Yellowstone Trip - Day 1
I began my day at 4:30 a.m., quickly ate a bowl of cereal, then left the house at 5:10 to drive to the Flint airport to catch my 6:40 flight. In the the past, I've never encountered any check-in or security checkpoint lines at Flint. Today, because I arrived at 5:55 a.m. - less than a hour before my flight - there were lines at both the check-in and security checkpoints. I finally made it through the security checkpoint at 6:38 a.m. and luckily my plane as at the gate immediately in front of the security checkpoint, so I boarded the flight at 6:39 a.m., and they immediately closed the door behind me.
I flew from Flint to Detroit, Detroit to Minneapolis, and Minneapolis to Bozeman, Montana. From Bozeman, I took a 3 hour shuttle ride to my final destination, West Yellowstone, Montana. A few facts I learned during the shuttle ride:
- Ted Turner owns the Flying D Ranch near Bozeman, MT. Flying D is the largest ranch in Montana and Ted Turner is the largest land owner in Montana. Ted is also the largest land owner in the United States.
- Flying D is one of 15 ranches that Ted owns in the U.S. On all of his ranches, he raises buffalo for commercial meat production.
- Ted Turner is the largest buffalo producer in the U.S.
- The elevation of West Yellowstone, MT is 6,666 feet about sea level.
- It's not uncommon for day time temperatures to be -30 degrees fahrenheit here during January & February
- 80% of the terrain in Yellowstone is tree covered; 80% of the trees in Yellowstone are Lodgepole Pines
- Land and homes in this area are insanely expensive, be prepared to write a seven figure check for a modest cabin
So far, I've seen the following animals:
- Bull elk with a monster rack
- Two golden eagles eating a dead bighorn sheep
- Bighorn sheep
- Wolf
- Mule deer
Aside from animals, I've seen lots of snow, Jack Pines and rocks. Mac would be in heaven here with all of the limestone formations to climb...the height and width of all the rock formations is impressive, dwarfing any man made sky scraper that I've ever seen. God has some architectural talent, for sure.
Today (Friday) we're snowmobiling inside Yellowstone park with a guide. While I'm not sure exactly where we're going, I know that Old Faithful is on the agenda. I feel like I've seen it enough on television that I don't need to see it in person, but oh well.
The temp this morning at 6:30 was 8 degrees, but it's supposed to get up to 25 today, so that will be comfortable riding weather. It's now 8:10, so I've gotta put on my gear and go pick up my sled.