Summer 2011
West Yellowstone, MT/Yellowstone National Park
17 June 2011
Local Map
Click on pinpoints for local information
Photographs and Commentary
Click on picture to enlarge
I know I said that I will try to be positive but today has not helped. We woke to a gray, dreary day with the temperature hovering around 30 degrees. I had planned to complete the pages for the past few days but computer problems have turned a job that should have taken two hours at most into an more than double that. I'm not sure I will be able to continue uploading commentary and pictures in the future. I hope to get the computer checked out in Boise.
This afternoon we went for a walk through the town. West Yellowstone can be defined by three words, hotels, restaurants and souvenirs. This is some superficial definition based on walking around the few blocks that make up the heart of the town. I'm sure the full time residents of the town have a different definition. I spoke to two of them and they can do without the three words, even though one of them makes his living off of visitors.
The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent talking to HP Tech Support trying to resolve the problem with my computer. The answer I got was less than satisfactory... replace the hard drive. That is something that is not likely to happen until we get back to New York in July. I also ran about five hours of diagnostics which seem to indicate that I do not have a problem. One of the diagnostics that should have taken 18 minutes according to the HP techie, took 45 minutes. To me, that in itself, is an indication of a problem. I will try to limp along as we are for now.
Canyon Street, the main north-south street
Yellowstone Street, the main east-west shopping street. The entrance to the National Park is about four blocks east of the intersection of Canyon and Yellowstone
The Union Pacific building, now a museum. The Union Pacific brought the railroad to this point to serve the West Entrance of Yellowstone Park. West Yellowstone grew up around it.
The police station, formerly part of the Union Pacific depot
Interesting Animals
There are numerous sculptures constructed out of various materials around the town. These are a few examples that caught our fancy. They are reminiscent of the cows that were placed all over New York City a few years ago and the Salmon we photographed in Anchorage, AK.