Day Three - Cody, Wyoming

Here's a good idea...do not camp in a tent in Montana in October. We were plenty warm in our sleeping bags when we woke up this morning, but it was awful to have to get out of them to pack up the wet (dew) tent. Fortunately the campground had warm bathrooms and hot water for showers. We made it out of Deer Lodge by 6:55, and headed towards Yellowstone Park. The best part of waking up before the crack of dawn? Seeing the crack of dawn. :)

We got off of I-90 and took a back highway to see some of the sights before the Park. It's safe to say that there wasn't a single piece of scenery today that wasn't breathtaking. I missed a few phone calls from Bryce (I'm awful, I know), but fortunately he called back so we got to chat. :)

Passing time while Jess is driving (not the intense look of concentration). :)

We stopped for a bathroom break (and to get milk and a banana for breakfast) right before we got to Yellowstone at 10:10. The fog had cleared up by this time, and we were blessed with another beautiful day with blue skies with only a few bright fluffy clouds. Jessica had been to Yellowstone when she was a kid, so she was the tour leader for the day.

Almost immediately inside the gate, we saw ten plus cars parked on the side of the road, so we stopped to see what the commotion was (hoping for a bear, obviously). It was a swan. Nothing against giant birds, but it certainly wasn't what we were expecting. As soon as we started to pull out of the parking lot, my chocolate milk decided to leap from the dashboard onto well, pretty much everything in the front seat of the car. It took us awhile to find a bathroom for me to change in, but eventually we were back on the hunt for wild animals.

Our first detour was Firehole Canyon. The river (conveniently named Firehole River) cut through sheer rock walls, forming waterfalls and a swimming pond (unfortunately too cold for a swim).

We met a nice couple from Oklahoma, who took this picture for us. They were on their way to see their daughter in Ellensburg, Washington.

Continuing on through the Park, we saw a couple of wolves in a field alongside the road.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSRRIgyoSno

Following signs, we stopped at the Fountain Paint Pots, which are essentially giant boiling mud puddles.

The trail also took us past a few small geysers, the first I'd ever seen.

Not having worn my coat on this walk, it was a good thing that all of the posted signs prohibit leaving the boardwalk because I was seriously considering swimming in this hot spring.

After a few more minutes of driving, we saw a group of cars parked on the side of the road and followed suit. Good thing we did! We saw this guy chilling in the woods. It is illegal to approach or in any other way bother the wildlife, which is a smart law considering it is mating season for elk and males are prone to charging.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIY9Yej2QI4

I forced Jess to pull off onto the side of the road shortly after, when I thought I saw something in the woods. We walked back a ways, and sure enough there was a lonely buffalo sitting in the woods about twenty-five feet off of the road. I made it to about twenty feet away from it to take some pictures. According to pamphlets distributed within the park, buffalo can run three times faster than people (and more than that for me :) ). They have decent sized horns, and I sure wasn't in the mood to be gored.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyBv6Yo1p2U

After we turned on the road to Old Faithful, we saw this herd on the side of the road as well.

Old Faithful was huge, and well worth the hour that we waited for it to erupt. Steam was constantly pouring out, so it was hard to tell when it was about to start, but eventually it erupted, right about the time the camera battery died. This picture is from right after it started.

Shortly after leaving there we crossed the Continental Divide (or at least the sign for it). We met a couple from Kent, Washington, who were just touring Yellowstone before heading back home. We exchanged photo ops before continuing on our way.

The next leg of our route took us around Yellowstone Lake, which is huge, to say the least. The edge of the lake is dotted with small geysers and hot springs. A sign posted along the road by Mary Bay explained that temperatures at the lake's surface were cold enough to kill by hypothermia, but at the bottom of the bay, heat flow temperatures were some of the highest recorded in the park.

Our last drive in the Park took us through a massive burn zone. Apparently wildfires are not manually put out inside of the park. The burning allows pine cones to open up and shed their seeds, ensuring the future of the forests.

We didn't see any bears inside of the park, but we did find this friendly fellow outside of the East Gate.

Outside of the Park, the Wyoming views continued to amaze me.

We are staying at a hotel in Cody, Wyoming-giving us the opportunity to recover and recharge all of our electronics before the next two nights in campgrounds. Cody seems like a wonderful small town. I believe the population is somewhere just under 9,000 people. The town is named after Buffalo Bill Cody and is famous for its rodeos. We're staying in town a little bit later tomorrow morning, so that we can make it to the museum and take some pictures before we head on to Rapid City, South Dakota.