Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Road Trip 2013: Driving, Driving, Driving

BUNS. SO. TIRED.

    Sitting in yet another Starbucks but in Missoula, Montana this time. We're heading back home now and plan on being there tonight but that could change depending on how long it will take. If we decide we want to stop, we'll probably call it a night in Salt Lake City. Our plan is to drive through part of Idaho, into Utah and then come home up through Grand Junction like usual.

     If you want to die happy, go to Glacier National Park. It's beautiful and I wish we could have spent more time there and that I had better hiking shoes. It's pretty undeveloped land. Not as popular (or populated) as Yellowstone which makes it better in my opinion. It's a lot of American Indians living around the area. The people in Montana are so friendly. We could happily live here I think. It's a lot of small towns that are still in the 1950's (with their storefront signs). People here just seem happy.

     I am soooo tired probably because I didn't sleep very well. Knowing we were getting up and going to be heading home today made for a sleepless kind of stressful night. We enjoyed our last night in the park though. Went on a long drive to the border of Canada and took a photo. Took an awesome dirt road around to Polebridge and had THE most amazing huckleberry macaroons. Apparently Montana is famous for their huckleberry products? So far we've had huckleberry cordials, huckleberry macaroons, huckleberry brownies, and I bought huckleberry scone mix and huckleberry syrup. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a grocery store to hopefully pick up some cheaper huckleberry honey or jam for the Moms. They had some in the park but the prices are so high and we're running a little low of cash. If I can't find any, we'll just have to have a huckleberry scone tea and picturing sharing party!

     I am off now. Time to order a coffee and get on the road again.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Road Trip 2013: On the Road Again

It's Buns!

     This morning was our last morning in Yellowstone. Now we are on the road again (sitting in a mall parking lot eating Wendy's in Butte, Montana) heading up to Glacier National Park at the top of Montana. It feels like we've been gone for a long time yet not long at all. It's crazy that we're on day 6 of the trip and we could still be gone for another 4 days if we wanted.

     Our first day in Yellowstone we saw Old Faithful. Their were so many people there, it was absolutely ridiculous (refer to pictures in previous post). It's pretty mind blowing that there is boiling water under the earth that just decides to erupt right on schedule throughout the day. WEIRD.

     Yellowstone is beautiful and I couldn't get over the fact that it was in yucky ole Wyoming. It seems like it should be somewhere else where magical fairies live.

     We hiked to Mystic Falls (our longest walk while we were staying there). We drove around more of the park and saw boiling pots of water and mud and lots of animals. Well, mostly just buffalo. LOTS of buffalo.

      While on our trip so far we've seen a snake and scorpian in the desert, and a black bear, buffalo, bald eagles, big horn sheep, two wolves, osprey and a porcupine in Yellowstone. No grizzlies. Sasquatch was sad.

     The other night we drove around Yellowstone looking for a campsite until almost midnight. I was tired, I was grumpy, and I wanted out of the car. At about 10:30pm we stopped at the Lodge at Old Faithful to ask if there was anything available in the park and we ended up having to drive OUT of the park, back to the Tetons to camp at a site with a broken picnic table, right on the freeway for almost $40. And we had to drive almost an hour away to get there too.

     The next night we drove across the Yellowstone/Montana border and found an awesome camp spot that was so beautiful AND only $14. That's close to where Earthquake Lake was (refer to pictures in the previous post). Montana is gorgeous and reminds me a lot of Colorado but not as touristy and just...simpler.

     When we got into town in Montana to camp that night, we walked around some of the gift shops and the funniest thing that I saw was a Belly Button Lint Cleaner "For the person who has everything". I was so tempted to buy one just because I couldn't stop laughing!

     We are about four and a half hours away from Glacier right now and will end up driving the whole way there today (so we'll be sleeping somewhere in the park most likely, Mother 1 + 2. We are having an incredible time (but would like to shower soon) and we will continue to keep everyone posted!

      Love you all!

              Buns 

Road Trip 2013: Yellowstone The Wild Frontier







Other geysers around Old Faithful

Old Faithful

The crowd waiting for the geyser to go off


There it goes!


Old Faithful









Hiking to Mystic Falls




Mystic Falls


Local beer

Earthquake Lake. Most awesome place EVER.



Camping in Montana, outside of Yellowstone.


Earthquake Lake in the morning.

Boris and the lake



Bald eagle

Sunrise over the lake

Photo by S.

Photo by S.

Photo by S.

Photo by S.

Photo by S.






Boiling pot o' mud

Osprey nest

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone










Sasquatch

Field of buffalo





Dragon's Mouth



Camping in Yellowstone. Our last night.

The Terraces



Sheepeater's Cliff