Ahhhh - Mountains Again

Yellowstone River - they say great trout fishing here!  This river is really deep.

We paid our dues in Great Falls and are rewarded with this campground in Livingston, Montana - about 20 miles east of Bozeman.  Right on the Yellowstone River, right near a quilt shop, right near heaven.  Too bad that Yellowstone National Park is 51 miles away - and then that's just the north entrance - probably about another 25 miles after that to start seeing things like geysers, hot springs, etc.  Too much diesel being used up to travel back and forth from here.  Ah well, so we enjoy our little 24 hours right here.  I thought we were done with Lewis and Clark (you thought so too, huh?) but found out that in 1806 when the two captains split up, Clark came through here on the Yellowstone River, camping just downstream of where we are.

We left Great Falls by 9am, took US Route 89 south all the way here.  Past some beautiful country, amazing how the upper great plains changes so fast - we quickly moved into the Lewis and Clark National Forest, climbing up into the Little Belt Mountains and back down.  Then came out on a plateau with the Absaroka Range to our left and the Gallatin Range to our right.  These are two ranges within the Rocky Mountains - yay! we are back in the mountains.

Quiet here, we will have trouble sleeping tonight because of the quietness.  After unhooking and getting settled, I walked over to the laundry room where there is information and saw a picture taken right by us in May of this year with a Mama moose and her baby walking in the river.  Can't even hope that we will see the same while we are here for the next 18 hours, but stranger things have happened.

Tomorrow morning we will take our time - really - and drag our tires slowly towards Yellowstone, specifically Gardiner, Montana, where we have a campground site reserved for the next two weeks.  Problem is that we can't check in until after 1pm - so we will have to really drag our tires getting there.

Sitting on the banks of the Yellowstone River

Something we have not done since being on the road for a couple of years - go out and get breakfast before leaving.  We can walk next door to a small restaurant and they serve (we are told) a mean breakfast - so be it!  Sounds great.