Wednesday 26 August 2015
It was a bit overcast, but warm when we woke this morning. We wouldn't have woken quite so early, but the previous guest in this room had kindly set the alarm for seven! Load music woke both of us with a start. Our plan for the day was to drive through the eastern edge of Yellowstone NP to Grand Teton NP, just to the south.
We walked from our room to breakfast through the hotel grounds. It has an indoor and outdoor pool and a hot tub. We also discovered it had a guest laundry. Breakfast was a complimentary hot meal, it was rather quirky. I've never had circular omelettes with circular slices of bacon. It still tasted of bacon and omelette though!
We left the hotel just before nine, refuelled the car and headed west on route 20 towards Yellowstone. The road follows the Shoshone River west and the river runs into the Buffalo Bill Reservoir. The dam has been built in a narrow rocky gorge just west of Cody. At the western end of Buffalo Bill Lake, the road and river run alongside each other through the communities of Wapiti and Pahaska to the Eastern Gate of Yellowstone NP. We stopped to take pictures at a point where the cliffs alongside the road and river are rather spectacular. The rock is volcanic and soft and has been shaped by the rain and the wind. One cliff has been named 'The Holy City' ! I'll concede the rocks had lots of holes in them, but any similarity to the skyline of Jerusalem is imaginative thinking. Nonetheless, it was rather impressive with tethering rocks perched on top of weird towers.
At the entrance to Yellowstone, our annual pass ensured that we were waved through by the ranger. The road here climbs alongside Cody Peak (10267ft) up to Sylvan Pass (8530ft) through beautiful scenery. From here it is downhill for about 20 miles to Yellowstone Lake. There are a lot of signs of previous forest fires here, but regeneration is slowly taking place. We initially drove slowly, then remembered that we would be back tomorrow with more time, so picked up speed to 45mph, the maximum speed in the park.
At Fishing Bridge, a small commercial hub at the northern end of Yellowstone Lake, we turned south around the western side of the lake. The road follows the lake shore giving good views of the lake. At West Thumb, there is a Geysir basin which we've visited before, so we drove straight past today. Just beyond is a T junction. Right takes you to Old Faithful and left to Grand Teton NP. As we turned left we found an Elk by the side of the road, so we stopped for several minutes to take photos.
From here, we continued south passing Lewis Lake and eventually leaving Yellowstone at the south entrance. The road briefly becomes the Rockefeller Highway before entering Grand Teton NP north entrance. The road passes through pine woodland down to Jackson Lake. We drove along the lake shore for quite a few miles to Colter Bay Village. We stopped and went to the Visitors Centre and picked up a map, by now it was drizzling. Once again, we'd crossed the continental divide as Grand Teton lies to the west of the divide.
We decided to drive up to Signal Mountain lookout, a place we'd been before and enjoyed panoramic views of the Teton mountains. The lookout is high above the lake, but today, we were stuck in the clouds and the view wasn't good at all. It's was a shame as it is one of my most favourite views ever! We sat for a while and ate lunch and decided that, as it had it had taken more than 4 hours to get here, we didn't fancy retracing our route at 30-45 mph. We though we'd detour out to the east. We looked at on the map and it looked do-able, if rather a long way. By long way, I mean 300 miles!
Wyoming is a huge State. There are few roads in the west of the State. Decision made, and irreversible, we headed east out of Grand Teton NP on route 26. We very quickly lost the traffic! The next major community on this road is 56 miles away. The road climbed steadily up to the delightfully named Togwotee Pass (9658ft) passing the lodge at Hatcher. There was almost nothing on the road, but it rained steadily. Wind River starts up here on the continental divide, it was to our almost constant companion for the next hundred miles or so.
By the time we got to Dubois, pronounced ' Dew-boys' an hour later, it was still raining. It is a real cowboy town in the middle of nowhere! We decided to stop for a drink at the Cowboy Cafe, a home-cooking, welcoming sort of place. We got ambushed by the pies here! Cherry and almond for Lynn and chocolate for me. Coffee was endless!
The realisation had crept in that now we'd chosen this route, there was no going back and that we had 240 miles to get back to Cody! It was time to do some serious driving!
The next town from Dubois is Riverton 77 miles away. The road passes through the Wind River Indian Reservation which is a huge area in eastern Wyoming. There are several communities along the road, Burris, Crowheart, Marton and Kinnear, but blink, and you'd probably miss them. Mostly, the road passes through undulating prairie land with the odd butte and gulley scoring the landscape, but just upside Dubois, it passes through an amazing red rock canyon. Were it located in any other place, it would be a tourist attraction, but here, not a chance,
There was almost nothing on the road and we were able to cruise at a steady 65mph and it took not much more than an hour to get to Riverton. We followed the Wind River all the way. Riverton is quite a large town and we refuelled here.
We continued on route 26, now heading northeast towards Shoshone about 20 miles away with the Wind River still shadowing us! At Shoshone we turned north onto the route 20 to Thermopolis, billed as the largest hot springs in the world.
Once again, we followed Wind River across prairie lands to where it flows into the Boysen Reservoir. At the far end, it and the railway and road disappear down Wind Canyon. This was a most spectacular drive, a bit like the drive down Cheddar a Gorge only on a vast scale. Once again, if it had been anywhere other than the back end of beyond, it would be on the tourist trail.
The next town, Thermopolis, was a smaller town, but big enough for all the usual commerce, but we didn't have time to stop! The final part of our detour took us on the route 120 northwest to Cody. This road 82 miles long has just one town on it, 52 miles from Thermopolis, and that town has the wonderful name of Meeteetse! It's a half a horse town at best!
In the 82 miles, we passed three lorries and a U-Haul van! The term 'empty roads' doesn't do it justice. There were no houses or farms, just prairie. We drove at a steady 70mph almost all the way. Towards the end as we neared Cody, it was getting dusk, a dangerous time here. Deer come down from the hills and wander onto the roads, and at dusk they are very difficult to see. We saw lots, but none on the roadside. The last 30 miles was spent staring at clumps of grass and brushwood trying to see if they were moving.
Finally back in Cody at eight fifteen, we stopped at the first fast food joint we came across, Burger King!
I worked later, our day trip would have taken us from London to Perth, it was 449 miles.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment