Snow!

We came over the Beartooth highway today and as we went up, the temperature dropped to 35 degrees and we were back in winter scenes! It obviously had snowed hard earlier  today - thank goodness not while we were driving. There was still slush on the road and road signs were all still plastered with snow and ice.

Snow galore

This is July 8th?

We had hoped to see wildflowers up on the pass. We did - encased in snow!

Poor little guys

To go back - we said our tearful goodbyes to Paul, Jenny and Max at about 8a.m. this morning, and headed up to Jackson and then on to Grand Teton Park and Yellowstone. We learned one thing: don't go into the Parks on the days following the 4th of July! It was a zoo. Can't complain I guess - we were part of the problem. We headed up to Roosevelt in Yellowstone - one of the less frequented places - and it was a zoo too! We looked for a picnic table to have our lunch from the food box - they were all full everywhere. We finally found one in the Lamar Valley past Roosevelt - the parking lot was full (usually, no one is there), but we found one empty table. But there were still lovely scenes along the way.

Grand Moran in the Tetons

The aftermath of fire

This lone bison had attracted hundreds of people!

The Yellowstone River in one of its quieter moments

You go through Cooke City, MT after you leave Yellowstone Park before heading up the Beartooth Highway. Ellen found postcards at this old country store in Cooke City:

Cooke City General Store

And of course, there are spectacular views on the Beartooth Highway, snow or no snow:

Beartooth vistas

 We had a reservation in Billings at a Motel 6 for a non-smoking room, but when we got there, they had one room left and it was a smoking room, despite the reservation.We checked it out and it was unacceptable. So we gave up on Motel 6 and came to Super 8 - for $30 more! Oh well!