We had planned on visiting Glacier National Park from Missoula, but two fires in the park caused the closure of the western entrance and a major section of the scenic Going-to-the-Sun highway. The eastern entrance was still open, but it would have taken too much time to get there (we only had one day to see the park), so we decided not to go. Instead, we drove around Missoula and stopped at the Carousel for Missoula, one of a few still remaining with hand-carved horses, and was was built by volunteers in the community. Other than the carousel and the University of Montana campus, there wasn’t much to see in Missoula, and I can’t believe I’m writing this much about this town.
From Missoula we followed the beautiful Clark Fork river southeast through Montana to our RV park on Lake Hebgen near West Yellowstone. In 1959 and 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit this area which caused a massive landslide that dammed Lake Hebgen and created a new lake called Earthquake Lake.
Yellowstone was America’s first national park established in 1872 and covers almost 3,500 square miles. We only had 2 1/2 days to tour the park, so we had to make the best use of our time in order to see all of the wonders that this park contains within its boundaries.
The 142-mile road that takes you through the park is in a rough figure eight with five entrance roads leading to it, so we entered the park from West Yellowstone and drove the lower loop on the first 1 1/2 days and the upper loop on the last day. It takes a long time to tour the park because the speed limit in most of the park is 45 mph, but is 35 and 25 in several areas, and there are numerous turnouts and overlooks that you absolutely must stop at. Also, we encountered several traffic jams where wildlife (buffalo and elk) were within viewing distance and everyone stopped to take photos.
I had been to Yellowstone when I was about 12 or 13 but remembered very little, so it was like seeing it for the first time. I was amazed at the varying topography that we drove through, from grassy plains with a river meandering through it, to geyser basins filled with steaming mineral springs and fumaroles, to canyons carved by rivers and waterfalls to pine-covered plateaus. Yellowstone is also home to elk, grizzly bears, buffalo, wolves, foxes, badgers and river otters.
