Due to the heavy cloud cover, it was like driving through a bowl of soup. We slowed to under 10 mph because we had no way of knowing what was in front of us. Luckily, we made it through unscathed.
We did come upon one interesting mountain. This severe point on the East Side of Yellowstone National Park is called Pilot Peak.
Once again Mark found a great stop for lunch. The water wasn't running quite as actively as our last stop but the sound of the running water and the view made for one great place to enjoy lunch.
Mark routed our trip from Cody to Bozeman through Yellowstone National Park. With my senior pass, the entrance fee is free, so why not. You can't miss seeing a bison as we saw herd after herd as we traveled through Lamar Valley. It is estimated that more than 4,600 bison live in Yellowstone.
What was new was that it is early June and they are shedding their winter coat - boy do these guys shed! Keep in mind that the adult Bison can reach 2,000 pounds!
What really fascinated us was that we did not see any Elk in the wide open spaces of Lamar Valley where most of the wildlife hang out. But, when we got to the Mammoth area close to the North Gate, with lots of people around, there were Elk all over the place!
And, from this photo of Mark you can see that humans don't seem to bother them in the least!
We exited the park out the famous Roosevelt Arch that dates back to 1903! President Theodore Roosevelt traveled in the park during its construction and even placed the arch's cornerstone.
But, without a doubt, Mark's favorite sighting is Bear. Here is one big grizzly bear. You can tell its a grizzly from the hump between their shoulders, long snout and short fuzzy ears.
While in Bozeman we played Cottonwood Hills with the mountains around us.
Mark took advantage of the Mountain ranges and had a great hike on Bridger Mountain. The trail head is at 5400 feet with the peak at 9000. Mark got within 1/10th of mile to saddle peak. He knew there were bear in the area when he saw bear claw marks in the trees.
We spent a day at the Museum of the Rockies
We enjoyed the shows: Dynamic Earth, Big Sky and Chasing Ghost Particles at the Taylor Planetarium.
In between the shows we explored different parts of the Museum. We really enjoyed the live animal exhibit "Geckos-tails to toepads." We enjoyed going to each display to find the different types of Geckos and how well they blend into their environment.
They also have one of the largest dinosaur collections. The paleontology program is led by the scientific advisor on all of the Jurassic Park movies. We had already seen lots of Dinosaurs in our past stops, but this skull gives you a good idea of their incredible size.
How about the size of this triceratops!!
Part of the museum was the living history farm. It is an historically accurate working Montana homestead. The volunteers had actually made a blueberry cobbler on this stove using ingredients from their Heirloom Gardens. The Tinsley farm was built in 1889 and is now a permanent part of the museum. William Tinsley was a Missourian who traveled to Montana to stake his own homestead claim. He and his family with 8 children lived on this farm until 1920.
That's it for our stop in Bozeman. Now, we are on to our next stop: Great Falls, Montana.
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