Still Frozen After all These Years

Prior to our trip, we had looked at average and record temperatures for all of our stops in order to understand what to pack and expect on our trip. We knew that Yellowstone would be the coldest of our stops by about 10-15 degrees and we were fine with that...right up until we realized that the forecast was for snow, rain, and highs in the 40’s, then we opted to find a hotel room in West Yellowstone, at the Grey Wolf Inn.



The Park is enormous – over 2.2 million acres (about 25 times the area of Denver), surrounded by snow-covered peaks, and filled with wildlife and geologic oddities.

We worked our way in from the West entrance, stopping incessantly for photo and wildlife opportunities. Sometimes, they come to you as evidenced as this through the window shot...yes, he really is about 3 feet from the car.

A pair of loop roads create a “figure-eight” in the middle of the park. It is about a 15 mile drive to reach the loop road from the west entrance, and from there we worked our way south to the geyser basins, and then, of course, to Old Faithful.

There are four “villages” within the park, each with lodging, fuel, stores, restaurants, museums, and information centers. Old Faithful Inn is one of the oldest lodges in the park, reflecting what has become known as the park service style of architecture. After the scheduled performance, we stopped for lunch, then headed over Craig Pass, traversing the continental divide twice, to Yellowstone Lake – still frozen in mid-May.

We have been lucky(?) enough to share the hotel with a bus load of Germans, and I am not sure whether it is because it is the early season and crowds are non-existent, but the number of foreign languages we hear spoken is remarkable. We’ve also met folks from Texas and other parts of the country.