The bank where the Sundance Kid made an unauthorized withdrawal
Red Lodge

The beautiful motel where we stayed in Hardin

Hay field

Pompey's Pilllar

William Clark's signature on Pompey's Pillow

Figures at Little Big Horn

Marker showing where an Indian was killed

In memory of all the horses that were killed. One, Comanche, survived

Memorial to the fallen soldiers. They have been dug up from where they were originally buried and are now buried at the base of this memorial

Each marker represents where a soldier was killed. The one with the black face is Custer's

Sign at the base of the memorial

Thursday we drove over the Bear Tooth Mountain to Red Lodge. I nodded off for most of the way while Nancy drove. I had hardly slept the night before.
We had a delicious lunch and the scenery was outstanding - a good looking man at the table next to us! We saw a bank where the Sundance Kid made an unauthorized withdrawal!
We drove to Hardin, MT where we had reservations to spend the night. When we saw the motel we kept saying, “Oh, no!” We knew we would lose our money if we went to another place so we decided to check it out. The room wasn’t bad at all, it was just the outside that was awful. I was up in the room when Nancy called out, “Is this your toothbrush in the parking lot?” I looked down and there was my toothbrush in the middle of the lot. Thankfully I bought two new ones at Walmart that afternoon.
There weren’t many places in town to eat so we ended up at some Mexican place in a Casino.

Friday we drove north to Pompey’s Pillar which was named by William Clark (Lewis and Clark) for Jean Baptiste (Sacagawea’s son.) Pomp means Little Chief in Shoshoni. You could still see where Clark engraved his name into this outcropping of rock. There was a wonderful film at the Visitor’s Center.
We headed south to see where the Battle of Little Big Horn was fought and saw another excellent film. The men have all been dug up and reburied but there is a marker where each was killed. Custer was taken back to West Point and buried there.

We went south again to Rosebud where Gen George Crook was attacked and forced to turn back after a six hour battle. This place is also know as the “The girl who saved her brother” because an Indian girl rode into battle on her horse and saved her brother. We thought this place was pretty much of a bust. We shouldn't have taken the time to see it because it made us get back to Mammoth really late.

On our was home we went over Granite Pass which we think is the prettiest place we have seen so far. We drove on to Cody, not arriving until 8 p.m. We finally got back to Mammoth at 11:30. There is never enough time to do all the things we want to do.

8-18 (Wed)

Our supervisor let us go at 1:30 on Wed so we could make tracks to Jackson Hole before it got too late. We stopped at a Visitor’s Center in the Tetons with interesting exhibits and a wonderful film. We drove through Teton Village and then on to Jackson.


8-19 (Thurs)
Our goal in going to Jackson was to see moose. We went back to the Tetons today and there was a bull moose in the river right down from the Visitor's Center. It actually turned out that there were three bulls. We parked our car and walked along the river bank with everyone else taking pictures. Then we drove along the narrow road toward Teton Village. We hadn’t even gone a mile when Nancy spotted a female. We were the first ones to spot it - a first for us. She had a calf with her. We took lots of pictures and then drove on to a pond where we heard there was another one. Sure enough in the water was another female who also had a calf.

From there we drove on to Jenny Lake. We took the boat across the lake and hiked to Hidden Falls and then on to Inspiration Point. From Inspiration Point you could look down on the entire valley. We walked, 3 miles around the lake and back to Jenny Lake parking lot.

We drove back to the Jackson town square and started looking for a place to have dinner. Everything was so expensive. Some woman was at the register in front of me in one of the stores. I saw her pull out a FL driver’s license. She had on a giant diamond. I asked her where she was from and she said Orlando. I told her I was too. She said they have a place in JH. Nancy said I should have told her we have a place in Montana and that we have a cook and yard man!


8-20 (Fri)
We got up at 6:30 so we could try to hunt down more moose. At the Tetons a ranger told us that the moose charged a couple of people yesterday when they got too close.

We drove to Teton Village where we saw some people paragliding. I asked one of the pilots how much it cost. I remembered in Peru I paid $50. I was thinking I would do it if I could get it for $75. He told me it cost $240. Needless to say I didn't go for it. We took a tram to the top of the mountain.
We stopped at a grocery store in Dillon on our way home. That is the place all the millionaires have moved to since the billionaires chased them out of Jackson. We didn't see any huge houses but did see row after row of big hangers with Lear Jets on the runway. I guess they fly in and then go to their homes in the hills.

We stopped at Mesa Falls (both the upper and lower) on our way back to Mammoth. We hiked to each one.

