TRIP TO YELLOWSTONE

We took a trip to Yellowstone National Park with Dick and Sheri, our friends from Rock Springs, Wyoming.  We worked with them last summer at the Jenny Lake Store.  They have lived in this area all their lives and have explored this area both in the summer and on snowmobiles in the winter.  

We stopped in West Yellowstone, Montana for breakfast.  Yellowstone National Park is best known for "Old Faithful" and bears.  This statue is "life size".  Can you tell if it is a grizzly or black bear?  Correct, it is a grizzly bear--notice the hump behind the shoulder.

We toured the old Union Pacific train station which is now a museum.  Here is a snow plow from the late 1920's.

This photo includes one of the old stage coaches used to take passengers from the train station into Yellowstone National Park; about a 15 mile journey, which took a full day by stage coach.  Next to the stage coach is a snow mobile from the 1940's that used a propeller in the back for power.  This design is very similar to the design of air boats on the south Florida swamps.  The snow machine on the right is a Snow Cats from 1964.  Notice the different types of "skis" on the two snow machines.

Dick keeps inviting us out to Wyoming in the winter to go snowmobiling.  Yellowstone National Park may be beautiful in the winter, but I don't think I could handle the sometimes 30 and 40 degrees BELOW zero temperatures.  According to Dick and Sheri, modern snow machines have heaters and, with contemporary winter outdoor clothing, you stay warm, even in these sub-zero temperatures.
 
The town of West Yellowstone had a painting contest where local artists were each asked to paint a statue of a bison.  We saw several around town but this was our favorite bison statue.  It was painted by Anthony Floyd who named this bison--"Yellowstone Heritage".

This photo gives a few of the other side of the bison as well as a better perspective as to the size of a bison.

The inscription on the plaque below the statue states, "I chose to paint bears, buffalo, mountain men, Indians and beautiful blue skies as my theme of 'The Majestic Yellowstone' area." Here are Dick and Sheri with "Yellowstone Heritage".

When we evaluate a summer destination where we might want to work, West Yellowstone would not be at the top our list.  The town is about four square blocks, with little in the way of grocery and other stores we would need to survive.  Nice to visit, but we would not want to live there.

We completed our day with a visit to the new visitors' center at Old Faithful.  The Park Service did a very comprehensive job in having interactive areas for smaller children, older children, and adults.  The signage was also in multiple languages--a tribute to the many visitors from all across the globe who come to visit both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks each year.