Day 5 of the Adventure

Today was quite a change from the last few we have experienced.  And this is a good thing.  After arising in Buffalo, WY around 6 this morning, I wrote up Day 4 of this trip.  The WIFI was pretty good and there was only one interruption, which was caused by my laptop, when it restated on its own after I was just completing my last sentence of the blog.  Fortunately, the work was saved so I did not have to start from scratch.  Once the little lady was up and put everything in order, we were on our way, about 9 AM.  A quick stop for gas (44 gals) and we headed out on Rte. 16.  As we drove through town, we had a small caravan of Great Alaskan RVs as there were numerous fellow travelers headed out too Yellowstone.  Once we left Buffalo, we were immediately faced with climbing through the mountains.  I was told that this route required us to reach over 8,000 feet and it sure seemed that way.  We were climbing for 10 miles, I believe, and we encountered snow almost immediately.  The mountains were snow covered but so were sections of the land itself.   A few homes we encountered along the way had snow on their decks and lawns.  I wonder if it will ever melt.  Just before we reached the summit, the sky turned dark and we entered a very thick fog.  The speed limit was 60 but I could barely keep up to 40 due to the heavily reduced vision.  I got down to 25 at one point.  On the way up I had been following one of the GAH RVs.  When we hit the fog, I could barely see them about 300 feet in front.  Numerous times I could not see them.  I was too busy looking at the road and watching for a vehicle to come out of the fog.  This seem to last for hours, but it was probably about 15 minutes.  The fog slowly lifted, however, it then began to rain so the road was still questionable with slippage.  As it turned out, the RV held the road well and we finally emerged from the poor weather and the sun showed up.  This was fine, except that we still had a long ways to go down from the mountain.  With and RV you have to be careful of the brakes as they can over heat and fail.  What a wonderful diversion.

The trip down had some rolling curves and straight a ways, that is until it hit two hairpin turns.  They required a speed limit of 25, and you needed to do it to navigate this ride.  But, aside from the weather and downhill concerns, the scenery was incredible.  We were literally driving through a canyon with all its rock formations, rapids and towering heights.  It was a thrill to take the drive.  Once you came to the bottom, we were over and past the mountain, breaking out on a plain that was typically flat and provided a good view for many miles.  What made this so different then that past two days was the lack of wind.  The driving was smooth and comfortable and the gas mileage improved, even if it was minimally.  We passed a surprising number of oil wells, with some pumps working and some just rusting   a way.  We had to drive for another 2 ½ hours before we reached Cody, WY.  This town is named after Wild Bill Cody of the old west.  It is a fairly good size, although I do not know the population number.  It is about 7200 feet above sea level.  From there it was 75 miles to our destination, Yellowstone.

This part of the trip concerned me as some roads through the mountains have you climb and descend, just like earlier in the day.  There can be many switchbacks which make some people nervous.  To my surprise, the next 48 miles were run though the mountain passes.  We seldom climbed and the road weaved right and left to follow the contour of the passes and a river or two that ran through them.  The weather was about 60 degrees and sunny.  It was a pleasant ride and again, very picturesque.  Of course, things have a way of changing up on you and that is exactly what happened.

As me reached the Yellowstone Eastern entrance, the sun was no longer there, replaced by gray clouds.  We drove up to the ranger station, showed her my pass stating that I am old and decrypted, and we were waved through.  We immediately noticed that there was more snow, in fact, it was everywhere.  The park was still snow covered.  The road, at many points showed the work of snow plows that keep things open in the winder.  The snow on the side of the road was between 2 and 10 feet high, and here is was May 9^th.  We are almost two thirds into Spring and this park is still snow bound.  On top of all this, the road climbs and has many switchbacks that you have to take carefully.  To make us feel totally welcome, it actually started snowing.  There was a brief snow squall which reduced visibility and lasted for 20 minutes or so.  It took about an hour to get to the RV Park at Fishing Bridge which was a ride of 28 miles.  We checked in and drove to our spot, just to look it over.  We have water, electric and sewer disposal (what more could on ask for) but it required me to back up the RV into the space.  Another adventure was on the horizon, but we decided to take in a few sights and stops before we called it a day.  It was only about 3 PM so back out into park we went. 

We first stopped at the visitor center/general store.  They have clothing, toys, a cafeteria, small supermarket and all the nick knacks you could want.  Chiara picked up a couple of items and we were on our way to Canyon Village.  Here you can view the “Grand Canyon” of Yellowstone, which is like a miniature of the real one in Arizona.  There are multiple viewing spots but some are still closed as they are snowed in.  Also, some roads are still closed in the park.  We took some pictured of the falls from Artists viewpoint and then drove to the other side to see if we could get to the bridge you can walk on that is right at the falls.  As it turned out, this was one of the inaccessible points.  We could only see from afar and that was hidden by trees.  We drove back to the campsite, but on our way, we stopped at a steam pit area and took the walk way to get close.  We have pictures of course, but not sure when we can get them loaded into these writings. 

This pretty much covers the day.  We went back to the site.  I backed in well enough not to damage anything.  Hooked up the essentials and settle in for a nice dinner and drinking.  See you for Day 6.