I see dead things

Needs more trees. This one's def lonely.

 We reached the small town of West Yellowstone late yesterday afternoon and GUESS WHAT?! Yellowstone’s closed. We can still drive through on the ONE road that’s open but, sadly, we’re nowhere near that particular park entrance. We’re on the west side – it’s the north entrance that’s open.

It never occurred to me that Yellowstone would be shut (apart from Preznint Stupid’s temper tantrum government shutdowns). Don’t folks need to snow shoe, winter camp, visit Old Faithful and the hot springs? What about grizzly watching? I forgot to bring Fancy Feast (EVERYONE loves Fancy Feast!) but…but I woulda liked to say hello. Ya know, from Coco and the crew at home.

Sadly, it’s not to be.

Ten and I are bunking at a strange, old, Stephen King-ish  place – The Stage Coach Inn. As we checked in, observant babe that I am, I noticed something. The lobby’s decorations would give Stupid Jr. serious wood. The place is def rustic, harking back to a Hemingway-esque time when killing big animals (for FUN!) was considered mega manly versus cold-bloodedly insane.

We dropped our bags in the, thankfully taxidermy-free, room (with it’s stellar view of an icicle of Brobdingnagian proportions) and went off in search of dinner. Huh, waddya know – like the park, nearly everything was closed for the season. Slogging through snow covered streets, we eventually managed to find a bar with food. Ten had a pint of Moose Drool (!!!) and I had a surprisingly decent Cab with our onion rings and tacos. Pub type offerings but decent pub grub.

What happens now that the park’s not a happening dealio? Eh, we’ll drive up north of here, see what we can see and have a day mostly off from driving.

Our next big stop will be tomorrow when we motor east to Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming. Best I can tell from the website, this park’s actually open. Yea!