Creatures, Cowboys, and Custer

We woke up Easter Sunday morning in Jackson, Wyoming ready for a new day.  I surprised Rebekah with some Easter candies. 

We stopped at an Elk Refuge and spotted a herd of elk grazing at a distance.  It was exciting.

We drove up to Grand Teton National Park hoping to see some more wildlife.  The mountains were as beautiful as the pictures.  We searched for wildlife having heard they were easily spotted here, but we weren’t successful.  We stopped at the Visitor’s Center and saw many displays about the wildlife in the area.  We asked the park ranger for information on where best to see the wildlife.  She recommended a road, which we headed to.  As we were leaving the Visitor’s Center, we were skeptical, not having spotted anything so far; yet, there by the road was a moose!  We were so excited, and with renewed hope of seeing more, we headed for the road she mentioned.  We spotted a second moose not too far down the road at a distance, before we even got to the road mentioned.  We got to the road and drove a little ways, looking desperately for wildlife, when suddenly in front of us was a herd of buffalo crossing the road!  We stopped and admired the view!  Later, when we were leaving the park, we saw three more moose right at the side of the road.  It was amazing how close they were.

We headed to Dubois to see the National Bighorn Sheep Center.  They gave us a map and self-guided auto tour to go see the bighorn sheep.  So we headed down an awful Forest Service road for miles of unpaved, rocky, washboard, and potholed road for nothing.  We never saw any wildlife at all.  After that road we saw lots of deer on our way to Riverton where we stopped for the night.

In the morning, we were driving through Thermopolis, which has the world’s largest natural hot springs according to their signs.  So we decided to stop and take a soak at the state park, which was free.  It felt so relaxing! 

We drove on to Cody and stopped at Buffalo Bill Historical Center.  There were many exhibits there.    The Buffalo Bill exhibit was closed for remodeling.  We toured the Native Americans of the Plains and the Yellowstone exhibits. 

dress decorated with elk teeth; they only used 2 teeth from each elk

We drove into Montana and camped.  We had fun being like cowboys and cooking hot dogs and beans over a fire.

Today we went to Prairie Dog Town State Park and saw lots of cute, little prairie dogs squeaking and running around.  They sound like a dog's squeaky toy, and shake their tails when they squeak.

Then we drove to Billings airport and saw the Yellowstone County Museum.  It was an interesting mix of displays of cowboys, Indians, homesteaders, and a local artist. We found it a little odd that the museum was housed in the town founder's log cabin, which was was moved to the airport from the downtown area.

chaps!

From there we headed to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, the site of Custer's Last Stand. We toured the visitor center and read about the clash of cultures and the events leading to the infamous battle. Then we took the auto tour and saw the encampment and battle sites, including Last Stand Hill. There were memorial markers at or near where many of the soldiers were killed in the battle scattered throughout the area. I was amazed at the how the landscape was so full of hills and valleys, having always imagined it to be more flat.

 The site of Custer's Last Stand