Day 3: Yellowstone!

The morning was beautiful in comparison to how the weather was when we went to bed last night. The mountains surrounding the campsite were all aglow with the sunrise light. I knew that I wasn't going to see mountains like these for awhile once we get to Maryland, so I was really taking them in.

It was only a 3.5 hour drive from Lewis & Clark Caverns to our cabin outside of Yellowstone, so we took the morning to check out the caves at the park. For a nominal fee you can join a ranger led tour through the caverns. It was a 2 hour tour, and we took the chance that between the two of us, we could hold, carry or guide Lucia through the caves. We all needed some exercise after all the driving. You basically hike a trail straight up to the top cave entrance. Lucia rode on Paul's shoulders for that part. Then you start to descend into the different rooms of the cave through series of tunnels and steps. Oftentimes ducking and squeezing to fit. Lucia loved it, despite it being quite dark and cold! The caves are wired with electricity so there is some dim lighting, but she loved that she was "just the right size" to fit all the places in the caves and she didn't have to duck like the rest of us. She thought that was hilarious. She held on the handrails and climbed either up or down the 600+ steps all by herself. The whole way. By the end the other tour members were commenting that they couldn't believe how good she as doing, not only in not being fussy but just that she kept going, like a little energizer bunny. Of course our hope was that it meant she would nap well in the car.

We arrived at the West Entrance to Yellowstone around 3pm.

On our way up to the cave entrance

Inside the cave

Cool cave formations

Our camper cabin at Flagg Ranch, Yellowstone

Lucia got a pair of binoculars for our Yellowstone explorations

Day 2: Montana

We left Moscow a little before 8 AM after breakfast, again provided by our wonderful hosts. We had a long day ahead of us. And we weren't sure how long it would take Paul to drive the truck through the mountains. We decided that it would be best to stick to the interstate even if it was longer distance-wise. We headed north and stopped in Coeur d'Alene for a quick break. I lost Paul pretty quickly through the mountains, but met up for a lunch stop in Missoula. I abhor McDonald's food, but clean bathrooms, free wifi and truck parking is a good marketing strategy.

Another day on the road

From there is was pretty smooth sailing to our turnoff to our campsite, just outside of Butte at Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park. Lots of campsites to choose from, we picked one close to the bathrooms and the playground. Win-win. Lucia had the playground to herself while Paul set up camp. Not long after we started cooking dinner, it started raining. All the RVers retreated to their vehicles and we were standing out in the rain trying to make our dinner. Luckily it was still pretty warm, despite the rain. We ended up scrambling to throw the stove in the trunk and we ate our dinner in the discomfort of our car. The rain let up enough for us to clean up and get read for bed. We climbed into our tent and listened to it rain most of the night. We were starting to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into.

Setting up camp BEFORE the thunderstorm

Girl in a landscape