A Cold Dreary Day In West Yellowstone - August 30, 2010
The first full day at the Hostel in West Yellowstone at the Madison Hotel started out with free coffee and hot chocolate at the hostel! Given the frigid weather and light to moderate rain to start off the day that continued through till the afternoon, the warm complimentary drinks hit the spot. The weather was just to cold, wet and windy to venture back into Yellowstone National Park for the day. Instead it was spent exploring the attractions in the town of West Yellowstone.
The Yellowstone Historic Center In West Yellowstone, Montana - August 30, 2010
After a few cups of hot chocolate and a nice long warm shower at the Madison Hotel hostel the first stop of the day was at the Yellowstone Historic Center. For the bargain basement price of $5.00 you get admission to the exhibits and 3 different Yellowstone related videos for two whole days. The Yellowstone Historic Center is bigger than many of the non-profit museums found on the west coast but still relatively small. The current movies/video that show continuously throughout the day include a film about the 1988 Yellowstone Fires, The Hebgen Lake Earthquake tragedy and the 1964 Montana Centennial train.
A Display of Airline Memorabilia From Early Airlines That Flew to Yellowstone - August 30, 2010
Outside the museum are a number of stagecoaches on display, a few statues and located behind the museum is a big rail car from the early days of Yellowstone National Park. Once inside the museum the exhibits include the history of aviation and rail road development as it relates to Yellowstone and the development of Yellowstone as a tourist attraction for people from all over the US.
The Famous Snaggletooth Dumpster Diving Yellowstone Bear - August 26, 2010
Other exhibits include photos of snaggle tooth, a bear famous for feeding out of the dumpsters and becoming somewhat of a nuisance to people at Yellowstone. Both pictures of the live bear and his stuffed body are in a display at the museum. Traveling or temporary exhibits are also present at the museum. Today the traveling exhibit was one on fly fishing that showcased lots of old fly fishing equipment including rods, reels flies and fly making equipment.
The Sign Outside the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center In West Yellowstone - August 30, 2010
The next adventure for the day was a visit to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center is a non-profit group that rescues nuisance bears and other animals that may otherwise be put down, creates as natural a habitat as possible and offers admission to the general public to view and photograph the animals in their habitats at the center. In addition to the live habitats there is a fairly extensive indoor exhibit the all about bears and their habitats.
One of Many Bear Exhibits At the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center In West Yellowstone - August 30, 2010
Most anything you wanted to know about either a Brown or Grizzly bear can be found throughout the exhibit from different behaviors and body movements exhibited by bears to the difference in size, diet and breeding habits of different kinds of bears in different parts of the country. The indoor exhibit is chock full of great information about bears complete with stuffed bears and some bear parts that have been confiscated from illegal poachers and traders of (dead) bears and their body parts.
A Real Grizzly At Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center In West Yellowstone - August 30, 2010
The outdoor exhibit showcases 8 wolves in two separate areas (4 in each) and has one large area in which 2 Grizzly Bears at a time are let into an outdoor area to feed, play and exercise. As with any animal in a cage, the animals here don’t always look particularly happy. The wolves tend to look around and seem to long for the freedom to go run and play out in the wild. The bears seem a little more content with their surroundings and were much more focused on playing in their habitat than the wolves were.
Wolves At the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center In West Yellowstone - August 30, 2010
There are clear viewing angles to see and photograph both the bears and the wolves when in some sections of their cages. An electric fence is located along the perimeter inside the cages to deter the animals from trying to get out of the cages (and quite possibly to deter people from trying to get in the cages to take picture of the bears and wolves!). The better part of the afternoon was spent at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center.
A Wolf Chewing On Some Bones At the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center In West Yellowstone - August 30, 2010
After going through the indoor and outdoor exhibits and taking numerous pictures of wolves and bears in the exhibits the next stop was the iMax Theater located adjacent to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. The iMax theater has a number of different shows available but the one at 9:00pm was a 32 minute documentary on Yellowstone. Other films offered at different times of the day include a picture on caving around the world and another on bears. The iMax Yellowstone documentary was good. It was interesting but many of the films shown at the Yellowstone Visitor Centers (for free) have much better content than the Yellowstone iMax movie had.
The Closing Credits of the Yellowstone iMax Movie - August 30, 2010
Despite the disappointment of not spending the day in Yellowstone National Park due to the inclimate weather it was still a great day in West Yellowstone an there were enough interesting sights to see to spend a full day in the town and not get bored. Once the iMax movie was over the walk back to the Madison Hotel Hostel was a short one. The day was done and it was time to warm up, get some sleep and work on planning for the next few days. At this point, it looks like a return to Philadelphia will be closer to the end of September with additional time spent in Yellowstone and a side trip up to Bozeman Montana for a few days.
