Cody, Wyoming, United StatesSunrise Motor Inn - Cody WY 1407 8th Street, Cody, Wyoming 82414, United States
I must have had a good sleep - I woke up at 7:15 am and realized I had to get moving fast if I wanted to get to the other side of Yellowstone by dark.
I went down for coffee and checked out the breakfast. I was rather amazed: for a hotel that doesn't have an elevator and has two floors, they outdid themselves with a hot breakfast and servers. Of the 6 choices of hot items, I chose the scrambled eggs and potatoes. I also took some fruit and a blueberry muffin for later. When I got to my room and sampled the breakfast, I half changed my mind: this was a breakfast for a hotel with 2 floors and no elevator. The scrambled eggs were dry and tough, the potatoes partially uncooked. The fruit was actually pretty good and so was the coffee. When I asked for milk with my coffee, the server gave me a half pint of 2% milk!! I showered, packed up, carried out two loads and came back for my last bits, and I was off for Yellowstone NP. I retraced the 14 miles back to the entrance. There was a shortish line at the entrance booths, but the idiot who was in the other lane for full service jumped ahead of me in the quick - show your pas & Id line and ended up holding up my line for at least 5min with questions, credit card purchase, and who knows what else.
I stopped in to the first visitor center on the ring road to see if I could get my park passport stamped and maybe a few little souvenirs and also to see if they had any exhibits. They did have an exhibit and a few little souvenirs and a passport stamp. I also got a cappuccino at the service restaurant....of sorts. Then I went on the first leg of the ring road that had some hot springs, geysers and fumeroles. I walked on one loop to see the mud volcano but did not walk on the longer loop because I felt pressed for time. I stopped to see a couple of bison at a distance in one filed, then I stopped to see a coyote walk in a similar field. The fields are where the animal sightings were. The first animal sighting was actually not that far into the drive. I was stopped at a traffic jam wondering what the cause was....after some minutes of stop and go, three bison thundered by my passenger window along the road. I got my camera lens cap off, but for some reason I thought I was unable to press the shuttle release. They were so close and so big and thundering along. There was a third bison sighting after the coyote I think - in one of the beautiful yellow grass fields looping around the thin blue stripe of a river....here was a bison coming to the river to take a drink. While I was waiting for the bison to do something else, I took some photos of some geese (I think). Was this the bison that then got really close to the cars - and the people standing outside their cars - and had a big ole dust bath next to them all??? Yes.
I tried to take a photo of the dust bath, but a pleasant young woman kept getting in the way. She had been so nice, I felt I couldn't really complain. I did see at least one big black bird there - crow-like - I think they follow the people hoping for handouts. There was one in the visitor center parking lot. My final animal sighting for the day was another bison - not that far from the road.
I missed a couple of hot springs before I got to Canyon Village where I made a few wrong turns and ended up retracing my canyon route...or was it the waterfall route. I took some walks up and down to view the water falls. They were nice. I think I like the lazy blue rivers in the golden grass scenes better. Then I took the canyon loop and saw the river run through the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. I think I took a few more wrong turns before I lost reception and couldn't reprogram my gps. I got to the Fishing Bridge and from there to the East Entrance there was a lot of devastation from forest fires and a lot of windy roads and up and down hills as the road went up and down at least two passes I think. It was very dramatic scenery and I wished I were able to stop at all the overlooks and take photos but I had to be judicious and only take a few. Oh, I forgot when I was at one of the waterfall overlooks, I went to the bottom of one trail and saw a big tripod. I walked down to it because I figured these people would know the best photo site. When I looked at the photographers, I recognized the sisters from Montana and Minnesota so we chatted for a moment.
It was the last day of their trip and we wished each other a successful day and a safe journey. They were very nice people....unlike the ones who stand in front of the good photo locations and chat to other people and do not notice they are in someone else's way.
So once I got to Fisherman's Creek, I was on the last leg of the ring road and it was very dramatic, but no animals for me to see. I exited the park all alone as opposed to yesterday where there was a line to get out. I was quite surprised to find that the 20 miles to Cody WY was equally as scenic if not more so. There were huge brown - maybe sandstone - cliffs and more brilliant blue waters in the rivers. There was a brilliant blue lake or reservoir as well. I so wanted to stop and did maybe once or twice but couldn't allow myself more than that. I did stop once when I saw a vacancy sign next to a Hillside Cabins Place, but she only had vacancies for RVs. I also swung around one campground entrance for the Shoshone National Forest, but it was closed. I had trouble figuring out where the other campgrounds were. For a national forest, lots of the land seemed to be without trees - more rocks and sagebrush.
Eventually I rolled into Cody which looked under construction at the western edge. Then I must have come to the center of sorts but my motel booking was slightly on the eastern side I think. The room is a little old-fashioned, the refrigerator very small, but I am getting used to it. It is warm enough and bright enough so most of my needs are being met. Plus the wi-fi works. We will see about the breakfast in the am. I don't have high hopes.
2025-05-22