Missoula, Montana

June 14 - 21, 2020

 

 

Missoula is known as the "Garden City" for its dense trees and lush green landscape.  The town is nestled in the heart of the northern Rockies where five valleys converge.  Missoula is a center for education, medicine, retail, and the arts.  It is located at the base of Mount Sentinel and the banks of the Clark Fork River.

 

 

Missoula is also home to The University of Montana (Go Grizzlies!).  The public research university is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and is its second-largest campus.  The 200-acre campus is one of the most beautiful in the nation and is home to 12,000 students.

 

Downtown Missoula

 

Jellystone Rv Park

This was our first stay at a Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park.  The park was on the small side and seemed a little run-down however the staff was very friendly and helpful and the store is well stocked with a lot of cute items.  The pool was not heated.   The miniature golf feature could use some maintenance but is still usable and fun.  Our pull-through site was easy to get into and level.  Mostly it was a good place to stay for a few days. 

 

Exploring  History at Travelers' Rest State Park

Just 10 miles south of Missoula, the Lewis and Clark Expedition stayed in an area called Travelers Rest near the town of Lolo.  Travelers Rest area was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and was turned into a 51-acre state park.  Six years later it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Bitterroot Valley

Lewis and Clark wrote about their visit in September 1805 and again in June of 1806 of Lolo Hot Springs and the treacherous trek across the Bitterroot Mountains. 

Significant archeological findings in 2002, including latrine sites with traces of mercury and fire hearths, make this the only site on the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail that has yielded physical proof of the explorers' presence.

Lolo Pass

Lolo Pass, elevation 5,233 feet, is a mountain pass in the western United States, in the Bitterroot Range of the northern Rocky Mountains.   It is on the border between the states of Montana and Idaho and is approximately 40 miles west-southwest of Missoula, Montana.

I have to admit, the real reason we set out to explore this area is that my sister informed me that the show Yellowstone, starring Kevin Costner, was partly filmed in the area. 

Yellowstone Series

As it turned out The Dutton family's gorgeous log cabin is actually a 5,000-square foot mansion located on Chief Joseph Ranch near Darby, Montana which was just a few more miles down the road.  Even though we did not see the ranch or any of the crew from Yellowstone, we can say that at least we tried and got to see some beautiful mountains in the process.

 A Day Trip to an Old Gold Mining Town

 

For a trip back in time, we decided to drive an hour east to Garnet Ghost Town, a historic gold mining town with 30 preserved buildings.  This trip did not disappoint!  The drive took us along the Blackfoot River where it merges with the Clark Fork River.  This river was made famous by the novel "A River Runs Through it" by Norman Maclean.  The views were stunning! 

 

 

Once we turned off the main road to get to the old ghost town that was a totally different story.  Driving the narrow dirt road in a big dually truck was scarier than the aspect of running into a real, bona fide ghost by the time we arrived.

This is Montana’s most intact ghost town.  More than a century after Garnet emerged in 1895, remnants of the town still stand, hidden high in the Garnet Mountain Range.

 

There were four stores, four hotels, three livery stables, two barbershops, a union hall, a school with 41 students, a butcher shop, a candy shop, a doctor’s office, an assay office, and thirteen saloons.  By 1905 many of the mines were abandoned and the town’s population had shrunk to about 150.  A fire in the town’s business district in 1912 destroyed many of the commercial buildings and most of the remaining residents moved away to defense-related jobs.  By the 1940s, Garnet was a ghost town.

 

 

Rough Stock Saloon

 

On our way back to Missoula, we decided to stop for a quick bite and a hole in the wall bar in Drummond, MT.  We bellied up to the bar and both ordered a beer, D got a burger and I had them fix me a grilled cheese sandwich. 

 

The Rough Stock Saloon is the kind of place that you go to if you want to unwind from a long day at work or if you want to tie one on with the locals and friends.  The menu is limited to a selection of simple, delicious burgers that are cooked just right, chicken tenders, pizza, and the typical bar appetizers. They sport a decent selection of local beers that I understand rotate fairly often alongside the staple beers like Budweiser products, Coors products, and other microbrews.  Sadly, it appears that this bit of history lost the fight to Covid-19 and is now permanently closed.

