After checking the web and talking to the campground folk, we decided to not go on the Chief Joseph Highway to Yellowstone but to take Route 14 through Wapiti which is a lower route. Much to our suprise, this road was posted closed 50 miles ahead at Yellowstone. Called the Wyoming DOT and was told the CJH was dry and clear. Go figure ! This was one of the roads we wanted to drive the most on our trip so we lucked out.
It was astonishingly beautiful with very high mountain peaks, deep valleys, vast plains filled with cattle, elk and many hawks. This is a true corkscrew road and thankfully tow haul handled it well. Almost no traffic and what there was, we were able to let by us as we were going slow and enjoying the views. This road crosses over into Cooke City, MT and then dives back down into WY. There were many snowmobiles being used in MT as the snow is still deep. Looked like they were the prime way for some people to get into town.
We passed back into Wyoming and into Yellowstone at the northeast gate. One of the best birthday presents I ever gave Joe was his senior pass into national parks. Nice payback to get into these parks for $00 but he paid his due in the armed services. We had planned on taking the Grand Loop Road at Tower Junction and head down to cross the park at the Norris Canyon road. Wrong! About three miles in, the road was
closed due to snow and heavy ice. Back we went to the Grand Loop Road and on to Mammoth Hot Springs. Walked the wooded walkways up into the hot springs but it was very crowded and we didn't go far.
We continued down 89 to the Norris Geyser Basin and Museum after stopping along the way to see many buffalo, elk, mule deer and big fat squirrels who seemed to want to wait to cross until you got right next to them. Fortunately, nothing went squish. At Norris Geyser there was no one else walking the boardwalks and we had a super time talking with the ranger and learning a lot about hot springs. No geyser went off while we were there and the ranger said they were getting more and more erratic since the last earthquake. We stopped at several other hot pots and thermal vents some of which had strong sulfur vapor clouds. We stopped at Gibbon Falls but didn't walk down to the bottom of the canyon because it would have been a very long way back up!
Had a great suprise when we arrived at the campground. Who was parked next to our space but Flyfisher Dave! He is on his way to Alaska and caught up with us. We shared our supper and picked his knowledge of places not to miss in Yellowstone. He's been here many times and fishes a lot of the way back country. Tomorrow we'll tour, he'll fish and we'll get together in the evening. We'll go to the Lodge, Old
Faithful, yellowstone Lake, the mud volcano and several places up in Canyon Village Dave said not to miss.
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