Naw, I drove back Monday. I've never wanted to see corn again and be out of mountains so bad in my life. Not a wonderful trip. I was going to make the whole account and post it whenever I get it done. I had put a couple pics and a few words on my front page yesterday for the time being.
I guess for leaving on a Wednesday and being back on a Monday, if I had to rate the photography I got on a 1-10 scale, for the whole trip, I'd probably put it around a 2. I learned a whole lot however. Take away the snow storm, severe headaches(the worst part), the bad cramping, horrid excuse for 'sleep' the whole time, screwed up neck last three days(thanks to shouldering gear the days before I guess...this made the headaches that much worse)...and not knowing the area....and I'd have done a better job shooting. It was just nice to get out of it all, lol. I'll put the pics up and the whole story sometime soon.
I didn't want to be in a motel out there one more night bad enough that I drove from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. to get home. Nothing like not being able to stay awake at 8:00 pm just outside of Rapid City with a drive to near Omaha to go yet, lol. That was fun.
Something funny and strange has happened after this one, it was so 'not great' while being there. Ever eaten something or drank too much, and gotten super super sick off it, then when you smell it later after you are better, it about makes you hurl? When I look at the RAW files to process them, that's how I feel, lol. The ones around the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces are the worst, as those smelled of Sulfur stronger than the other areas. Those are the ones I was stuck at for the majority of the time. I have very un-fond memories of there and my Gardiner motel room. It's just messed up how simply thinking about it, and seeing the images which help the memory, make me almost feel sick. But anyway, if I knew ahead of time what I know now, well it'd been a lot more enjoyable and rewarding.
For what it is worth, I never saw a heck of a lot of snow anywhere. The Beartooth Mountains around Red Lodge are the apparent winners, with 49 inches reported 5 west of Red Lodge, and other similar reports around there. It would have been a hair out of the way to drive there from the park though, so I never bothered. Had I stayed there, I doubt I'd have been in and around the park very much. And they did close Gardiner south in the park Sunday morning(and Dunraven and another pass in the park before that). At least they finally opened it around noon. I could not figure out why it was even closed. You could drive up to Mammoth and the terraces there, but not into the park. That section is one of the worst anywhere in the park that I saw, and it was open to that point. I was just like, if I can drive up to this point, why exactly can't I drive on the more flat areas in the park.
I'll post the link to the whole account whenever I can get it done. I've deleted a whole lot of the 1200+ images taken. I'm so annoyed I stayed in Gardiner for the majority and didn't even get crap for snow there anyway. I never got south of Norris till Sunday afternoon and left the very next morning. I am glad I decided to get up early and go back towards the Old Faithful area for some morning shots before heading home, even if it did make the drive that much longer. At the same time, it's just a reminder of what is in there and what I could have done had I done things differently. I should have stayed in West Yellowstone for starters, even if it was a bit more costly than Gardiner. From there to Old Faithful and there to the falls never even closed during the whole thing. It was also not as "passy" like that twisty sucker into Gardiner. That thing was pretty much a sheet of ice for the majority of the storm.