RED LODGE, MONTANA

We left Gardiner on Monday afternoon and headed into Red Lodge.  The drive from this direction is so pretty [but then I usually say that about all of Montana :)]. 

We stayed two nights at the Pollard Hotel in downtown.  This is the view out of our hotel window:

It has been really cold this trip!  Most of the time the temperature has been below zero (one night -14!) and that isn't taking wind chills into consideration.  With temps that low, its not much fun to spend hours on the slopes skiing.  However, Tuesday we went hiking on the mountain side towards Wild Bill Lake.  The road is closed and groomed for Xcountry skiers.  We bundled up :)

 The road runs along Rock Creek.

Another great trip out West!

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK!

We were in Yellowstone several days.  Saturday afternoon we explored the thermal features around Mammoth Hot Springs, Sunday we spent all day (from 7 am until 7 pm) on the Snowcat tour.  A snowcat is a 12 passenger van outfitted with tracks and designed to go over the snow where vehicles can't.  In fact, a Snowcat is the only way to get to Old Faithful during the winter.  We had a guide and made lots of stops along the way and back.  On Monday, it was just too cold to be out snowshoeing or Xcountry skiing all day, so we drove over to Lamar Valley just to enjoy the view.  Just a few of the pictures from Yellowstone...because I have hundreds :)

This is a view from Mammouth Hot Springs:

 Sunrise on the drive from MHS to Old Faithful:

 This is the road ???  Just looks like a snow track to me...

 

 I love Bison...they are so big and look so clumsey, yet they are very agile and FAST!

 This is Fountain Geyser.  Our guide was so excited to see it erupt.  He said that he has not seen this one errupt since he'd been at the park (3 years).  Since this is one of those Geysers that is not predictable, we weren't sure if it would still be errupting by the time we hiked over to it, so I took off running (I wanted to be sure that I got to see the sight!)  However, it continued to errupt the entire time that we were at this area - over half an hour.  As we were going back to the van, the guide said to me "I just love that you were so excited that you took off running" :)  That's just the kinda gal I am - I get excited at this place!

 The Paint Pots - this is BOILING MUD!  So cool....

 This was hard to capture in a picture, and doesn't look near as pretty as it did that day, but this is a round rainbow.  The sun is behind that tree, but the rainbow went all around the sun.  It was snowing this really fine snow and I guess the light was reflecting off that??? (Obviously science is not my thing)

 This is a view of the road that we traveled into Lamar Valley.  On this day we were in our rental car (which was 4WD and had heated seats :)), and this road isn't much better that they one we traveled in our snowcat!

Another wonderful trip to Yellowstone...now off to Red Lodge!

Chico Hot Springs

Chico Hot Springs.  Phillip likes to stay in the old section...the cowboy hotel.

This room had twin beds (they are foot-to-foot) and no TV, no phone and no Bathroom.  However, it is all about the atmosphere and the Hot Springs!  We did some major soaking in the hot pool yesterday and today.  It is so relaxing!  Plus the restaurant is unbelievable!

Around noon we headed to Gardiner and into Yellowstone.  We saw a coyote on the street right after entering the park and then spotted some big horn sheep before getting to Mammoth Hot Springs.  We did some hiking around the springs and then relaxed in the lodge and just enjoyed the view.  Some pictures from the day are below.  This first one is the view from the drive between Chico Hot Springs and Gardiner:

 This picture was taken right as we were driving into the park.  That is a coyote next to the road below:

 After checking in for our snowcat tour scheduled for tomorrow, we walked up around the Mammoth Hot Springs:

As we were leaving the park (we stayed in Gardiner) we saw these big horn sheep:

Phillip and I absolutely love it here.  Even though we have been here numerous times, I am always awed by its beauty.  You just have to think....God does good work!

It was a little hectic getting off on our trip since we kept the boys while their parents enjoyed the sugar bowl, but with advanced planning we pulled it off.  We were so stuffed into our two suitcases (only 1 each!) that we forgot some things.  Neither of us brought a cord to download the photos off our camera, so during the trip, the only pictures I could upload were from my phone.  The following picture was taken on my phone.  Phillip and I were up on the Rims....

Sunset over Billings, MT

We arrived about 12:45 on Thursday the 6th of January and spent that first day in Billings.  We had to do a little hiking on the rims....we love the view!