Elk Picnic???

The company I work for decided that in order to improve their bottom line for the quarter, all employees had to take 6 days of vacation between Jan 1 and mid-April. Not that I don't enjoy vacation but I only get 17 days a year so kind of like to take it when I want to. But insteady, I had "forced vacation" this week. JW isn't working so had to think about him when trying to plan what to do this week. He didn't want to go south to visit family - he has this attitude of "if they won't come and see us, I'm not going down there". Course, money is a little tighter this year so couldn't plan a big trip - or would have went south without him.

Springtime in MT is not exactly the time of year to be playing MT tourist. Too much snow to go to Glacier Park. Too many museums and other things are only open from Memorial day through Labor day. We've had over 2 feet of snow in the last 10 days. Beartooth Pass is still closed for another 6 weeks.

So Monday, I got this bright idea that we would drive to Gardiner (the Northern gateway to Yellowstone National Park) the next day and spend the night. Then Wednesday, we would drive into the park and do some snowshoeing. We knew most of the park is closed but they do keep the 53 mile stretch from Gardiner to Cooke City open year around.

We got to Gardiner about 3:30 Tuesday afternoon. JW had physical therapy in the morning and then we spent a little time in Livingston and the Backporch Quilt Shop. (was looking for some yellow and orange fabric to use for flames for the campfire in my Packin' In quilt.) We walked into the few open junk stores in Gardiner to see if we could find any little treasures.

We then checked in to our room and walked across the street for dinner. I ordered the tri-color pasta with portabella. I'm beginning to think that most little restaurant's don't actually know what a portabella mushroom is because the last 3 times I've ordered a dish with portabella - it has had only regular little mushroom slices in. The "tri-colored" pasta isn't exactly what I had pictured - it was ravioli - about 1 1/2" x 3" squares that were brightly striped white, red and green. Not really bad - just not something I would order again.

Wednesday morning, we got up, ate breakfast and headed into the park. When you go in through the north entrace, the first thing you get to is Mammoth Hot springs area. So we had to drive up past the terraces.

My favorite part of going into Yellowstone Park this time of year is that it is so peaceful - you can pretty much pull off the road anywhere you want without worrying about causing a big traffic jam.

We were surprised at how little snow there was in the park so we figured out very quickly we weren't going to be doing any snow-shoeing.

In the summer, most of the buffalo can be found in Lamar Valley towards Cooke City but this time of year, they go anywhere to find food. We saw at least 1000 of them in various little groups - since there was a little snow, they seemed to find it easier to walk down the pavement.

We got to Cooke City around 10 - I was thinking we could go into the "junk" store and look around but they shut it down for the winter. Good thing cause not too many places to pile snow except in front of buildings. Whoever owns the car below is going to have fun digging it out as it may be staying snowbound for a few more weeks.

We turned around at Cooke City - mainly because the road is closed just past the town so had to drive back the way we came.

When we got back to Mammoth area, we found that the elk who had been eating when we had entered the park were now settled down for their mid-day rest.

The weather was gorgeous and it was a great day to drive through the park. Especially enjoyable when we get up this morning to another snowy day. Oh well, what's Easter without snow.