YELLOWSTONE BOUND - Toxic Waste & Grizzly Bears...OH MY!

In this episode we leave the Lowland US Forest Service campground and make our way to Yellowstone. But before getting too far down the road, we made a quick pitstop (or 2) to check out what the area had to offer in the way of weird and eccentric places to see.

Lifestyles of the rich and famous, anyone? Try a visit to the Copper King Mansion – a 34-room Victorian mansion built in 1888 at a cost of $500,000 (that’s $13 million today). William Andrews Clark, one of the wealthiest men in the world at the time, built this mansion as a testament to his title as one of Montana’s “Copper Kings”.  Though this tour didn’t make the cut for our video, it’s still worth you checking it out if in the neighborhood.

What better way to truly grasp the magnitude of how some of these “Copper Kings” obtained their wealth, than to visit the Berkley Pit – a former open pit copper mine. This massive mine stretches about 1 mile long by 1/2 mile wide. But underneath is where the real action was – vertical and horizontal tunnels that traveled for miles underground. When the pit closed in 1982, the water pumps in the nearby mine were turned off and groundwater slowly filled the pit, - unfortunately that water continues to rise, even today and is now close to the natural groundwater level. Hence making The Berkley Pit the largest Superfund sites in the US.

Montana is one of only a few states that’s home to grizzly bears and while we’d never like to run across one in the wild you can see them up close and personal at the Montana Grizzly Bear Encounter.  Located in Bozeman, MT, MGE is home to a handful of rescued bears and provide education and viewing of them in a more natural mountain setting.

And now we’re off to Yellowstone –we venture to one of the most visited national parks in the nation – WITHOUT reservations!