Yellowstone Day 1

We traveled to Yellowstone through the East entrance which is west of Cody, WY. Of course, the scenery grew more breathtaking the closer we got to the park. We headed our camper to the Fishing Bridge Campground which is a campground that allows only hard sided rigs because of the proximity of bears. Pets are not allowed off a lease or on the trails because of the hazards of geo-thermal areas, and animals like wolves and bears. The camping area is stuffed full with lots of rigs shoe-spooned into sites. Not a whole lot of distance between rigs but there are trees between the rows of campers. All in all, it beats driving 60-100 miles just to get to the park. The campground is near an early park bridge called Fishing Bridge which was a popular spot for fisherman until the 1970s but now you can’t fish from the bridge. The Yellowstone River is gorgeous at this area. It is currently out of its banks and you can see trees in the middle of the river. We set up the trailer and walked through the visitor’s center and some of the shops in the area. It was mostly expensive tourist stuff and very expensive food items (bread $4.19 a loaf). Good thing we had stocked up for this stay. After talking to the rangers at the Visitors center we decided to catch a ranger talk at the “Mud Volcano” area. This was an area that had Dragon Mouth, a hot springs that bubbled and rumbled and sounded like faraway artillery fire. The Mud Volcano had blown its top and was just a burbling mud hole in the side of a mud hill. There were other geothermal features and we learned a lot about them. This ranger did a nice job and you could tell he liked his job.

Then we reserved a seat on the Lake cruise. That was the most fun! It took us out on Yellowstone lake where saw the Lake Lodge from the front. There was a ranger as a tour guide. The amount of water here and its beauty amazes me.

The dogs have traveled well but they ask in their own doggie way the question that is on everyone’s mind during a road trip, “Aren’t we there yet?”