Greg Shields: Road Trip Update

1 week into sabbatical and I'm finally writing something on my blog. Nadine and I have been busy exploring Yellowstone, waking up early and getting home late. So, there hasn't been a lot of time to write update my blog or do any editing on the, literally, thousands of photos.

Today, we're heading to Bozeman, MT where Nadine will be catching a flight back to PDX. So, this morning I figured I'd take a few minutes to update my blog and upload some photos. These are all straight out of camera JPEGs, editing takes time which I don't have much of right now. Funny how you don't have time when you are on vacation.

Day 1

There wasn't a lot of highlights on first day of driving. We went west along I-80 then headed north on U.S. 97 through Goldendale then into the Yakima Valley. I hadn't been on that stretch of road for years. We then hopped on I-90, eventually stopping in Coeur d'Alene, ID for a night.

The R with a clean bumper

Nadine giving directions to the hotel room

Day 2

From Coeur d'Alene we headed into Montana, staying on I-90. One of the highlights was stopping at a rest stop near Anaconda where you saw this giant column in the distance. Turns out it is a smoke stack from a copper smelter and is one of the tallest brick structures in the world. We were on a schedule, had 6.5 hours of driving, so we didn't head in to visit it.

Later, we stopped in at Earthquake Lake. In the 50's there was a 7.5 earthquake that caused a major landslide that buried 27 campers and a dam that was built in 1917.

Of course we had to get a selfy.

Here's a closer view of the slide.

And these 2 rocks surfed the slide to the other side of the canyon.

From Earthquake Lake, we headed into West Yellowstone and stayed at the Ho-Hum Motel. It is a bit dated, but the rooms were clean and the price was right. Just make sure to get a room that is upstairs or one of the single level rooms.

Day 3

We woke up early and headed into Yellowstone National Park. First side trip off of the main road was heading up Firehole Canyon Drive to see Firehole Falls.

Then onto the Upper Geyser Basin to see Old Faithful and the what seemed to be hundreds of geysers and hot springs in the area.

Lion Geyser decided to blow her top while we were there.

The colors of algae can be amazing.

And then of course we had to see Old Faithful. We went around to the back side away from the crowds. You can see the crowds in the background near the Old Faithful visitors center.

After Old Faithful, we back tracked a bit and drove down to the Angel Falls parking lot to hike up to the Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook. BTW, this place is crowded and you had to fight your way to the front to get a view.

Crowded, to say the least.

But a very nice view once you got up front.

Down below the viewpoint you can get right up to the edge of the springs, but you don't really see the colors. Still an interesting view.

Oh yeah, did you know there are Bison in Yellowstone? Just kidding, of course you knew that already. This guy was hanging out by the parking lot when we got back to the car.