Summer of 2017

Summer of 2017

Looking back over the last couple of weeks our trip was a whirlwind of fun.

We drove 4,776 miles, took 3,295 pictures and had some great experiences.

Here are a few of my favorite memories:

• ·         MOUNTAIN LION
  
• ·         Bearjam
• ·         Seeing lots of Bison and Elk
  
• ·         Visiting Old Faithful and walking around the geyser basins
• ·         Driving the Chief Joseph Highway and going to the Top of the World  at Beartooth Pass, Elevation 10,947 feet.  Boy the air sure was thin here.  Snow still 6’ deep along the road.
  
  
  
  
• ·         Seeing an elk carcass picked clean in a campground that had huge warnings about Grizzly Bears.
  
• ·         The kindness of a hotel manager giving us a jump when our car wouldn’t start
• ·         Huckleberry everything including a martini  and cheesecake!
• ·         The view of the mountains over Yellowstone Lake
• ·         Wildflowers everywhere.  We identified 27 different kinds and have many pictures of those that we are still trying to figure out.
• ·         We saw lots of “Big” things.  Exp: Paul Bunyon & Babe Blue Ox, Big Sandy (the large Sandhill Crane), Salem Sue ( the large Holstein), Geese in Flight (along the Enchanted Hwy), CarHenge
  
• ·         Birds, birds, birds    We documented 33 species including Pelicans, Loons, Cormorants, Kingbirds.  We heard and then saw a Pheasant.
• ·         We had two pages of “special happenings”, too many to list them all but here are a few:
• o Canola fields, they looked and smelled beautiful and were covered with bees
  
• o    Cowboy boot fence
• o   The Buffalo Bill and Mormons mural in the rotunda at the Church of Latter Day Saints in Cody
• o   Top of the World Store along the Beartooth Hwy
• o   Bison in the Hayden and Lamar valleys of Yellowstone NP
• ·         Buffalo Bill Center of the West
  
• ·         Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center
• ·         Indian villages at Double Ditch, Knife River and New Town
  
• ·         Confluence of the Missouri & Yellowstone Rivers
• ·         Mammoth Site in Hot Springs SD
  
• ·         Forts, Mandan, Buford, Union and Ransom
  

I could go on and on, but if you kept up with our blog you were all along for our journey. We made so many special memories it will put a smile on my face for years to come.

Our destination included so much more than Dakota and contained so many special surprises. 

            All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware!

                                                                                                Martin Buber

I know that ours did and I hope that yours do too!