Winter wonderland

Trip Start Oct 01, 2008
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Trip End Oct 27, 2008


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Flag of United States  , Montana,
Saturday, October 11, 2008

We woke this morning to a winter wonderland! Our campers, the ground and the hillsides were covered with a thin blanket of snow. We visited the visitor centre which advised that some of the park roads were closed, thus spoiling our opportunity to visit some of the features including the Yellowstone canyon and the mud volcano on our way out of the park. We decided to backtrack to Livingstone and then make our way to Hardin where we plan to visit Little Bighorn.  On our way down the mountains, we saw several herds of elk, one of them with 20 or more animals. We soon saw the wisdom of descending to lower ground (from the 6800' altitude of Mammoth campground) at Hardin which is only about 3000'. Through much of the day we had snowstorms, sometimes with very little visibility, though the road was quite wet, with only a few slushy sections. We saw a bus and two vehicles pulling trailers in the ditch, so obviously it had been quite slippery earlier in the morning or overnight. Here in Hardin, it is just around freezing and the snow is falling but not sticking. the forecast is for more snow tomorrow, so we will make our way to Rapid City using I-90 which is very well-maintained rather than using the secondary roads which are often more scenic. We will cut out the stop in Broadus, where the weather is supposed to be colder.
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