West Yellowstone, Montana & Island Park, Idaho

In addition to spending time in Yellowstone National Park, we also had days we spent exploring outside of the park - in West Yellowstone & Island Park, Idaho. 

We  stayed at an RV park in Island Park, Idaho, about 20 miles from the West Yellowstone entrance.  A very pretty park full of trees, which we loved, but it made it a bit tricky to find the right spot to park our coach where we could open our slides without hitting a tree - LOL. We also had the best neighbors, who were seasonal residents that gave us lots of tips for things to do in the area.

Helicopter ride! 
We took advantage of a voucher we had and booked a helicopter ride over West Yellowstone, a first for John and I - very cool and we saw some Big Horns on the mountain.  

And my husband who keeps me laughing/entertained 

did an impromptu video before we got on the helicopter. 

I thought John wanted to take a selfie 

but he wanted to channel his inner “Arnold” - LOL

We visited the historic Johnny Sack house by Big Springs in island Park - incredible woodworking with his signature  split bark decoration used in the cabin’s furniture and interior.   

Adding a snippet of drone video John took along the 

spring in front of the cabin - the water is crystal clear!

Our neighbors mentioned that there is a moose and her baby that usually hang around there in the evening, so we drove back up there around 7:30pm, and there they were, in the spring feeding!

We visited the GRIZZLY & WOLF DISCOVERY CENTER in West Yellowstone - this is a non-profit wildlife park with grizzly bears and gray wolves that are unable to survive in the wild (some likely would have been euthanized if they didn’t have a place to go). They also had 3 wolf pups another facility had sent them because they didn’t have room for them.. they were pretty fun to watch.

We went to church/mass at “Our Lady of the Pines” in West Yellowstone.  A really unique church with lots of pine (like it’s name) including the creaky pine pews.

Great app - Just Ahead:  
I forgot to mention in my earlier posts that while in Yellowstone Park, we used an app called “Just Ahead”.  It uses your phone GPS to give you info on stops/history as you drive through the park.  It was free when we were in Big Bend so we tried it and really liked it, so we bought the rest of the National parks and used it in Yellowstone which was very helpful considering all the miles we drove in the park.  He even starts well outside the parks with information.

#Where2NextDawseys - Grand Teton National Park