Iowa Trip Monday

We drove as far as West Yellowstone. Not too far, but far enough. The roads up here were awesome. Tall mountains that started in fertile plains that go on forever. Hey, I forgot to add something about Pickles Restaurant. I thought it was kind of odd that on their Specials Menu they had Fish and Chips for $7.99 and Prime Rib for $14.99. Call me odd, but I can’t figure out how they can sell fish and chips for that price and it’s cheaper than the prime rib and we’re in the middle of “Beef Central.” There’s a herd of cows in every field, but not a single fish in sight.

We checked into a KOA just west of West Yellowstone. When Sandi called for a cabin site they were all filled up except for the “Deluxe Model” of which we didn’t even ask the price. We settled for a tent site even though Sandi said that she had been cold all day. Actually, I think it was just a case of looking at the elevation signs of the towns we were going through, 5,000’, 6,000’, 7,000’. They kept getting higher and higher and the road temperature on the dash was getting lower and lower. When we got to the KOA to check in they ‘happened’ to have a regular cabin available, so we took it. I didn’t even mention that they stated that if we canceled our reservation after we arrived we would only get 10% of the credit card charge that we were assessed before we were assured of our reservation. It diminished my view of mankind (and womankind).

After we were all settled in we went into the Yellowstone Park and went to Old Faithful. We were there at the perfect time; all the people were coming out (OK, that’s an overstatement, many of the people were coming out) and we were going in. The evening shadows on the hills were special, and going up the Yellowstone River was not able to be captured on film (digital media). I looked at the pictures I took and anything I do to the image doesn’t do it justice. Of course, our destination for the evening was Old Faithful and we were not disappointed. To get a “feet shot” and a good vantage point I had to take off my shoes and socks to clear the crowd away, so we ended up with a very large viewing area.

On the way back to West Yellowstone I stopped at as many of the hot springs, viewing points, and turnouts as possible, but I still missed some.