Into Yellowstone

Today we set out to drive the next stretch to Yellowstone.  From Gillette, we headed west on 90 through Buffalo, 16 to Worland, 20 to Greybull, and 14 west to Cody.  Of course, while I was driving we needed to pull over and let the transmission cool down a bit, as it was very hot out and climbing the long slow grades and rising elevation made me nervous to push it!

After a while, Andy took over and we stopped off at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, and found that it was 5 museums in one building.  It was a bit more than we planned to do, so we continued on.  Cody is the “gateway” to Yellowstone, and we were worried if we’d find a campsite without reservations but we risked going into the park anyhow!

We entered through the East Entrance, and the drive through the Shoshone Forest was simply gorgeous.  The road ran through the valleys and along the river.  The sky was beautiful, the flowers were in full bloom and smelled heavenly with the fresh air and I could have stopped there!

Based on the website, there were no reservations we could make at most of the campgrounds and the sites that were first come, first served were filling early in the day.  We wanted to get a spot where we could explore the park and knowing we’d be heading south to the Tetons after Yellowstone, we decided to head north to the last camp at Mammoth.

We were banking on it filling later due to construction heading there, and we won the gamble and snagged the 3rd to last spot in the entire park.  The Suburban & camper got a bit dirty, but at least it’s not salty dirt!  Going through the park, I thought I had done some fancy driving that day but Andy took the cake.  No guardrails, curves and grades galore, hardly a shoulder, pulling a camper…but hey, we saw a bison!

It was a long day of driving and stressful going through the mountains, so we were happy to unhook the trailer, crack a beer and the kids were off on their bikes in no time!

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