Kim's birthday, and we figured we'd head back to Yellowstone again. This time the weather was a little bit worse, but we took the advise of a ranger and headed towards the North-East entrance where we were likely to see some wildlife.

We saw more Bufflo, buffalo, buffalo and two black bears. A great drive, Yellowstone is just amazing.

We may have to come back next weekend

Baby black bear on the side of the road

Buffalo appreciating the weather

Reindeer/Caribou

Praerie dog

 

 

Wow, just wow. Yellowstone park is simply one of the most amazing places I have ever been to. We had an aborted attempt to get to Yellowstone the weekend previously, but our car broke down and the one mechanic nearby turned out to be blind and was unable to fix our car. This weekend, however, we got up early and made it with no issues and it turned out to be well worth it. The first day we saw more animals than we'd seen in our trip so far, buffalo are everywhere and Elk appear at dusk to fill up the gaps left by the Buffalo. Within thirty minutes we saw our first bear, a Grizzly, by a river near the road.

Old Faithful was, well, faithful and a good watch. The geysers and hot springs a good break from animal watching, this park is simply full of things to see and admire.

We'll be back!

Grizzly! (and our first bear)

Our first wolf (looked like a coyote, but much bigger)

Grizzly sharpening his claws

Old Faithful

Kim in front of a geyser

Buffalo!

Hot springs, the colours are caused by microorganisms.

 

Buffalo scaring the hell out of me. One of the bulls was staring at me and they're 1 ton killing machines that can run at 30mph. A bit unnerving!

 

It turns out that Billings is just an hour from the site of Custer's last stand, so we popped down for a look around. The battlefield is amazingly well done, there's a stone marker at every point where a US Cavalryman was found, as well as a museum, multiple site markers and a few walks.

The sense of history is prevalent throughout the site, we really enjoyed going and want to go again.

The man himself. Well, his body is in Arlington cemetary but this is where he died.

 

The last stand is at the marker in the top right of the photo, each white marker is where a Cavalryman fell in battle.

A rare Indian casualty marker

The site of the main Indian attackers on the last stand.

 

Kim saw an advert for the Professional Bull Riders association holding a rodeo in Billings, so naturally we had to go along. It was amazing, very fun and lots of new sights to see. We lost count of the amount of cowboy hats, but we reckon Montana is more cowboy country than just about any other state. They certainly have a lot of cattle farms!

 

We're in America. There's a monster truck rally on in Kalispell.

It had to be done!

To be honest, it was amazingly good fun, despite the 30 minutes of tributes to the troops at the start of the show. The noise was incredible, most people brought earplugs, and there was a certain amount of good humour in the crowd.

Our favourite part came during the intermission when the public was allowed to race their old banger trucks around the course. Called the "tough trucks", about half of them were demolished and had to be towed out. The height these guys were getting on the jumps were amazing, I reckon they were feeling the landing for weeks afterwards. They make 'em tough in Montana!

Tough Truck #1 "I'm not a redneck"

Big air!

Dun, dun, dun, dun, another one bites the dust!

Lots of carnage. The red truck has a broked axle.

As part of our ongoing project to use as much petrol as we can, whilst it's still cheap, we took a day trip to Great Falls in Montana. This is the site of the main Lewis and Clark camp and marks the point where they left the Missouri river to continue on foot.

We skirted the bottom of the Glacier National Park, drove through Indian territory and had some time in the area.

A coyote we found just east of the Glacier park

The great falls, just after a dam.

Frozen lake, a spot for migratory birds (in this case, Snow Swans)

 

We took a day to drive around North-West Montana, the scenary is fantastic and well worth the drive. We drove through Kalispell, past Swan Lake, Missoura and ending up at Thompson Falls. The towns on the way range from nice little cosy places to some of the scariest trailer parks we've seen outside of Jerry Springer.

The route home was a bit of a nightmare, white tail deer are completely suicidal and seem to enjoy leaping out in front of the car when it's dark. Makes for a tiring and looooong drive home.

 

Bighorn sheep on the road

 

 

Here's a quick video to show the terrain and (lack of) people at Blacktail. Pretty awesome place!