Cody to West Yellowstone

---

Today we headed for Yellowstone by way of the Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway. It was well named because it was truly scenic. Our first stop was at the Buffalo Bill dam. Buffalo Bill Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam on the Shoshone River. The dam is named after the famous old West figure William "Buffalo Bill" Cody who founded the nearby town of Cody and who owned much of the land now covered by the reservoir formed by the dam. The dam was part of the Shoshone Project, one of the first projects overseen by the Bureau of Reclamation and was built from 1905 and 1910. At the time of its completion, it was the tallest dam in the world at 325 feet. The land around the reservoir is maintained as Buffalo Bill State Park. The dam is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was also named a National Civil Engineering Landmark.
At the visitor center, we watched a film about the building of the dam. The story was amazing. The construction was a struggle to say the least. At the visitors center, we learned that the river runs at it's highest level during May, June and July and begins to lower from that time on, consequently the Dam was built during the winter months under incredibly cold and harsh conditions. I took photos of the dam and surrounding area.
From there we continued on through the park which was again another picturesque drive. We were in a deep canyon with the Shoshone river running alongside the road.
Our destination was the town of West Yellowstone so we had to cross through Yellowstone National Park to it's west side. On the way we stopped for our picnic lunch at Sylvan lake. It was a lovely setting with the picnic table located lakeside. Before we left the picnic area, we made the usual necessary stop at the toilet facilities and were fascinated to see bear claw marks on the tree right beside the little building that housed the toilet. Of course we were very happy that all we saw were the claw marks and not the bear. I jokingly said that the bear had heard there was a Honey Pot (nickname for the toilet) there and had come to investigate.
Established in 1872, Yellowstone National Park is America's first national park. It's located in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, although the major portion of the park is in the northwest corner of Wyoming. It is home to a large variety of wildlife including grizzly bears, wolves, bison, and elk. Preserved within Yellowstone National Park are Old Faithful and a collection of the world's most extraordinary geysers and hot springs, and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We had been to Yellowstone on a previous trip 4 years ago in late September. There were relatively few tourists at that time compared to the summer months. Everything, the weather, the accommodations and the photography had been superb so I'm hoping for the same this time.
Today it was just a quick drive through the park to reach our destination. We did stop to see Old Faithful and arrive just in time to see it erupt. There is a web cam at Old Faithful in Yellowstone. The photo reloads about every 30 seconds and it will tell you when the next eruption is to take place.
I phoned my sister and told her to access the web cam on the computer and that I would stand where she could see me and I'd wave. It was successful. Not only did she see us but captured the photo from the internet and e-mailed it to me. Modern technology.....amazing!!!!! Today's photo of Old Faithful is not so good due to the lighting, so I've posted a photo that I took on our previous visit.
We continued through the park and made just one more stop at the Fountain Geyser. It is unpredictable as to when it will erupt and so we've never seen that happen. Fountain Geyser in the daytime is interesting but our previous visit I was able to see it at sunset and it was fabulous. The photo seen here was taken at sunset on our previous trip.
We saw very little wildlife today. Actually, the only wildlife we saw was a few buffalo off in the distance and the occasional lone one grazing at the roadside. Perhaps it was the time of day. Tomorrow we will go back into the park and revisit some of the sites we had seen before.

---

Photos

At Buffalo Bill Dam
View down the gorge below the dam

Sylvan Lake
Today's lunchtime view

Fountain Geyser
Taken on a previous trip to Yellowstone.