OSH and Yellowstone trip, 2014

After leaving OSH this year, Laura and I had made plans to fly to Yellowstone National Park for a day or three of sightseeing. Laura had already made lodging arrangements for the trip so with the weather forecast in our favor, we headed off to Livingstone MT.

There are already lots of folks posting OSH photos, so we are starting at Livingstone.





The local Dodge dealer also rents cars, and they brought one up to us at the airport. First night was in Gardiner, MT------- called the gateway to Yellowstone for some rather obvious reason.



As we arrived late in the day, we only took a short drive up to Mammoth Hot Springs before heading back down to our hotel for the evening. While up at Mammoth, we saw this worried mother, and her carefree offspring.





The boardwalk out to one side of the hot springs. This place is huge, easily saw it from the air as we were returning home a couple days later. Google it for many fantastic photos and info.



The next day we drove into the park, stopping at many beautiful places where Laura took way too many photos to put into this thread, but there is an album link at the end of this post.

Here is a few highlights of the trip into the park. Norris Geyser Basin was somewhere you could spend a day or more and still not see all there is to see.









Full album is here. https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipMKaIwb_9Yk7aVVP3kGDljEgLovy9ExKGFlkaKO

As were driving along, we kept a lookout for local critters, such as this wolf.



Looking carefully you can see a collar with a tracking device on the wolf's neck.

Try as we might, no other big critters were evident on this drive............but we hit the jackpot the next day.

Here is a teaser................................



We stopped off at many fantastic locations, here is the Grand Prismatic Spring in the Midway Geyser Basin.





Last stop of the day was Old Faithful--------where we were lucky to have scored a room at the Old Faithful Inn. This place is booked a year or more out, but Laura was able to find a mid week cancellation that she grabbed.











And here it is again from our room...............



Not a bad room for a "take what you get" mid week cancellation.

Here is a couple more shots from the Inn, our room and the main hall-------this thing is huge!







This is an area called Biscuit Basin, named for pieces of rock thrown out by a geyser eruption some time back.





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Next stop was Yellowstone falls overlook at a place called Artist Point.

As promised, wild life shots.

Driving back from Artist Point, an Elk along side the road.



And almost directly across the road, was this big fellow.



More bison a few miles down the road.







I stopped counting at 50------there must have been close to twice that amount out there. One big guy was on the opposite side of the road, right next to the road.

The next day it was time to go home, after talking to the gentleman who runs the Livingstone airport, we decided to follow his recommendations to fly back along the route we had driven to Yellowstone, and are we ever glad we did so.

Here are a few shots of the park from our flight back home.













A final farewell look back at the main geyser area.



Thanks for looking, hope you enjoyed it.

Full album is here.

https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipMKaIwb_9Yk7aVVP3kGDljEgLovy9ExKGFlkaKO

I Love Yellowstone!! Great Pictures and what luck on the room right by Old Faithful. Nice meeting you two at Osh as well.

Mike, glad you guys are having fun! It was great to meet you and check out your plane at OSH before you left. Safe travels.

,,,,,,!

Mike,

Thanks for the report. Good to see you at Oshkosh.

Nice room... lucked out.
Love the animal pics... nice and close.

Mike and Laura,

Great post and it was wonderful to spend time with the two of you at OSH!!

James

Mike,
what was your route back home from the park?

AX-O said:

Mike,
what was your route back home from the park?

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Departed Livingstone and followed the river to Gardiner, then a bit south until past the taller mountains.

After that, overfly Dubois (u41) and fuel at Gooding (KGNG), then overfly Lovelock (KLOL) and finally to home (O61).

This was the route suggested by the manager at Livingstone, worked well for us.

I see where you are called THE SENIOR CURMUDGEON.
So not knowing the meaning I google'd it. My question is how did a nice person like yourself get this nick name?


Curmudgeon - Merriam-Webster Online
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/curmudgeon
Merriam‑Webster
a person (especially an old man) who is easily annoyed or angered and who often complains.

Curmudgeon | Define Curmudgeon at Dictionary.com
dictionary.reference.com/browse/curmudgeon
Dictionary.com
a bad-tempered, difficult, cantankerous person. Origin: 1570–80;

curmudgeon - Wiktionary
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/curmudgeon
Wiktionary

Curmudgeon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curmudgeon
Wikipedia
Curmudgeon is a word meaning "an ill-tempered person full of stubborn ideas or opinions" and may refer to: I, Curmudgeon, a 2004 documentary

wikiHow
Have you finally given up on becoming a sex god, movie star, billionaire or genius during your life? You may be ready to become a curmudgeon! Curmudgeons ...
Urban Dictionary: Curmudgeon
www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?...Curmudgeon
Urban Dictionary
2. Curmudgeon. somebody considered to be bad-tempered, disagreeable, or stubborn. A killjoy, a wet blanket. Roy is a curmudgeon, lets not invite him.
curmudgeon - Dictionary Definition : Vocabulary.com
www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/curmudgeon
Old, cranky, and more than a little stubborn, a curmudgeon is the crusty grey haired neighbor who refuses to hand out candy at Halloween and shoos away ...

it just goes on and on. because you definitely are not what it says you are, at least from what I know about you. Or am I missing some thing?
Fred

ps, beautiful pictures! thank u. I have never been east of pa, yet. I have flown from maine to florida though. My wife won't fly, so I am not having as much enjoyment as a lot of you gentleman are. You better charish what you have and don't take from for granite,,,,,just take em for a ride LOL.
She did say she would fly in an RV10. oh well.

Just impressive! Is it your plane sitting alone there at Gardiner Mike?





I wasn't so lucky on locating the geysers from the air. I toured Yellowstone Lake then some tundra (10K or so) buildups were everywhere.





I was there a week before you and will be back in search of those geysers...

Zac@AerosportProducts said:

Nice meeting you two at Osh as well.

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majuro15 said:

Mike, glad you guys are having fun! It was great to meet you and check out your plane at OSH before you left. Safe travels.

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Jaypratt said:

Mike,

Thanks for the report. Good to see you at Oshkosh.

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jclark said:

Mike and Laura,

Great post and it was wonderful to spend time with the two of you at OSH!!

James

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Zac, Tim, Jay, James------good seeing all of you also. Good to talk RV with folks.

James, thanks again for the ride in your electric chariot after the Vans dinner. Much appreciated.

Fred, truth of the matter is that I am an old man, and I am pretty set in my ways, and subject to getting annoyed----------I just put on a good front here

Vlad, not me at Gardiner, would have preferred to land there, but no rental car available, and we were not about to explore Yellowstone by foot.

Thanks Mike, looks like a great trip. I haven't flown my RV further west than Chicago. But when I do......

Mike S said:

I stopped counting at 50------there must have been close to twice that amount out there.

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Hard to believe that in BRV (Before RV) time there were thousands of these beasts in a herd. Sure would make it hard to decide on an emergency landing location in Yellowstone. Land in the valley where it is flat but 1000s of massive beasts or try to land in the mountains.

millions

plehrke said:

Hard to believe that in BRV (Before RV) time there were thousands of these beasts in a herd. Sure would make it hard to decide on an emergency landing location in Yellowstone. Land in the valley where it is flat but 1000s of massive beasts or try to land in the mountains.

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Herds used to number in the millions.