7/16/2013–Day Trip to Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park

On Tuesday, July 16th we drove north into Yellowstone National Park on a day trip headed to the northeast entrance of the park.

We were lucky to see a grizzly sow and last year’s cub along the way.

These two young ones seem to be putting their heads together to see what they could get into.

We stopped along the river to watch a bison make it across.

We saw a few of these old tour buses.

While we’ve seen very few wildlife sightings throughout the park where we would normally see them in past trips, they were very scare.  It was very interesting to get up to the Lamar Valley in the northeast section of the park to see very large herds of bison of well over 1000.

We stayed in that area long enough that we were able to tell that there was going to be a mass exodus of the herd crossing the road in front of us, so we got in a good position to get some photos.

A couple of bald eagles sat in a nearby tree to watch the show.

And after the crossing, this one had to roll around a bit in the dirt.

 

Bison Rolling in the Dirt

 

After a long day of touring we returned to the RV for the evening.

07/15/2013–Cody, WY to Teton National Park

We had a short distance to go today, but it would be slow winding roads all the way, so we were on the road early.

Ken spotted this unusual building on the hill as we headed west.

After an hour or so, we approached the east gate to Yellowstone National Park.

After going over Sylvan Pass, we went by Sylvan Lake.

As we got close to one of many construction areas, we had a view of Yellowstone Lake through the trees.

Our next obstacle was a couple of bison in the road daring cars to pass them.  There was another one off to the side of the road.

There were several pelicans resting in this pond we drove past.

Traffic slowed down quite a bit to take a look at these antique cars in a pullout.

The Tetons range.

After we got parked and had lunch at Colter Bay Campground in Teton National Park, we went out for a drive.

At our first stop, we were just sure this was a moose near the water.  We could swear we even saw it move…however, when we stopped again on our way back to the RV, we saw that we were wrong.

Our next side trip was up a road to Signal Mountain.  I’m thinking it’s called that because there was a cell phone tower at the top.

Here’s a view from the top of that road.

Another view of the Tetons.

Next we took a one way road marked Jenny Lake.  This doe and her fawn crossed the road in front of us.

At the Jenny Lake Overlook, we could see across to a tour boat stop.

This next view is of the waterflow coming out of Jackson Dam.

Then it was back to the RV for dinner and an evening of rest…no cell phone signal, no internet (this will be posted later)…only quiet time for us.  Tomorrow the plan is to head back north into Yellowstone and see what it looks like for getting into the park later in the week.

7/14/2013–Cody, WY–No Traffic Signs

We were wrong in assuming that we would be able to move to our next campground site prior to noon today.  It was next to the one we were currently in, and there check out time is 11am.  We started getting things ready and we watched as our new site was slowly being dismantled…and then they quit and just sat out on their lawn chairs.  We were finally able to move somewhere around 12:30pm and got set up, had lunch and headed into town for the afternoon.  We decided to head to the gun show, but as we approached that, it was obvious they were packing up and closing down for the day.  So from there we did a little bit of last minute shopping to prepare for our move into either Yellowstone or Teton National Park for the next several days and stopped to fill the truck.

Rather than driving back on the main highway, we took the South Fork Road.

We really liked the main gate going into this ranch.

The ranch buildings were also nice looking.

Our next turn was on to Stagecoach Trail which took us for the remaining distance back to our campground.

Interesting!…a sign that indicates no traffic signs.

We certainly don’t want any human-bear conflict either.

Oops!  Looks like I caught the one on the left in a slightly embarrassing position.

Back at the RV, in anticipation of several days of dry camping, we filled the fresh water tank.  Ken cleaned the front window hoping for some really good photo opportunities tomorrow and the truck is hooked up and we’re ready to go.  We’ll make a quick stop at the dump station in the morning and be in our way.

7/13/2013–Thermopolis to Cody, WY–Buffalo Bill Center Visit

We only had 100 miles or less to get to Cody from Thermopolis today, but we got an early start to avoid the heat of the day.  Almost immediately, we were held up in a construction area.  It wasn’t too much of a wait though and we were soon on our way again.

It looks like there is still some snow in the higher country.

West of Cody, we had a few tunnels to go through near the Buffalo Bill Dam.

After getting set up in our site at Buffalo Bill State Park in the North Fork Campground, we ate lunch then headed back to Cody and the Buffalo Bill Center.

Ken spotted this nice looking Woody and teardrop trailer in the lot.

After admiring the Woody for a while, we continued on to the parking lot and went in for our tour of the Buffalo Bill Center.

We’ve been here before, so we split up with Ken heading off to the gun museum while I toured other parts of the center.

The two air rifles in the center of this next photo have been researched and it has been determined that one of them was a part of the Lewis & Clark Corps of Discovery although they don’t know which one it is for sure.

Another of the exhibits of guns.

While Ken was looking at guns, I went through the western art museum.  I especially enjoy the artwork of Frederic Remington and Charles Russell.

It seems like the last time we were here there was so much more of their art on display, but looking back there may have been a special exhibit room at that time.

I really enjoyed seeing the Charles Russell exhibits of letters he wrote to his good friends as they included watercolors in the header of his personal letters.

After an afternoon of touring, we returned to the RV.  Before getting there, we stopped at the check-in area and made arrangements to move to another site within this campground tomorrow instead of having to backtrack 5 miles to a much smaller site that we didn’t really like.

So back at the RV…it was our usual evening of dinner, tv and computers.  We should be able to move to our next campsite before noon tomorrow and then we’ll be heading into town for more touring.

7/12/2013–Thermopolis, WY–The Wyoming Dinosaur Center

When we left the RV this morning we first headed over to the Visitor’s Center to pick up any literature we may have missed at other locations.  Once done there, we drove to The Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis, Wyoming.

The following photos are just a small sampling of what is there.  They have some very large displays, but we found the lighting in the exhibit very difficult to work around to get any decent photos.

There were several pieces similar to this one with many of the same types of fossils in one clump.

This one looked like a predecessor to an alligator.

This looked like a sea turtle.

This is the only known Albertaceratops on display in the world.

After visiting the museum, we decided to drive back out to look at the bison range and look for another possible range area in town.  We couldn’t find the other area, but the same bulls were hanging out close to where we found them yesterday.

We drove north of town and stopped at an overlook looking down at the World’s Largest Mineral Hot Spring.

We continued a little further north to a historical marker for the Bridger Trail – Bighorn River Crossing.

We turned back toward town and stopped to get a photo of this deer with some pretty impressive antlers.

We stopped in town for an ice cream treat before heading back to the RV.  Tomorrow we will be driving about 100 miles to Cody, Wyoming for a couple of nights.