Bucket List Trip 2016~Day 14~ Cody, WY, Yellowstone Nat'l Park to Idaho Falls.

We got up at 6 to get an early start.

We thought we'd eat breakfast somewhere on the way,

however, places were closed for the season.

We got some great shots from the sunrise at 7.

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This post is extensive, because there were about 1200 shots taken on this day.

Most all of these shots are drive by as Mr. G was driving.

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 The gentleman at the Montana visitor center had told me the east entrance from Cody would be the most beautiful.

I believe he's right.

 

 We were told at the visitor center that we could see all the major points

but it would be a long day and we would be very late getting it.

That is, if we didn't make a lot of stops.

So we rushed today.

Something we never like to do.

 

 Lower Falls

Yellowstone River

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

 We waited around 20 minutes to get through a traffic backup.

The traffic didn't move for about 10 minutes.

As we drove through, a camper coming in the opposite direction of us

was just sitting in the road. The driver was looking at possibly his phone.

He seem oblivious as to folks behind him.

 He had traffic backed up about a mile.

Apparently someone had done the same to us.

All because of some black bears on the side of the road.

This event dug into the time we had to see it all.

 Mammoth Hot Springs from the highway.

This is not snow.

Its the solid by product of the springs.

 All room all over the park were book.

It was crowded.

A waiter told us they had broken records for attendance in June & July.

Now September is full of couples and foreigners on bus tours.

They don't really know why the increase happened.

Baby Boomers are retiring and hitting the road, I'm thinking.

 Our view at lunch as we sat in the car and snacked a bit since we missed breakfast.

 Finally, some yellow stone!

 There was a small road that looped through the terrace of Mammoth springs.

RVs can't drive this.

 Norris Springs

 From Norris Spring to Old Faithful

 Here is a travel tip for Old Faithful visitors.

Mr. G somehow ended up parking in the Old Faithful Lodge parking lot.

A biker told us we had just missed Old Faithful spouting off and 

it would be about an hour before it spewed again.

He told us about some comfy chairs in the lodge where we could wait.

We checked out Old Faithful, where it was empty of people and took some pictures.

All of this just happened.  We had not planned this.

 We went back in the lodge and Mr. G grabbed some bison chili.

He loved it!

 We found a couple of rocking chairs on the porch and sat down and enjoyed the chili and hydrated ourselves with some water.

 The crowd started gathering.

 We had the perfect view and a comfortable rocking chair.

 It took about 63 minutes for Old Faithful to spout off.

No let down.

 It might have been more fascinating up close,

but a lot of people started leaving before it finished the 1.5 minute show.

 We rocked through the whole thing.

 Another back up!

 Folks were trying to get through.

Buffalo had decided to migrate across the road, one by one.

 This one actually looked both ways before she crossed.

 They didn't run across, but slowly approached the road and you knew to stop.

 Another line of traffic as we had to wait our turn to exit the park.

 Then another back up we thought was due to buffalo.

It was about a 25 minute wait to just move.

 Found out it was a group of dear.

When we finally got rolling, a car about 12 in front of us

had to almost come to a stop to take pictures.

I thought we would never get out of this beautiful but sometimes strange place.

 We drove from sunrise to sunset and saw the main spots.

Lucky us.

 Unless you want to pay $350 a night here, you will move on.

 We did take an hour to wait for a table and food.

Then finally moved on in the dark, which we don't like to do, to Idaho Falls.

We got to our room around 10:20.

It was a memorable day.

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Follow along on our trip as I will try to post daily.

Just use the "Newer" button below to find out what happened on Day 3.

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Thanks to the FREE program

Photoscape for downsizing & watermarking photo & other alterations to pictures

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