yellowstone National Park.

We spent about 8 hours a day for 3 full days exploring Yellowstone. Until we did this, I had no idea just how BIG Yellowstone National Park was. We drove about 550 km in the Jetta over the 3 days. For example, from the north entrance of the park to Old Faithful Geyser Basin is 75 km. However, it takes about 1 ½ hours to drive this far because of the winding roads and slow tourists looking at animals and scenery along the way.

Beauty and Chromatic Pools

We saw some amazing geothermal features while there including hot springs at Mammoth Hot Springs, wonderful waterfalls at Canyon Junction, and many geysers (including Old Faithful) at several Geyser Basins. The colours of the pools and surrounding ground are beautiful. Check out the pictures to see what I mean. The landscape changes from prairie to foothills to mountains over and over. Steam rises from the ground all over the place.

many many heards of Buffalo were seen

One day we got up early (relatively speaking) to go in search of wild animals at dawn. We saw MANY bison, several elk (even in the center of the town of Mammoth), a mountain sheep, and 2 coyotes (using binoculars). We also followed 2 deer through the streets of Gardiner one evening on our way back to the RV. We also heard that there was a mother bear and her cub in our campground one night but we didn’t see them. I’m glad that Bill was not out walking Sunny at the time!!!

deer spotted strolling through Gardiner

Well guess that’s all for now. Tomorrow we plan to explore the Caverns here at the park. They are supposed to be among the most beautiful caves in America. I’ll let you know if I agree. Until then, take care of yourselves.

Ann