We continued on through the park stopping at a few other locations some with extremely hot water. You can walk up boardwalks to view the hot pools and when you walk by some of them, it feels like you're walking past the open door of a sauna. The last place we stopped before exiting the park was Mammoth Hot Springs.
The waterfall there is simply beautiful with its terraces and the hot water flowing down.
When you look at the picture it looks like it should be snow and ice, but it's not. Sulfur and very hot water. According to the Mammoth website the formations change rapidly due to the limestone from which the water issues, it being very soft rock. In town, elk wander freely like they own the place - which they sort of do. We slowly rode through town and just outside of town saw more elk with calves wandering around. After that it was out of the park and on toward Livingston, Montana where we stayed at another KOA campground. Showers were quite welcome after the heat of Yellowstone.
Wednesday, July 10th
Wednesday found us leaving camp and heading northwest on I-90. None of us really wanted to ride on it, but it was the quickest way to get to Seeley Lake which was our next destination. Still, the stretch of I-90 that runs through Montana here is not the boring straight super-slab that it is in other places. The terrain is pretty and it was actually a fairly pleasant ride.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
We had lunch in Butte, then stopped in Deer Lodge for groceries, and eventually turned off of I-90 at Garrison. The road of highway 12 sort of doubled back a bit heading east, but eventually we turned left on to 141 riding past Nevada Lake, then turned left again on to 200. We eventually turned north on 83 which took us past Salmon Lake and through the town of Seeley Lake.
All along the way we were looking for campgrounds, and found a very promising one called Big Larch just past town. There was a really nice group campsite that would have fit us all quite easily, but we decided to settle in at Tamarack Lodge which my brother Dave scouted out for us. It was a delightful resort with docks to swim from, showers, a nice little store and pretty peaceful place to camp. After the heat of Yellowstone and the highway, the lake felt wonderful.
Tom Clark
I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Intellitect, living in Spokane, Washington. I also do a little development work on the side. And I love riding motorcycles all over the country with my friends.
