Purple ZR-1 Road Trip to Yellowstone and the Pacific Northwest

[PhillipsLT5]

As usual GREAT pics!

[KILLSHOTS]

Jim is a MONSTER! Look how far he can push the rear end of Purple Z down with only his fingertips!

[QB93Z]

Hello from Yellowstone National Park. We had a problem getting working WiFi here in the wilderness. I am back on line and will be uploading some more pictures soon.

Jim

[QB93Z]

On Friday morning, we left Glendive, Montana and headed west on I-94 to Billings, MT where we got on I-90 West. As we drove southwest, the land got hillier, but there was still a lot of farming and ranching.




East of Billings we happened upon Pompey's Pillar National Monument:






Pompey's Pillar is a large stone feature that had been marked with petroglyphs by Native Americans for hundreds of years ago. It was discovered that in 1806, William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition engraved his name on the stone to mark the location of one of their camps. The carving is one of very few permanent records of the Expedition that is known to exist.




In our journeys, we have come across some vintage gas pumps. We found this one in the Tiger Gas Trailer Park Gas Station and Laundromat. This one had no credit card device:




When we were in Glendive a woman in the hotel suggested that we enter Yellow from the northeast entrance instead of going all the way to Livingston, MT and entering at Gardner. She said the road from Red Lodge, MT to Wyoming was much more picturesque. So, we took that route and boy was she correct:




to be continued...

[QB93Z]

The Beartooth Pass Highway, US-212, runs from Red Lodge, Montana, across the mountains to the Northeast Gate of Yellowstone National Park. The road is two-lane black top with most of it curves and embankments protected with guard rails. The road is in very good condition.



The Beartooth Pass highway climbs quickly into the mountains:










Near the crest of the Beartooth Pass, we crossed from Montana into Wyoming:





to be continued...

[QB93Z]

The summit of Beartooh Pass is 10,097 feet. At the summit there is a souvenir truck and a porta-potty. To use the ports-potty, you have to buy a souvenir. We thought it was a fair arrangement:



Here are some more pictures of the Beartooh Pass Highway:





Here is an interesting shot of a switchback:




About halfway down the west side of the mountains, we found this snow removal equipment cleaned up and ready for the next snow:




More PurpleZ with mountains in the background:



to be continued....

[QB93Z]

Near the western end of the Beartooth Pass Highway, in the "town" of Beartooth, we found another interesting gas pump. This one is fairly old and is surrounded with snow plow markers because the snow routinely covers the pump.




After crossing back into southwestern Montana, we reached the Northeast Entrance gate to Yellowstone National Park:



Just inside the gate we were greeted by the welcoming Committee:



After another hour and a half drive, we reached our destination at the Canyon Lodge in Yellowstone NP. We hiked a short distance from our cabin to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River:



On the way back to the cabin, we met another local resident:



The trip to Yellowstone took us 4 days of driving to cover over 2,500 miles. The PurpleZ is running great and gets comments and attention from many people.

Jim

[C4Ray]

Living in Florida where it's all flat and wooded, it's easy to forget how beautiful the Mid-Western states are. Pics like these make me want to re-locate there.

[efnfast]

Thanks Jim.

[QB93Z]

On Saturday, we took the Yellowstone Rim of Fire Bus Tour. Since we were first-timers at Yellowstone, the eight-hour tour that covers the highlights of the whole park seemed to be a good choice.

Within ten minutes of leaving our lodge, we spotted a black bear with two cubs in a pasture area near the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The bear was distant and the cubs were too short to be photographed, but Lyndi got the Mama bear:




Here is a early morning picture of the Yellowstone River Upper Falls:




The Yellowstone River Lower Falls is the largest waterfall in the park, and this view of the Canyon was painted in 1870 by Moran, and presented to Congress the next year. By 1872, Congress passed a law establishing Yellowstone as a National Park. It was the first "National" park in the world.




As we left the Lower Falls area we came across a bison crossing a stream:






When he got to the far side, he climbed the bank, shook himself off and went back to grazing:



to be continued....