We de-camped from Vail for the President's Day holiday and the spring break madness. We started our ski touring adventure by meandering our way from Vail to Yellowstone National Park.
At dinner the night before we were to leave, Dimitri’s bonded tooth fell out. He wrote an e-mail to Dr. Ryan Zastrow telling him and Ryan offered to open the office on Saturday morning for Dimitri and to re-bond the tooth. We took him up on his offer and by 11 am Dimitri was re-bonded and we were on the road and on our way to the Hampton Inn in Rock Springs, WY.
It was a lovely day and the roads were dry. The 317 miles went quickly enough, sharing the driving, arriving at around 4 pm. As we drove up the Colorado River Road, CO 131, towards Steamboat Springs, there was more and more snow surrounding the road—much more snow than in Vail. It came up to the top of the fences along the road. Indeed, the group of elk we saw could have easily stepped across the fence to the road (unless they sunk in the snow). We crossed Rabbit Ears Pass at around 9200’ and it was cold outside. There was about a 30 minute delay in Steamboat Springs. The main road was closed for a snow sculpture display and we had to detour. Our vistas were vast expanses of white. In one area, there were deer actually on the road. We stopped to eat our sandwiches for about a half hour at a pull-out for Fortification Rocks north of Craig on the #18 . It seemed that the next section was ranch land with almost no mountains. On the #13/WY 789, we crossed the Continental Divide and then got on the I-80 where the speed limit was 80 mph! There were lots of ugly oil storage tanks along the roads in WY and there was TRAFFIC on the I-80, as well as dead elk in the median. But it took no time to do the last 80 miles into Rock Springs, WY (the site of a massacre of Chinese miners in the 1880’s).
At the Hampton Inn in Rocky Springs, we booked a one king “study” with sofa bed and it was tight. There was no floor space for suitcases. On the other hand, there was a “kitchen” area with a sink, a microwave, a mini fridge and counter space. The room was as expected from a Hampton and quiet. The bedding was too hot for us, as usual. We were surprised that the hotel's Jacuzzi was a good as it was. It was indoor but near windows. It had bubbles and was pleasant, in spite of the screaming kid in the nearby swimming pool.
We had dinner at Sapporo (White Mountain Mall, 2461 Foothill Blvd, Rock Springs, WY 82901, (307) 382-0680) and it was surprisingly good. Our server was very efficient and Asian-looking, as were most of the employees. Of course, we ordered too much but we had enough to take with us for lunch the next day. We had one appetizer of Beef Negimaki (scallions rolled up in thinly sliced sirloin steak, broiled, topped with teriyaki sauce & sesame seeds) for $8.95 that was good. Then we had two bento boxes, one with chicken (good for $18.95) and one with salmon (too dry for $19.95). The bento boxes were served with miso soup, house salad, California roll, 2 pcs gyoza, 2 pcs shrimp tempura & white rice. They were huge. We had tea with our meal and it was Japanese! We spent $56.02 plus tip and we were happy.
After dinner, we ate some Hampton Inn cookies and watched TV sitting on the sofa. It all worked out just fine, especially since we were using points and didn’t have to shell out actual money.
We left Rock Springs for Jackson, WY at around 11 am with high clouds and 12°. It was necessary to drive 2 miles on the I-80 east to get to WY 191 north. The 191 goes straight north, all the way to Jackson. Other than in little towns, there were no other cars driving north, although there was commercial and private car traffic going south. It was a good road and dry--another lovely day. There were a couple of towns to go through before Pinevale but nothing going on. Pinevale was a town of 2000 and had a race going on. Our road to Jackson changed numbers so we were on the WY 189 out of Pinevale. Our ride was through a vast expanse of white ranch land. Snow was everywhere and up a third of the way to the top of the fences. We didn’t even see electrical poles for 90 miles. Our road became designated a WY scenic road and it was. We saw the Wind River Range to the north and it was craggy. Then we entered the Bridger Teton National Forest and saw the Gros Ventre (big belly) Range around Jackson. We love mountain vistas and we really like driving on roads like the 191 (or yesterday’s 131). The 177 mile drive took about 3 hours.
The Lodge at Jackson Hole (80 Scott Lane, Jackson, WY 83001, 307-739-9703), at $317 for a king with fire place, was a disappointment. Our room was large enough with a sofa and a fireplace. The furniture was heavy mountain type and had great storage, with lots a drawers and a good sized closet. We had spaces to open our suitcases for our one night stay. The climate control system annoyed us. The TV sucked and there was no way for us to watch our movies, even with the HDMI cable we had with us. We didn’t use the fireplace. The room was quiet enough but we should have requested a third floor room to avoid the stomping feet noise from above. The bathroom was large enough (and had a heater) and the shower was big enough for the two of us. The hotel's indoor hot tub had no water jets or bubbles and the sitting surface was unbelievably scratchy. The outdoor Jacuzzi had bubbles, the surface was slightly less scratchy and had sun but someone had thrown a pizza in it and it was only sort of clean. The deck surface getting to the Jacuzzi was pure ice, even with de-icer scattered around. The breakfast buffet was okay but a disappointment because there were no eggs made to order. The breakfast room was warm enough though. The room cost around $320 and we wouldn’t stay there again.
