missoula to spokane. miles 3070 to 3330ish.

up again fairy early this morning, i decided to stop by the university again to wander around a bit -and make the obligatory stop at the university bookstore for postcards. (i actually hadn't found postcards anywhere else yesterday - i knew they'd have some there, among other things.)

oooh, i found a grizzly!

as i was leaving, i took another look at the map and noticed lolo hot springs about 30 miles outside of missoula - lolo pass is right on the border of idaho and montana, and was one of the passes taken by lewis and clark. i'd heard of the hot springs, though, and thought - it's been a long trip! i deserve to sit in hot springs for a bit, right? right.

well, in theory, that's a great idea. the hot springs themselves, though, not so impressive. or they're hiding the impressive part - the only hot springs i found was more like a cement community pool fed by natural springs rather than, well, whatever pools are normally filled with. (i don't like to think about that, generally.) in any case, i wasn't particularly keen on giving money to someone to let me sit in their concrete pool at the side of the road - where's my secluded natural spring surrounded by trees and rocks and pretty? ah well. it was a pretty drive.

a couple hours later, in coeur d'alene, i stop to sit in the sun for a bit on the beach... i wanted to go parasailing, but they were booked for the rest of the day. booo. another time.

instead, i tried a "moose dog". that's right. rochester gave me a carrot hot - grilled carrot in a hot dog bun - coeur d'alene gives me the moose dog, a hot dog with grilled peppers and onions and spicy mustard and relish and... cream cheese? i was intrigued. they couldn't be serious.

they were.

and it was actually pretty good. who would've guessed?

only another half hour or so to spokane, when it was time to settle for the night... as i was checking in, another hotel patron happened to see that i was from massachusetts, and we discovered that we're both moving to seattle from boston! yay for new friends and new cities and what a fabulous way to spend a last evening before arriving in a new city.

tomorrow, seattle. and a new home.

bozeman to missoula. miles 2867 to 3070ish.

despite the hours of driving, wandering around, biking, and blogging that fill my day, i still manage to wake up ridiculously early in the morning. part of this waking up early, i think, has to do with the uncertainty of my driving plan over the last couple days - i still had no definite plan, other than getting to missoula and making a stop at the big sky brewing company while in town. would i continue on up to kalispell and glacier national park? would i stay in missoula? would i go to kalispell for the night and stop in glacier in the morning? would i just sit in my car and pull my hat down and avoid making any decision at all? gah.

in any case, i was up fairly early so i figured i'd just get on the road again toward missoula. the first big stop after bozeman turned out to be butte - a town i'd seen on the map, and probably heard mentioned by my mother a couple times, but i had no real sense of what there was to see, of the history of the town. it was time to stop and fill up the water bottle and stretch my legs, anyway, so i figured i'd at least drive through town - directions to a historic downtown seemed promising, right? right. i also had some spotty cell phone coverage by this point, so i quickly checked in with my mother - the conversation went something like this:

me: so i made it out of bozeman alive. ps it was a lot prettier than i expected! anything interesting in butte?
linda: well... you could go see the berkeley mining pit. i think it's supposed to be one of the biggest copper mines in the country.
me: oh... is that what that big hole in the mountain is? huh. that makes sense.

that whole cliff face? yeah, that's the berkeley pit.

(oh, erica.)

so i ended up driving into town and getting a bit lost, and finding myself at the pit. for $2, you can go through the side of the mountain to a viewing platform in the pit. and learn something about the history of mining in southwestern montana. turns out, butte was a big mining town. who knew?

look! a waterfall!

well, perhaps the people who put all these big drilling and milling equipment all over the city.

erica, of course, finds the one that's been turned into the centerpiece of a garden :)

after leaving butte, i'm back on I-90 headed toward missoula. there are more mountains.

by the time i got to missoula, made my stop at the big sky brewing company - home of moose drool, which ashley's father introduced me to last christmas, and is a pretty fabulous beer - it was decision time: stay in missoula and hang out? or push ahead and go on a couple hours north to kalispell and glacier? after much wandering and contemplating, i decide to stay in missoula and relax rather than exhaust myself trying to get up to glacier only to turn around the next day. also, missoula's a fun town - and has a pretty extensive bike path system, and i was hankering for another bike ride.

i do so love riding along rivers.

missoula also happens to be home of the university of montana - in honor of the university, there is a giant 'M' on the side of the hill behind the university.

turns out there's a path that you can hike up to the M. supposedly great views of the valley and town and everything. i like outlooks. i like hiking. i'm totally up for it. right?

right. also turns out that this path is a bit under a mile and a half long, consists of 13 switchbacks, and climbs 620 vertical feet. yeah. you feel that one.

that's the path along the right there.

but the views are totally worth it.

oh, and while biking around looking for a grocery store for dinner... skratty dear, this is for you:

(i laughed. a lot.)

yellowstone to bozeman, pt. 2.

(had to split this into another post - firefox was not pleased with me.)

part four: northeastern loop

and sunrise! generally i'm a sunset gal, but, well. just look at that.


crazy extinct volcanic cone. or, random large monolith.


there's a grizzly in this field, i promise.


waterfall #1 of the day. and pretty early-morning light.


yup, another pretty ravine. and the looking down view :)


for posterity.


