Day 7--Old Faithful and Montana

Today was a long driving day so we were up and on the road early. Old Faithful was the main attraction on the agenda and was on our way out of the park so that worked out nicely. We drove around the park to the Old Faithful location, parked, and as we were walking down the sidewalk to the viewing area, she was nice enough to erupt right in front of us. We were unprepared to take pictures, but we still managed to snag a few from a distance. Then after the eruption subsided we took some more pictures in front old faithful with the steam coming out. We were all surprised by the eruption. I don’t know why, but we all pictured water spouting out of the opening like water from a fireman’s hose. But it is not like that at all. It is more of a massive steam cloud shooting way up into the air and nothing like a spout of water. It was cool, though, all the same. We then did a little shopping, got back in our car, and she erupted again as we drove away. Awesome!! We left Yellowstone by the West Entrance and immediately entered Montana and headed north. Other than Gallatin National Forest, Montana was a mass of brown rolling hills. We expected to see horse and cow ranches, green fields, etc. but it was really just brown and kinda endless. Just as we were commenting about a million hours into our drive that God must have gotten tired making Wyoming and did Montana all the same way, we hit Flathead Lake. Imagine driving for hundreds of miles through brown, relatively unchanging rolling hills and then you come over a crest and there is the biggest mountain lake you’ve ever seen. The sun is glinting off it at such an angle that you can’t see how big it is but you know IT IS BIG. We drove around one side of that lake for over 40 miles and passed amazing orchards (cherry, peach, apple) nestled into the hillside and going from one side of the road to the other before stopping at the lake. It was really unexpected. Then we turned away from the lake and passed the prettiest green ranch with matching buildings you have ever pictured (for sale, no less) before going the last few miles to our hotel…the Historic Tamarac Lodge. After 450 miles, it didn’t look like much but a large log cabin with some smaller motel units beside it in the middle of nowhere but we were glad to get there and very pleasantly surprised. Turns out that Shaun had booked us in a B&B for the night and our rooms were in the log cabin. The cabin was built in 1907 and originally was in Glacier National Park. Eventually, though, it was moved outside the park to its current location. The young couple who runs the place is from the NE but hunted the internet, found this place, and bought it 11 months ago. Our rooms were in an added on upstairs and were very clean, very comfortable, and decorated in wood beam furniture and quilts that were wonderful. We have covered 472 miles today for a trip total of 2369 miles.