One of the chief attractions of entering Yellowstone via Gallatin
Gateway is the 80 mile motor trip through glorious mountain country that
you enjoy without extra charge.
Promptly after lunch, you leave Gallatin Gateway Inn in one of the
luxurious motor coaches of the Yellowstone Park Company and begin the
trip southward.
In a short time you enter spectacular Gallatin Canyon. Just beyond
Roaring Creek lie the huge, eroded battlements of Castle and Cathedral
Rocks, majestic cliffs that dwarf the tiny river flowing swiftly at
their base. This is the famed Montana dude ranch country, and you
glimpse many of the ranches in the innumerable little valleys that are
tributary to the Gallatin.
You’ll see Sagebrush Point where the Gallatin flows in a graceful
S-curve hundreds of feet below the road ... the broad cone of Lone
Mountain rising to a height of ten thousand feet and Pulpit Rock, oddly
and accurately carved by some freak of Nature.
Perhaps you’ll catch sight of a moose feeding on lily roots in a pond
beside the road, or a band of elk emerging warily from the timber. Over
there is a new beaver dam, and that gray shadow skirting the road is a
coyote.
[Illustration: Feeding a fawn.]
[Illustration: Old Faithful Inn is said to be one of the highest and
largest log buildings in the world. Its pleasantly rustic public rooms
have long made it a favorite with Park visitors. Facilities are
exceptionally complete.]
Crossing dozens of creeks with picturesque, western names, you enter the
boundaries of Yellowstone. Again leaving the Park, the road winds
through the Madison National Forest, skirts Hebgen Lake, crosses the
Madison and brings you to West Yellowstone—your official entrance to the
Park.
[Illustration: Its curiously formed cone has earned it the name of
Grotto Geyser. In its two major basins, Yellowstone has more active
geysers than all the rest of the world, but you’ll never tire of their
varied fascination.]
[Illustration: Cowboy with guitar.]
The Motor trip from Gallatin Gateway is a perfect introduction to
Yellowstone, and shows you country unlike any within the Park.