Awoke in the dark getting out early as dawn breaks. Leave our great hotel and head back into the Park in order to get to the other side to get to the route we need. 27 degrees in the park. Full sun, don’t see any different animals, but dodging lone bison bulls on the road. Have never been through the east gate and what a surprise. We climb into 8000 ft pass leaving Lake YELL behind and full view of the distant pointy Grand Teton Mountains. The area we travel through has seen a big fire and now recovering. We see a few deer and they are pretty tiny. The trip downward is full of tight turns but the views are incredible of high fir covered peaks in this tight valley. We travel on into Wyoming. It is an understatement that this is the most diverse topography with rock shapes, colors, types of rock, it changes every few minutes. The valley of the Shoshone River allows crop and cattle farming with irrigation. But wherever the water doesn’t reach it is barren soil that sage brush wont’ even grow. We pass through town of Cody, home of the largest in the world rodeo stampede. Population around 10k and looks very affluent. More touristy by the history of Wild Buffalo Bill Cody whose home is here and museum and other attractions. Onward through the various rock formations there is fracking and drilling going on in the Big Horn Valley. This is a geologist and paleontologist dream. Pre-historic animal bones and tracks are plentiful here and well-studied ongoing. There is mining for various minerals; just looking at the rocks you can pick them out. There are signs identifying some of the rock formations. One is 5 billion years old; most others are in the hundreds of millions of years old. We climb into the Big Horn mountains. The pass is 9666 feet above sea level, the highest mountains are 11-13k. Again, the rock formations are formidable and constantly changing.
The
temperature drops 25 degrees from the hot valley and as we descend it
rises. Up and down the pass are hairpin
turns and big elevation changes. They
have places for trucks to safely ‘crash’ if their breaks fail. We pull into Buffalo, WY and check into the
Hilton, which is pretty new. It is 82
degrees. We have dinner at Bozeman
Steak. A very western themed place where
locals and tourists alike go. Lots of
log and heads on the wall décor. Big
American flag hanging from the ceiling and another flag with some saying on
it. We know why Liz Cheney got kicked
out. We eat the local beef; rib steak
and smoked brisket. Good flavor but
Wyoming beef have a tough life and their meat is a little that way. I asked a young hostess on the way out about
the weather. She said, enough with the
heat. Let’s move on. So, we’re not the only ones to notice it.
Heard from
Brenna, lots of illness, health issues for them. The germs are relentless. We hope they feel better soon. Got a message from Chugach electric and our
apartment power was out for three hours but it should be okay. Not much in the frig, freezer is packed and
no one opening the doors.
Long days of
driving ahead but it is straight controlled access highway so will go
fast. Saying good-by to wilderness,
parks and secondary roads with all their strange character, scenery and local
folk.
Three days
to go.
Nighty
night.
Miles driven today: 344
Total Miles Driven: 3977