Missoula, MT to Yellowstone National Park

  First off, I must say that I'm blogging from a tent in a thunderstorm in the middle of South Dakota with cows mooing in the distance at 1 am. This is bizarre, yet awesome.

  Second, what an incredible, jam-packed past three days! This is the first time we've had a chance to upload anything, and there's quite a bit to recount, so I'll try to be brief and let the pictures do the talking.

Missoula --> Yellowstone (Sunday, May 20)

  We started the trip bright and early with a nice big breakfast.

And good thing we did because the way there was fairly adventurous in and of itself. Besides the awesome views...

...there was an enormous man-made cave that we decided to explore.

This picture really doesn't do the enormity of the cave justice. I'm talking MONSTROUS. Now, having seen 127 Hours, I admit that hiking in slippers along massive unsecured boulders without anyone knowing where we were was probably a bad choice, especially considering the bone we found at the start:

Cow? Horse? Human? We have no idea.

 But as you can tell, we're fine despite a few slips and near rock slides.

Can you spot Derek?

  Next up were the Lewis & Clark Caverns, which entailed a two-hour journey, first up vertically 300 ft to the cave entrance...

Waiting for the tour to start; check out this painting, I mean photo.

...then down a mile underground to see all kinds of geological works of art. I can never remember which is which, but Wiki tells me stalagmites rise from the floor and stalactites descend from ceiling.

"Fried eggs"

  Perhaps the most rewarding stop of the day (after this drive)...

...was Norris Hot Springs in Norris, MT. Picture a community pool made out of wood instead of concrete with perfect, 96 deg F water, a chilly sprinkler to cool you off, and all the delicious, organic food and drink you could want. This place was AWESOME.

   We ended the evening with a just-in-time arrival at Yellowstone to catch some more neat scenery. Of course there's the regular beautiful stuff like woods, rivers and sunsets (especially this one).

P.S., I took this picture while a buzzed Derek ran fervently into the woods swearing he had spotted a moose in the water

But then add to that a Jurassic Park feeling because of all the cool animals roaming around, and Yellowstone turns into an even bigger adventure.

Elk

Bison and Baby

Lotsa Bison

Fun fact: Bison babies are called red dogs, and they imprint fairly easily on humans. So, you want to avoid these cuddly creatures even MORE so than other wildlife babies, because not only will Momma Bison impale you, but she will keep doing so because her baby won't stop following you around. It's cute and frightening at the same time.

Yellowstone (Monday,  May 21)


  Monday was dedicated to exploring as much of Yellowstone as we could fit into one full day, and we did a pretty good job. More stunning scenery, with hot springs and geysers galore:

Grand Prismatic Spring...my favorite of the trip

Of course, a trip to Yellowstone wouldn't be complete without a viewing of Old Faithful doing its thing. This was at 2:44 MST:

We saw more bison, red dogs, and elk, but the coolest wildlife sighting that day was a WOLF! We couldn't capture it by camera because it was so far away, but we borrowed some binoculars and got to see Mr. Wolf taking a dip in the water after chasing some geese. I think it was around here...

The last stop of the day was Yellowstone's very own Grand Canyon:

We finished up the day with some hot dogs over the fire and makeshift camping seats. I passed out approximately 30 minutes after this picture was taken, at 7:30 pm. For some reason, driving around is exhausting.

Yellowstone --> Kennebec (Tuesday, May 22) [through MT, WY, SD]


  Tuesday morning as we drove east out of the park, we saw 5 BEARS. The whole time in the park we kept talking about wanting to see a wolf and a bear, AND IT HAPPENED. Not just one, but TWO MOMMAS AND THREE BEAR CUBS. It was awesome. The first sighting was of a momma and two cubs from far away and again we borrowed binoculars to see the two little ones wrestling and playing. Aaaadorable.

Can you spot the dots in the distance? Those are bears, promise.

BUT THEN....we hadn't even driven 5 minutes, and we saw THIS:

They were just cruisin' on the side of the road not paying any attention to the paparazzi surrounding them in cars. Of course, I couldn't get over how cute baby bear was.

  We eventually managed to pull ourselves away and head east toward Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

Aaaand....flatness.

To get there we passed through Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming. The name doesn't lie. This thing is massive. And also filled with deer and moose.

MOOSE!

Second PB, honey and banana sandwich of the day.

Finally we ended up at Mount Rushmore. I always associate Mount Rushmore with Derek's brother, Sid, and his family, Margarita, Isaac, Matthew, Alina, because they have this fabulous family picture in front of the monument. We tried to do the same, although the nephews and niece are way, way cuter than us.

  Three hours later, we ended up at KOA Kampgrounds, where I'm blogging. This place is more of a youth hostel where you happen to sleep outside. There's a pool, hot tub, pool table, place to buy food, ping pong, etc. Pretty cool, although I'm feeling pretty spoiled now that I got to take a shower. Good thing, otherwise Sid and Margarita might not let us in :-D.

   Next stop: Chicago! Deep dish pizza, YUM! Seeking other suggestions as well!