Gardiner, MT

This was our awesome campground in Gardiner, Eagle Creek. We were on top of a mountain and could see for miles. We could also see the north entrance to the park from here and it's Mammoth Hot Springs!

I smelled mint and I had to find it! I knew my nose wasn't fooling me. I was amazed when I looked down to find this wonderful smelling herb growing wild next to this creek. One afternoon Steve wanted to drive up a dirt road that ran next to the campground. He knew it led up the mountain, so off we went to discover what lay ahead! It was magnificent! Now we could see even more miles of Montana! There weren't many trees where our campground was nor were there many in the town, but up here there were plenty of beautiful evergreen trees!!

The North entrance to the park and Mammoth Hot Springs. One of the main highlights of Yellowstone! The rock around the springs is white, so it is easy to see from a great distance.There is a park sitting across from the entrance to the park where we found a family of elk lounging.

The town of Gardiner.

Wyoming

This is one of the tunnels you travel through to go from Wapiti to Cody. The tunnel past this one is about a quarter of a mile long. The Buffalo Bill Dam is to the left of the tunnel here. Yellowstone River meanders around this road all the way to the park entrance.

We move north to Gardiner, MT to enter Yellowstone on the north side. Since Yellowstone is 2.2 million acres it has 5 separate entrances and we wanted to see what this side had to offer especially since so many people were bragging about the scenery there.
On our way we saw this pink post office in Bear Creek, MT. Tiny! Some of the photos are views from the car on our trip.
We stopped for lunch at a city park called Hawkins Park. It was awesome that there was a tiny log cabin that had been moved from it's original place and put here at this park. The names of the students that the teacher taught are listed on the outside of the cabin.




We stopped halfway and stayed in Livingston. There are campgrounds all along the main road and so we just pulled over when we were ready to stop.

Yellowstone area: Wapiti and Cody

One day we drove east from our campground and found this other camping area. Nice.

We move to Wapiti, WY for 2 nights. Awesome campground with a laundromat that we needed.


We spent a day in Cody. Awesome town. We ate at Irma's for lunch. That is Faith's Spanish name, so we thought it would be great to eat here. Irma's is also a hotel that William Cody (Buffalo Bill) started around 1880. His photo, along with his wife and daughter's, is hanging on the wall of the restaurant. His daughter's name was Irma.
The wooden bar, made out of cherry, is the original bar!


We also went to the Tecumseh's Trading Post. They have an awesome miniature display of the Wild West covering a huge, oversized table.