Billings, MT
Left Pocatello on a beautiful, sunny day. Travelled north on I-15 through potato and corn fields. I'm not sure which is the bigger draw in this area - the Museum of Clean in Pocatello or the Potato Museum in Blackfoot. Guess I'll have to reserve judgement until we visit both of them; however, that's not to be on this trip.
It's interesting to see the remnants of the lava flows in this part of Idaho. Supposedly, the lava in the soil is what makes the area so fertile. That, combined with the water from the Snake River. In any event there were plenty of potato, alfalfa, and corn fields in various stages. Got off I-15 and travelled northeast on US 20 (could have continued all the way east to see Tim in upstate New York). You could see the Teton Mountain Range off to the east - impressive mountains. Heading toward Yellowstone, the farmland changes as you enter the Targhee National Forest - all pine trees and alpine meadows.
For some reason, Yellowstone National Park doesn't have the same spark for me as Yosemite does. As much as we have travelled through both, Yosemite always seems to be more impressive. Entered Yellowstone at the west entrance (again using our National Parks pass). The road to the east follows the Madison River. Park was very crowded and all the major attractions had filled parking lots with cars waiting to find a spot. Passed over the continental divide at 8391'. Yellowstone is still showing the effects of the 1988 fire storm which destroyed so much of the timber.
They had construction at the Fishing Bridge area where we turned to leave the park via the East Entrance. It gave us an opportunity to see our one bison on the trip.
It's interesting to see the remnants of the lava flows in this part of Idaho. Supposedly, the lava in the soil is what makes the area so fertile. That, combined with the water from the Snake River. In any event there were plenty of potato, alfalfa, and corn fields in various stages. Got off I-15 and travelled northeast on US 20 (could have continued all the way east to see Tim in upstate New York). You could see the Teton Mountain Range off to the east - impressive mountains. Heading toward Yellowstone, the farmland changes as you enter the Targhee National Forest - all pine trees and alpine meadows.
For some reason, Yellowstone National Park doesn't have the same spark for me as Yosemite does. As much as we have travelled through both, Yosemite always seems to be more impressive. Entered Yellowstone at the west entrance (again using our National Parks pass). The road to the east follows the Madison River. Park was very crowded and all the major attractions had filled parking lots with cars waiting to find a spot. Passed over the continental divide at 8391'. Yellowstone is still showing the effects of the 1988 fire storm which destroyed so much of the timber.
He was unconcerned about all the traffic backed up and just stood there, occasionally taking a bite of the grass. Didn't get too close - he's a heck of a lot faster and bigger than me.
As we left the park, we followed the Shoshone River down the canyon through some amazing cliffs and rock formations. Travelled further east to Cody, Wyoming, where we turned north toward Billings. Cody is an interesting tourist attraction - home of Buffalo Bill Cody (obviously), it has enough attractions to take a week to fully explore. All of which we studiously ignored and continued on our way.
The road to Billings roughly follows Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River - I say roughly because it twists and turns many times, so we were constantly crossing the same river. As we drove north, we passed through a lightning storm - didn't get much rain out of it, but it did drop the temperature some.
Checked into the Best Western Kelly and then went out to gas up at Costco - lowest gas price so far at $2.49 and then on to dinner at the Montana Club.
Tomorrow we head to Miles City and hope to play golf there. That is, if the rain holds off.
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