"Falling" down

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Geo: 44.4887, -110.012

Day 6

We got an early start as we knew we had a long day ahead of us. We took the Buffalo Bill Scenic Byway (US-14) west from Cody to the east entrance of Yellowstone NP. Lovely drive early on a glorious day.

At the gate, we gave the ranger one of our newly acquired (at the Denver Mint) quarters featuring Yellowstone. I wish we had acquired $5-10 worth as almost none of the park employees had seen them yet. They were very popular when we showed them off.

Our route took us through Fishing Bridge, Canyon, Tower Junction and out the NE Entrance. In our first stretch, a buffalo was assigned to greet the tourists and walked alongside us on the main road. Great picture taking. There were remnants of winter everywhere … snow piles, snow caps, partially frozen lakes. The farther into the park, not so much winter.

We stopped 10-12 places along the way to enjoy the scenery and take pictures. Dragon Mouth Spring and Mud Volcano reminded us what the park was all about.

So did the "yellow stone" along the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We stopped at the Lower Bluffs and wish we had taken the turnoff at Artist's Point. Great falls. Lovely canyon.

A reminder, which I personally forgot:: the best animal viewing is always at dawn and dusk. And we allowed for neither in our visit. So the animal viewing was sparse. We saw hundreds of bison, a few pronghorn antelope, a herd of elk and one bear. When we rounded one bend, there were 30 cars stopped so you knew it was a bear. Luckily someone had a high powered telescope so they let us view it, but even my 26x zoom lens just showed a blur of black.

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