First thing. I forgot to mention a highlight of yesterday,
driving by beautiful Lake Bob in Idaho. It’s tiny and ugly, but the sign says
otherwise.
Up and out this morning by 8, heading out US 20 to
Yellowstone. Many, many, many electronic signs telling us there is a solar
eclipse on Monday and that we should expect heavy traffic. The traffic wasn’t
bad, but Craters of the Moon was a zoo – 2 huge busses in the parking lot (one
more pulled up as we were leaving) and a long wait for the bathroom. They have
a loop road through the park and it is a showcase of lava features. We love
lava and I am so jealous that Dave gets to come back after the eclipse. We’ll
be back though.
About driving through Idaho on US 20. They have the signs
that tell you how far to the next city every 3-5 miles, I kid you not. Also historical
markers about the same distance apart. Maybe because much of it is FLAT and
BORING. Then other parts of it are mountainy and beautiful. We stopped at a
rest area at the intersection of Hwys 20 and 75, which is a place that if I
were not a total city slicker I would like to live. Not actually at the rest
area, but near there.
We stopped for lunch in Idaho Falls, which is a very big city.
Here’s what I learned: 4.5 yelp stars
notwithstanding, do not eat at a gastropub in a Mormon city. 3 stars at most.
After Idaho Falls there’s more flat part, and then you got through some
mountains, and then you’re in Montana and the totally tourist town of West
Yellowstone, where we are staying at the Tao’s Inn, a hotel catering to the
very large Chinese tourist trade. Since
we couldn’t check in until 4, we went to Yellowstone. I’d never been there. It’s
worth going to. So much hot water! Boiling out of the ground! Shooting into the
air!
The first geyser place we drove by was so crowded that people
were waiting to get in to the parking lot. Our goal was Old Faithful, and I was
worried that we wouldn’t be able to get in that parking lot either. And then we
got into the parking lot which was surrounded by and full of signs for the Inn,
the Lodge, the Snow Lodge, the visitors center, the restaurant, the grill… but
no signs at all for the actual geyser. Also the parking lot was huge. And we’d
been driving all day. Suffice it to say I had a Moment of Crabby. Then we found
out that Old Faithful wasn’t due to erupt for an hour, and I was ready to leave
right then. Fortunately Dave kept his head, so we went for a walk on the
boardwalk around the geysers and hot springs, including a .6 mile round trip up
the path to Solitary Geyser, which was completely deserted and even spouted off
for us. Dave got a video of it. We completed the walk and got to Old Faithful
in plenty of time to see it put on a show. Worth the wait.
Back to our hotel, and then off to Café Madriz for tapas. In
West Yellowstone. It was about a 15 minute walk, all the way at the other end
of town. So yummy. Standouts were the calamares and the wines, especially my
Camino Roca. Quite an unexpected find and a wonderful reminder of our trip to
Spain.
We walked back more slowly through town, stopping at only
half of the souvenir stores. They were pretty much all still open and the town still
hopping at almost 9:00. 355 miles to go tomorrow. We’ll be glad to stay put for
a few days.
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