After buying an annual national park pass, and about 5 minutes after passing through the Yellowstone entrance near Cooke City I recounted this story to Mrs. Salad Is Slaughter and mused how we would probably get shut out once more on seeing bears in the wild.

Less than one minute later (that’s not an exaggeration) a rather large object came rushing down the hill and came to a screeching halt at the side of the road.  Mrs. Salad Is Slaughter slammed on the brakes.  Standing not 20 feet away from us was an American black bear.  “Holy shit,” we said staring at the bear.  The bear stared back at us.  We continued to look at the bear.  The bear backed away up the hill and stopped.  We looked at the bear and the bear looked at us.  Silence.  The bear backed up some more than darted behind some trees to hide.

Of course we were both so shocked at the sudden appearance of an American black bear that neither one of us had thought to grab our cameras and take a picture.  I tried saying “we’re never going to see any bears on this trip,” “we’re never going to see any moose on this trip,” and so on for the next couple of days but apparently that only works one time.  He was the first and last bear we saw in Yellowstone.

We continued on through the mountains, past more alpine meadows, waterfalls, and herds of bison on our way to our first stop at Canyon Village.  We saw lots of bison during the trip but for some reason I expected much larger herds.  The largest we saw had less than 50 individuals.

I’d have to put day one in Yellowstone as the highlight.  We had a close encounter with a bear, and we were the only people who saw him.

Highway 212 took us through Red Lodge Montana.   Red Lodge is a nice town with lots of shops and restaurants and has a good, rustic feel to it.  Our original plan was to stop in Red Lodge for lunch but our late breakfast combined with the town being packed to the gills – I think there might have been some motorcycle thing going on – led us to decide to just drive right through town and continue on to the park.  But first we had to go through some mountains.

To get from Red Lodge to the Yellowstone gate you’ve got to navigate a mountain barrier.  Highway 212 through the mountains between Red Lodge and Cooke City is a narrow, winding road with switchbacks, turnouts, sheer drops, and some fantastic scenery.  There are several places along the road where parking areas have been set up so you can get out of the car, walk around and gaze at the majesty around you.  During the drive we looked down on mountain lakes and drove past huge alpine meadows.

We spent quite a bit of time above the tree line during the drive and went past a lot of snow.  Of course we had to get out and walk around a bit.  Mrs. Salad Is Slaughter took pictures of me walking around in the snow fields.  In shorts.  And a tee shirt.  In July.  Not wearing a coat.  Not patches of snow.  Lots of snow.  There’s a reason this road is closed in the winter.

After walking around in the snow we headed down the other side of the mountains toward Cooke City and the Yellowstone entrance.  And what follows was my favorite incident of the trip.

To be continued.

While leaving from breakfast I noticed a Fuddruckers across the street. The sign proclaimed that they were “the world’s greatest hamburger.” After our experience with “Billings number 1 hotel” I was skeptical but since I’ve seen this chain for years during the course of my travels I suggested that we try it.

I can’t say for sure that Fuddruckers is the world’s greatest hamburger, but we were really happy with it. For starters the ground beef was a courser grind than you normally see. This courser ground helps the cooking process by giving you more surface area against the grill as opposed to the finely-ground absolutely flat bottom most people have come to expect from a restaurant patty.

Next, we ordered our burgers medium and they came out as medium. The burgers actually had pink in the middle. And they were placed on a freshly baked bun. There was also a nice spread of toppings available: fresh lettuce, tomatoes, onions, peppers, you name it.

Of course the fries were great, cut in a steak fry style and nicely seasoned.

There are Fuddruckers in the bay area but unfortunately they’re too far away for a regular trip. But it’s nice to know that there’s a franchise out there that still cares about putting out a quality burger. They’re definitely on my list of places to return to.

Pictograph Cave State Park isn’t too far out of town. You travel through rolling hills and ranches until you reach the parking area. They’ve got a paved trail that brings you to three caves. Well, they call them caves but from what I see they’re more like indentations with a rock overhang that could protect you from the elements depending upon which way the wind is blowing.

You can also pick up a guide that will let you know what kind of plants and critters you can see along the way. The path has numbered posts that correspond to paragraphs in the guide book.

The pictographs were very faint and it took some studying to make them out. They’ve put a display on the path that outlines the drawings to help you see the markings. When we got up to the cave we talked with an old guy who was up there. He claimed that his mother could read the drawings and claimed to know what some of them meant. I don’t know if he was full of it or not, but his description of the paintings describing a kill did make a bit of sense.

After Pictograph Cave State Park we hopped in to the car and headed out of town to the Little Big Horn National Monument.  It was quite a drive, maybe an hour or more to get there. Surprisingly, we didn’t lose the radio station (unfortunately the rental didn’t have XM).

Little Big Horn National Monument is an interesting place and you can feel the history around your but ultimately it’s depressing. There are so many markers where people on both sides died in the fighting. There is a nice collection of artifacts that give a good sense of how people lived during those days.

It was now early afternoon and time for lunch.

We waited for our existence to be acknowledged. The woman on the phone glanced up and continued her phone conversation. We waited some more. The first employee continued with her customers. We stood there and started wondering if we were invisible. The phone conversation went on. Finally the first woman finished with her customers and called us over. After 15 minutes of being ignored we were finally checked in.

More below the fold (more…)

We arrived at the Billings Montana airport in late afternoon, picked up our rental, and met up with the bride’s mother so we could follow her to the hotel and on to the evening’s gathering. More on the hotel later as it deserves its own post.

We had a nice time chatting with the guests, meeting the groom, relaxing after a long day of travel, and getting some pizza and beer in to our system. Then we headed off to the grocery store to pick up a few things we’d need for the week.

I’ve had the same feeling at Lake of the Ozarks; I see people in the store and I feel like an alien. I’m an outsider and we both know it. I can tell somehow that the intersection of our two universes amounts to but a thin slice. I don’t know if it’s their manner, the look in their eyes, the hunch in their shoulders, or the way they walk but I know that we have would have absolutely nothing to say to each other. Our worlds are just too different and we have no common frame of reference.

Happily, this observation didn’t apply to the wedding party or most of the people I met at the wedding itself on Saturday. There was still some culture shock to be sure. I guess jeans and tee shirts at a wedding are okay because they did look new. And I guess cowboy hats are acceptable. But I think I’d have to draw the line at wearing a Bass Pro Shops cap.

These are posts you’re not going to want to miss, and they’re brought to you by me.  Because I don’t have enough of a readership to interest sponsors.