Day 12 - Why is Montana so freakin' huge??

K & I got up around 6:00 am to pack up the car and get on the road by 7:30. However, we first enjoyed our morning coffee on the terrace of the Old Faithful Inn. It was a beautiful morning and in the crisp morning air, the Geyser steam contrast clearly against the blue sky.

A bison had wandered into the parking lot in front of the hotel and we could watch him from the terrace, as well as the tourists who walked up to the animal to take a picture. One woman in particular was pretty bold and closed within 10 yards of the creature. I was thinking how dumb that was as there are signs everywhere warning people to keep a safe distance from them. Just then the buffalo, obviously annoyed at being disturbed at its grazing, charged the women. She was just able to jump aside and avoid being gouged - she pretty quickly ran away and, luckily for her, the animal let her go. I could not help but laugh.

With that early entertainment behind us, we woke up the kids, packed up and got on our way.


Our drive took us to the north end of the park, which we hadn't seen before. It is actually quite pretty and when we come back we'll be sure to spend more time there. From there it was on into Montana - and then nothing but Montana for about 8 hrs. Just like Wyoming, this is a very, very large state that just seems to go on forever. Unlike Wyoming, at least the piece we drove through on the way to Grand Tetons, Montana's landscape is a bit more interesting. Nevertheless, after a few hours of driving, even an interesting landscape becomes tiresome.


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We had a quick lunch stop in Billings and finally reached the North Dakota border around 5 pm. Right across the border is Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Kathryn had wanted to tour his cabin and we just made the last tour at 5:30 pm, which gave us some background on his time in North Dakota in the mid 1880ies before entering politics in a big way. Supposedly that time also shaped his view on conservation, leading to the creation of many of the national parks, monuments and wildlive preserves, some of which we enjoyed on this trip.

Anyway, after that brief brake it was on to Bismarck, the capital of ND, where we checked into the lovely Hampton Inn. The town was obviously named after Reichskanzler Otto von Bismarck but not by German immigrants, as I originally assumed. This being America, it was given that name by the railroad company that wanted to attract German immigrants to this town in the middle of nowhere. Ahh, marketing, always a mainstay of the American way of life.