Day 8 – On The Way To Yellowstone

On Our way To West Yellowstone, Montana

We were on our way to Yellowstone National Park and more specifically to West Yellowstone, a town in Montana, just outside the west gate.  We would be staying in the Brandin’ Inn for the rest of our vacation.  The Inn is in a good location at the edge of the town and the Yellowstone gate is very accessible.  We got up early in the morning to get a good start before the traffic got too heavy.  It was a beautiful morning and the sun was just coming up.  We stopped along the way to take these photos.

Although the lakes are filled with trout, there are all kinds of rules and regulations about fishing.  We were told the story several times about  the decimation of the cutthroat trout  (native to the park lakes)by the Lake trout which were introduced illegally. Fly fishermen are encouraged to kill any lake trout they capture.

Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center

We arrived around noon and our room would not be ready until 3pm.  Having missed breakfast, we looked for a restaurant and found one called the Timber Lane.  We were served by a waiter from Mexico who lived in Utah and just came to Yellowstone West to work for the summer. We had a nice breakfast and good service.  We found the visitor center and got a map of the town.  Right next to the visitor center was the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center so that is where we spent the next few hours.

We walked around and saw falcons, hawks, raptors and a bald eagle.  They were all behind netting, so no photos. There were several white wolves.  They were resting most of the time. They would get up from time to time and walk a well-worn path around the compound.

By 2:30, we thought our room would be ready at the Inn.  We were in one room for one night and another room for four nights.  Unfortunately. the Brandin’ Iron was quite a step down from the Jackson Lake Lodge but at least it had a television and we could catch up with what was happening in the world. The weather had been sunny and warm but by evening it was very windy.

We planned on eating in our room.  There were two grocery stores and both were kind of like mom and pop grocers.  We went to the one farther away and it was very  crowded. We bought a few staples and then decided to get take-out food from a nearby pizza cafe.  I ordered the pizza and after it came,  we went back to the room. The pizza was actually very good.  We tried to get to bed early but the wind was making so much noise as it whistled through the front door and the people above sounded like they were having a dance contest, so that it was hard to get to sleep.

Old Faithful Inn – Meeting Our Tour Guide

We got up at 5:30am, as we had to be at Old Faithful Inn for a tour called Yellowstone in a Day. The tour covered all the highlights in the park and lasted all day. We arrived early and had time to grab something to eat and watch Old Faithful erupt one more time.  It was so early very few people were outside watching.

The driver was suppose to come and pick us up at the hotel so we waited for him in the hotel lobby and met a few other people going on the tour. It was 8:30am and the guide who was also the driver arrived.  His name was Jack and he seemed very knowledgeable. On Day 9, I will tell  about what we saw during our tour, “Yellowstone in a day”