Yellowstone Country

From Dubois, we traveled to Buffalo Bill State Park, just west of Cody, WY. It was an electric only campsite. We got some practice monitoring our water usage with fewer showers and less toilet flushing. We made it without any problems and had plenty of water to spare. Granted, the laundry basket was well overflowing by the end of the week.

Early morning at Buffalo Bill State Park

Our first day there we decided to head to Yellowstone National Park. About forty miles to the west was the east entrance. It was the Thursday before Labor day. We figured that that would be the least crowded day until after the holiday. Yellowstone is amazing. We did see lots of hot thermal springs and pools and of course, Old Faithful. However for both of us, the highlight was the Beehive Geyser.

Immediately after Old Faithful’s eruption, we headed to the ranger station to get our national park passport stamped. As we were leaving, a ranger came out, all excited. They had received an indicator that the Beehive Geyser was about to erupt. They get a five to twenty minute heads up, and it doesn’t erupt every day. They encouraged everyone to head over. It was only a couple of minutes away.  Wow!  We filmed the last couple of minutes of the eruption. You can watch it here.

Old Faithful

Beehive Geyser

Continuing on around the drive, we took a short walk to the Grand Prismatic Spring overlook. The colors are impressive – blues, oranges, whites.

Grand Prismatic Pool

By now we were about halfway through the bottom loop. We opted to go ahead continue around to the northeast entrance as opposed to retracing our steps. The main roads in Yellowstone roughly form two loops, a top loop and a bottom loop. On both loops the east side was shut down. One because of construction, the other, a fuel spill. We decided that we’d make one long day of it and then do other things closer to our campground as opposed to two days in Yellowstone on a holiday weekend.

Things were going good until we got caught up in a traffic jam trying to exit the park at the west entrance. Whew! We can only imagine what the traffic would be like in the height of summer. We were starting to get tired. We didn’t even stop at Mammoth Springs. We were both thinking that the next time we came to Yellowstone, we’d stay in West Yellowstone area. It seemed to be closer to a lot of the Yellowstone biggies.

After we passed the north entrance, we saw warning signs that Beartooth Highway would be closing at 8:00 pm for night road construction. Yikes! We knew we had to go on a small portion of the highway to get back to Cody. We just didn’t know if our turn off was before the portion that would be closing. With no cell reception, I was getting very nervous. It was doubtful that we were going to make the 8pm cutoff with, not one, but two buffalo jams.

I did not want to backtrack several hours to get to our campsite. We were starting to look for vacancy signs on motels. I did not relax until we got to our turnoff for Chief Joseph Scenic Byway.  It was almost dark then, and we still had a good hour plus of driving to get back to Cody.  It was dark by the time we wound our way to the top of the mountain and back down into Cody. Both of us were exhausted. It was a thirteen hour day following a travel day and a long day of sightseeing prior to that.

The next day, we kept it simple. We simply went down the road to the Buffalo Bill Dam and Reservoir and into Cody for some shopping. The canyon area around the dam is very scenic and popular with rock climbers.  The road next to the dam has three tunnels. Two are pretty short, while the third is somewhat longer. According to the guidebook, it’s actually the longest tunnel in Wyoming.

Below the dam

Buffalo Bill Dam

On Saturday, we decided to do some more driving. We took the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, in daylight this time, to Beartooth Highway and looped back to Cody. Yet another day of spectacular overlooks, canyons, rivers, and lakes.  A full day, but at least we got back before dark this time.

Chief Joseph Highway

View from Sunlight Bridge

Sunlight Bridge

Wild goats and the Beartooth Mtn in the background

On our drive home Harold thought our Jeep was broken when the outside air temp gauge read 102°, but he stuck his hand out the window, and yes, it was that hot.

We attended Cody Cowboy Church on Sunday. Yep, there was a lot of western wear and a few open carry cowboys, similar to Mountain Grace Church in Dubois the week prior. The lesson was on humbleness and obedience, using the account of Naaman and his healing from leprosy.

Afterwards we headed to Heart Mountain. This was the location of an internment camp for Japanese Americans in WWII. Most of the original buildings are gone. They have done a decent job of displays and telling the story. I kept thinking about what one of the internees said in one of the films, “we endure.” That’s what they did. They endured. Harold commented on how they went along with what the government wanted them to do due to the Japanese philosophy of Shikata ga Nai, meaning “it cannot be helped,” or “nothing can be done about it.”

Monday, Labor Day, saw a winter storm warning. Knowing that the weather was supposed to be rather cold and windy, we saved the Buffalo Bill Center of the West for then. The Center is actually five museums under one roof. They allow you to split your visit over two back-to-back days. So, that’s what we did. We covered the Natural History Museum and the Firearm Museum on Monday and the Plains Indian Museum, the Art Museum, and the Buffalo Bill Museum on Tuesday. Relaxing days to round out our week in Yellowstone country.

Tuesday morning, we woke up to an inch of snow on the ground and 30° air temps.  Talk about a wide temperature swing!

A little chilly one morning

Well, it is off to Lewistown, Montana, for the Lewistown Chokecherry Festivall which is currently not canceled!!!!!