West Yellowstone, MT

Call me crazy, but I am just a little excited about our hotel room windows being wide open. The weather here in West Yellowstone, MT feels like a Texas cold front just blew through dipping down into the 40′s at night. Our business travels have taken us further out West introducing me to the beautiful Wyoming and Montana landscape. The Stagecoach Inn serves a decent continental breakfast, the rooms are clean, and animal mounts prevalent.

We now understand why it takes several hours to travel through Yellowstone National Park. Herds of bison kept interrupting the flow of traffic. Did you know that a raging buffalo can run three times as fast as a human? They got so close to the car that I could have reached out and touched them. Instead, we both gave a yelp and quickly rolled up the windows, forgetting to get a close up shot. I was amazed at how many of the trees in the park have been destroyed by forest fires. Apparently, there was a devastating fire that occurred in 1988. A resident of the area informed me that this dry and “hot” (Ha!) weather is prime for forest fires.

Most of the park closes in two months leaving West Yellowstone pretty deserted. Not so this time of year.

The number of gift shops and the higher priced restaurants serving merely sandwiches and hamburgers scream “tourist town!” Notice how bears, moose, and elk motifs are everywhere! Nevertheless, we are enjoying the beauty of the area, the quaintness of the town, and eating ham and cheese sandwiches out of the cooler.