Yellowstone Winter Adventure

As I've mentioned, life is busy at hell right now, so it was time to do some relaxing.

I did a post on a trip to Yellowstone two summers ago, and it was really great. Yellowstone National Park is one of the most naturally beautiful places in the country, and it's only a couple hours away for me.

Roosevelt Arch, at the entrance to Yellowstone National Park

My boyfriend has lived in Montana for a year and a half and still hasn't been, and this was something I felt like needed to be fixed immediately. You can't live this close to arguably one of the greatest places in the nation and just not visit!

Hot Springs at Mammoth

Because of how my school and work is working out right now, I get three day weekends, so it seemed like a good time to have a wintery adventure.

Hot Springs at Mammoth

Friday

We left on Friday after work and hit the road to get to our hotel two hours away.

We stopped on the way at a Mexican restaurant in Livingston. I thought it would be free of taxidermy so a safe choice for me, but it wasn't. They had some critters on the walls. Ben was super great about it and asked if we could be reseated to the back of the restaurant. I was going to suck it up, but it was probably a little more enjoyable from our new seat. We ordered girly drinks and enchiladas and called it good.

Bison on the road

The hotel we stayed at...I'm going to be frank, was very sketchy. I was only half kidding when I joked that we would open the door and there would be a dead hooker on the floor. Either way, it was fine. The room was $44 and conveniently located so there can't really be any complaints. They had hot coffee in the morning and clean sheets, so that's all I really needed.

Bison on the hill

Saturday

Om Saturday we got a leisurely start and drove to Gardiner, at the north entrance to the park. We had a quick early lunch at a restaurant called The Two-Bit Saloon. I went to buy a park pass at the visitor's center, and the woman at the desk recommended it. We got shrimp tacos and a bison burger and split them both. Delicious. Food in Gardiner is a little rough around the edges, but the food is hearty and more than edible.

Scavenging Coyote

After lunch, we drove into the park. During the winter, many of the roads through the park are closed, so it's difficult to get around on your own. I don't mean like “please don't drive here”, I mean closed. You cannot get around unless you ski/snowshoe/snowmobile or take this monstrous oversnow vehicle called the SnowCat. The single road that is open goes from Gardiner to Cooke City. It's a really nice drive that goes through some prime wilderness areas. We spent the whole rest of the afternoon just sightseeing and keeping a lookout for the different animals roaming around the park.

Elk on the Road

We made it to Cooke City, which is only accessible by the road we took for much of the year. Can you imagine being completely isolated for days or weeks at a time? It seems like a tough place to live. Then we drove back to Gardiner where we stayed for the night.

Bison on the hill

Dinner was at K-bar pizza, which had the usually cheese/pepperoni/veggie staples, but also some exciting other unusual flavors. We did a half and half that was buffalo on one side and hot chilies on the other.

Lopsided Elk

Sunday

Sunday we got up early to drive from Gardiner to Mammoth to meet our tour group for a day of snowmobiling to some of the more photogenic parts of the park. When we arrived at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, we found out that our tour was just the two of us and our tour guide Jake. They provide everything except for lunch for our day out, leaving at 7:15 and returning at 4:30. Snowmobile, boots, snowsuit, hand warmers, toe warmers, helmets. All of it. We packed our own lunch using things from Gardiner's only grocery store

Bison and the Sunset

Jake was a phenomenal tour guide and it was more like we were hanging out than anything else. Because it was just us, we could go farther and do more than if it had been a whole group. It was great. We returned to our hotel exhausted, just in time to watch the Superbowl halftime show before falling asleep. If you're headed to Yellowstone in the winter, I highly recommend a snowmobile tour. It's really worth it. There were also loads of bison on the trails we were riding, so we got really close to some of them. I never felt in danger, but it was pretty exhilarating.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

We dragged ourselves out of the hotel for dinner at Yellowstone Mine Restaurant. Nothing fancy again, but food is food. Ben had linguine and I had some chicken with asparagus.

Monday

Monday was our day to go home. We'd had a great weekend and it was time to head out. We went back into Mammoth for breakfast and to see the elk one more time. After that we made for home. We stopped in Livingston to wander around for an hour or so and check out the interesting little stores around there. Livingston is just a fun little town.