Yellowstone National Park

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It was almost dark when we arrived at Buffalo Bill State Park and when we awoke we were greeted with one of the most beautiful sights we’ve ever seen from any of our campsites. We drove back into Cody and had breakfast and fueled up before heading into Yellowstone National Park - only about 50 mile away. We had to drive through a series of tunnels along the river and the scenery was great.

We drove into Yellowstone at the east entrance. The landscape there was scarce with trees on the hillside due to fire damage. Yellowstone Lake seem quite endless as we drove around her shores. We saw buffalo on the beach. We found a campsite at Bridge Bay. It took us a while to rearrange all of our equipment and supplies - to bear-proof our vehicle. This meant taking off all the containers from the cargo rack in back and the cooler and separating all the food and putting it into a metal food storage box near our site. We had to keep the huge rubber tubs in the van with us.

We started our sight-seeing trip on the lower loop. We drove over the Continental Divide. We saw the geyser basin at West Thumb and the falls at Kepler Cascades before reaching Old Faithful. Just before the eruption, it started to sleet. Dave and I had our raincoats on but most were in shorts and tee-shirts. Everybody got soaked. Old Faithful was less than spectacular. It only shot up high for about 10 seconds and then was barely 30 feet high.

We went into the Old Faithful Inn, which was spectacular. There is a huge 4-sided fireplace in the middle of the lobby, each side about 20 feet long. It is all open to the roof and so warm and cozy. We saw Firehole Falls and Gibbons Falls and more geyser basins. On Norris to Canyon Village road we ran into a traffic jam - buffalo crossing the street. And then it started to snow. The buffalo were getting white and so was the ground. It only lasted a few minutes but we experienced our first snow of the season.

We ran into another traffic jam soon after. About 50-60 cars pulled to the side of the road and more than 100 people on the shoulder - looks like someone spotted a pack of wolves. We could not see them. A few miles down the road, more buffalo in the street - this time one coming right down our lane, aiming right for us. Dave stopped and finally the buffalo moved over and came with 3 feet of the drivers door.

We met our neighbors from across the street from our campsite, Jon and Joy from Vermont and had a campfire and some wine to end this most interesting day.

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Photos

Our Home - Our Yard
Waking up in Buffalo Bill State Park near Cody WY

Old Faithful
Right on time - but the sleet started just before the eruption

Firehole Falls
This park has a lot of beautiful falls

Buffalo heading right for us
He passed within 3 feet of Dave's door