Day 5- Gillette, WY to Canyon Village, Yellowstone National Park

Hello! Bo here! I'm back to my old self again...mostly... and now that I again have access to the internets may resume my posting. We last left off in the comparative nowhere that is Gillette, WY. Our first order of business for the morning was to travel through the Bighorn Mountains. Here you can see them in the distance...behind all the fog.


Remember how just a few short days ago when we were sweating to death in the Badlands. Yes, well, things change.

The fog cleared a bit as we got closer to the mountains, but it was still pretty heavy. The scenery, meanwhile, was stunning.

Handler 2 was a bit nervous about driving in the mountains, but he accounted himself well and only freaked out a little.

Along the way, there were many interesting sites to see. First, the mountain roads were under construction and it was interesting to watch the big machines work as we were diverted off onto an temporary dirt road. We also saw real life cowboys herding steer into a trailer for what I can only assume was a quick pleasant ride to a lovely pasture wherein they blissfully spent the remainder of their days.

We also saw moose!

This was our first experience of seeing someone parked by the side of the road with their cameras out and stopping, even though we didn't know what they were looking at. Unfortunately, Handler 1 still didn't have the handle of her giant rented zoom lens (hereinafter known as "Sweetness") and the pictures were somewhat blurry.

We continued through more mountain driving, successfully learning how to use "gears" and having only one minor mishap which Handler 1 would prefer to just forget but which I'm certain Handler 2 would be willing to relate if asked nicely.

We then entered Bighorn Canyon, passing, on our way, over the state line into Montana. Our purpose in this little side trip was to see the mustang residents of the Pryor Mountain Horse Range. We were assured by the nice lady at the information booth that there were horses around, even though the animals were in the midst of a massive roundup and cull during which many would be sold off to prevent overcrowding in the park.

There was a lot of wildlife in Bighorn Canyon, starting with these roadrunners that crossed our path.

Then we saw this guy standing by himself on a distant bluff!

Looking through the magnifying power of Sweetness, Handler 1 was able to tell that he was a young colt. Handler 2 then suggested that his mommy and daddy couldn't be far off, and were likely behind the bluff. The two of them then climbed blindly up a hill to see if there were additional horsies on the other side. Look what they found!

We eventually moved on to see what else Bighorn Canyon had to offer, and Handler 1 took about a thousand photos of this fascinating horseshoe bend.

We then ran across some bighorn sheep (which we initially misidentified as mountain goats, as there were no males in the first herd we saw).

Bighorn Canyon had a lot to offer and was completely worth the side trip. If anyone is thinking of taking a trip out west anytime soon, it is not to be missed.

We then continued on through some absolutely spectacular scenery, which we unfortunately didn't take many photos of because we were in a rush to get to...

Yay! The first major leg of our trip was done!

We entered the park, got warned about a grizzly known to be active not too far up the road, and made our way through the burned out, lodgepole pine forest that covers much of Yellowstone. We made a quick stop at Yellowstone Lake to see our first thermal feature. It was just a number of steam vents thrusting sulfur scented mist into the air, but it was still pretty cool.

We then came upon our first "buffalo jam". This is what it's called when a whole bunch of people stop their cars in the middle of the two lane highway to gawk at and take pictures of bison. We pulled off the road and got out to take some photos of the herd in the sunset light.

Later on, we came upon another jam, but couldn't see what anyone was looking at. So, we found a pull off, crossed the Fishing Bridge on foot, and came up on the group of people to see...

Yeah, that's right, a deer. We came goodness knows how many miled to Yellowstone, WY to photograph an animal that eats the roses in our own backyards.

We came upon a number of other jams on our way to where we would be spending the night. We saw some elk at a great distance, and what Handler 1 thought were sandhill craned lounging in a shallow river. A nice man in a truck told us that just up the road were a whole bunch of people looking at wolves "way far off" through scopes. The handlers determined that wolves way far off were better than no wolves at all, and took off for the next scenic overlook.

There we found a whole slew of people with scopes, binoculars and high powered cameras looking at 4 wolves that, though still tremendously far off, had moved a bit closer and seemed to be coming in our direction. We got out Sweetness and the tripod, but didn't know how much help either would be in the rapidly fading light.

As we watched and darkness began to descend, what we eventually determined must have been the "Hayden" wolf pack adults came trotting across the open land before us, close enough to be seen with the naked eye, and just barely photographed by Handler 1.

See those little dots? Yep, that was them. Still, seeing wolves within just 2 hours of entering the park is a pretty good deal. The wolves ran out of sight (likely to go harass the elk we had seen at the previous stop) and we continued on to our reservations in Canyon Village. The lodge there was quite nice, with a huge wood burning stove and a lovely little lounge and bar that made Handler 1 feel very comfortable with where they would be staying. That was, until she saw our rooms and proclaimed them the "rape cabins".

Here's a picture we took of them in the daylight.

You can see why, at night...in the dark... they might be even more disturbing. Luckily, they were nicer on the inside. However, rather cold. We turned up the thermostat and went to dinner.

Dinner at Canyon was pretty good, either that or we were so totally starving we just didn't care anymore. After stuffing ourselves, we returned to find our room even colder than before and the heat just not working at all. Handler 2 went up to the front desk and asked if that sort of thing was normal for rape cabins. He was told it wasn't and a maintenance person was sent out to fix it. Handler 1 remained fully clothed and buried underneath a whole bunch of bedding through the whole ordeal. The heat eventually returned, but it did take a while.

Next installment: Our first full day in Yellowstone.

Quote of the Day:

Handler 1- "That's the cruddiest place I've ever stayed in where the toliet paper was folded into an attractive triangle point."