Bozeman, Montana --> Madison Canyon State Forest, Earthquake Lake Campground, Montana

July 01, 2004

	The people in the hostel were nice. And all of them (at least everyone we talked to) were going to Yellowstone. Apparently Bozeman is one of the main gateways. All this made us decide to go there too. I call it peer pressure. Below is a photo of the check-in method in the hostel. The Volkswagen below is a custom conversion. It has a bed in the back and also quite a bit of storage space. I think it is cool how it looks kind of like a spaceship.
	<-- Snowdrift block and some other random scenes from the road. Before we were ready for Yellowstone we decided to visit a ghost town that was kind of on the way. Just like the day before it started raining a bit before we got there. But we were brave and went anyway.
	This ghost town, Virginia City, turned out as a disappointment as well. It had been turned into a tourist object - many of the buildings hosted souvenir shops and some buildings had been renovated so that they looked like new and were inhabited as well. The story behind the city, however, was quite a nice one. On May 26, 1863 some people found gold in a stream. By June 16th there was a town, by mid-1864 there were already about 5000 people. In 1863 this area was Idaho Territory. The chief justice of the area, Sidney Egerton went East to convince the congress with $2000 worth of gold nuggets from Virginia City and on May 26 1964 the Montana Territory became official.
	The town  was the capital of Montana until 1875. Since the railroad did not come to this town it lost its importance fast. By 1890s most miners had moved away and by 1940s the town was pretty much empty. Today it is a National Historic Landmark. The neighboring town, Nevada City, was also a mining town and today it is an open air museum. It has a lot of old buildings gathered together from all over Montana and also some old trains. The train tracks do not lead anywhere, however, since the railroad to this area never got built.
	After visiting the ghost town of Virginia City we headed towards Yellowstone. It was quite cold, since we were high in the mountains and it was rainy. We found a campsite in Madison Canyon State Forest. Just as we turned into the campground we saw a moose. It was mama moose since it did not have antlers. I tried taking picture of it but it was fairly dark and the camera got nothing :(