Yellowstone - Day 3

Today, as the guide said was "all about the powder". We rode our sleds to 2 different Mountains. I found a map that shows where we went today click here to see it. We started in the town of West Yellowstone, and rode to Two Top Mountain. From it's summit you can see 7 different mountain ranges. Our guide said that they were all probably connected at one point, but the last time the Yellowstone volcano erupted, the middle of the range was blown sky high resulting in multiple ranges.
This is the view as seen from Two Tops:

Here are some more pictures of the view... I'm sorry that I forgot to ask which mountain range was which, But I think this was the Bitterroot range:

The guide told us that we were standing on 20 feet of snow on Mt. Two Top. I was amazed, but I got a bigger surprise when he told me that that's about half of the ammount that falls there on an average year. This picture shows the branches that are 20 feet up during the summer:


Normally, the guide said that these trees only stick 3 to 4 feet out of the snow!

After Two Top, we ate lunch and headed for Lion Head Mountain. Along the way, we stopped and "played" in the snow. The snow in the meadows is 3 to 5 feet deep, and if you find some unspoiled powder, you can have a lot of fun. If you drive the machine into the wrong place, or stop in the wrong place, you get stuck, and have to be helped out of your predicament. The saying is "if you don't get stuck in the snow, your not doing it right". well, I guess I am doing it right. I was very adventurous and got stuck 5 or 6 times. Everyone else got stuck too - some more, some less. The guide was incredible - riding his sled right across the same area I was waist deep in and helping get us unstuck.

wading through the waist deep (or deeper) snow is incredibly tiring, then pushing or pulling a stuck sled out of it's predicament was really a lot of work (and my chest feels like a mule kicked me from my little spill yesterday). So, we are a very tired bunch indeed.

We did about 120 miles today, so our total for the three days is about 360 miles. No wonder I'm so tired and sore...

Tomorrow morning we head home. Fly out of Bozeman at 10:00 or so on a turboprop, connect in Denver for the flight home to ATL. I'll be sleeping for most of that!

Maybe a bit tomorrow about the flight if there is anything interesting to say...

satay safe and BE CAREFUL!
ME

Day 2 at Yellowstone

First of all, let me apologize for not posting anything on day 1. After snowmobiling all day, I had a huge headache and was ready to drop from exhaustion. So let me cover both days now:

Day 1 was dedicated to snowmobiling in the park. Since most of our group was experienced, the guide pushed us hard. We covered 130 miles, and saw all the big attractions. The scenery was breathtaking (as expected), and the wildlife was out and about. We saw a Buffalo Bull up close:

We also saw wolves (a rarity according to our guide) Coyotes, and Elk. We also saw scenery like this mostly frozen waterfall:
I never stopped to think about it, but the thermal activity in yellowstone keeps most of the streams from freezing. The lake freezes, and there is some freezing on things like this waterfall, but for the most part, the flowing water stays just warm enough to not freeze.

We saw old faithful, but it was not ready to erupt for over an hour, so we went to an area that had many geyeser and other features. Here is one geyser;
All in all it was a great experience. I am so lucky to get this opportunity.

Day 2 was more about the snowmobiling than the sight seeing. We took a ride to another park called Mesa Falls park. The ride was long (110 miles round trip) but we had several stops along the way to "play" on the sleds.

First, though, I want to say that Mesa Falls was possibly the most beautiful place we have seen so far. These pictures cannot possibly do it justice, but I want everyone reading this to get this point... If you EVER come out to Yellowstone park, make the side trip to Mesa Falls. It is well worth it. My camera is just a snapshot camera, so no real "artsy" pics but lets see if this conveys some of the beauty:

This is the canyon wall opposite the falls - the spray freezes on everything. these trees are called "snow Angels" by the locals:

Anyway, we saw some of the area around Yellowstone as we went. It was as beautiful as the park!

Finally, on the way home, we got to "play" in a meadow. I was really pushing the sled. I had a ball. In the meadow, there was a hole, like a "bowl" about 10 feet across and I would go in, and gun it and jump the sled out. I was having a ball! Then I got at one end of the meadow, and gunned it... I don't know how fast I was going, but I was flying. One thing about a snowmobile is that it doesn't steer near as well as a motorcycle. Turning the handlebars is more like a suggestion than a command. Anyway, I was flying up the meadow, and went over a small hump and HOLY CRAP!!! there was the bowl in front of me. I steered right, but my left ski caught the lip, and I hit that sucker HARD. I got the handlebar junction right in the solar plexus (luckily it had a foam cover). I got thrown from the machine and rolled about 40 feet across the snow. I laid there gasping for air and taking inventory... nothing broken - good. I slowly got up and gimped my way to my sled. that's when I heard a commotion. I looked up and saw the rest of my group giving me a standing ovation! Ha(wheeze)Ha - you guys(wheeze) are sooooo (wheeze) funny. I'm OK. Well except for the feeling that Chuck Norris kicked me in the chest. Coughing and hiccuping hurt like crap. But I'm OK enough that I'll ride again tomorrow. Just a little more carefully.

That's it for now. hope you guys enjoy the update.

Stay safe and BE CAREFUL

ME