Se Cooke City Yellowstone Park

... appointment.

We had lunch at Subway (chicken bacon sandwich). Then we went for rafting. The leader was Joe on our boat. There were 6 of us on the boat. In the front was a man without tops and a lady. I sat on the middle on the right side. We usually used our paddles for perhaps 20 seconds every 10 minutes. So we really didn't paddle much. We found it pretty boring. At some point Cynthia and I jumped ...

... of the mud pits, where Vanessa and I learned a ton of interesting things about the park. The park is very dynamic, and geothermal features are ever changing. Geysers shift, mud pits erupt, and over 1000 earthquakes occur in the park each year. One of the things we saw on our tour was Sour Lake, which is a lake of hot water that has a pH of close to 0, and is more acidic than battery acid. Our tour guide said that one time, a lady dropped her brochure in one of the pools, and ...

... loop and ended at the Yellowston Canyon with it's thundering river and beautiful waterfall. The next day, we took a trip through Grand Teton National
Park and spent some time in Jackson Hole. The mountains make you feel like you are in Switzerland. They are over 12,000 feet in some places and have jagged snow covered peaks. Definitely awesome! We're on our way to Vancouver next!

So we decided to stay in Cooke City, MT so we could go snowmobiling. We got up early and got our machines checked out. Before we left, Sterling made it a point to say that we should bring a tow strap in case I get my machine stuck. Within 10 minutes of leaving, guess who gets stuck? :-) Yeah, I took pictures of him and Tyler digging it out. The views on the mountain were ...

... geschiedenis gauw weer verder naar de 'grote stad' Cooke City. Doordat we weer behoorlijk hoog gingen kwamen we al snel in een omgeving waar nog maar net gesneeuwt had...geen dikke lagen hoor, maar er lagen duidelijk bewijs van een sneeuwbui. Cooke City is toch nog zo'n 2.5 uur rijden. Ik verwachte toch een wel minimaal een klein stadje...maar wat we aantroffen...uhhh.....tja...hoe zal ik zeggen....'t was....uhhh...ANDERS (yep, dat woord ...

... Tom and I both said at the same time, "It's a wolf!" It ran parallel to the bus for a bit, then crossed right in front of our bus not more than 20 yards away. It was a small grey wolf with no collar. It did not look toward us, but kept it's interest on the small elk herd ...

... trip was to see the Acting Company perform on the road, but after booking the cabin, I also realized I was leaving the day the last Harry Potter book was due out, so it seemed the perfect place to curl up, shut out the world and immerse myself in the book and it was.

August 18 - Didn't drive very far today. We drove through Yellowstone Park (because it was the shortest way to get where we wanted to be) and camped in forest area just east of Cooke City. This also was an area we have been to before and liked. It rained in the afternoon ...

An hour ago we climbed Pilot Peak -- 11,708 feet!!! We climbed it, yup, in our car. We did actually have to get out of the car and climb around on some rocks to get to the top. Have I already used the word "breathtaking"?? Well, we had a hard time breathing, so, yeah, breathtaking ...

We took a recommendation from a roadsign in Laurel, MT, and it paid off...The sign told us to take Highway 212 "America's Most Scenic Highway" (this is a new Hwy 212 from the one that took us through cranky-ass Broadus) to get to Yellowstone. This is definitely the most beautiful stretch of highway I've ever been on, and just a downright damn cool road. We went up all these switchbacks ...