Cody, WY to Yellowstone National Park
I did not want to leave the comfortable bed at the amazing Juniper AirBnB in Cody, but today we move on to Yellowstone National Park. At least this beautiful view started the day with a positive spin.
After walking to breakfast at Rock Mountain Magic, we ducked into Sunlight Sports to find a mallet. Mom is fretting about finding a mallet for the tent stakes for the next time we camp. Although they didn’t have a mallet, the store is one of the best small outfitters I’ve seen. (For Northern Virginia, I recommend Mountain Trails in Winchester.) The staff was super friendly and helpful; they even run a guide service and help you plan your expeditions. I got a much needed sip guard for my Nalgene. (I’ve given myself no less than 5 rinses so far.) I also picked up a cool souvenir t-shirt for the hubs. We headed over to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Museums where we spent a few hours wandering through the various exhibits. As you can tell from the photos, I was quite taken with the firearms museum. It’s truly a magnificent collection and history.
We headed west on 16 to the Buffalo Bill Dam on the Shoshone River - what an engineering masterpiece. It was created without any steel reinforcements. We headed west into the Shoshone National Forest and onto Yellowstone. The breathtaking scenery cannot be described into words and my photos won’t do it justice.
After arriving in Yellowstone, we saw a few buffalo en route to the Lake Lodge. On my way to the main lodge to find some Wifi, I stopped to get some photos of a lone Buffalo near the lake. (We have no wifi in our room and the park has no cell service.) I paid $5 for 1 hour of internet so I could check in with folks and let them know we made it safely to Yellowstone. While sitting on the lodge porch using my internet, we met the coolest couple traveling from San Francisco to British Columbia; we very much welcomed their insight on Tetons as that is our next stop in a few days.
Our room has one double bed, so I’ve broken out the camping gear to set up on the floor. (No worries, I bought a thing of Biofreeze at Walmart when I stopped to get the mallet.) Mom had a few firsts today. She used the bladder with the bite and suck nozzle. (For those of you saying, we all have bladders…I’m talking about the plastic bag for water that goes in your backpack.) She then sat on the nozzle and water squirted all over her bottom. Hahahaha! We had a good laugh. She also used her Opinel knife that a family friend gave her for Christmas. She loves it. Thanks, SK! We also used the JetBoil to make our dehydrated dinners (that we somehow have 2 weeks worth). She was impressed with the JetBoil, but not the dinner.
- Day 8 stats: 78 miles, 0 (new) states, 3 NPS.
- Running stats: 2,045 miles, 7 states, 12 NPS.