2016 was just a total joke of a year and I was glad it was over, 2017 has been much better and full of adventures.
January started off recuperating from an sudden illness that happened in mid-December and during this time I started planning a trip up to Vancouver, WA the end of February to visit family and purchase my new adventure vehicle, a 2017 Subaru Outback.
The Beartooth Highway is said to be one of the most scenic drives in the United States. Featuring breathtaking views of the Absaroka and Beartooth Mountains, high alpine plateaus, glacial lakes, forested valleys, waterfalls and wildlife.
Abutting Yellowstone National Park it sits in a 1,000,000 acre (404,686 hc) wilderness. Being one of the highest and most rugged areas in the lower 48 states, it contains 20 peaks reaching over 12,000 feet (3,657 m) in elevation. Surrounding mountain glaciers are found on the north-facing slope of nearly every mountain peak over 11,500 feet (3,505 m) high. The Road itself is the highest elevation highway in Wyoming and the Northern Rockies at (10,947 feet; 3,336 m) and in Montana at (10,350 feet; 3,154 m).
Breathtakingly beautiful this drive takes your breath away with the vistas and the driving along the curving mountainous roads. This road is not for the faint of heart as the steepness at the edges can be overwhelming for people who do not like heights. This is a road for driving, exploring and for taking your time to see all the sights and paths along the way.
Did you know Yellowstone was home to the army, stagecoach robbers, a president, and the largest free roaming herd of bison?
1800s Accounts From Out West
For decades, fur trappers and mountain men told stories of the lands out west. To folks living back east, all of the accounts must have seemed fantastical, yet today we know that some of the accounts were quite accurate (and some embellished works of fiction). How do you go about determining the truth of a story?
Here are some excerpts from people who explored the region now known as Yellowstone. Which do you find realistic? Which do you find fantastical?
“From the surface of a rocky plain or table, burst forth columns of water of various dimensions, projected high in the air, accompanied by loud explosions, and sulphurous vapors, which were highly disagreeable to the smell.”—Warren Angus Ferris, 1833
“Here we found a few Snake Indians comprising 6 men 7 women and 8 or 10 children who were the only Inhabitants of this lonely and secluded spot. They were all neatly clothed in dressed deer and Sheep skins of the best quality and seemed to be perfectly contented and happy.”—Osborne Russell, 1835
Intreged by stories coming from explorers and of two earlier expeditions, the US Geological Survey funded the first government-sponsored mission to the area in order to document the geological wonders and beauty it had to offer. They undertook this with the US Army Corps of Engineers.
The history of the science in Yellowstone began with this expedition. Dr. Ferdinand V. Hayden’s 1871 team included two botanists, a meteorologist, a zoologist, an ornithologist, a mineralogist, a topographer, an agricultural statistician/entomologist, artists, photographers, and support staff. The group of 35 men set out in July 1871 to bring back scientific evidence of earlier tales of thermal activity.
TVP Journeys 