Yellowstone National Park

Next up on the snowy National Park tour was Yellowstone! The first night we stayed at the Old Faithful Inn which was very cool. We snagged the last available under-$200 room, described as "Old House Room with Shared Bath." Completely accurate. The room was indeed old as it was part of the original building (of which none of my interior pics turned out well, but the internet has a number of good ones if you're curious). While we did have to use a shared bathroom they were very clean and surprisingly not busy for the hotel being full. The room was small but had the same lodge-like character as the main part of the Inn with giant old style locks and window panes, radiator heating and so-on. For those potentially staying there, the room did have a sink at least, and there is a "new" section if you aren't feeling up to sharing a bathroom. You can of course go into all of the hotels to check them out but I really liked staying overnight to really get entrenched in the historical park atmosphere.



Old Faithful Inn

As the name implies we were right next to Old Faithful! (The picture below is not of Old Faithful though, it's one of the nearby geysers. Notice the tiny people and how high they go!) The pathways in the pic are pretty much the mode in the entire park which a) was very slippery when we were on the snow/rain on the newer plastic ones so no wearking Keds everyone and b) really took away from the nature feel of the park. I understand why they have to do this of course, a lot of the attractions are boiling hot springs and you can't go wandering around on them, and it protects the park. But still, it feels more like a museum than a park.

Even though I saw it with my own eyes, I feel like this waterfall picture is fake.

Tower Fall

As with Glacier, some of the roads in Yellowstone were partially closed. Disappointing again, but because the roads are all in loops we were actually able to make it to almost everything we wanted to see. The only part missing was Tower-Roosevelt, and that was closed because of a gigantic rock slide not  because of snow so it was best we weren't stuck in that mess. Here's Kelly making new friends and showing off the snow banks:

Buffalo in the street are hilarious! In low season. I can't imagine how insane the park gets in the summer between family vacations and school tours and all that... Horrifying.

The park was much better than Glacier for seeing animals, though it helped that there were crowds everywhere letting you know one was seen. My ability to spot them is terrible! I would make a lousy hunter.

This is what it looked like every time something was spotted. Yay animals! (A bear in this case.) And not being able to drive anywhere at all because no one will move our of the road for a car! The park police do come by shortly after to break everyone up for "harassing the animals" aka scaring the bejeezus out of them by paping them when they're hanging out in a tree (Guilty!)

Yellowstone did have a ton of really fascinating landscapes between geysers and falls and mud pots, but I have to say that Mammoth Hot Springs was my favorite. The ridiculously white calcium depsoit terraces have the most fantastic shapes. They're beautiful as were the colors in the active springs. I loved how they were sneaking down to the town below. Maybe someday they'll be able to open up a souvenir shop of their own.

Overall I'm very glad I went to Yellowstone though don't feel a need to go again. I am extremely happy that it wasn't anywhere near high season. If it had been I'd probably be writing this post from jail because I ran someone off of the road or something...

Glacier National Park

Over Memorial weekend Kelly and I flew to Montana to visit Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks. We weren't sure how it was going to go because the area had been getting a lot of spring snow and that tends to be a problem with mountain passes. Maybe Harry Potter World would have been a better choice afterall? It was all green and fine on the drive up from Helena but sure enough when we got into the mountains - bam! White wins.



Avalanche and hungry bear warnings aside, I wish we would have brought snow shoes with us. The trails would have been a lot of fun! 

As it was, things were a bit difficult. There was a tiny bit of snow still on the ground.

Going-to-the-Sun Road was closed between Trail of the Cedars and Siyeh Bend which was disappointing - apparently 20 feet of snow is too much for their plows, weak sauce - but we were still able to see quite a bit of the park.

We stayed at the Village Inn which is directly on Lake McDonald in Apgar. (It's a tiny spec in the picture below.) It's an older building and I could hear our neighbors a bit, but you can't beat the view. I can't speak to high season, but I definitely recommend it for low!

I was obsessed with the colors in the rocks.

Most of the trails aren't paved, but Trail of the Cedars is done up nicely for those who want a stroll without tree root issues. The weather may not have fully cooperated, but the park was not crowded. I'll sacrifice some not-so-perfect conditions to avoid the headache of high-season any day!

On our way down to Yellowstone we drove through the National Bison Range which is a 20 mile self guided drive through one of the first wildlife refuges in the US. There are quite a few types of animals staying home, home on the range (possibly even playing). When I get a front yard I might have to install an Elk Horn bush like the one at the Visitors Center. Property value adder, no?

Overall I really enjoyed Glacier National Park and would definitely recommend it. If you don't enjoy snow though I'd wait until a little later in the year, May just happened to be when we could go. I'm hoping to get back this summer to get to some of the areas that were closed and see what it's like later in the year.