Montana Day 9 - Last Stop on the Way Home

Our flight leaves at 12:30 out of Bozeman. We make town early for breakfast. Mandy heard about the Western Cafe on Main Street. We sit at the counter and quickly strike up conversations with local ranchers. They're friendly, interesting, rugged and seasoned.  I can't resist the chicken fried steak, especially as Mandy has already told me I'm on a strict diet of rabbit food and gym workouts starting tomorrow. She gets the bluecakes and we love both.

The Bozeman Airport is easy, clean and charming. Back to reality. For a while.

Montana Day 8 - K-Bar and the Boiling River

Our second day in Yellowstone and it's just as fascinating as the first. We did the southern loop yesterday, so we're doing the northern loop today.  We make a morning stop at the Artists Paint Pots, a thermal feature with wild colors and diversity.

We seen a lot already, and are still excited by every stop. We pull into Norris Geyser Basin and we are even more amazed. It's otherworldly. 

The food in the park is marginal at best, so on a recommendation from a fellow bar patron last night we head out the north entrance into the town of Gardiner. Mandy has been craving pizza, and we were told that K-Bar was the place. The tiny center of town is right out of gold rush / railroad boom / every 1950s western. Don, The bartender took our pizza order and brought me a local Scotch Ale, the 4th of its kind on this trip.  Don explains that winters are long and they get good at stuff. We find out that Don is from New Jersey and the pizza maker is from Pennsylvania, and when they find out we're from the Philly area, they are very anxious to find out what we think of the pie. It's top notch.  The sauce, cheese and sausage is delicious.  The crust is different, thin but dense, and gives the pie it's own out west personality (Don thinks it's the water.)  All on all it would hold its own with the best joints in NYC or Philly.

Just two and a half miles back into the park, we go to the Boiling River, little known feature visited by only a hundred or two hundred people a day.  It's a 100 yard section where the Boiling River Hot Springs flow into the icy Gardner river. The spring will literally burn you, and the river will turn you toes blue in minutes. But here where it mixes, you can go into the water for a very surreal experience. Moving an inch in either direction changes the temperature radically, and standing still one side of you can be too hot while the other side is freezing. We find our happy place and take a nice long soak, seeing how close we can move our hands to the steaming waterfall before pulling them back. It's the only place in the park we found to touch the features, and it gave us a deeper understanding of the vents, geysers and pools we had been seeing. A definite park highlight.

On our way out of the park, we pass the fires again. They're bigger, spreading, more smoky. We stop on the east side of the park to watch the fire helicopters do their work.

Dinner at the Gallatin Riverhouse Grill, a locals bar with giant Jenga and a swings bar outside (not swingers, a square bar with swings for seats) and ridiculous BBQ inside. The sampler platter for 2 would feed 4. The sauce is just how I like it tangy and not at all sweet, so a few Montana Mules are the right compliment.

Montana Day 7 - A Geyser, a Bison and a Rainbow (because... America)

Our first day in Yellowstone. Glacier brought out our adventurous side, letting us escape the crowds and find solitude on long, challenging, rewarding hikes. We quickly realize that Yellowstone is a very different experience.

We get to the park early and head to Old Faithful. We get there and see the last minute or two of the geyser.  We decide to hang around for 91 minutes to see the next eruption. We walk the boardwalk though a large geyser field around Old Faithful, and are glad we did. It's fascinating. We realize that we're just going to put on our black socks and sandals and join the ranks of the common tourist. Accepting our tourista fate, we finish our walk and take our seat to see the full Faithful show.

There is a single, huge bison sitting about 20 yards in front of the geyser, enjoying his breakfast and the warm morning sun. We sit so he will be in our pictures. When the spout starts, the mist makes a bright horizontal rainbow, and all three elements make it into picture of the day.

About being a tourist. We generally think we're above it, opting for less traveled, more exotic routes. The National Park Service has done a great job at making the features of Yellowstone easily accessible to all, and all come. It's the most popular national park for good reason. The thermal features are really a wonder, and we realize that we're happy that we have joined the ranks of the century of people who have come to partake. I know that millions of people have photographed the features I was clicking, and yet I couldn't take enough shots.

Of course, the other most popular feature of the park is the animal interaction. We see herds of bison and elk, and even a Grizzly. The bison and elk are as close as the shoulder of the road and practically pose for pictures. The bear was (thankfully) on the other side of a stream and was unfazed at the dozens of people on the opposite bank.  At one point we pull into a parking lot next to the marina, and the lot is inhabited by about two dozen bison. Near a dumpster, a calf is nursing on his mother. Having fully committed to our tourist status, we do the obvious- selfie!

We stop at the continental divide and check out the little lake right on the peak that drains both east and west.  The park is enormous, with the main loop being 142 miles around and only one road that bisects the middle.  It's just not a place you can rush through and we stay later than we expected. On our way out, we see a few of the wildfires that are plaguing the area. They are close, so close that you can see the fire and the dense smoke fills the valley like heavy fog.

Back in Big Sky, we decide on Buck's T-4 for dinner, just up the road from our lodge. We start with the pork belly app, which is what would happen if a pound of bacon mated with a stick of butter.  I get the Red Deer, medium rare of course, and Mandy orders the Wagyu flat iron salad.  There is apparantly something about seeing all these majestic creatures that makes us want to eat them all.  I've had venison many different ways, and not only is this cooked to perfection, but its served over some of the finest risotto you will ever find. We're foodies and it's a delight to find such well done dishes night after night.