We departed from Flagg Ranch where we have spent the last week and took off for West Yellowstone which is a town and not part of the park. We did drive through the southwest corner of the park, crossing the Continental Divide three times and passing by the neat geyser stuff near Old Faithful. We turned west at Madison Junction and drove about 20 miles on what seems to be US-20 until we pulled into West Yellowstone and the Grizzly RV Park on the edge of the tiny town.
The RV park ain’t cheap but we needed a place for the 4th and ended up here. We will only be in this park overnight. The park has wi-fi which mostly works some of the time, full hookups, a store, cable TV and is actually quite pretty. There is a big crowd here today. Tomorrow we will hook up our trailer again and head for Livingston, MT.
Peggy got a bit antsy in the early evening and took me on a spin around town. The spin was curtailed by a 4th of July parade which passed through the four blocks of downtown. There were many fire engines, kids on bikes, horses with artificial cowboys on their backs, some snow cats on trailers, a few noisy pickup trucks filled with more artificial cowboys and a guy towing a boat full of people. West Yellowstone has many tourist facilities so I think the actual population of residents is quite low and I believe all of them were in the parade.
This town has many nice cabins and hotels that are considerably nicer and more expensive than facilities in the adjacent park. Colter Bay in the Tetons has cabins built in 1957 and the cabins here appear to have been built within the last five years. Some here have spiffy decorations on the ridge of their roof structures and are pretty. There are also many hotels that have the log cabin look, at least on the exterior. Other than that, there are RV parks and the mobile homes of the locals. Maybe the next time we pass this way we will get an opportunity to remain longer.
Peg snapped a few pictures as we passed through Yellowstone and in West Yellowstone and they can be seen if you click here