28 people lost their lives when an earthquake brought the side of a mountain down on top of them, Aug 17th 1959

This is on the side of the bolder

Where the mountain slid down. Trees are just now starting to regrow on it

I saw this bird in Ennis, on our way to Virginia City

Virginia City

Looking into a country store

Where the "road agents" (outlaws) were buried after they were hanged, Jan 14th 1864

The outlaw graves on Boot Hill

Looking down on Virginia City from Boot Hill

Nevada City

8-12 (Thurs)
Left Mammoth at 7:30 to go to Virginia City, Montana. We drove through West Yellowstone and on to Earthquake Lake (Habgen Lk) where we stopped at the Visitors Center. We saw a film and read about what happened in 1959. It was so interesting. We walked up on the hill to a big bolder where there was a plaque with all the names of the people who were killed. It happened at midnight on Aug 17th. There was an earthquake and the entire side of the mountain slid down. Some people said they thought they were being bombed. Most of them didn’t have a chance. Many of them are still under the rubble where they were buried near the bolder with their names.
We drove on to Virginia City. This was a cute little town that has been preserved as it would have been in the 1800’s. The “sidewalks” were board walks and the store fronts were wood and looked like they did at that time. You could look into the store and see how they had been used - old carriages, the general store with all it’s merchandise, clothing stores with corsets, hats, shoes, long socks, and the Hangman’s Building where the vigilantes hung “road agents” (outlaws) on January 14, 1864. You could still see the “burn” marks where they hung by the ropes. Later the Virginia City Water Co run by Sarah Bickford moved into the building. She was a black slave who after the Civil War made her way to the West and became very successful.
The five hanged “road agents” were buried on the Boot Hill Cemetery. No one else wanted to be buried near them so they dug everyone else up and put them in a new cemetery a stone’s throw away.
We had lunch at the Virginia City Cafe. After walking around town and going into Cousins Candy Shop we headed down the road to Nevada City. There wasn’t much to it. Actually they brought in really, really old cabins that were left standing around Montana and assembled them into a village. It was a tourist trap because you had to pay to walk through them. We spent our money on ice cream instead.
On our way home we took a back way to Bozeman. It was a beautiful drive through some deep canyons. Naturally we stopped at Walmart in Bozeman for a little shopping. We ate dinner in Livingston and then made it back home by 8:30


8-13 (Fri)
We left Mammoth at 8:00 and drove to Midway Geyser Basin where we had planned to climb a mountain and take pictures looking down on the Grand Prismatic Spring. When we got out of the car the wind was blowing like crazy, it was freezing cold and spitting rain. We nixed that idea and drove on to Old Faithful where we shopped to stay out of the wind and then ate lunch at their EDR. We ate with some really nice women who told us the forecast is for snow at Old Faithful tonight. Of course they added that the forecast is never right.
We got the brilliant idea to drive down to Jackson Hole for the afternoon. About half way there we decided it was going to take us too long and we wouldn’t get back to Mammoth until real late. Since we have to work in the morning we went to West Thumb Geyser Basin. By this time the sun was shinning so we walked around there and took pictures.
We thought since the sun was shinning there we’d go back to Midway and try to see Grand Prismatic Spring. We got over there and it was still freezing cold. Nancy got out and went to take a look. I slept in the car while she was gone.
When we got back home we cranked up our heater then called and made reservations to go to Jackson Hole next weekend.

The Gardiner River on our Sheep Eater's Cliff hike

I saw this critter along the way

He kept posing for me

Nancy coming out of the thick canopy we walked through

Buddy and the boys

Nancy with family

8-6 (Fri)
This morning Nancy and I went on a hike to Sheep Eater's Cliff. We were walking along the Gardiner River which was lovely. There was one section where we had to hunched over and walk through some really thick bushes that formed a canopy over us.

Nancy's son, Buddy, from Orlando and his two boys arrived early this afternoon. We took them touring to some parts of the park. We had dinner at Roosevelt Lodge and then took them out to the Lamar Valley where they were able to see lots of buffalo. They also saw a grizzly and two cubs. It's always exciting when we can show our guest some of the animals.

Bill with bear slobber on his pants!

Celebrating the end of a great hike.

Taking a break on the trail.

At the top of Golden Gate.

The cowboys who told us about the bear.

Getting ready to start the hike.

Our friends, Patty and Marilyn arrived at Mammoth last Thursday. Bill and MA arrived shortly after that. They had been in Glacier. We all ate lunch in the EDR. The food was awful.
All of us minus MA went on the Golden Gate hike. Bill and I took his car over to Bunsen Peak and left if. We drove everyone to the top of the Terraces in my car and began the hike there. A group of 4 (one wrangler, mom and dad, and a young girl) passed us on horseback. They had a pack mule with them. They had been camping for two nights and riding for three days. When we got near the hoodoos they called back to us, “Bear on the left.” We weren’t sure what to do so we pressed on. Marilyn finally spotted it. It was a brown grizzly. It was eating some berries and didn’t pay any attention to us. We scooted on by. The hike took us three hours.
When we got back everyone went to their hotels to recover and shower. We all went to Raven’s in Gardiner for dinner.

On Friday we all went to Chico’s for lunch. It's a resort about 45 minutes from the park. Bill and MA left from there for Bozeman so they could fly home the next morning.
We took Patty and Marilyn through the Lamar Valley that night and to Cook City for dinner. Coming home we saw lots and lots of buffalo, they were in rut.