... fallen rock zone?


snow? was it really that cold?
nope, that's actually sulfur. or one of those thermal ingredients.


more thermal stuff. mammoth thermal area.


danger! do not approach elk!
(incidentally, when you take hwy-89 north out of gardiner, there's a similar sign warning you that there will be wildlife in the road for the next 51 miles.
yeah. welcome to montana :)


goodbye, yellowstone!

since i hadn't slept terribly well in the car last night, i decided to give myself an easy driving day - plus, by the time i got to bozeman, it looked like it was going to start raining, and i didn't particularly want to drive in the rain. after i found myself some lodging, i unracked the bike and took a ride down main street to get a sense of downtown bozeman. sadly, i'm just missing their sweet pea festival (sweet pea! how cute! lots of signs and ads telling you to buy things for your sweet pea. awwww.) - but i did appreciate the clever sidewalk chalkings! (and also had several flashbacks to proper chalking procedures and ettiquete from wellesley - hahahaha.)

after a lovely afternoon in bozeman (including organic coffee and a much-needed stop for catching up on my reading), i decided to head out again and check out that park near my motel... and found a path leading up behind the city to a rather breathtaking outlook. when i'd talked to my mother earlier, she asked if bozeman was as beautiful as she remembered - and, well. it was nice enough, i suppose, and clearly there were mountains around, which was extra points - but i had no clue...

and tomorrow? on to missoula - and beyond?

greybull to yellowstone to bozeman. miles 2567 to 2867ish.

ok, so clearly this one is going to be a long post. get ready.

the drive from greybull to yellowstone continued along scenic hwy 16 through cody, wy. clearly, i had to stop in cody for some coffee (which i proceeded to spill all over myself while walking down the main street), a couple wyoming souveniers, and some seriously gorgeous views. for such a, well, square and rather unknown state - at least to me - wyoming has some of the most varied scenery i've seen. plains to mountains to desert and tumbleweeds back to mountains and scrub and rivers and lakes and grasslands and geisers and desert again. whoa.

also, i had a very special moment when i realized that cody, wy, is named after buffalo bill. cody. yeah. all together now: oh, erica. also, cody apparently has a rodeo pretty much every night of the summer. how cool is that?

back on the road, i was surprised to stop almost immediately out of the city - who could pass up a viewing of the buffalo bill cody dam?

it's about another hour from cody to the east entrance of yellowstone... lots of farms. and crazy rocky outcroppings. like chimney rock!

see, it really does look like a chimney.

just before lunchtime, i made it to yellowstone! the roads in the park basically follow a central circle in the middle of the park with an eastern, southern, western, and two northern entrances. i entered on the eastern side, and followed the central circle counter clockwise - first along the lake, then across to old faithful, then back up and around the main circle on a hunt for a campsite. but that will come later.

a quick note on all of these pictures: there are so, so many pictures i COULD have taken - probably many of them better than those i did - but i was fairly limited by the proximity of the views to turnouts where i could stop the car and the traffic behind me (and whether i could actually turn). but here's at least an idea.

part one: the lake route

clearly, this route is particularly appealing as it consists mainly of two of my favorite scenic views: lakes, and mountains. and lakes and mountains.

and a buffalo! or bison. well, one of the two.

interesting fact about erica:
i really, really love wild flowers. especially wild flowers that grow in unexpected places.


then we crossed the continental divide!


and then TRAGEDY hit:

i was intrigued by these yellow lilypad-like flowers on the pond right at the top of the continental divide. i walked to the pond for further study (and pictures) and was VICIOUSLY attacked by a yellowstone yellowjacket. or, well, some type of very angry bee. and it stung me. under my arm. my very first bee sting! it was red and stinging and ouch. so when i got to the clinic at old faithful, i stopped in to make sure there wasn't anything special i should do - the nurse looked at me, laughed, and told me that if one hypothetically was stung by a bee, as long as they're breathing, they're fine. but she couldn't give advice without admiting the patient to the clinic. by that point, the swelling had gone down, and i was breathing, so i went to wait to explore geiserland.

apparently, bees are also attracted to these pretty flowers.

pretty waterfall! also, for those of you like my father who do not like to look over the edge into ravines... i included a shot of the ravine floor, too :)
(haha, dad - remember when you took me to niagara falls? prob'ly not nearly as funny to you as it was (and is) to me.)

part two: geiserland

also known as, how many people can we fit on this boardwalk to watch old faithful? answer: zillions. but rather than sitting with the zillions of other on-lookers, i decided to walk around one of the smaller of the boardwalks in geiserland.

remember what i said about wildflowers in unexpected places? how cool is this?

and, what you've all been waiting for... old faithful.

who faithfully did go off when predicted.

part three: hunt for camping. geiserland to mammoth to gardiner.

so i decided that since i'd only seen half the park so far - and i wasn't quite ready to leave yet - i'd just camp in the park overnight, get up early to drive around the rest of the loop, and i could be on my way to montana by afternoon. in theory, this was a great plan. in reality, by 6:30 all of the campsites in the entire park were booked. so that left me two options: go to gardiner and get a motel room, or camp as planned in the national forestry campground in gardiner. since i was already mentally prepared to sleep in my car, and i didn't want to deal with hunting a motel room in very full motels, i chose option two.

but first, i had to drive from old faithful all the way to the northern entrance at mammoth and gardiner. along the way, i saw more geisers, some elk, deer, a grizzly(!), pretty almost-sunsets, and lots of campers who'd stolen my campsite :p

elks!


there is a grizzly in there... he's a bit far away, but i was kind of ok with that.


and some pretty sunsets :)

oh! and as i left the park, i also almost hit a baby elk. thankfully (for maddie, as well as the baby elk), i did not hit it. but i was also flustered enough and there was traffic behind me so i did not get to stop and take a picture. it was cute, though.