Gillette to Yellowstone
From Gillette to Yellowstone via Cody
Gillette, Wyoming is a neat western town. Huge quantities of coal are mined here. This is nothing new. It has been going on for over a hundred years. There are filled coal trains parked everywhere. With all the rain back east, the tracks are impassable. So a huge back log is here. This small town of 19,000 (sign outside of town) has a huge fairgrounds. There are over 1,000 rv’s parked here and over 2200 people attending. The Excapee RV Rally is huge. Lots of interesting seminars, and other fun things to attend. On the forth, we were treated to a huge fireworks show. I have never seen a smoother run event of such magnitude. The army could take pointers. And on the fifth, we were cruising across the grass lands and then the mountains towards Cody.
Cody, Wyoming is a tourist town 60 miles east of Yellowstone Park. Its claim to fame is the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum. What a place. Old Buffalo Bill could teach Hollywood how to promote. His showmanship is excellent. A gun aficionado would have his eyes glaze over trying to look at the thousands of firearms there. It would be fun, however, to take one of the gattling guns and go squirrel hunting. We camped next to three bus loads of high school students. I’m glad we’re out of there.
We entered Yellowstone Park through the east gate. Anyone raised in the outdoors or in the lumber business could only be sick to the stomach upon driving the first 20 miles into the park. Miles and miles, thousands and thousands of acres of dead trees greeted us. Every tenth tree was alive; the rest appeared to be beetle kill. Later we entered burned areas where all but the grass was dead. Eventually, we entered burned areas where new trees were growing. By the time we reached Yellowstone Lake, the melancholy lifted. Finally, we began to see wildlife and beautiful country.
The main animals abounding are the buffalos (okay, bison to the purists). Some of the bulls are massive. And they can’t read. They walk right past the signs saying STAY BACK, DANGEROUS GEYSER AREA. What’s the matter with them? Are they the rebellious youth? Can’t they just learn to get along and follow the rules?
There are plenty of coyotes. They are the same size as ours, but they have short, gray tan curly hair. It kind of reminds me of what it would look like if the coyote stuck his nose in a wall socket.
Elk were around also. But every where we looked, no bears. We looked for lines of cars with stupid people trying to feed them without loosing fingers. NO BEARS! We looked at the dump. We looked in town and out. NO BEARS! There were signs that said “Don’t let your dog run free. The bears will chase your dog back to you and then look out.” Something must be wrong with our dog Shelly. She couldn’t get a single bear to follow her home. NO BEARS! I think they moved them to the high sierras. I’ve seen them there, but not in Yellowstone.
One of the difficulties with RV travel is you can’t take all your friends. We are looking at a new vehicle like you see. If we can just hook our fifth wheel trailer on, we can take most of our friends along.
The New Tow Vehicle
Anyway, I hear you have been having a heat wave. We had one yesterday in West Yellowstone. It made it to at least 82, but it was back to 45 at 7:15 this AM.
Tomorrow, we are off to the ghost mining town of Montana. Ennis, Virginia City (I know. Nevada has one too.), and Bannack. Bannack is the town the vigilantes hung the sheriff and some of his deputies. This is where the phrase came from. “Law Enforcement can be dangerous to you health.”
This part is from Merna. We sure had a lot of fun at the RV Rally in Gillette, WY. We met a lot of wonderful people. Some of which we might keep in touch with. Our neighbors were from Calgary Alberta. What a great couple.
We have seen some beautiful country along the way. Warren talked about the dead trees in eastern Yellowstone. There was a lot of beauty to. We saw snow along side the road and a lot of beautiful waterfalls.
We are looking forward to seeing Montana and its beauty.
Gillette, Wyoming is a neat western town. Huge quantities of coal are mined here. This is nothing new. It has been going on for over a hundred years. There are filled coal trains parked everywhere. With all the rain back east, the tracks are impassable. So a huge back log is here. This small town of 19,000 (sign outside of town) has a huge fairgrounds. There are over 1,000 rv’s parked here and over 2200 people attending. The Excapee RV Rally is huge. Lots of interesting seminars, and other fun things to attend. On the forth, we were treated to a huge fireworks show. I have never seen a smoother run event of such magnitude. The army could take pointers. And on the fifth, we were cruising across the grass lands and then the mountains towards Cody.
Cody, Wyoming is a tourist town 60 miles east of Yellowstone Park. Its claim to fame is the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum. What a place. Old Buffalo Bill could teach Hollywood how to promote. His showmanship is excellent. A gun aficionado would have his eyes glaze over trying to look at the thousands of firearms there. It would be fun, however, to take one of the gattling guns and go squirrel hunting. We camped next to three bus loads of high school students. I’m glad we’re out of there.
We entered Yellowstone Park through the east gate. Anyone raised in the outdoors or in the lumber business could only be sick to the stomach upon driving the first 20 miles into the park. Miles and miles, thousands and thousands of acres of dead trees greeted us. Every tenth tree was alive; the rest appeared to be beetle kill. Later we entered burned areas where all but the grass was dead. Eventually, we entered burned areas where new trees were growing. By the time we reached Yellowstone Lake, the melancholy lifted. Finally, we began to see wildlife and beautiful country.
The main animals abounding are the buffalos (okay, bison to the purists). Some of the bulls are massive. And they can’t read. They walk right past the signs saying STAY BACK, DANGEROUS GEYSER AREA. What’s the matter with them? Are they the rebellious youth? Can’t they just learn to get along and follow the rules?
There are plenty of coyotes. They are the same size as ours, but they have short, gray tan curly hair. It kind of reminds me of what it would look like if the coyote stuck his nose in a wall socket.
Elk were around also. But every where we looked, no bears. We looked for lines of cars with stupid people trying to feed them without loosing fingers. NO BEARS! We looked at the dump. We looked in town and out. NO BEARS! There were signs that said “Don’t let your dog run free. The bears will chase your dog back to you and then look out.” Something must be wrong with our dog Shelly. She couldn’t get a single bear to follow her home. NO BEARS! I think they moved them to the high sierras. I’ve seen them there, but not in Yellowstone.
One of the difficulties with RV travel is you can’t take all your friends. We are looking at a new vehicle like you see. If we can just hook our fifth wheel trailer on, we can take most of our friends along.
The New Tow Vehicle
Tomorrow, we are off to the ghost mining town of Montana. Ennis, Virginia City (I know. Nevada has one too.), and Bannack. Bannack is the town the vigilantes hung the sheriff and some of his deputies. This is where the phrase came from. “Law Enforcement can be dangerous to you health.”
This part is from Merna. We sure had a lot of fun at the RV Rally in Gillette, WY. We met a lot of wonderful people. Some of which we might keep in touch with. Our neighbors were from Calgary Alberta. What a great couple.
We have seen some beautiful country along the way. Warren talked about the dead trees in eastern Yellowstone. There was a lot of beauty to. We saw snow along side the road and a lot of beautiful waterfalls.
We are looking forward to seeing Montana and its beauty.
