Although we really love our little cabin in Island Park, ID, the daily seven mile round trip to pick up two cups of mediocre morning coffee is a bit much. It was a brisk 42 degrees this morning for my drive to and from Robin's Roost for the purpose of purchasing the life saving liquid. The early morning light on surrounding ranch land is spectacular and shows promise for another awesome day.
We made the 20 mile drive into West Yellowstone Thursday to purchase a few things needed for the balance of our trip and returned to Island Park to rest a little from the fast paced travel from the SF Bay Area. It was a beautiful day that ended with the second evening in a row of fantastic mountain thunder storms. Fairly large hail fell for about 15 minutes and added a crashing roar on the metal roofed cabin in addition to the almost constant thunder.
Friday was laundry day and Juanita was able to take care of everything at the nearby Valley View RV Park and laundromat. We again spent the afternoon hours lounging on the deck of our little cabin before driving a few miles down the highway to see old friends Steve and Karen. They are the owners of Beagles Callie and Maddie, who are both related to our two girls. Maddie is a half sister to Abbey and Luna and Callie is a second cousin, if there is such a thing in the canine world.
In the photo above, our four Beagle scrum is quietly posing with Juanita and Karen. From left to right....Luna, Abbey, Maddie and Callie. While we had a good conversation and dinner with our good friends Karen and Steve, Luna kept a good eye on the mountain neighborhood and kept us safe from wild critters.
It was time today for our first drive into Yellowstone NP and I almost dreaded the heavy traffic and horrible animal jams. Well, my fears were not realized. The traffic was fairly light and there were no animal jams whatsoever. The lack of critter sightings causing massive traffic jams was easily explained by the almost total lack of wildlife within sight of park roadways. We saw only three bison, only one of which was located on or near the highway through the park. A few geese grazed on river banks...that was it!
Nez Perce Creek is a beautiful Yellowstone waterway.
Luna kept an eye out for invading wild geese.
The light overall traffic in the park today was a little harder to explain. In past years a Saturday at the end of July would be a nightmare experience. Not so today, and I have no clue as to why. We stopped by the Old Faithful Lodge to pick up a few supplies, missing the geyser eruption by minutes. We have seen it many times before. We stopped off at a couple of our favorite pull outs near hot springs and small geysers and ate lunch at Gibbon Meadows.
We have made dozens of trips into Yellowstone over the years, but have seldom seen a more spectacular day in regards to moderate temperatures, light winds and lack of the usual human swarm. We had a fine day!
Our plans for tomorrow include a drive over to Ennis, Montana and maybe to the old west town of Virginia City. We'll see how the day develops. If weather conditions permit, I would like to do a little aerial photography with my portable quadcopter.
We'll check in with y'all again soon..............................
No comments:
Post a Comment