Driving north out of Yellowstone on 191 towards Helena was the most beautiful drive of the trip. We descended out of the high plateau in Yellowstone through a forested valley along the Gallatin River. Filming of movies occurs in this area including “A River Runs Through It.” The road was narrow and windy, and fortunately had plenty of turnouts so I could let all the cars that backed up behind me pass. The area was beautiful and I was in no hurry, and I also was very cautious making sure the RV would not become a boat in the Gallatin River.
A few miles north of Bozeman I cross the headwaters of the Missouri River. Can you name the longest river in North America? If you guessed “The Missouri River” you are correct, winner winner, chicken dinner for you! The Missouri River is the longest river in North America. Rising in the Rocky Mountains of western Montana, the Missouri flows east and south for 2,341 miles before entering the Mississippi River north of St Louis Missouri. The river drains more than 500,000 square miles, which includes parts of ten U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. Thanks Cliffy! I will cross the Missouri again on my way home.
I was glad to leave Yellowstone National Park after almost two weeks. Yellowstone is an incredible place, like no other place else on earth. But Yellowstone is completely overcrowded with people. The National Park Service has lost control of the park. Traffic jams back up for hours and miles when tourists stop on the road to look at a couple of buffaloes. There are signs on the road clearly stating not to stop on the road to view wildlife, but people don’t pay attention to the signs. The points of interests are all overwhelmed by throngs of tourists. Parking lots quickly fill up, so people park all over the place again ignoring signs. While at the viewpoints on the boardwalk, hordes of people bully their way through the crowds to take photos and selfies. The boardwalks are necessary because the ground is very thin in places and a person could break through the narrow crust and fall into a hot spring with temperatures over 180 degrees. Every year it happens. I saw several people walking off the boardwalks.
While at Mammoth Hot Springs, I was overrun by extremely rude tourists who wanted to stand where I was so they could take selfies. I thought I heard the park ranger say “Knock them off” since I was not wearing my hearing aids. So I started knocking them off the boardwalk, over the railing, and towards the hot springs. Turns out the park ranger was saying “Knock it off.” Oppsie. Just kidding of course.
Years of budget cuts, underfunding, lack of maintenance, upkeep, and lack of capital improvements are catching up with the National Parks. It’s really a shame that the country can’t take care of its national parks. I felt sorry for the park rangers. They did the best they could with their small staff trying to control the roadways and points of interests, but there are not enough park rangers. I don’t know what the answer is. In some parks, such a Zion National Park, traffic control limits cars and buses are used instead. But Yellowstone Park is huge, you can drive for hours in that park. Maybe they could use traffic control and crowd control in parts of the park. I know from talking to locals there that the park service knows they have a problem. At this point, I could not recommend going to Yellowstone National Park to anyone and that is sad. Several days I didn’t even try to drive into the park and just hung out in West Yellowstone instead.
I rented the smallest car I could, knowing that parking spots would be scarce. The name of the little car was “Sonic” which was a perfect name since I felt like I was driving down the road in a little hamburger after driving the tour bus for the last six weeks.
The night after I got to Yellowstone, three inches of snow fell. I came to this area for the cool weather, but not this cool. West Yellowstone is one of the coldest spots in the country, often the first part of the country to get snow in the early fall, and the last part of the country to get snow in the early summer.
I did see a lot of wildlife, including hundreds of buffaloes, a mama bears and her cubs, and a moose. One of the more interesting things about traveling to other parts of the country is to see different birds than you normally see. While I don’t know what the names of the birds were, they were beautiful to look at with the different colors and shapes.
The highlight of the Yellowstone part was meeting up with an former E-Systems colleague of mine, Dennis McClin. We just happened to both be in Yellowstone at the same time. I met his beautiful family and we hung out at Old Faithful Lodge for a few hours and got to see Old Faithful erupt.
Tonight I am in Helena Montana, about halfway between Yellowstone and Glacier National Park. Tomorrow I will drive up to Glacier and spend the rest of June there. I wanted to get a post out tonight since I don’t know what kind of cell/internet service I will have there. The eastern part of the park I am staying in very remote. Glacier National Park, known as “The Crown Jewel of the Continent”, is perhaps the most beautiful place in America. The best is yet to come!
Sad to hear about the crowds…I was in Yosemite last October and I was shocked at the number of visitors.
Funny story about knocking the fools off!
And I just don’t understand how everywhere can be getting more crowded…is there anywhere that’s not getting crowded? Just wondering……
I’ve heard of the crowds overrunning the National Parks, but it was a shock to see it in person. This is a problem not just in America, but also in other parts of the world. There is no easy answer, the world is just getting more crowded. Eventually some sort of crowd and traffic control will have to be implemented. To keep going the way it is now is simply not sustainable.
Fuuny it shows me as an anonymous person up above! It should show judy gallaher! Now I am anonymous…sad🤔🤨😊
Yea, I don’t understand why it shows up that way sometimes. Lots of little quirks on this blog site.
It’s like Times Square. Stay there long enough and you will see everyone know. We were there circa 1978 and ran into a family that we knew from our town in Massachusetts. In the restaurant at the Old Faithful Inn. Neither family knew that the other was going to Yellowstone.
BTW, we didn’t see ANY bears. At that time they had been banished to a remote part of the park, presumably to protect the tourists. We did see a lot of bison.
I didn’t even go into the impact all the people have on the wildlife there. That is a whole other discussion.