Road trip across America… daily reflections by Ema and Elle.
by Ema ~ It was difficult to leave Bozeman, but we got our morning chore of laundry done, even did the bedding, and had our breakfast compliments of the campground. We filled our water jug and bottles from the spring water well at our site and put the van together again after spreading out in the cabin for those couple days.
On the way out I stopped through the springs a last moment and left behind a love rock for someone to find.
We of course had to stop at the co-op before parting town. The Bozeman Co-op began in 1979, and has grown to one of the best I have found around this country. I felt that 10 or more years ago for my last visit, and they have only expanded and are adding more even during our visit. We got lunch from the hot food/ salad bar so we could taste a little of the different delights offered. After we stopped at Cooper Park to finish writing our postcards, so we could get to a post office before making our way to Yellowstone. I also sent a box to myself of all the stuff we have collected for our memory books, and we also finally got our mom’s present sent as well.
The drive towards Yellowstone through the Gallitan entrance led us to the Roosevelt Arch.
We entered the park and found the 45th Parallel here in Montana.
We made our way to Mammoth Hot Springs, not for soaking, but to observe the formations created by the minerals in the bubbling springs. Elle thought it was ice at first, as there are elements that are pure white and even form what look like icicles.
From there we went into the little village area and found ourselves surrounded by elk and their babies. We got out to observe, but from the respectful distance, only to have a mother with her calve walk up right behind me. I think we actually startled one another as I turned around. Her ears went back as she look at me and the little one next to me. I placed Elle behind me and backed up to create a path for her, as there were cars that had arrived to see them blocking her in with us. We got back to our van to find several more grazing at the front of the van which meant we could not get to our doors and still respect the 25ft rule, so we waited for them to make their way past and continued on. I walked Elle to her side, at this point they were closest to her door, and once safely in got us going again.
As we went through the pass heading towards Norris the sun was setting. I pulled off at the next turn out to look at what direction we should be going to find camping, when a huge rainstorm with high winds hit. There was another truck with a camper sitting it out, and I agreed we should just sit still, for if what we needed to drive through ahead of us was anything like what we had just gone through, I did not want to do it in this weather. I cleared the bed and Elle got cozy with a movie. After awhile I decided it was not going to stop and crawled into bed for a rest. Of course shortly there after the rain stopped, but I was feeling exhausted and a belly ache to top it off. The camper trailer had not moved either, so I decided that if a ranger came I would just explain about not feeling comfortable to drive through the storm and we would leave need be. I was soon asleep.
By Elle ~ Today I woke up and we got ready finishing our laundry and packing up. We decided to go to the Bozeman coop. It was giant and filled with so much. I needed pads, so we went and dealt with that. We also got some food from the food bars they had and we ate that. After that we called mom and talked for a while and decided to find a park and write post cards. We stopped at a dog park, so we met some furry friends. It took a long time to get caught up and we wrote 55 post cards in all. With all the post cards done, on our way we went to the post office and sent of all 55 cards and a box filled with many things. After sending off everything soon we made it to Yellowstone. There was the Roosevelt arch. We started looking around. We started near Mammoth Hot Springs. We saw the mammoth hot springs first. I thought they were ice hanging down, but it was really just from all the minerals of the springs that made it that color. The spring was beautiful but I wanted to look around the shops and stuff that were there, and also because there were elk and their babies. They came for spring to have their babies before leaving to wander on. We saw so many, they were everywhere. My favorite part was when we saw a baby nursing on her mom, it was so cute and sweet. After taking pictures of the elk and having a quick scare, we started driving to old faithful, but little did we know the sun would soon set and a really bad storm was coming so we ended up stopping at a drive in spot where many other cars and a camper was parked. We got some food and I headed off to bed.
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