Thursday 27 August 2015 - Lynn's birthday.
After our long day out yesterday, we had a bit of a lie in this morning. Our plan was to take a birthday tour around part of Yelowstone NP. We did not want as long a day as yesterday!
We left the hotel after eating breakfast at around 10. The first part of our journey was a repeat of yesterday's route into Yellowstone NP. What a contrast with yesterday. Today we had blue skies all the way into the park. We didn't hang around on the 50 mile trip to the park entrance! Once in the park we again started the climb up the Sylvan a Pass, but had to stop on a narrow part as a large Bull Buffalo was walking down the middle of the road!
Once we'd passed this obstruction, we continued on to Fishing Bridge. We passed a lot more Buffalo as we drove along. We also found a couple of Elk by the roadside.
At a Canyon Village, we stopped to have birthday lunch. Sandwiches and soda! Oh, I almost forgot the ice cream. As we left the village, there was a single long roll of thunder! Very dramatic!
From here, we cut across the park towards Madison Junction, sadly, apart from more Buffalo, we didn't find any wildlife. We did stop at the Mud Volcanos. These are a series of bubbling pools, some are more explosive than others, all smell very much of sulphur! At Madison, we took a short detour along Firehole Canyon. The river and falls were very pretty. Near the top is a large swimming hole, plenty of people were taking a dip.
The road then heads across Lower, Middle and Upper Geyser Basins. Incidentally, geyser is pronounced 'guy-zer' here. The most famous geyser in the Upper Basin is Old Faithful. We pulled in here, although we'd been before. It seems to be more commercial than last time. The large wooden lodge, built again by the railway companies, is the centre piece, but loads more buildings seem to have appeared. I had a walk around the thermal pools, Old Faithful didn't perform whilst we were there. It is a bit unpredictable, but it is reckoned to spout every 80-90 minutes.
At this stage, we decided we were sceneried out and we started the journey back to Cody. First we had to head for West Thumb and then turn back north to Fishing Bridge. Somewhere around there, it started raining. We did quite well as we stayed just on the edge of the rain clouds. We also did well because the traffic was almost non existent, so we were able to drive fairly swiftly.
Safely over the Sylvan Pass for the last time, we headed back to Cody arriving just after six. After freshening up at the hotel, we took a recommendation and went to a Chinese Buffet. As we were walking into the restaurant in the middle of town, a deer with two young strolled out in front of us and crossed the 4 lane Main Street to go and feed on the grass in the park! The food was good and reasonably priced.
The final birthday treat was a visit to Walmart to raid the bargain basement selection of dress-making material. A surprise treat awaited us at the hotel, a trip to the hotel laundrette!
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