Monday - Sept. 19 - On to Yellowstone National Park.

This was a travel day. We took an alternate route back and stopped in
at Helena, the Capitol.It is a quaint, little city. Easy to drive
around with minimal traffic. The Capitol area is perched high on a
hill with great views below. We headed south east from there between
mountain ranges and through some of the most beautiful golden
grasslands interspersed by rivers and creeks. After a while, we could
discern various ranches with their enormous alfalfa grasslands are
harvested and bundled into giant wheels of hay and used on the ranches
to feed cattle and horses or loaded onto flatbeds for shipping and
sale. The other prominent feature was the railroad that traversed
every imaginable terrain and obstacle. We bypassed Bozeman and headed
to Gardiner, Montana, which is the northern entrance to Yellowstone
and checked in at the motel. The Gray Wolf Motel, where we stayed that night, had the obligatory mounted
trophy heads of elk and antelope. People really like to hunt game in
this part of the country. Even the receptionist bragged about bagging
an elk using a bow and arrow.

We went into town for dinner at a Rose's, which is on the road just
around the corner to the entrance to Yellowstone and we could see the
famous arch that is entrance to the Park from our table. Teddy
Roosevelt gave a speech right at that very arch in 1903 dedicating
Yellowstone as the first National Park. Engraved at the top of the
arch are the words from part of his speech - "For the benefit and
enjoyment of the people," which is the title of this blog.