Yellowstone, WY to West Yellowstone, MT

Our ride out of Yellowstone was really cool.  I was not looking forward to it, since I knew it would be long day, but we saw some awesome stuff.  Thanks also to Bob and Dinah from FL who donated to the cause, and who we loved talking to, at the Kepler Cascades, which was a very cool waterfall.  We visited Old Faithful early in the morning, and pulled in just as the geyser was going off, so we had perfect timing.  That was pretty cool, but to be honest, the surrounding geysers, which we spent about an hour exploring, were kind of boring, and I could only take so much stinky boiling water before I was ready to move on.  We crossed the Continental Divide twice and saw Isa Lake, which is on the divide, so it drains into both the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico!  After that, we headed to the Painters Pot Geysers, which were cool, and then headed into the west part of the park, which was stunningly beautiful.  The Madison River was the most amazing shade of blue I have ever seen, and the area is clearly a fly fisherman's heaven.  We saw a family of elk on the way out of the park, and just a few miles from the border, we saw a real bald eagle!!  It was really cool, we got to see this huge eagle from really close up, and also saw its nest and baby across the street.  Once we got into West Yellowstone, we found a fantastic ice cream shop and I had a delicious scoop of huckleberry, and then we found the most fantastic bookstore I have ever been in.  It was called the Bookworm, advertised over 50,000 books, and when you entered, had books everywhere you looked, and I wanted to literally live there.  The books were sort of organized but also were random enough that you might find an interesting title on every shelf.  I hope to find a similar bookstore in Chicago, and spend as much time there as possible.  If you are ever near Yellowstone and need a book, I would strongly suggest heading there.  I picked up a David Foster Wallace book, since I have been looking for one forever, and despite the fact that I don't have any room in my bag any more.

States traveled through:16(NY,NJ,PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, OH, IN, IL, WI, MN, SD, WY, MT)
Distance today: 69 mi
Total Distance traveled:  2959 mi