Yellowstone

We were in the Park before 7 a.m. at the Western Gate from West Yellowstone. We entered the State of Wyoming soon after entering Yellowstone. I didn't get a picture of the sign - too bad, so sad. Such great scenery, you don't know where to look first - snow-capped mountains, rushing mountain streams, blue, blue lakes and on and on.

At our first turn off, we met an accidental elk.This is one of the virtual cache sites we visited - Dick needs to upload this picture with his log for the find:
We saw lots of burned areas left over from the fires of 1988. The geysers show up well - you can see all of the steam from the Middle Basin while you're driving past.





Virtual caches are the only ones that are allowed in a National Park - we found 7 of them - 2 of them were in the same place! One was at Indian Pond, where new signs were stapled to the post saying Danger - Bears Frequent This Area. One of the virtuals was at the Fishing Bridge. We remembered from our last Yellowstone trip how funny it is that there's no fishing allowed at the Fishing Bridge! This time we wanted photographic evidence:


There is still a lot of snow in the woods - in some places it's right alongside the road - how strange when it's almost July! It's deep, deep snow, too, not just a little bit. We met a couple from Elk Rapids who had camped last night in front of a seven foot deep pile of snow!

I seem to be adversely affected by the altitude - yesterday and today I've had trouble filling my lungs and have to take deep breaths. It's a scary feeling, but I feel much better now that Dick figured out what it is!

The Continental Divide crisscrosses the park road - I took a picture of the one at Elevation 8640.

We left by way of the Eastern Entrance Road. This road is steep and full of curves, sheer drops, switchbacks and hairpin turns - it requires the driver to pay strict attention to the road and the traffic. What a view! Around every turn, you are saying "Wow!"
This is an avalanche cannon - to start an avalanche on purpose!


After we left the Park, we had a picnic at Sleeping Giant in the Shoshone National Forest on the banks of the North Fork of the Shoshone River.

The fantastic scenery continues after you leave Yellowstone - it is indescribable! I'll post my pictures when I get home, because, you know, a picture is worth 10,000 words!


We drove through Cody, Wyoming - where they have a rodeo every night at 8 p.m.! We drove through the Big Horn Mountains, which is a remarkable experience in itself. The road is very steep - a 7% grade - the scenery is breathtaking. They have massive snow fences - huge wooden things in row after row to keep the snow off the road.


Filled up in Greybull, MT - $3.99/gal. = 26.6 mpg.

Near the Buffalo Bill State Park I-90 goes through three tunnels - one long and two short. The first tunnel is quite a long one, with interior lighting and the whole bit. The other two are only about as long as the average highway bridge.

We saw cowboys rounding up cattle and driving them across the road - well actually, there was a tunnel under the road for the cows! The men were wearing Western hats and chaps and they certainly looked like authentic cowboys on their horses - except for the one who was riding a dirt bike!

Staying tonight in Buffalo, Wyoming - a really nice little town. We found 4 caches right here in town. One of them was in a very cool birdhouse in a front yard on a residential street - I loved it, and named it The War Dam Eagle Birdhouse, a name stolen from an Auburn Univ. cheer. We enjoyed talking to the man who lived there - his daughter is the cache owner and now lives in Minneapolis.