Clear, 58° F
Our troupe of six flatlanders completed its mission to spend a week wandering around and up-and-down your backyard. We were blessed with spectacular fall weather; the mornings and evenings were cool, …
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Our troupe of six flatlanders completed its mission to spend a week wandering around and up-and-down your backyard. We were blessed with spectacular fall weather; the mornings and evenings were cool, but not too cool, the afternoons sunny and warm, but not too warm.
Buckaroo Burb, the 1999 reclamation project my son and I undertook in the past year or so, acquitted itself well. Those old bones hauled us up mountains, down mountains and all around mountains — and no small expanse of desert — and did not put a foot wrong the entire 3,000-ish mile journey. The ability to accommodate six adults in remarkable comfort while toting everything needed for the excursion is an asset. The 40-gallon fuel tank, on the other, is something of a liability. Folks are mighty proud of gasoline out your way. The worst we got skinned was $4.89 per, but that was inside the park so no big surprise there. We did pay notably more in Powell and Cody than we are accustomed to here in Nebraska, but alas, tourons do what tourons must when we are ‘out there’ on the road.
The scenery was wonderful, glorious yellows in the deciduous trees, amazing blue skies and crystal-clear streams and rivers. The critter factor, however, was quite another matter.
Even bison seemed in lesser abundance that has been typical on dozens of previous trips over the years, and almost none of them were in Hayden Valley when we happened to motor through. The Lamar Valley was loaded with herds, which is kind of backwards compared to past visits.
The only — and I mean literally ‘only’ — elk we saw in three days scouring the upper and lower loops was the small city herd of cows with a single so-so bull lounging among the buildings at Mammoth. Even an average bull such as this one is desirable to photograph, unless he’s curled up in full rumination, eyes half open, next to a fence, flower garden and building surrounded by cars, pedestrians and a half-dozen rangers scurrying to shoo them away.
We were blessed with a couple black bears, but their grizzly brethren eluded us altogether.
Still and all, any day in Yellowstone is a fine day. Add in a gorgeous drive over the Beartooths (beat the big snow that closed the pass by mere hours), an overnight in Red Lodge with two very nice meals — thanks to Marli’s at the Pollard — with a wee bit of shopping and it only gets better.
The weather caught us and put the kibosh on a planned moose hunt (no, not with lethal implements silly) over the north Bighorns on the way home. Rain and fog had visibility near zero and getting worse by the yard as we climbed up from Lovell. By good fortune we got by with a completely blind U-turn in the soup on that narrow road … but not by much. No sooner did we get the Burb aimed back down the hill than we met two vehicles going up.
Dodged a real jackpot there by the skin of our teeth.
Otherwise, a good time was had by all. The vote was unanimous: “Let’s do this again first chance we get.”
(Contact the writer at: stevemoseley42@gmail.com)
