Road Trip Day 11 - Noxon, MT to Yellowstone National Park

After watching the weather patterns over Yellowstone for a solid week, we found our window to get a few sunny days in the park.  We woke up early in the AM to head out and give ourselves enough time to make it to a campsite before dark.  After a quick breakfast and coffee we said our goodbyes to Bubba and Cheryl and were on the road by 8 am headed southeast to Yellowstone.  Not too far down the road we were excited to see a small group of bighorn sheep gathered together grazing.  We stopped to watch them for a few minutes and took some pictures before continuing down the road. 

The drive through western Montana was still stunning.  We seemed to cross river after river as we wound our way through the mountains.  We definitely crossed the Clark Fork at least 65 times, which was cool because it is a really pretty river. 

Soon we were off of highway 200 and on to the main interstate 80 which we would be on most of the day.  Highway 200 was stunning and would have been a better drive; but much slower and we had a small window of great weather before a week long snow storm would be hitting Montana and Wyoming.  We made a brief stop in Missoula to post some days on our blog as we finally had internet access.  Missoula looked much different than the parts of Montana we had just left behind, definitely not as pretty; really it isn't even comparable.  We continued east and made our way through Bozeman, which is in central Montana.  The landscape of western Montana is so mountainous and tree covered and loaded with rivers; while central and eastern montana were rolling hills and dry fields.  We arrived in Yellowstone via Highway 89 south through the Main gate of the North; the gate where Roosevelt gave his dedication speech for the park's opening.  We made it to the gate just before dark and just in time to set up our camp before nightfall. 


Just outside of the gate were two male elk that had their antlers entangled, so we had to watch for at least a few minutes.  It was really cool to see and also to hear the sound of antlers clamoring together. 

We quickly found the campground just a few miles from the entrance in the Mammoth Hot Springs section of the park.  As soon as we stepped out of the car it was apparent that we were right beside the hot springs as the fragrant odor of sulphur filled the air.  This didn't stop the coyotes from coming right beside our campsite and car, so we didn't let it deter us either.  It was really cold; and getting colder by the second.  We lit up our newly purchased propane heater and made a quick but great dinner including a salad, lentils with pita chips and macaroni and cheese.  After eating and cleaning up we quickly retreated to our tent as it was cold (freezing and miserable) and we were tired.   Once in the tent the temperature wasn't too bad, and we looked through the Yellowstone newspaper we picked up at the entrance to see what was happening in the park in November.