After leaving the scenic beauty of the Grand Tetons and all that is potato in Idaho, our sights were set on Montana. Yellowstone-bound 🙂
But this nomadic life is not all perfume and roses, ya know. Some of our less than perfect experiences this weekend included more fishing without catching; finding the best boondocking spots already taken (resulting in a lot of maneuvering, swearing and cursing); having a thunderstorm appear from nowhere just as I’m ejected from the truck to help park (deja vu!); driving with the Basecamp along a horrific washboard dirt road trying to avoid ruts the size of France, all to reach let’s call it a sub-optimal hike with narrow paths, steep drop offs and river crossings. My favorite! Still, even a ‘bad’ weekend on the road beats a monotonous groundhog weekend.
Beaver Creek (with no beavers)
You might not realize this but we actually spend a good deal of our time working. So finding a great spot to work is an awesome thing. Being this close to Yellowstone brought with it a sparsity of co-working offices. As in none. As an alternative, we started our week with a few days at a (WiFi-d up) Airbnb near Big Sky, Montana. The slight problem was that the views out of the windows were so awesome, I spent every spare moment staring with longing at the outdoors, tongue lolling and chomping at the bit to get out into the mountains. In the meantime, I made do with an early morning run and some wistful distracted looks during meetings.
We were also lucky enough at Big Sky to be right on the Gatlin river. When low cloud put paid to our early morning walk into the mountains, we see-sawed our fun and games to the other end of the day. Sundowner cocktails by the river? Don’t mind if we do.
Half way through the week, we moved on to another equally awesome Airbnb (views within a hair’s breadth of the Big Sky place and comparatively palatial), not too far off the north entrance to Yellowstone. Our main distractions at this place were the herds of deer regularly pronking past the window and the rough-legged hawk that had nested atop a nearby perch, constantly vigilant, occasionally swooping down to the field below, eyes on the prize. The single chick back in the nest vocally awaited its mother’s return, demanding bite size rodent snackettes.
The chick is perched on the nest on the right. “Feed Me!”
Speaking of rodents… so there we were in the back garden, having just finished up a very tasty barbecue. Sunset a recent memory, darkness was setting in: time to build a fire.
Just as Darren was busy building his masterpiece, there was a high pitched squeal followed immediately by a surprised yelp from Darren as he leapt two clear feet in the air. I rushed over, concerned he’d burned himself. But no. Seems like he stood on a mouse. Or maybe a mouse’s nest with a mouse in it. Either way, it was a little bit squishy, evasive and squeaky.
With no evidence of further movement, we calmed down and huddled around the fire. After I’d gone to bed, leaving Darren to douse the embers, he saw a mouse scamper past. He was convinced it gave him ‘the look’.
It was in full daylight the next day that a higher truth was revealed.
🙂
With the national park practically on our doorstep, we ventured to the Mammoth hot springs area one morning at sunrise. The morning light was perfect as we walked past atmospheric plumes of steam, gazing at the cascading petrified waterfalls. We almost had the place to ourselves, a very refreshing change from our previous visit two years ago.
Just missing the HP sauce.
Other highlights from our brief time in Yellowstone included walking through the Lamar valley in search of wolves (none to be found) and prehistoric cows, otherwise known as bison.
You can’t go to Yellowstone without being in awe of the bison. So loud with their grunting and snorting, so entertaining to watch with their mock fights and mud baths. And just so damn many of them. Around 5,000 to be exact.
No bison stories this time, other than trying to shoo one along the path we were hiking, trying to keep a respectful distance but impatient to look for other wildlife. (For a reminder of our bison encounters last time, check out Yellowstone: The Bison Face-Off).
And the grandeur of the park doesn’t immediately stop when you leave the park gates. We snagged an awesome boondocking spot on nearby National Forest land along the Beartooth Highway. Not only that but a full 8 weeks into our trip, Darren finally caught his first fish!
