The Long & Winding Road Ahead - Day 6
- Ash Collins
- Sep 29, 2020
- 6 min read
Another spectacular morning greeted us in Powell for our early kick off. With the trusty Durango loaded up, Trace opened Google Maps and punched in our first destination for the day...the Beartooth Scenic Highway.
Heralded as one of the most scenic drives in the United States, the Beartooth Highway, featuring breathtaking views of the Absaroka and Beartooth Mountains. Punctuated by the many high alpine plateaus dotted with countless glacial lakes, forested valleys, waterfalls and wildlife, The Beartooth Hwy. passes through the Beartooth Corridor that is surrounded by the Custer, Gallatin and Shoshone National Forests, abutting Yellowstone National Park. The Highway sits in a million-plus acre wilderness providing visitors with a rare opportunity to experience and explore pristine, untouched alpine and mountain landscapes, lush forests, and alpine tundra in the space of a few miles. It is one of the highest and most rugged areas in the lower 48 with 20 peaks reaching over 12,000 feet in elevation. Beartooth is the highest elevation highway in Wyoming (10,947 feet) and Montana (10,350 feet), and is the highest elevation highway in the Northern Rockies. There are recreational activities aplenty on offer all year round. From cross-country or downhill skiing, hiking trails, and in my wheelhouse photographing the wildlife that live in this mountainous region (mountain goats, moose, elk, marmot, mule deer, black bear, grizzly bear, and wolf). Importantly, the Beartooth Highway provides access to what will be our ultimate destination today, Yellowstone National Park.
Having successfully negotiated all that the Beartooth had to offer, we proceeded toward the Northeast entrance of Yellowstone. Before we hit the park, we passed through the gateway community of Cooke City Montana and into the heart of today’s wild west. Cooke City, like many towns dotted in the near vicinity, has retained its western heritage juxtaposed with the modern amenities that these weary travelers appreciate.
With our batteries re-charged by a warming hot chocolate boost, it was time to realize a life-long, bucket list dream...Yellowstone National Park.
Having flashed our National Parks Annual Membership pass to the Ranger, we entered through the Northeast gate and into the first National Park of the United States. The benefit of entering the park at this point is its close proximity to the legendary Lamar Valley. This is the wildlife mecca for visitors to the park where grizzlies, wolves, black bears and bison are allowed to roam freely. Unfortunately the most opportunistic time of day to visit the valley is at either dawn or dusk. At these times of day, the wildlife is prolific and for those with a cast iron stomach you may even witness a local wolf pack taking down an elk. Nonetheless the Lamar landscape is simply magnificent regardless of the presence of wildlife. This is one of the top 6, must see sites within Yellowstone's vast 2.2m acres (8,983 km2 / 3,468 sq.mi).
Taking into consideration the vast expanse that is Yellowstone, we thought it wise to head down the Grand Loop Road in the direction of Under the Canvas, our home from home for the next couple of nights. This stretch of road takes you through one of the more fertile and prairie like areas of the park. With 360 degree vista views, wildlife casually crossing roads and drivers slamming on breaks to stop for that must-have photo opp, it was mind how you go and (fark)wits about you for the next 20 miles!
As we approached the Fort Yellowstone crossroads there seemed to be a large build up of traffic and pedestrian congestion; and the reason was our arrival at Mammoth Hot Springs. If this was the pandemic holiday crowd, I would hate to be here in the stock standard tourist season. There were people everywhere...we opted to drive through and further on down the road to Mammoth Terraces. The Mammoth Hot Springs is the second of the top 6 attractions within the park. Albeit not at the base, the terraces provide a magnificent vantage point with which to view the hot springs in all their travertine glory. Luck was on our side as we snared the final (legal) parking space adjacent to the the mammoth dunnies. The Mammoth Terraces, complete with boardwalks above the steaming hydrothermal springs that extend all the way along the hillside, across the Parade Ground, and down to Boiling River. The hot water that feeds Mammoth emanates from the enormous Norris Geyser Basin that sits across a limestone fault line...it is the calcium carbonate deposits from the limestone that are responsible for creating the cascading hot springs. These ancient geothermal formations are simply stunning...
Refreshed from our hot springs experience, I carefully backed the Dodge onto the Grand Loop Road to continue on our drive towards the park's West entrance. Along the way we were making mental notes of key vantage points, places of interest and potential wildlife spots we would re-visit over the next couple of days. People this place is enormous...as such it was very important to use our time wisely so as not to miss the must see destinations in this most visually picturesque location. Speaking of mental notes, as we approached the intersection of Grand Loop & West Entrance roads, you couldn't help but notice the enormous traffic jam. Fortunately for us the traffic was heading in the opposite direction from where we were heading...upon closer inspection of the map, we realized why! The continuation of Grand Loop road headed due South to a place that many of you might be familiar with; Old Faithful. A trap for young players is to leave the old fella out until the end of the day...as we drove along West Entrance road, parallel to the Madison River, the line of vehicles extended some 9 miles towards the West entrance to the park!
We would not be making the schoolboy error of visiting Old Faithful after 10am...however that's tomorrow so lets get back on track and finish day 6. Having reached the West Entrance or exit in our case, we followed the signs for the township of West Yellowstone. Resisting the temptation to stop for a cold frothy downtown, we opted to go directly to Buttermilk Creek Road, Under the Canvas Yellowstone. The camp ground was about 7 miles out of West Yellowstone along the Targhee West Hwy. There was an obvious difference between this location to the sister camp at Mt Rushmore. Our tent was one of approximately 150+ tents that sat on an open prairie area rather than the hidden away, tree lined location of Rushmore. Running through the property was the Madison River, complete with plenty of rainbow and brown trout swimming freely within reach.
It had been a long day driving with a great deal of concentration required by the chauffeur as we navigated through some tight (like a toiger) roads to reach our final destination. Needless to say, the driver had worked up a thirst that would kill a brown dog! Wild horses could not to have mustered enough strength to keep this automobilist from the bar. Having enquired as to the operating hours, the sprightly young lass at reception advised us that the bar opened at 5pm.
With not a moment to waste, we marched towards the barn with an authoritative gate. As we left our tent Trace noticed some movement about 20 meters away...much to our surprise a fox appeared from the long grass completely oblivious to the fact that there were peeps everywhere. This cunning and very cute little fella walked around tent city clearly looking for food scraps or someone's unsuspecting pet. Having had my way with foxxy, we made our towards the barn / bar with an authoritative gate as my thirst needed quenching. As we walked along the dirt road that ran parallel to open paddocks, we noticed a stable of horses feeding. Like the fox, they seemed totally unaware of our presence unless of course that stray apple suddenly appeared in hand. To say that the environment here is serene and spectacular would be the understatement of the year...well a close second to 2020 is the worst year ever!
There endeth another day and what a day it was...full of highlights with another couple of bucket list items ticked off. The one thing you can take to Vegas is our enjoying a sound night's sleep in the taj mahal of tents. Good night all.
Stay tuned for a monster day 7 as we storm around Yellowstone National Park mesmerized by its insane beauty.
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