Old Faithful

Mile 4793

We have made it to Sheridan, Montana and found free wi-fi at Burger King. We'll post this entry and then go a little further and camp for the night. Today was another driving day, but we did get to do something special:



Checked out of the Best Value Inn and headed south. At mile 4490 we entered the Yellowstone National Park west entrance and crossed the Wyoming border very shortly after that. Within an hour we had made it to Old Faithful. We got there just half an hour before the next eruption so we had time to walk around a bit and find a good viewing spot. I'm surprised by how crowded these places have been mid-week. There have been a lot of European tourists on this trip, as well as Americans on summer vacation. After watching the geyser erupt, we headed for the eastern gateway to the park. Unfortunately, this turned out to be quite a headache. There were long delays because of road construction, but it paid off after we got through it. The drive from the east entrance was just stunningly beautiful.

The rest of the day was spent traveling east across northern Wyoming. This could possibly have been the most beautiful drive of the trip so far. After that gorgeous drive from Yellowstone, the town of Cody was a nice surprise. It's always interesting how you can have nothing for miles, and all of a sudden there is this city in the middle of it all. Cody was very nice town, it had a kind of vibrancy to it. They were advertising a rodeo in town later that night. Wish we could have stuck around for it. Then as abruptly as Cody came upon us, it was gone as we continued east. When we got to Bighorn National Forest, we took the Bighorn Scenic Byway traversing the mountains via Shell Canyon. Wow! The canyon is just amazing! A rushing river with sheer rock walls and the Shell Falls were fantastic! It quickly got dark as we got to the other side of the mountain and we soon found our way to Sheridan.

A lot of driving today so more random thoughts:
It seems like the post office is almost always the nicest building in town. Even these tiny little stops, with populations under 100, always have a really nice post office.

The mosquitos seem to have disappeared ever since we got into Montana.

Country music isn't that bad, ya'll.