South to Yellowstone

On a sunny morning we left Eagle's Nest in Polson Montana to drive south to West Yellowstone, our headquarters for a week's visit to Yellowstone National Park. We had a great stay at Eagle's Nest and really like what we see of Montana. now it will be interesting to see if the rest of our stay in this state is as pleasing.










We were warned about construction on our route south but were not prepared to be driving on gravel. These highway departments only have a short season to repair and rebuild roads so they don't mess around. They had taken the road surface down to gravel and we bumped along for what seemed like miles (actually ~1 mile). We had alomst reached the end of the rough road when we heard an unidentified beep. It was the supplemental braking unit for our van. As soon as we could pull to the berm, Dennis checked the unit. It looked like it was malfunctioning and had possibly failed. So we limped along to the first fuel stop and he restarted the unit. The plug to the cigarette lighter had loosened causing the problem. He reinserted the plug, restarted the unit and we were on our way. Phew!!!




I-90 runs east and west between the two secondary roads we needed to use. It was a nice highway and we saw some more of the beautiful Montana countryside.












For those of you who may be curious, yes we still have stinkbugs. We have had them in decreasing quantities for the last week but then its been cold. Today, when the sun was shining on the coach, another appeared. We're pretty sure we have captured at least 200 that have been drowned in soapy water in a bottle or flushed into the black tank. We thought we would be stinkbug free by the time we reach PA again. Maybe not.










The Rocky Mountains appeared in the distance and gave us come nice scenery. We needed to cross them to get south to Yellowstone. The Mountain Directory indicated this mountain pass would be the steepest we had encountered so far on the trip. So we kept heading down the highway hoping for the best. Homesteader pass is also at the Continental Divide so we accomplished two crossings at the same time. The mountain was steep, of course, but not impossible.








Unlike all the other mountains we have crossed, this one had rocks - big rocks! It is easy to imagine how the Rocky Mountains were named. Huge boulders were piled one on another. It was beautiful.











The route from I-90 to Yellowstone is another secondary road and again we had construction with a road surface down to gravel. But this time we didn't have any issues with our braking system and actually could enjoy the drive. The Gallatin River runs alongside the road and we saw some rafters on the river. Seeing them made me think we might just consider taking the raft trip. I've always wanted to do it but it always seemed to be too rough for our arthritic bodies. But this looked pretty calm.








Then we turned the corner and wow! Rapids and swift water made us realize we were better off watching from the bank. These are not the most difficult rapids but they would jar us around a bit. But the people looked like they were having fun.

The Yellowstone Grizzley RV Park is great but their WiFi is the worst we've had so far. So I'll use it for the allotted 2 hrs per 12 hrs and then switch to my phone. We met a few of the neighbors- some from PA and MD and one shorthair. Tomorrow, we set out to see some of the park and hopefully some wildlife.