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| Joe and our ride...the Griz |
Thursday we set up a snow coach tour of West Yellowstone's geyser area. We really prefer to do our own thing, but it is the only way to get into the area in winter. Southwest Montana has been getting nailed with snow the last several days...especially West Yellowstone so we thought it might be a good time to book the tour. Our guide, Joe worked for
Yellowstone Alpen Guides. He was terrific...a great sense of humor and very informative with lots of trivia about Yellowstone.
Our coach was one of the first of its type used in Yellowstone by the NPS. The Bombardier was named Griz and had been built in 1956. According to Joe it is the quietest coach in the Park...at least from the outside..the inside was definitely a bit loud. Not as fancy or as comfortable as the newer ones, but by far more enjoyable. Our group consisted of another couple, Debbie and Marty from Virginia...Stuarts Draft of all places. Another older couple from Idaho along with their grown daughter from Alaska completed out little group. It was a fun time.
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| Buffalo along the Firehole River |
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| Buffalo |
Of course we saw the usual buffalo...along the river, on an island and laying in the road. We actually saw a single coyote which is rare in the Park during the winter. They tend to leave the area due to the deep snow.
A few elk and a couple of rare Trumpeter Swan rounded out our day in the Park. Our lunch was spent at Old Faithful waiting for it to blow. Lucky for us we also got to watch Beehive Geyser blow just before Old Faithful...lucky us since this one only goes off 2 times a day.
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| Elk |
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| Coyote |
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| Breaking the road block...can you see the snowmobiles? |
As we returned to West Yellowstone we ran into a small herd of buffalo laying spread out along the roadside. A group of 10 on snowmobiles were off to the side watching the group. Our guide offered to run interference for them. The bison were less than impressed and slowly got up and moved only slightly down the road. We are not sure we'd care to be on a snowmobile driving close to these big guys.
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| Road block |
On the way back to Bozeman for the first time we discovered moose along the roadside...four moose
spread out over several miles. We turned around when the first one was
spotted...almost too little light to get decent photos though.
Thankfully the storm that was called to hit the area held off until
after we got back to Bozeman.
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| Moose |
As for Cooper he enjoyed his day too. Ms Sarah dropped by super early
so we could get a jump on the drive to West Yellowstone. The road is
beautiful and a nightmare all at the same time winding through a narrow
gorge
along the Gallatin River. Cooper survived his day of having Sarah take charge of him and we survived our tour of West Yellowstone.
Lots of fresh snow to ride tomorrow up at Bridger Bowl!
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| Blue Grouse |
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| Yellowstone winter |
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| He can sleep anywhere, anytime! |
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| Size discrepancy...ours and theirs |
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| Firehole Falls |
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| Trumpeter Swan |
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**click any picture to enlarge
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