We ended up stopping at Cody well after dark, a town about 50 miles east of Yellowstone. It’s got a place called The Buffalo Bill Historical Center, so we went and had a look the next day. Neither of us had a clue who Buffalo Bill was, and to be honest, we’re still not entirely sure. It did have a really good Native American museum though. Lots of information on the relocation to reservations and how they were forced to abandon many of their traditions.
The approach to Yellowstone was pretty crazy. We drove higher and higher up to the mountain pass and started seeing snow on the ground. By the time we were at the top, there were drifts 10ft deep by the road. Not what we were expecting in June! It wasn’t even particularly cold that we could tell. The other side of the pass it got even weirder – we came across a lake we dubbed the “Slush Puppy lake” which was made of broken ice for about 100m from the shore, and had piled up a big ridge of ice on the beach.
We stayed in the park for three nights, and despite having shared toilets/showers the first night at Roosevelt Lodge, it was probably the most enjoyable as we were in a little wood cabin with a stove. We also had a really good meal in the lodge, which had some very interesting beers available!
The most prolific animal in the park seems to be Buffalo, which are everywhere. Other animals seem to be more reticent – we saw lots of doe elk, but no stags, an no moose at all. We were lucky enough to see a black bear a few times though, ambling along or grazing on something while everyone watched from a distance. Some people got closer than others though – the first time we saw it, some hikers turned a corner ahead of it and found the bear between them and the end of the trail where we were standing. They had to wait for a ranger to come and guide them. We did also see another bear – a grizzly we think, it was brown at least – which ran across the road right in front of us. Too quick to get a photo of it unfortunately.
Oh, and the night we stayed at the Old Faithful lodge it did actually snow!
Ah man, I’m jealous, yellowstone looks amasing (amazing?) Are you going to go take a look at the geysers?
Hey Steve! Yeah, we watched a few of the geysers go off, but I didn’t have my phone on me at the time so Katherine took the pics and tried to text them to me – we’re still waiting for them :-/ We’re a little behind on our blogging too I’m afraid. We left Yellowstone quite a while ago!