 

 

Dennis decides on a new hobby... fishing?

 

Don't ask me why fishing, but fishing here we go!  I can just hear the theme song The Fishin' Hole, The Andy Griffith Show theme song, playing in my head as he is telling me of his new idea.  So after much research and him talking with his brother-in-law, Dave, we set off to find the local Cabela's store in Missoula.  

 

We ended up buying a trout setup for Penny, the rod and reel are PINK!  (This is important later.)  Dennis decides on a white bass rig.  Given the research, we did not overspend on everything.  Here's hoping to catchin' many of dinners, y'all!

Dennis' two cents:  While on the road, we caught up with a TV series called Alone.  In every season, most of the contestants would fish for their food!  I suddenly felt the pull to learn to fish.

Our next hop is to visit Glacier National Park. Wish us luck that it's open by the time we get there!

Overnight in Jackson Hole, then on the Yellowstone!

I had booked us a hotel for Saturday in Jackson (Hole), Wyoming.  (The town's official name is Jackson, not Jackson Hole, just sayin'.)  Our plan was to drive over, check out the town, and the beautiful Grand Teton Mountains.  Then on Sunday, we would get up bright and early and head up to Yellowstone once again, but thru the south gate.

Our drive over from Rexburg took us along Highway 33 through the beautiful farmland within Teton County, Idaho.  Throughout the two hour trip, the Teton Mountains loomed in the distance.  Not a bad drive!

Tetonia is known for growing seed potatoes, barley, and wheat

 Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Our first stop when arriving was to grab a bite to eat before checking into our hotel.  We found the Snake River Brewery restaurant near the hotel that was OPEN for dine-in business!  Yes!  We decided to give it a try while waiting for our room to be ready.  Dennis ordered the Truffle White Pizza with the Dark Horse Lager and I had the Walnut & Gorgonzola salad with the Jenny Lake Lager.  All were an excellent adventure in which Ted would have approved.

After checking into our hotel, compliments of Marriott bonus points, we walked around downtown until it was time for our dinner reservations at the Gun and Barrel Steakhouse.  Dennis ate every bite of his Cheyenne Tenderloin to the point I thought he was going to lick the plate.  I made the ultimate mistake and ordered the french onion soup and forgot that it was made with beef broth.  So after much debate, I returned it and settled on a huge slice of cheesecake for my dinner.  Desert and wine for dinner?  I think I'm going to make this the new norm!

Yellowstone once again!
Sunday morning had arrived and it was time to begin our journey of the eastern loop of Yellowstone. This time we will be entering from the south gate.  For those of you that have never visited the park, there are 5 gates in all. 

1. North Entrance – through the town of Gardiner, Montana.
2. Northeast Entrance - through the Beartooth Mountains
3. East Entrance – through the town of Cody, Wyoming
4. South Entrance – through Grand Teton National Park
5. West Entrance – through the town of West Yellowstone

Our goal on this trip was to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and the Artists' Paintpots.  I have to admit that these two ended up being my favorite stops.  The views of the waterfalls within the Grand Canyon were unbelievable!  You hear stories about how beautiful the prismatic spring is or about all the wildlife but I have never heard about the canyon.  It is a must if you visit this park.

The Lone Elk!                                               D in the sudden snowstorm

The Upper Falls

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

The Artist Paintpot Trail

Well, our visit had come to an end and it was time to head home.  The trip was a success despite the brief snow showers and the lack of roaming wildlife.  We will just have to return another year!

Dennis' two cents: I found out a few days later that we JUST missed seeing a grizzly with cubs as we eased thru Grand Teton National Forest!  The mom bear has a "name", it's Grizzly 399.  lol

Our First visit to Yellowstone National Park

One of our main places to visit during our 2020 journey out west was Yellowstone National Park.  With the Covid-19 pandemic, we weren't sure this was going to happen.  We have missed out on visiting so many places already and I was praying that this would not be one of them.  We were ready for the odds to finally be ever in our favor.

Yahoo!  As it so happened, they announced they would be opening the west gate and a couple of the gift shops on June 1st.  I am so excited since this is the very week we would be there!  I was so relieved that this was not another trip in vain!  So it was time to start planning our drive!  Here's hoping to see lions and Tigers and BEARS!  Well, maybe not lions and tigers but hopefully at least bears!

