Do It Differently Personal Training

After surviving the Beartooth Pass, we checked in at Silver Springs, Montana for our first night in a cabin. The host was sure to tell us that we’ll see bison walking around town and to remember that they are wild animals. The space was great and being indoors after a very cold drive into the mountains had us doing some mental calculations on our original plan. Plan A: Wake up super early on June 15^th and get in line on opening day for the non-reservable campsites (either Pebble Creek or Slough Creek) and register for two nights of camping. Plan B: If the campsites book up before we get there, well, we didn’t have a Plan B. We decided to drive into Yellowstone Park and check out it out just a bit before heading to bed for the night. That’s when we spotted our first bison strolling through town!

Once you drive into the park, it’s truly hard to describe how vast everything is. We just thought we’d drive a few miles in for a glance at the days ahead. Once we reached the Lamar Valley we were fascinated by the wide open range with bison grazing freely, pronghorns resting by the river, and the handy pull-off areas where gawking tourists like us can stop and stare for as long as needed. The theme for Jurassic Park was stuck in my head for most of the drive.

Once we decided to turn around and head back to our cabin for the night, we witnessed a mama and baby bison crossing right in front of us and trotting through the hillside! We were all yelping with excitement at that one. When you see something like this, you simply can’t imagine that someone would be clueless enough to intervene with nature and put a baby bison in their car!  

This was also when we continued our mental calculations of 1 degree Celsius (33 degree Fahrenheit) for overnight sleeping in a soft-sided tent. For two nights. It was already teeth-chattering cold and the wind was whipping and howling around us, and it would only get colder. Hmmm…time to start thinking about that non-existent Plan B.

We saw several motels and cabins with vacancy signs and realized that all of the pre-planning is great, but there appeared to be other options. Experiencing one night of rain in warmer temperatures in South Dakota, we started picturing possible rain (or snow), freezing temperatures, and a good 20-mile drive to the nearest park exit, we decided to check out the vacancy signs in Cooke City and see if we could rent a cabin for the following night. We found a place and decided to skip the tent camping this time.

After a full night of rain (and aren’t we smug since we were in a cabin this time – see how happy we look)

we entered the park in the morning with our FREE fourth grader. The park ranger told us Dunraven Pass, one of the routes we were planning to take, was closed due to overnight snow! We have to keep reminding ourselves that we are in the mountains. We did a fairly good job of mapping out the sites we wanted to see and making the most of our time. One of the guide books said that you could never see all of the sights in Yellowstone even in your entire lifetime, and we get it now.

We’ll just have to come back! It would be great to do some guided hikes off the beaten path or even some biking. The area is so vast and grand and you spend a lot of time driving to get from one featured site to another. For example, the drive to Old Faithful from the Northeast Entrance is approx. 2.5 hours, and that’s without stopping for bison in the road or animal gazing. If you are ever planning a trip, please pick our brains so we can share all of the lessons learned and helpful tips.

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone with the upper and lower falls included a 900-yard hike down a winding hill (and back up again) and was worth every step. And, we now have two full-fledged Junior Rangers in our family. They can tell you all about the dangers of death by geyser and how to identify bison poop. Very helpful life skills.