Mountain Sky

Day 5

I don't even know where to begin. What a day! We stayed at the Finlan Hotel last night.

 This historic hotel was built in 1924 and was designed by the architects to be similar to the Astor Hotel in New York. Some of the famous guests who stayed at the Finlan were Theodore Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, and Marcus Daly. It is a lovely hotel and is located in the newly refurbished area in Butte.

We rode from Butte to Yellowstone National Park. What an amazing ride.sat down under the trees. There are hundreds of tourists, dogs, bikes, and vehicles, but neither of the elk paid any attention to the chaos. There were signs warning tourists from engaging with the elk, reminding them that they are wild and will attack. From here we took a long, scenic ride to Roosevelt Lodge. There were few cars or bikes on the rode and the scenery was spectacular.  After a wonderful lunch at the lodge, we continued on our journey around the park. By the way, Doris took 450 pictures of the buffalo, which was weird because guess what she had for lunch? Yea, a bison burger! And she loved every bite!

Dee & John at an overlook

Last time George and I went to Sturgis we rode into Yellowstone, but did not see much of the park. Today we entered the park via the Northwest entrance. We stopped at the main administration area of the park where the employees live, there is a judicial system, a post office, and a Visitor Center. We parked adjacent to a large grassy area in the city center and watched two elk walking around grazing.

Yellowstone Park was named after the Yellowstone River. It was the first national park in the world, established by Congress in 1872, and approved by President Grant. The park is 3,468 square miles and is located primarily in Wyoming. You could spent weeks exploring the various terrains, the hot springs, trails, and wild life. We encountered herds of buffalo grazing near the road. One of the buffalo had walked to the road and was in front of a car going the other direction. Of course this caused a lot of commotion as all traffic had to stop to allow him/her to cross. Seeing a buffalo up close is indescribable. Traffic was backed up for miles as we rode towards our next destination. Fortunately we were going the other direction.  As we were waiting to move, a ranger informed us of the severe storm warnings. We have been very lucky so far and this storm headed another direction.

We rolled into Cody around 6:00 without reservations. We found what appeared to be the last two rooms in town at the Western Six Gun Motel. No closet, no hair dryer, and a shower smaller than George. But it had a bed and it was out of the rain. We walked up to Bubba's B-B-Q for dinner.

George & Dee outside our rooms in Cody, Wy

Yep, the Western 6 Gun Motel

 Before we entered the park we passed a ranch named Mountain Sky. I loved the name because it said everything about the area. The sky was filled with mountains. Beautiful. I cannot say enough about our day in Yellowstone. We were really treated to one of the wonders of the world today.

Tomorrow Gillette, Wyoming

Good night Cody
Jenson