We planned to get to Yellowstone today, but fate and a busy tourist season got in the way.

 

We left Twin Falls about 8 o’clock this morning.  Along with the usual gas stops, we spent some time admiring the wildflowers and checking out historic markers.  

 

About 2 o’clock this afternoon, we arrived at West Yellowstone, Montana, where we planned to spend the night.  In a town with two motels on every block, we found there was no available room.  The helpful desk clerk at the Chamber of Commerce gave us some suggestions, but they were booked as well.  Apparently, the first wave of the three million annual park visitors had arrived!  Our choices were to return the way we had come, through the road construction delays, or continue to some unknown destination to the north.

 

We gritted our teeth and headed for Bozeman, almost 100 miles north.  However, only about 30 miles out of West Yellowstone, we saw a sign for the 320 Guest Ranch in Big Sky, Montana.  Sounds like a movie, right?  The place is clean, comfortable, fairly affordable, and very picturesque.  We booked a cabin for the night and finally got off Harley.  By the time we had finished dinner in the dining hall (as good as any four-star hotel could produce), we decided to make THIS our destination.  We’ll stay here until Friday morning, explore Yellowstone from here, enjoy the quiet and the hayride/barbecue experience, and head back home.

 

Although we’re staying in a cabin, it is not as rustic as it sounds.  Four people could stay comfortably in this high-ceilinged log room.  We have heat, television, an above-average bathroom, and a front porch complete with chairs to watch the horses stroll by.  The ranch does have wifi, but it is sporadic in our room.  We will head to the “saloon” to see if the signal is strong enough to post this.  There is no cell service, but we can phone out through the house phone in the office if we need to.

 

The property was apparently designed as a conference center as well as a resort.  Both the quiet and the lack of telephones would work well for a corporate retreat!