Day 15 – East Glacier, Montana to Canyon Campground in Yellowstone, WY

Day 15 – East Glacier, Montana to Canyon Campground in Yellowstone, WY

August 11, 2013

The drive from East Glacier Park to northern Yellowstone Park is a bit of a crazy drive to attempt with two three year olds in an RV in one day, but we wanted to get back to Yellowstone to see the northern half and we had reserved a spot in Canyon for three nights. So, we decided to go for it.

Ricardo started his day very early at 6 am, driving in our rental car from East Glacier to the airport near Kalispell, MT to return our car and pick back up our RV. Glacier does not allow trucks and RVs over a certain length onto the park roads, so we’ve had a rental SUV for the past three days. It is about four hours round trip. The rest of us got us leisurely, said good-bye to the large stuffed bear in the teepee inside the lodge,

ate at the breakfast buffet at the Glacier Park Lodge, dipped our toes in the swimming pool outside, and visited the gift shop. The boys are enamored with the red jammer buses in Glacier Park, so we purchased a small toy version.

When Ricardo returned, we packed up the RV and were on our way again at around 11:45 am. Not early, but with enough time to complete the eight hour drive.

In hindsight, it probably would have been better to find a camping spot before Yellowstone, in Gallatin Canyon, for example, but we drove on. Luckily, it is a lovely drive. The first half is through completely open, ranch lands first on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, then in central Montana. We drove on Montanta highway 89 and then 287, stopping briefly in the friendly town of Choteau. Both of these smaller highways go south all the way to Yellowstone. The shortest route includes some time on Interstates 15 and 90.

We also stopped for gas in Manhattan, MT when I realized today was the first day I could book individual tickets for the Metropolitan Opera in NYC for our visit with my Mum in October. While Ricardo filled the RV with gas and my family sat patiently, I got Internet access via Ricardo’s iPhone hotspot and tried to secure four tickets. It was one of those somewhat silly attempts to connect with a different reality in the middle of a holiday and in the middle of nowhere.  Somehow I did manage to select seats, enter my credit card information and purchase tickets while we bounced around on the highway after our stop.

We decided to take a bit of a longer route through the Gallatin Canyon and enter Yellowstone via West Yellowstone. The Gallatin River and Canyon are worth the extra time. Route 191 is a scenic and beautiful route, used for the river scenes in the movie “A River Runs Through It”.

We saw many fly fishermen on the river and even glimpsed the light filled snap of a fly cast as we looked back and took photos from the RV.

We drove up the mountain to see the Big Sky skiing areas, which we had not been to before.

We entered Yellowstone late in the day, a bit before 8 pm and were surprised by the commercial section of West Yellowstone. Suddenly, after seeing mostly cattle and horses and only a smattering of small towns during our drive, we were surrounded with lots of pedestrians eating ice cream, loud t-shirt shops and fast food signs. We haven’t seen a McDonalds or KFC sign for most of our trip. My inclination was to go through as quickly as possible and seek the quiet of Yellowstone.

It was another hour from the west entrance of Yellowstone past the Madison and Norris campsites to Canyon. Entering the park when the rest of sane campers are either eating or relaxing near their campfires has its benefits. We had empty roads and beautiful views of the sunset framed with mountains or river valleys. We also spotted many elk groups wandering in the stream valleys.  We enjoyed some local Windy River, WY sausages in Choteau, MT market buns for a very late but happy-to-get-here meal.