Town of West Yellowstone

A town of Tourists & Traffic

We started spending our summers in the West Yellowstone area back in the late 1970's and through the 80's. The town was a lot (LOT!) different then. It was a small town without paved roads everywhere, without curbins, without McDonalds, and without so much traffic.

We used to go to the Running Bear Pancake House for breakfast so decided to see if they were open for lunch. We didn't get into town until 2:30 in the afternoon and the restaurant closed at 2 PM. Darn. That would have been nice, but no dice. We drove through town and checked a couple other places we knew from the past, wanting to patronize local business. Nothing much was open in the middle of the afternoon so we stopped by McDonalds near the entrance to the park. We hadn't eaten at a McD in many months and never at this one. We walked in and surveyed the menu and I got a bad feeling. It wasn't crowded at that time of day, but I really didn't want to eat there. I wanted to eat at a local business, plain and simple, I wanted to support someone who was trying to make a go of it despite having a McD in their small town. Not only that, but the cost of a big mac, fries and drink would have been over $10 each. This was one expensive McDonalds.

So I said to Rick, "Lets go" and we left. At that point I would have gone to one of the two grocery stores for something. We decided to visit Bob Jacklin's Fly Shop, another place we used to visit on a regular basis. They are still in the same location and Bob still comes into the shop every morning. We missed him, but I asked a couple of the fly shop guys where we could get a good sandwich or burger. They all agreed that Kiwi's Takeaway had the best burgers in town. They gave us directions and we were off for a late lunch or early supper. Although they close sometime during the afternoon to prep for dinner service, they were open and we were happy at the end of the meal. Although it's only a small place with 6 or so tables, the food was good, the service was good & friendly, and I think the huge tasty hamburgers, yummy fries, and drink was less expensive than McDonalds would have been. The owner was an interesting person from New Zealand who used to be a chef in a couple big cities, but tired of unhealthy food and poor quality.

We visited Blue Ribbon Flies, but missed Craig and Jackie. We stopped in at Arrick's Fly Shop, Madison River Outfitters, and then Bud Lilly's. Right next to Lilly's is a small shack that sells yummy fresh homemade ice cream. We used to go to the Playmill Theatre to see the melodrama and other plays and I read that it's celebrating it's 46th summer season. I just had to get a photo. Although it's not as it was 25 years ago, it was nice to see.


We noticed many artistically painted buffalos everywhere we turned. They were on the sidewalks, in front of businesses, on the lawn of the museum, everywhere. We didn't know what they were for or how many there were, but I got home and read about it on the Internet. There are 36 buffalos, each painted by an artist and they will be auctioned off at the end of August. I read that the fundraising project, West Yellowstone Where the Painted Buffalo Roam, started a couple years ago and is to benefit the local community. On the trip we passed through Ennis and Alder and saw large painted fish statues and I also learned that it is another fundraising project for Madison County called Fish Out of Water. The bidding on the statues is in the thousands of dollars.



It was getting late and we had a few hours drive to get home, depending on how many times I stopped to snap photos. And yes, I did stop on the way home.