This Land is Your Land

Day 8

Cooke City, MT to Belgrade, MT  (142 miles, 2,373 total)

We woke up this morning to 10 additional inches of snow from the overnight storm that had rolled through, closing one of two roads out of Cooke City. We hoped the other would remain open so we could leave before the sub-zero temperatures descended upon us and it would really turn into The Shining.

Though this sign at our only point of egress created a momentary panic, a conversation with a park ranger allayed our fears as plows were actively working to clear the roadway through Yellowstone and out the North Entrance. Twenty minutes of idling and we were back on our way.

Despite most of the park being closed due to the weather and the impassibility of the roads, we were fortunate enough to be able to drive through the Lamar Valley which has often been described as the "Serengeti of Yellowstone" for all of the wildlife that can be seen. While we caught several herds of bison along the way and even spotted a lone wolf in the distance, most of the animals were apparently on strike.


The views throughout our drive were extraordinary and, sadly, no pictures could ever quite do justice to what we were privileged enough to see (particularly not with my slipshod photography skills). Hopefully you can get a sense of the grandeur of this place nonetheless. I don't believe in God, but this place made me understand why people do.







Leaving the park through the Roosevelt Arch at the North Entrance, the original entrance to Yellowstone, we stopped briefly in town to fill up with gas before the next long leg of the trip. We received all the confirmation that we needed that it was, indeed, pretty f*cking cold.


As temperatures dropped, we forged further north. I'll spare you the recounting of our two hour detour to get the rig emergency winterized at a 24-hour truck repair because we were soon to be heading into sub-zero temperatures care of an unexpected cold snap punishing the West.

Instead, I'll share some pictures from the farm we stayed at in Belgrade, MT. Many thanks to our Airbnb hosts, Luanna and Bruce for putting us up overnight on short notice (and letting us play with their alpacas)!






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"In my Tennessee mountain home, life is as peaceful as a baby's sigh..."

Image
Day 37 Cosby, TN (1,855 foot elevation to 3,330 feet...and back )  With few days remaining of our wild adventure, we wanted to make the most of our last full day in Great Smoky Mountains National Park - after a hearty breakfast courtesy of Grill Master Mann, of course!  Mindful of our route following this portion of the trip, I'd booked an RV campground on the northeastern-most edge of the Park. Unbeknownst to me at the time, this is the least "popular" section of the Smokies with visitors and, as a result, has some of the least trafficked hiking trails. Happily for us (and entirely inadvertent on my part), the trail that we had decided to tackle was just half a mile from our campground so we could simply walk to the trailhead and leave the rig hooked up in its spot for the day. In reading up on the Maddron Bald hike to the Albright Grove Loop before we left, nothing gave me pause. It was described as a moderately strenuous hike because of the constant incline on the way ...
Read more

"Just can't wait to get back on the road again..."

Image
Day 16 Jackson, WY to Heber City, UT  (286  miles ,  3,557 total )  It was up and on the road early this morning to make it into Salt Lake City as early as possible; we had a date with an RV dealer to de-winterize our rig and fix a crack in our fresh water tank. Such are the joys of living in your home. Things were moving along right on schedule until two hours into the drive when we came to a complete standstill somewhere on the border of Wyoming and Idaho. It was our first Western traffic jam.              Once the congestion finally cleared, we raced onward and finally made it to Access RV, a delightful pit stop along our route. I was particularly excited to receive this  alert on my iPhone the moment I sat down in the waiting room to settle in for a two hour visit. I looked like Patient Zero, perched on my chair in my N95 surrounded by mask-less Utahans. Apparently, the prophylactic of choice in these parts is hop...
Read more

"All around me a voice was sounding, this land was made for you and me..."

Image
Day 40 Greenwood, VA  It was an early(ish) start to the day as we tried to squeeze every last bit of adventure out of this fantastic odyssey we'd been on for the better part of six weeks. And so, after a quick breakfast, we set off north along Skyline Drive and deeper into the Shenandoah National Park for our last hike of the trip. After an hour of twists and turns along the scenic drive, we pulled into the parking lot for the Doyles River Falls trailhead. I had initially scoped out a different hike for the day, one that was lauded as the  hike to do in the southern portion of the Park. It would surely have been a push at 9 plus miles with multiple stream crossings but, fresh off of my successes at The Narrows and the Bright Angel Trail, I was wildly confident. Emphasis on the wild. When I suggested the Riprap Trail and read the AllTrails reviews aloud to Jon, he uncharacteristically asked me if I was sure I wanted to push it that  hard. I told him I was up for it if he w...
Read more