Our Road Trips

5/14/14

Off to an early start, lots of driving ahead. We are headed to Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park and back. There is a lot to see on the way & back...lots of scenic roads, history and 'attractions'.

The scenery south of I-90 on I-15 is pretty spectacular, a signified on the atlas with a lot of those little dots. We went south to Dillon, then NE on MT 41 to Twin Bridges. We crossed Beaverhead River at Twin Bridges but turned east instead of west and evidently missed the 2nd bridge over Big Hole River. We followed 287 SE and followed the Ruby River. At Alder, the road turned east and passed through both Virginia City and Nevada City, old cities from the past that have been turned into tourist traps marketed as ghost towns. This area had a lot of gold rush/bust stories too...mostly folks there trying to sell trinkets to the visitors from Yellowstone. At Ennis, we turned south along Hwy 287 which follows the Madison River to West Yellowstone.

Along this route, there is a lot of history, beautiful mountains (Madison Range) and the Madison River. Most everything in the west is built next to water, especially if it is flowing. It makes for fly fishing havens, beautiful homesites that make nice summer homes, and beautiful drives. The 1959 earthquake affected this road and changed the path of the Madison River and created Madison Lake while ending the lives of 28 campers. It is an interesting ride.

When we arrived in West Yellowstone, we drove into Yellowstone Park, which continues following the Madison River. We saw lots of Bison, deer, elk and birds. We even looked up one of the birds on the internet this morning, and discovered we had seen numerous Black Billed Magpies, something Lewis & Clark discovered and sent 4 of them to President Jefferson. We continued to Old Faithful and stopped and walked to see the Paint Pots & minor geysers. Barb doesn't remember seeing this stuff as a kid so it was fun for her. We saw Old Faithful do its thing and then we started back. We drove up US 191 all the way to Bozeman, which follows the Gallatin River the whole way...makes for a pretty ride.

We arrived back at our camper at 930 pm, so it was about a 13 hour day. When we got back, we learned that my sister Peggy had a very rough day, they are not expecting her to survive. A sad end to a fun day.