Day 6: the Beartooth Highway and Yellowstone National Park

This morning we loaded the dogs into the truck with a full day of sightseeing planned. We left the Scamp behind and started our journey around 6:30 in the morning.

It turns out that Kevin had a plan when he picked this campsite. Just down the road a few miles is a stretch of highway known as the Beartooth Scenic Highway. Considered one of the most beautiful drives in America, this highway winds through mountains and offers breathtaking views of Wyoming and Montana before spitting you out at the northeast entrance to Yellowstone National Park. This road is only open four months of the year, and as we climbed the mountainside and saw snow piled up as high as the truck I understood why. Eventually what I thought was fog but actually turned out to be a cloud (yes...a cloud) limited our views for a bit, but the drive was spectacular (even if my hand cramped a bit from clenching the door in fear for so long)! Scout even got to run in the snow for the first time. 

Eventually we arrived at Yellowstone National Park. For Christmas this year Kevin's dad got us an annual pass for all of the National Parks, so we got to use it for the first time this summer! 

We entered at the Northeast entrance--the least used entrance--in hopes of being able to see some of the park on our day trip while still avoiding the major crowds. The park is huge--the size of Delaware and Rhode Island--so we could only see some of the park. We decided to head towards the canyons. On the way we saw plenty of wildlife, a petrified tree, some hot springs, and of course, the canyon. 

I had to take a picture of the phone booths in the park! Many of my students don't know what they are. Now I have proof there was a time when we managed without a phone in our pocket! 

After exploring the area for a few hours the park started to fill up and we decided to head back towards camp. So, we travelled the Beartooth Highway one more time before spending the evening catching Rainbow Trout at the lake at our campsite. At one point in the evening, I was reading a book while Scout napped on the blanket, Kevin reeled in a fish, and a family of deer grazed a hundred feet away. It was heaven on earth. 

Kevin caught about ten trout and I caught two before a storm cloud rolled in and we decided to head back to camp for the night. Poor Kevin stood outside and made dinner in the pouring rain. We cozied up in the Scamp to eat our meal and fell asleep to the sound of the rushing stream, thunder, and raindrops on the roof. It was a perfect night.