Monday through Wednesday - Yellowstone and Home

We left Grand Junction around 9:30 on Monday morning, after making a quick stop by the house we lived in 2005-2007.  We had a VERY long drive into Utah, up into Idaho, then over and up into Montana to West Yellowstone, where we arrived around 8:30 pm.  After road food all day, we were both really happy to get a big salad at Three Bears.  It wasn't hard to fall asleep right after we finished dinner.

Tuesday morning we left early to drive to park headquarters at Mammoth, WY, where I had a few meetings set up that morning with the program leads at the Yellowstone Center for Resources.   After talking science, bison, cultural resources, and admin processes for the morning, we grabbed lunch then hit the road to explore for the afternoon.  We spend a few hours at Norris Geyser Basin and were blown away by the geysers, hot pots, springs, and fumaroles (steam vents).  We bought a simple dinner at the Mammoth General Store, then camped in the truck at the Park Service spot held at Mammoth Campground.

Wednesday morning I had another meeting on bison with Yellowstone's lead for biology programs, then we hit the road for the 4 1/2 hour drive back to Missoula.  We got home around 3 pm, having put a grand total of 2,579 miles on Mossy Wind, aka The Paddy Wagon.
Click here to see the final route on Google Maps 

The trip was GREAT.  Finn was an incredible traveler, we visited with wonderful people, and we saw amazing things that we're so thankful our country had the foresight to protect for all of us to see.  We owe Mom (October) a big thanks for holding down the fort and encouraging us to have this adventure!

Some final pics:

Finn did NOT care for the sulfur smell of the vents

Finn still asleep in the Paddy Wagon at Mammoth, WY

And evidence of dragons snorting just underground:

And finally home, exhausted: