24th July 2016 - Mammoth Springs Yellowstone NP, WY - Kms to date: 7057

Kms today: 657

We got up at 6.30am so Colin could catch the taxi we ordered to the airport in Kalispell to pickup the car Jon Daggett had organised for us. He came back to the motel with a Nissan Armada aka an Urban Assault Vehicle. It had a 5.5 litre V8 engine!!!!

One very large vehicle!!!

We left Kalispell just before 9am and headed south for Yellowstone. We had to do 650kms by 5pm so we took the fastest route via the Interstate Highway system. Colin was the named driver so he had to do all the driving. After we leave Yellowstone we will make me an additional driver at $13/day. We stopped every two hours on the way to Yellowstone so Colin didn’t fall asleep at the wheel. One of our stops was in Missoula where we went to Freddy’s Custard and Steakburger joint. It was done out in 1960s diner decor and was playing old sixties hits. They didn’t sell coffee which annoyed Colin so we had lemonade and a burger and chips!!

Colin "enjoying" his Freddy's chicken and chips.

Further down the highway we stopped at a place called Whitehall and couldn’t find the CBD so we went back to the highway and had Kentucky Fried ...... big mistake.

Entrance to Yellowstone NP.

We arrived at Yellowstone at 4.30pm in time to book in to our “cabin” and go to an orientation session on our four day hiking tour. Chelsea, our tour leader ran the session. She is a tree hugger extraordinaire. Everything was “cool” and “very fun” and chummy. The rest of the tour group were from all over the USA and we were the only foreigners. One couple didn’t show up. There were twelve of us including the missing couple. They gave everybody a water bottle and I managed to lose mine between the meeting room and our cabin, about 150 metres!!!  There were Elk does all over the lawns of the hotel but the rule was you couldn't get closer than 25m.

An Elk doe enjoying the lawn at Mammoth Springs Hotel.

After this Colin and I went for a couple of beers and finished the rest of our Kentucky fried chicken!!!! We hit the sack early as we had a 6.30am start. At about 2.45am there was a huge crashing and banging on our door. It was the couple who had missed the orientation just arriving from Philadelphia. Their cabin was beside ours and they tried to open our door but eventually worked out which one was theirs. There had been an electric storm in Chicago and all flights were grounded for some considerable time, hence their late arrival.