Happy Anniversary!

25 years is a good start!

We spent a few days in Montana and Wyoming to take time out for us.  A quarter for a quarter century together is the memento John has on his key ring.  We had an awesome time: perfect weather, issue free travel, good health and humor, and it was simply wonderful.

The cabin we stayed in at Parade Rest Ranch

We stayed 3 of the nights at this little dude ranch in West Yellowstone.  I think we expected to spend more time there and in that surrounding area but we ended up enchanted with Yellowstone National Park and spent most of our time at the park.  We did enjoy full breakfasts there each day and cribbage games on the porch.  We had the little creek right off the porch and enjoyed the soothing and relaxing sounds it made.  The air had a bit of smoke in it each day but early mornings the sun would come up and the sky would be clear so we could see the mountains off in the distance.  We did experience one small earthquake while we were there to remind us we were right near the continental divide and hanging out around a thermal area (read volcano) there.  I'm thankful for the quieter nature of New Hampshire...

The creek was right outside our cabin-a beautiful sound.

The Grayling Creek

John riding.  I think he's a natrual...

We did enjoy a 2 hour trail ride over the mountain to a "mountain lake" and back.  One of the other people on the ride shouted out at the small pond we arrived at "is this the lake?" to which our guide answered without missing a beat, "it was bigger earlier".  The banter on the ride was like that and we laughed and laughed the whole way along.  I loved riding through sage and seeing indian paintbrush.  The lodgepole pines are very different than what I ride through here at home. And at least while we were riding there were NO BUGS.  Very nice.  I'm sure that's not always the case but we enjoyed it.  

Beautiful View!!

Trail ride!!  John on a horse!!!

Elk in Madison River area of Yellowstone National Park

We really enjoyed the park.  It amazed us again and again.  Photos do not do it justice.  When we got home and looked through them we can remember how incredible it all was but we're quite sure they just don't quite cut it.  Everything was so big.  That elk walking across the road reminds me of a white tailed deer here.  Nope.  It's more the size of my little arab horse than it would be the size of a white tailed deer.  But in that landscape it does seem small.  The whole place is just huge.

Gibbon Falls

We drove in on the first day just through the middle from the west gate to Canyon.  I think in our heads we thought we might go to Cody but we stopped so often and took in so many sights that if we had continued on to Cody we wouldn't have made it back until midnight!!  This is sort of how things were.  Just not enough hours to get everywhere we might want to go!  We drove about 1000 miles in the days we were there.  One of the things I wanted to see was herds of "anything other than turkeys".  We were not disappointed.  Herds of bison, elk, antelope and small groups of black tailed deer.  It was such a beautiful experience to see so much wildlife in the park.  Bison jams would block traffic up and we enjoyed those traffic jams for sure.  Bison close enough to touch--not that we were silly enough to touch wild bison--but they were that close to us and other people/cars often.

Herd of elk

Herd of bison and one up close!!

Watching the eclipse.  We had a great view!

We didn't know about the eclipse when we booked the trip but my mom told us all about it excitedly one day at home and even brought to us these glasses she'd gotten at her local library.  I packed them in my bag for the trip and we were very glad to have them.  It was 98% where we were in Yellowstone Park.  The big hoopla was just down the road a bit in the Grand Teton park but we were heading for Bozeman that day so enjoyed the park--to ourselves nearly!  The huge crowds that were present on Sunday were all gone for Monday.  The roads were empty of cars and just the wildlife and a few visitors like us were there.  What a wonderful day to remember.  We drove the upper loop and spent the eclipse near Mammoth.  Then drove out through Lamar Valley to eat our picnic lunch out watching herds there.  We finished the park trip out with a stop outside of the NE entrance at Cook City.  From there we had a choice to either drive back through the part of the park we'd just come through and out the north gate to drive up to Bozeman or on the map it looked like about the same distance to drive up highway 212 and then west to Bozeman so we thought why not take the road we hadn't gone on yet.  Well.  This is what happens when you leave your guidebook at home and make such decisions....

August and throwing snow!!

Amazing highway.  

Highway 212 on the map said nothing about the elevation of the thing!!  I wanted my "this car climbed Beartooth" bumper sticker because I'm sad to say it but Mt. Washington's auto road is quite small compared to this 68 mile long highway that reaches the elevation of 10,947.  We took frightfully few photos on the drive because we were both white knuckled with curled toes for most of the drive!!  Crazy roads.  Crazy, crazy, crazy roads!  What a beautiful highway we got to experience.  

What a happy, happy anniversary trip we had.