January 26
January 27
January 28
January 29
January 30
January 31
February 1
Thursday, February 1
Breakfast was up the hill again at the Yellowstone Mine's buffet.
Then it was back to room for an early shooting out in the parking lot.
We finally got a fairly clear day and the sunrise was decent. Also, Eric had told us at breakfast that the conditions were right for a nice alpenglow on Mt. Electric. So, there we were, shooting in the parking lot with several layers less than we'd worn all week – most were dressed for airline flights. As a result, we didn't stay out there very long.... But I did get some nice sunrise photos.
The photo on the left shows Mt. Electric before the sun had started to peek over the horizon, just tinting the clouds above the snow. The center photo shows one of the old wagons at the edge of the parking lot with the moon setting amid the pink morning sky. The photo on the right shows the predawn sky towards the east of our location.
The photo on the left shows the moon setting amid the pink morning sky. The center photo shows the predawn sky towards the east of our location. And the photo on the right shows Mt. Electric as the sun starts to hit the top of the mountain.
These two photos were taken after the sun started hitting Mt. Electric. The photo on the left shows the mountain with the bit of prairie in front of it (there was a small herd of elk in that meadow, but they were very hard to see).
The photo on the right shows another of the old wagons with Mt. Electric behind it.
We loaded the bus and started our drive to Bozeman.
We made one quick stop along the way for this iconic photo. This is the original entrance arch for Yellowstone National Park. The cornerstone for the arch was laid in 1903 by Theodore Roosevelt. Back in the day, stagecoaches would pick up passengers at the train station in Gardiner and pass through this arch to enter the park.
Then we continued on up the road to the Bozeman airport where we all said our good-byes and went our separate ways.
Carl arrived about 10 minutes later to pick me up and we were on our way back to Billings.
We stopped for lunch at Route 307 - a bar and grill in Columbus, MT. That was interesting...
Then we were back on the road again for the remaining hour in to Billings where we checked into the hotel and rested the rest of the afternoon.
Kelly came over about 5:45 and we drove to Juliano's for a late anniversary dinner. Excellent dinner again. I had the honey-miso glazed salmon. Yum!!!!!
Then we drove back to motel to talk some more before crashing for the night.
Friday, February 2
After breakfast at the hotel, we packed up the car and drove home. It was an uneventful trip.
Lunch was at the Applebee's in Casper again.
And we stopped at the grocery store on our way into town to pick up some quick supplies for dinner and tomorrow morning's breakfast. Back to routine again...