Trip to Island Park

This year for our 30th wedding anniversary, we thought we would do something different, so Debra planned a trip for us on a working ranch at Island Park. We made the reservations in late summer and were looking forward to wonderful trip to Island park, as well as Yellowstone. We thought it would be a nice change to see Yellowstone in the fall, especially when the tourist season had slowed down.

We started our adventure on Saturday and found the ranch everything it promised to be. They had a private lake, boating,  fishing, horseback riding, archery, shooting and much more. Because we arrived late in the evening,  it was already cool. We were only able to take a quick canoe ride around the lake. We found our 1 bedroom cabin and settled right in and had a wonderful evening that included a hot tub on the front porch of the cabin.

The following day it snowed about 3". Although this canceled any of the activities at the ranch we didn't let that dampen our adventure. We headed off to church in the morning and then went for a ride on the snow packed roads (there were other cars on the roads so we knew we would be OK if something happened). Since we had nothing else to do, we decided we would head on over to West Yellowstone, knowing the park would be closed due to the government shut-down.

 We played tourist in town going to a few tourist shops on main street and then had lunch in an old time cafe. We  went through the town's Yellowstone museum and by the time we were done the snow was letting up a bit and the roads were now finally clear with the aid of the snow plows. We headed back to our cabin taking a few detours on the way so that we could take in the sites. By the time we got back to our cabin the car was covered with mud due to the wet and snowy dirt roads.

When we finally returned to our cabin and it was fortunate that we had brought along a few board games to keep us entertained.  We took a walk around the cabin area in the evening. They recommend that you do not walk around after dark because they do have bears in the area.

 The following day as we headed home, we took the scenic route where we stopped to take a short hike to Mesa Falls. It was really beautiful. We came up from the back side where we could see the calm, crisp cold water before it went over the incredible falls.  They were spectacular.

Even with the closed national park and the bad weather, it was nice to get away and relax for a change as we seem to be constantly on the go with more to do than we are able to get done.  We hope to have the opportunity to visit Island park again.