We decided to stay another day and rest up/get the laundry done.
On Wednesday we left West Yellowstone - drove thru the Park again as we were nearing the East Entrance, we had to stop for this guy
who must have thought that he was at a rest stop.
More steam pots!
And then this group came out of the trees and were headed to the meadow below and apparently thought the road was the best way to get there.
During our four days of traveling thru Yellowstone, we encountered many areas like this:
Thousands of acres of trees lost due to fires.
I guess that since we were leaving, we wouldn't be seeing any more scenery, but, were we ever wrong.
We finally made it to Cody, found our CG, and settled in for the night. The next day we toured the Buffalo Bill Historical Museum.
Very nice museum. It has 5 different settings that you can tour:
Museum of Natural History
Buffalo Bill Museum
Plains Indian Museum
Galary of Western Art
Cody Firearms Museum (2600 firearms in total)
We spend over 4 hours there and thoroughly enjoyed it.
We were going to leave on Friday but decided to stay another day just to relax (more).
Saturday we did leave in a cool, misty morning. We went thru one of the longest mountain ranges that we have been in - The Big Horn Mountains.
There are several scenic byways which pass through the Bighorn National Forest, all of which provide the traveler with scenic driving. We took the Cloud Peak Skyway (US 16), connecting the the town of Tensleep and city of Buffalo, crossing the southern Bighorn National Forest and seeing breathtaking views of snow-capped peaks along the 45 mile route (which included the Powder River Pass at 9,666 ft).
It had everything you could possibly want:
High mountains - 13,000+ feet
Steep grades - 7%
Longest climb - at least 6 miles
Coldest - 34 degrees
Stuff on the ground - snow
It was a beautiful drive (somewhat tense at times) but worth every minute (hour or two) of it.
After the long drive thru the Big Horn, we finally came out of the mountains and into Buffalo.
We got to Buffalo around 3 PM, settled in to our CG (Indian Campground & RV Park), and watched some football (South Carolina over #1 Alabama) and baseball (perennial losers to the Yankees!!!).
We went to church on Sunday and then took a little drive around town. We did find this place to take a couple pictures of the Big Horn Mountains in the West.
We left Buffalo today (Monday, the 11th)and drove to Custer, SD.
We are now officially out of Wyoming after having spent 3 weeks roaming the highways and byways.
WE are now in Custer and the Black Hills where we will spend the next few days checking out the local sights.
Okay...I saw SNOW on some of those roads. It is officially time for you to get off the road and come home! It is only going to get colder and snowier (is that a word?)! Love you! Love the pictures!
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