Onward to Yellowstone

Greetings (again) from the road!  We have reached the halfway point of Spokane, and today we are turning the car back around and going east.  It's hard to believe that a week has already gone by and that by this time next week we will be back in Paducah. 

So much has happened since I last blogged. We saw the intricately carved faces of Mt. Rushmore, toured the Crazyhorse monument and Native American culture buildings, drove over the mysterious yet glorious Black Hills, cooked burgers over a campfire, camped through two nights of heavy thunderstorms, and journeyed onward to Yellowstone. 

The drive to Yellowstone took us through the state of Montana. Montana is known as the "big sky" state. I get it. I understand now. A good stretch of the day took us through Native American reservations and ranch land where there is absolutely nothing. It was beautiful but quickly became boring, and those of us in the back seat were beginning to get a bit antsy and slap happy. We were more than willing to stop in Billings, Montana for lunch to break up the drive. 

I've never been to the Rockies, so as were approached the mountains (that you can see for MILES) I was ridiculously excited. Since leaving Japan, Ian and I have both missed our mountains. Rolling through the mountains valleys and over wild rapid streams reminded me of our beloved Kuma Gun in Japan. The instant we arrived in Yellowstone we understand the beauty of the place. We've heard and read so much about the place, but you can't fully grasp its magnitude until you're there. As we entered through the North Entrance by the Roosevelt Arch whereTheodore Roosevelt dedicated Yellowstone as the first national park, I got goosebumps. 

We stayed in Madison campground, which was toward the western edge of the park, so we had a bit to drive before we reached our destination.  We saw elk and bison, neither of which I had seen before. We drove in parallel to a mountain river, through a gloriously green valley, wrapped around a mountain, through evergreen forests, over steaming hot springs, and finally reached our destination with about an hour of daylight to spare. We set up camp and started a campfire (for warmth...Yellowstone was COLD!) before calling it a night.