RuthMc

We drove out of Custer State Park on Rt. 16 past Jewel Cave (no time to stop, alas) and picked up I-90 at Moorcroft. We went to Little Bighorn NM and were lucky to get there just as the park historian was beginning a nearly hour talk on what led up to the battle and how it unfolded. He was excellent and it made a big difference to stand there while he pointed out where things had happened. Then on to Billings to the Cherry Tree Inn, an early dinner and an early rise for our flight home the next day.

Yellowstone certainly deserved more than the 3 days we allotted to it. I was surprised I liked the geothermal stuff as much as I did and would liked to have seen more of it.

Everyplace we stayed, from most expensive to least, had hair dryers, coffee makers and coffee in the room.

The old song "Home on the Range" kept coming to mind as we saw literally hundreds of antelope, particularly along the sides of I-90.

You know you're in Wyoming when you see gates on the roads to close in snowy weather with signs saying "return to" previous town.

Some people just won't pay attention to the signs that say, keep away from the wildlife, but I guess that shouldn't be a surprise to me.

I wish YNP had some accomodations with cooking facilities. It's nice not to have to go out every night for dinner.

The bartender at Signal Mt. told us that although they have a tv, the NPS won't let them have the sound on (we watched the football game with closed-captioning) and they can only show sports. Seems weird to me since the rooms at the Ahwanhee in Yosemite have tvs and the Lodge there is adding them to their rooms.

The "pit" toilets in YNP were clean and not smelly--have a great system.

It's fun to drive 75 MPH legally!

maj

Really enjoyed your trip reports. It was fun reading about places we have been to (really enjoyed those prairie dogs by Devil's Tower--that was a spur of the moment stop on our way to Mt. Rushmore). Hopefully will get back to Yellowstone late next summer and a lot of your comments will be very helpful, especially the Billings and Red Lodge info since, at least at this time, that appears to be the cheapest place for us to fly into.

Were the parks extremely crowded when you were there and did you find many things already closed for the season?

RuthMc

Since this was our first trip, I don't have a frame of reference for crowds, but based upon what I've read I think the crowds were somewhat less. Some of the tours/activities stop after Labor Day. For example, horseback riding only goes out of Mammoth then rather than Canyon & Roosevelt as well. The lodging was pretty full. We ran into a couple in Custer that had just been to YNP but couldn't get a room inside the park. We wanted to change our dinner reservations and had to wait for the day's cancellations in order to do that, so the dining room was full. There were a lot of people and cars at Mammoth Hot Springs when we got there, but it was Sunday of Labor Day weekend. There were also more children than I expected to see, although certainly not as many as during the summer.

In Grand Teton, the only thing I can think of that was closed was Leek's pizzeria and again the horseback riding was more limited. We had thought of trying one but decided not to.

I think it's probably fair to say that there are fewer ranger-programs after Labor Day, but still lots to pick from.

Syv

Ummm... perhaps it's "just me", but I can't seem to find trip report #2 & #4 ?

Read #1, #3, & #5 with enjoyment!

Syv

Duh... nevermind. Found them!!!

RuthMc

A word of advice I meant to put in this originally is for those of us from more humid climates. It is very dry out West and take or buy a saline nasal spray or gel. It will really help your nose feel less bad.