We stopped at the Best Western in Evanston the first night of our drive to Yellowstone. You know you're in a pretty podunk town when: (1) you encounter several drunk people staggering through the streets following their participation in the local BrewFest event, (2) the cashier at Wal-Mart doesn't have any dinner recommendations to give you when you ask for some, and (3) the Best Western bills its lounge as the best night spot in town.
We stopped in Gardiner for the remainder of our visit to Yellowstone, which is just outside of Mammoth Hot Springs. My dad booked a place to stay which ended up being pretty nice - a recently remodeled vacation rental in the back of a historic little theater in town. And you know how I love historic buildings. However, the rest of Gardiner - podunk. There were very few dining options - not even typical fast food chains. We walked/drove around looking at menus the second night and found that most of our options fell somewhere between $15-$25 per person for typical American fare. Yes, some of these places were steakhouses. But not NICE steakhouses. So nay to those places. We decided to go to the ONLY Chinese place in town, because it was cheaper than going to one of the other restaurants (but still more expensive than Chinese take-out in Phoenix). The only other people in the place were Asian, which may seem like a good sign, but not so much in a tiny town like Gardiner. And they charged for white rice! Blasphemy.
