Coming home from Jackson Hole

Taking it easy against the tree

I thought this cow had a hemorrhoid, ND explained she is ready to give birth!

A new calf. If you click on the pic you can see the umbilical cord.

Coyote

Jackson Hole . . .

Last Friday - 4-22

We “ice skated” to breakfast because the road way was solid ice. Thankfully we didn’t fall down. At 8:00 we got on the road to Banack, another “ghost” town. I was driving. The roads were pure ice as we drove toward West Yellowstone. It took 2 1/2 hours to get out of the park. It had snowed last night so everything was absolutely beautiful.
We went through Ennis and stopped at a thrift shop.
We didn’t make it to Banack until 3 p.m. It was going to be a 4 hour drive back to Mammoth so we didn’t have as much time to explore as we would have liked. We left at 4:30.
Once again the weather was so strange. We drove through snow, sunshine, rain and hail.
Outside of YS we saw the 100’s of elk for the second time in two days.

Driving out of Yellowstone

Yellowstone

Yellowstone

Yellowstone

Old court house/hotel in Bannack

Staircase inside hotel

Bar in saloon

Looking out from saloon

church

Inside church

Jail (they hung the sheriff)

Looking out from jail

Inside a cell . . . this is where they passed the food through

School - the free Masons still meet upstairs

Inside school

Upstairs where the free Masons continue to meet to this day

Click on pictures to enlarge

Last Thurs 4-21

It snowed in the night but not enough that we couldn’t take off on an adventure. On our way down the hill there was a herd of bison walking along the road towards us. This was on the curve where the sheep usually hang out. We were stopped and so was the on coming traffic trying to get to work. Some man pulled out around the oncoming traffic and drove right towards me. He almost hit the bison. He was crazy. It’s too bad there wasn’t a ranger sitting behind me.
We went to Elkhorn, a “ghost” town we had heard about near Boulder. It was almost snowed in but we did take some pictures and a man came out of his cabin and said we could go in the dance hall.
When we got ready to leave his dog was lying right in front of our car and we couldn’t get him to move. He started barking and the man came back out. It was then that I noticed the dog only had three legs. The man said he got his leg caught in a trap and they had to amputate it. He also told me that he moved to Elkhorn from LA right before 9-11. He is living in the cabin his grandfather built in 1893. He had a porch full of junk. We wondered if it was left over from when his grandfather lived there.
We drove on to Boulder to have lunch (at 2:30.) When we came out of the restaurant it was beginning to snow and hail. We wanted to go to the Boulder Hot Springs resort that we had passed on our way into town. Before we got there (about 10 minutes away) our car and the hillside was covered with snow. By the time we pulled up in the front the weather was fine.
Before we got home we got snowed on again. The weather was so weird.
We decided to stop at Chico’s and have dinner. Our table was right by the window so we could look out at everyone in the “hot springs.” About half way through our dinner we noticed that there was so much steam coming off the springs that you could no longer see the “swimmers.” We couldn’t figure it out until we looked down on the boardwalk and saw it was full of snow and ice. It snowed and hailed like crazy. We were driving home in it for about 15 minutes until it just quit.
Outside the park in big pastures we saw hundreds and hundreds of elk. I have never seen so many together in one field before. We guessed there must have been 500-700 of them. It appears they have all left Yellowstone!

Bison on their way to "work."

Elkhorn

The cabin the grandfather built in 1893

Really cool car we saw in Boulder

Tomorrow 4-21 is our Sat. We're thinking of going to Elkhorn, a ghost town, south of Helen, MT. Hopefully it won't snow tonight so we can get on the road in the morning. It was 17 degrees this morning.

Mule deer

I just can't believe they are saying Greg M (Three Cups of Tea) made everything up. What about all the pictures in his book? Are those supposed to be fake? Keep me informed on this. Kathi, you must know about all this.

We sleep with our window open every night. It gets down into the 20's so we turn on the heat and leave the window open. This morning we woke up and there was snow all over the ground, cars etc. It's always so pretty. It was very slippery when we went to eat breakfast so we had to be extra careful not to break our bones. It snowed a couple times today but didn't stick.

Nancy just finished cleaning the bathroom and is now on the floor doing her exercises.

We drove out of Gardiner tonight and saw lots of mule deer and some prong horn deer. We have been looking for a long horn sheep but haven't found one that is up close.

Last Thurs 4-14 (our day off) a rather weird lady sat down next to us in the EDR. We were having a lovely breakfast until she opened up a package of salmon. The smell (like cat food) almost knocked us out. It was all we could do to sit there another couple of seconds before quickly running out.
We went to the city (Bozeman) that day. We saw lots of animals that had left the park. Some bison were in one man’s yard and he was chasing them out using his 4 wheeler.
We bought lots of fun stuff. I have no idea where we are going to put it in our tiny room.
We had the best day.

The next day, Friday, they opened the road to Old Faithful and Canyon for the first time. We were first in line to go down. Another wonderful day. There is LOTS of snow in both locations. Much more than at Mammoth. Going to Canyon it was higher than our car. We walked down to the Lower Falls, it wasn't frozen but everything around it was.

Yesterday morning, Sunday, we all jumped off our phones and ran to the windows because there was a herd of bison passing in front of the hotel. One of the females and a new calf with her. It was so cute. We don't know where they went because we haven't seen them the rest of the day.

Down near Grand Prismatic

Old Faithful in the snow

Looking out the window at the Snow Lodge Grill

Sawing the snow off the roof of the Snow Lodge

Removing the snow from the Snow Lodge

Visitor's Center @ Old Faithful. Notice the people going in.

Visitor's Center, Old Faithful

Old Faithful Inn

A herd of bison blocks our way.

I need to make a phone call.

My new outfit. The only thing the hat is missing is the tail.