Bigfork, Glacier & Yellowstone National parks trip (part four)

Yellowstone - Day one

Prepare for photo overload!

We stopped at the Albright visitor center and did some sightseeing at  the Mammoth Hot Springs area before driving to get our campsite. I wondered if we'd see any of these wonderful creatures.

The Bison were plentiful, in the wild spaces as well as on the road. We saw them far away and close up.

We drove to get our campsite at Madison campground before anymore sightseeing. We had a long wait at a road construction that is going on in the park.The campsites at the Madison campground are assigned, we don't get the pleasure of driving around and picking our spot. The first site we were assigned wasn't great. The location wasn't nice and there was alot of snow at it, so we drove around and looked for one we liked better in less snowy area of the campground. We chose our site and drove back and asked if we could change, sure enough we got the one we liked better. 

Just a small bit of snow at this site.

Friendly rest room wall reminder.

After we established our camp we headed to the Old Faithful Visitor center. We were nearly to the parking lot when we saw some cars parked ahead and stopped to see what was up. Grizzlies! A mama and her one year old walking through and looking for food in the old logs. I guess I did get my wish, Grizzlies the first day!

Well that was a great welcome to our first day in Yellowstone!

The visitor center was open. Unlike the Glacier National park area, most of Yellowstone was open. Only the south and east entrances were closed.

It was overcast and spitting snow while we watched Old Faithful shoot up into the air.

We decided to walk the Hot Springs trail at Old Faithful, and take our "touristing" photos. 

We could see the Visitor center area in the distance across the hot pool field.

 

 

Time to find our car and head back to our camp.

      

 We weren't done seeing exciting things however. We were just getting ready to pull onto the road back to camp when we spotted our Grizzlies again❤ 

The light was low when we spotted some Bison across the river. We sat and watched as they swam and walked across.

Then we happily followed our Bison "escort" back to Madison campground.

 We found out that early season is a good time to go to Yellowstone. Plentiful animals and no crowds of people.

Bigfork, Glacier & Yellowstone National parks trip (part three)

The road to Yellowstone!
It was decided yes, we must go to Yellowstone.
On our way out of Glacier National park "east" we did decide to take the alternate route - hwy 464 to Browning instead of the road construction route of hwy 89. We drove hwy 464 to Browning and picked up hwy 89 south from there. We drove through the Blackfeet nation land, beautiful country❤.

I loved the Bison iron work art pieces at the entrance and exit of Dupuyer, This central Montana area is the gateway to the Bob Marshall wilderness area., another place to come back and explore.

We stopped at the Armington junction rest stop for a rest stop and to walk a lap around the parking lot. The rest rooms had a local weather report blasting through the speakers. It was interesting to hear we would be going to have some winter temps and some snow in the forecast in the next few days. Time to put on the cold weather attire.

On hwy 89 we passed the ski runs at Showdown, Montana and went over Kings Hill summit, elevation 7393 feet. Yes, it was cold and spitting snow.

Near Livingston we saw our first Moose!

Just as we were giving up hope for finding a campground for the night we were distracted and excited to see the Bighorn Mountain Sheep strolling along in the road ahead. We followed them for awhile until they moved to the side of the road to let us pass by.
Wow!!

Then just as we turned around the curve there was our spot for the night. A campground, thank goodness!

It was a bit breezy so we quickly put up the side walls on our canopy tent. We ate a nice warm meal in the comfort of our tent, before bed. *note the plastic window panels on our canopy, in a later post about our trip you’ll find how they benefited us.

Up and ready for our first day in Yellowstone. We had a great view of the Yellowstone river along the road.

We stopped in Gardiner for a quick snack, coffee and resupply at the grocery store and then there we were - Yellowstone!

The north entrance to Yellowstone❤