Gardiner MN to Jackson Hole WY

Leisurely day's drive around the west side of Yellowstone NP, up the Gallatin River valley from Bozeman, through West Yellowstone MT and then Idaho potato country, back into Wyoming, over Teton Pass and into Jackson Hole. I drive north of Jackson as the clouds lift to see the Tetons emerge.

A hole is a valley. The town is Jackson. 

The geography can be confusing. Yellowstone is mostly in Wyoming except for a sliver in Montana to the north and west, and a sliver in Idaho to the west. Why that is, is an interesting surveying story which I won't tell here.

For comparison's sake, to drive through the park from Gardiner to the South Entrance of Yellowstone NP is about 95 miles.

To drive from Old Forge to Lake Placid in the Adirondacks is about 98 miles.

Gardiner MT

Gardiner MT, elevation 5224' 

This is my first day with no goal or destination. I am tired. The increased elevation isn't helping.

Today I come to believe this postcard will be my only view of Old Faithful, and I laugh.

It snowed overnight, an inch in town but a foot or more at the point up a back road where I decided to turn around before I got into trouble, Suburu Forester notwithstanding.

I saw a thousand blue birds, gathering for a long trek 

somewhere milder than this will be in a few weeks.

 The Yellowstone River exits the Park here at Gardiner as a big and fast flowing a river. 

It rises near the eastern side of the Park and flows past here, north and then east for a total of 692 miles, until it meets the Missouri in North Dakota. 

In 1806 half the group, led by William Clark, 

journeyed east along the Yellowstone from the Bitterroots 

to the Confluence, where they rejoined Meriwether Lewis's group 

and completed the homeward journey to St. Louis. 

The Corps never came up here, north of present-day Livingston. 

One of the party, John Colter, returned the next year. That is another interesting story.

Historic trainbed supported the train that brought earlier tourists up to Gardiner.

Approaching Yellowstone from the North

Another long day...

and I am kicking myself that I didn't know about Pompey's Pillar near Billings.

The first photo is of the mountains to the east of the Yellowstone River 

on the 50-mile way into Gardiner.

Then, a bull elk at Gardiner, by the edge of the Park. 

This park is not only closed but acting like it is under siege. It is a strange feeling. 

People are unnerved, outraged, deeply disappointed. 

There are stories about victims: 

people stranded at Cooke City with planes to catch in Bozeman; 

school kids not allowed to travel through the park to get 

from West Yellowstone to Gardiner for a game; 

Asian travelers who spent a fortune to get here; 

the last vacation of someone who is terminally ill: 

a few of the many travel stories interesting in their own right.

Still, only inside the park can one see the geothermal features all we visitors came to see. 

Further down, pictures are of ancient tour busses, 

an interesting stone in the historic Gardiner Cemetery, 

and the two-minute light show up by Electric mountain that does not correctly predict the snow coming tomorrow. These mountains generate their own weather.

West of the Mississippi: North Dakota

Did I mention the weather? It is lovely every day except for rain early in morning north of Lake Huron. With the shorter days of fall, it's a great help to the traveler to have bright evenings. I feel grateful.

Today I cross North Dakota. The changes this day are the most dramatic...from the flat midwest at elevation 845' at Grand Forks, up the imperceptible slope all day to the bumpy and carved front of the Rockies to 2267' at Medora. Tomorrow will be more dramatic yet.

This grain elevator town is Lakota. Near here I meet a woman working 

at a very basic gas station. 

She and her boyfriend live in a town up the road and own a little land outside town, where they plan to move. They are raising young beef stock right now and will increase the herd as they can. 

Never lived anywhere else and don't plan to. 

You could make a good life here.

 Devils Lake swallows barns, houses and farmland. 

The lake rose dramatically a decade ago
due to increased rains. There is no natural outlet.
Folks are working on a fix.
It is an environmental and economic disaster except for the fishing industry.
AmTrak stops here.

 The Little Missouri. 

I am in Lewis and Clark country now.

North Dakota badlands

Theodore Roosevelt National Park Visitor Center is closed by the shut-down. 

This is Tuesday, the first day. Maybe they will figure it out quickly?! Hope springs eternal.

 Theodore Roosevelt National Park at Medora
Except for the Visitor Center, the park is more or less open and I take an hour's drive into it before settling for the night. Wildife in the badlands of North Dakota is diverse;
this park is a treasure.