We had dinner at Gather in Jackson Hole (72 S Glenwood St., Jackson, WY 83001, https://gatherjh.com/). We had a nice meal and we liked Mike, our server. We got a 5:30 reservation and it wasn’t crowded then. We sat next to each other on a banquette so we had cushioned seats. We had done a search on "innovative cuisine" in Jackson and Gather came up. Also a restaurant called Kitchen came up but there were no reservations available for the 12th. At Gather, we ordered the pork buns ($16)--the 3 of them were good (and the Fresno chiles were hot). We shared the special Étouffée ($35) and thought it was good too. We drank black tea ($3) with our meal. For dessert we tried the donut holes ($12) and now we never have to have them again. We spent $71.21 and we were happy.
The town of Jackson does not have heated sidewalks and we
took our life in our hands walking to the restaurant from our car (or from the
parking lot of our hotel for that matter).
The next day we drove 242 miles to Bozeman, Montana from Jackson, WY. It took about 4 hours with stop for lunch. We went over Teton Pass where there were many, many back country skier traces coming down steep, treed areas. Coming from Jackson, the Jackson Hole ski area is 10 miles away. As we were traveling north from Jackson on the #22 to the Idaho #33, we slowed through one tiny Idaho town after another. It was a sparsely inhabited area, not wide open spaces. There was lots of white but it wasn’t as deep as on preceding days. We switched to the US Hwy. 20 and it started out as a divided highway with a 70 mph speed limit. Then it reduced to a 2-lane road. As we were driving north, we could see the storm approaching from the west. We stopped in West Yellowstone for lunch, although there wasn’t much to choose from. We ate at Hanks Chop Shop and had a veggie sandwich with very good fries for $16 plus tip. Driving north, there was a beautiful snow covered mountain range to our east. We saw the Three Teton Peaks-Grand, Middle and South (which in fact are best seen from the west). They reminded us of the peaks in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile (have a look at the photo in the post to get an idea). After lunch, we were driving in fog and it looked like it was going to start snowing immediately. But it cleared up for the rest of our drive. There was a National Weather Advisory beginning at 5 pm that afternoon. We passed the turn off (#64) for Big Sky and it looked like the area really, really needed snow. We arrived in Bozeman before the snow started.
We stayed at the Residence Inn by Marriott and it became our favorite brand (with the room we had selected). We had reserved a king studio with sofa bed and it was large enough for a desk, a table, a sofa with a coffee table and a large, full-ish kitchen (with stove top and dishwasher). The bathroom worked for us and there was a closet with enough hangers. The climate control also worked for us. The hotel's small Jacuzzi had bubbles and was hot enough. Breakfast the next day was okay; we had oatmeal with our banana and cinnamon. We were able to park our car under our window and use the remote starter. Another very good thing: we stayed there on points with no cash outlay.
For dinner, we went to an Indian restaurant in Bozeman called Pakeezah and had very good meal. We ordered too much but enjoyed it all and had enough leftovers for lunch the next day. The space was lovely and we had good service. We ordered one Butter Chicken ($25), one paneer tikka Masala ($20), garlic naan ($5), dahi ka raita ($3), Imli ki chutney ($3), one kheer ($5) and one chai ($5). All were very tasty. We spent $66 plus tip and were happy and full!
On Tuesday morning, the car was covered in about 3 inches of
snow and it continued to snow. We were able to turn on our remote starter
from our room and it did a great job clearing the snow off of the windshield.
Our drive was a very slow and snowy one. Fortunately, Dimitri felt comfortable driving 1 1/2 hours at 45 mph. The roads had been plowed but
there was lots of snow even so. We started on the I-90 E to the #895 to Mammoth
Hot Springs. At some points, we had no one to follow and that was tough. Also,
even though #895 was plowed, the snow on the road became corrugated and that
made for a bumpy ride. Yankee Jim Canyon was 15 miles from Gardiner and it
could be quite scenic. We saw our first bison and we had NPR classical radio
reception which was nice. In the surrounding fields, there was lots of
irrigation equipment. We were beside the Yellowstone River and it was flowing. The road turned into a scenic byway but, of
course, we couldn’t see. When we got to Mammoth Hot Springs, Audre realized that
she had lost her car key in Bozeman. She remembered that she was the one to
open the car doors when we were packing up the car and she thought that maybe
she had dropped the key on the snow next to the car. There was just enough cell
phone reception from the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel to call the Residence Inn in Bozeman. Someone there had found and had turned in Audre's car key in at the reception desk. Phew! On the way from Gardiner to the Fairmont Hot
Springs on Friday we could stop at the Residence Inn in Bozeman.
The Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel was not open (due to the flooding during the spring of 2022) but visitors to Yellowstone could sit in the lobby to wait for their snow coach. After we had our leftovers from Pateezah, comfortably, at a table in the sitting area (called the Map Room) of the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, the Yellowstone Snow coach was there to pick us up. Read about our winter Yellowstone experience by clicking here.
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