Montana in Early May

[tarheelmjfan]

Jackson Hole WY just got 6 inches of snow, with more forecast for this weekend. If you drive to see the Tetons, you might need snow tires or chains.

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Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. We've been going nonstop & haven't had any computer time. The rental car they gave us is a hybrid, Jeep Wrangler. We should be good, but we won't take any chances. I do appreciate the warning.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

As I said above, I haven't really had any free time for the DIS, since we arrived in Montana. When I do, I'll post a mini trip report & try to figure out how to share a few of the many pictures we've taken.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

It's currently snowing in Bozeman, Mt. We're expecting more of the same in Livingston tomorrow. These South Floridians think it's beautiful, even though we're freezing. Next stop is Gardiner tomorrow night. I'll post more, when I'm able to use my computer.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

For those who live in the area or are very familiar with it, we crossed what was referred to as "The Pass" between Bozeman & Livingston today. We were told it closed at 10:30 last night, due to inclement weather (aka snow). We had to wait for it to open this afternoon to continue our travels. It was a frightening, white knuckle drive through snow covered roads, but I did get some good pictures. I'll try to post a few soon.

We're currently in Gardiner. It was a good suggestion for a couple nights. We chose accommodations that are similar to a home away from home, because we rarely have that option. Our "room" would make a great one bedroom apartment. There are so many cute hotels that I don't think there would have been a bad choice.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

We're back home, so I finally have some computer time.

You all were right. Yellowstone was amazing! We spent three days there & could have used a couple more. If everything was open & I was physically capable of seeing most of it, we'd need at least a week. Rather than staying in the park, we split our nights between Gardiner & West Yellowstone. Gardiner was full of Elk. One night, after dinner, we saw one cross the street perfectly centered in a crosswalk. Obviously, they're very well trained. Gardiner & West Yellowstone were very different experiences. We're glad we decided to split our time in that area between them.

Bozeman was a great, walking town. It's in the top 5 of favorite towns/small cities we've visited. We'd highly recommend it for the dining scene alone.

Our other stops were Butte, Virginia City, Nevada City (wasn't open), Livingston(didn't see much of) & Bannack State Park.

I won't bore you with a full trip report, but I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone may have. I know I still owe you some pictures. Hopefully, I'll be able to figure out how to post some now that I have more time.

ETA: I forgot to mention that we also spent a little time in Grand Teton NP.

 

[wabbott]

We're back home, so I finally have some computer time.

You all were right. Yellowstone was amazing! We spent three days there & could have used a couple more. If everything was open & I was physically capable of seeing most of it, we'd need at least a week. Rather than staying in the park, we split our nights between Gardiner & West Yellowstone. Gardiner was full of Elk. One night, after dinner, we saw one cross the street perfectly centered in a crosswalk. Obviously, they're very well trained. Gardiner & West Yellowstone were very different experiences. We're glad we decided to split our time in that area between them.

Bozeman was a great, walking town. It's in the top 5 of favorite towns/small cities we've visited. We'd highly recommend it for the dining scene alone.

Our other stops were Butte, Virginia City, Nevada City (wasn't open), Livingston(didn't see much of) & Bannack State Park.

I won't bore you with a full trip report, but I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone may have. I know I still owe you some pictures. Hopefully, I'll be able to figure out how to post some now that I have more time.

One thing that's great about a first visit to an area is knowing what to look for and where to stay when you go back the second time!

 

[TiggerTrigger]

We're back home, so I finally have some computer time.

You all were right. Yellowstone was amazing! We spent three days there & could have used a couple more. If everything was open & I was physically capable of seeing most of it, we'd need at least a week. Rather than staying in the park, we split our nights between Gardiner & West Yellowstone. Gardiner was full of Elk. One night, after dinner, we saw one cross the street perfectly centered in a crosswalk. Obviously, they're very well trained. Gardiner & West Yellowstone were very different experiences. We're glad we decided to split our time in that area between them.

Bozeman was a great, walking town. It's in the top 5 of favorite towns/small cities we've visited. We'd highly recommend it for the dining scene alone.

Our other stops were Butte, Virginia City, Nevada City (wasn't open), Livingston(didn't see much of) & Bannack State Park.

I won't bore you with a full trip report, but I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone may have. I know I still owe you some pictures. Hopefully, I'll be able to figure out how to post some now that I have more time.

So happy to hear it was a great trip! Also happy you got to see some wildlife. That's probably part of the herd that frequents the Mammoth area of the park in the summer months. Not that I'd want to challenge one or get too close, but they are quite accustomed to humans being in the vicinity.

You're also so right on Gardiner and West Yellowstone being very different places. We stayed in West Yellowstone during out last visit. I didn't love it, but it's got more of a "civilization" feel to it in my opinion.

If you need help posting pictures, let me know. Most of my experience has been either posting via my phone camera roll or using BB codes from my Flickr account. And no rush! Relax back into being home.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

One thing that's great about a first visit to an area is knowing what to look for and where to stay when you go back the second time!

Exactly! Case in point, we toured the open hotels in Yellowstone & ate at Old Faithful Inn. We enjoyed them all for different reasons, but DH especially liked the vibe at Old Faithful Lodge. We probably wouldn't choose the cabins, but he said he'd like to stay at a hotel within walking distance to be able to walk over there for breakfast, if we ever return.

So happy to hear it was a great trip! Also happy you got to see some wildlife. That's probably part of the herd that frequents the Mammoth area of the park in the summer months. Not that I'd want to challenge one or get too close, but they are quite accustomed to humans being in the vicinity.

You're also so right on Gardiner and West Yellowstone being very different places. We stayed in West Yellowstone during out last visit. I didn't love it, but it's got more of a "civilization" feel to it in my opinion.

If you need help posting pictures, let me know. Most of my experience has been either posting via my phone camera roll or using BB codes from my Flickr account. And no rush! Relax back into being home.

Surprisingly, we only saw 3 elks in Yellowstone. We were so glad we started in Gardiner, where they were literally everywhere. Another funny story, in Yellowstone an employee was very rude to us & others demanding we go back to where we came from (his exact words), because an elk was near a restaurant in Mammoth that we were trying to get to for lunch. For us, that was our car. We found that quite humorous, because we had been surrounded by them for two days in Gardiner. (There was a group of them in the parking lot at a restaurant we ate at. We could have literally reached out & touched them, if we had been dumb enough to.) All we needed to do in Mammoth was walk behind the building to get to where we needed to go, but he didn't even suggest that. Maybe we have a warped sense of humor, but we found it funny that he was being so forceful considering our experience in Gardiner.

I think there were more bison in the park than humans. We also saw 3 bears, deer, magpies, along with other birds, chipmunks & a coyote.

West Yellowstone was more of a tourist trap than Gardiner, but they both have their place. We enjoyed our accommodations more in Gardiner & appreciated the fact that they had a great, one-stop-shop gift shop. (I'm not much of a shopper.) The BBQ food truck there was beyond our expectations. WY had better restaurants, in our opinion. The town was easily walkable from our hotel. The plentiful gift shops were wasted on us, but my sisters would have been in gift shop heaven. Overall, we felt splitting time between the two worked better for proximity to different areas of the park. We didn't do much of anything in either town, but sleep & eat.

Our pictures are all on our Android phone. I'd prefer to send them directly to this site from there. Tips on how to do that would be very much appreciated.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

I editing my post above to add that we also spent a little time in Grand Teton NP. On our second day, we found ourselves in an area of Yellowstone that was closed & saw a sign to Grand Teton & decided to check it out. Unfortunately, it was getting late, so we only drove about 10 miles. At least, we got some great pictures & can say we saw it.