Wakeside Lake RV Park

I had booked us in the town of Rexburg Idaho which is about an hour south of Yellowstone's West Gate.  This small park had excellent cell coverage according to T-mobile's map.  (All of my choices for parks are due to this major priority of ours since that is the provider D uses for his work.  This has often resulted in us staying near major highways or far from the places we plan to visit.

In this case, it was both!  There was quite a bit of noise from the busy highway and it also ended up being a much longer drive to Yellowstone than we had expected.  Oh well,  I do have a sound machine I can use and D doesn't mind the extra driving.

Yellowstone National Park

Walkway to the Fountain Paint Pot and Silex Spring

Our timing to the park couldn't have been better as far as traffic and crowds.   We have heard and read of horrible crowds, unbelievable road jams, and no parking to be had.   I guess the pandemic decided it owed us one.   I'll take it!  At most of the sites, there were very few people so we had no problem with getting good photos and were able to take our time as well.

This trip turned out to be the 1st of 2 we would take.   Our goal for this one was to see the Grand Prismatic Spring and. of course, Old Faithful.  Since there was very little traffic, we also had high hopes of seeing a lot of animals.   Well, that didn't happen!  The only wild things we saw on the first trip were tourists & bison and on the 2nd go around, we saw one, and I mean just one, elk.. without its antlers!  What's up Yogi? Where are you?

Since this visit was during the work-week, we once again had to wait until after 2pm to head up.  We arrived at the west gate at 4pm and found that Old Faithful is an hour's drive once you enter the park.   We figured that if we only visited the two sites and didn't hit any traffic or parking issues that would have us getting back to the RV around 8pm.   As it turned out, it was more like 9:30pm when we arrived back and no dinner to boot! So worth it, though!

1st Stop:
Fountain Paint Pot Trailhead

Along with the smelly, bubbling mud pots at this site, there is also the great Fountain Geyser spewing hot water into the air, and the Silex Spring.  The boardwalk that leads out to them follows along this huge gravel area that could be straight out of a Stephen King novel.  We didn't dare come off of the path for being afraid of being disintegrated right there on the spot!

Fountain Paint Pots. Smelly! Think sulfur x 10

More bubbly mud pots

2nd Stop: 
The Excelsior Geyser and the Grand Prismatic Spring

At this stop, we did run into a few folks.   Still, the crowd was very small and we had no problem finding a parking spot for Benjamin and visiting this beautiful spring and geyser.  The Prismatic Spring is Yellowstone's largest hot spring at 330 feet wide and 121 feet deep.  The yellow, orange, brown, and green colors of the spring are caused by microscopic organisms called thermophiles that live there.

The Grand Prismatic Spring

Excelsior Geyser Crater

3rd Stop: 
Old Faithful
The long-anticipated journey is over!  We have arrived at Old Faithful at last!  I am for sure marking this off the ole bucket list!
Upon arriving, the parking lot was just about empty due to the fact it was already 6pm.  The first thing we did was go to the general store that was OPEN and check the schedule for the next eruption.  Turns out that we had a 45-minute wait.  Oh well!  Nothing to do but shop and wait, I guess.   I did not come this far to walk away without seeing it erupt.  After buying the souvenir tee, we walked the short distance to the geyser and found an empty bench and began the wait. 

 
30 minutes later, just as predicted, it began to spew its steam.  A minute and a half later it was over.  Wait!  What?  No one told us the geyser eruption was only 90 seconds long!  Really?!  Oh well, time to roll on down the road.

 

Final Stop:
Bison Sightings Along the Way

Our first trip to Yellowstone has come to an end and now it is time to plan our return trip.  But first, we will be visiting Idaho Falls and then a quick stay in Jackson (Hole), Wyoming.

Dennis' two cents worth: I noticed that the park rangers were being very rabid about speeders in the park, so I made SURE that we stayed with the speed limit!  We also saw MANY fly fishermen out in the rivers and have become inspired to learn to fish for the first time in my life.  I will probably start with something easier & less expensive than fly-fishing, of course.