We are south of Yellowstone NP and we will be leaving via the East Entrance to the Park. In not much of a hurry this morning, we left our no frills campsite for a dusty ride (#3) through Yellowstone NP. Our motor home, (nicknamed Dusty) has lived up to her name and collected all the dirt in Yellowstone. Even though she has been dependable, and very comfortable, she certainly is embarrassing to look at! Maybe no one will recognize us out here!
The weather this morning is very light rain and little to no sunshine. Very dreary for pictures but we will find the sun a little further east. We are headed for Cody, Wyoming.
As you might remember, I mentioned earlier that I would like to get a couple of horses, go trail riding somewhere, and have a picnic on the way. That's kind of what happened today, well almost!
More later so enjoy the pictures and comments..................
A final view of Yellowstone as we left the Park.
The forest fires and the pine bark beetles took their toll on the forests during the last 2 decades.
Of course, Mother Nature has a way to help other things survive, including the trees. With the fires burning off the ground cover new life begins shortly after.
The wild flowers were abundant and added beauty to some of the burned areas.
I don't know the name of this flower but it added beautiful color to the landscape.
Here's another one of the many beautiful flowers growing wildly as we passed.
It's 54 degrees and mid-July. We have frozen snow on the terrain beside us.
Wow! This road is just right for the MH and maybe a small car to pass. Sharon will have to keep her fingers crossed!
Just 40 miles west of Cody, we stopped at Buffalo Bill Cody's original hunting lodge. Next to the lodge was a building (Pahaska Tepee) which included a gift shop and a nice restaurant. Outside the window I noticed many saddled horses. This is the place! I asked Sharon if she would like some lunch and of course this became "our picnic."
After lunch and on the way to the corral, I couldn't pass up a picture with this wooden bear.
Sharon laugh and took the picture of me holding back this ferocious bear!
We went to the corral and asked to have a couple of old horses so we could go on a trail ride.
Our trail guide, Jerry, (a lifelong cowboy and rodeo rider) Sharon, & I embarked on a 2 hour trail ride.
Jerry's horse was reluctant to cross the river but that is where Jerry wanted us to go and off we went.
As for me, I kept telling my horse, "Don't dump me in the water".
There were some big rocks in the water but the horse understood and pick his way through very carefully. Good Horse!
We crossed the river and rode down through a meadow, where we crossed the river again. Now it's time to go up the mountain and see the view from there.
At our first plateau we took some pictures of the scenery. I continued to be on the lookout for bears (grizzly) while trying to enjoy this ride.
It was nice to ride the level ground but that was short lived. We rode even higher up the mountain.
Did I mention that for the last 20 years all I have ridden is a golf cart, an office chair, a Corvette seat, and a Lazboy recliner? None of which required me to straddle them. This horse felt like it was 5 feet wide by now and we were still going up the mountain. Was this my idea?????
Finally we reached the top of our travels and the view was spectacular! I tried really hard to enjoy this great ride but I was hurting in places I didn't know I had!Now we have to go back down the mountain! Oh boy.......
We finally reached the bottom of the mountain, the horse didn't fall and I didn't fall off the horse!When we get to the corral someone will have to help me off this horse and carry me to the motor home!
As you may have noticed, I didn't take any pictures coming down the mountain. I was too busy holding on & talking to the horse!
This is Buffalo Bill Cody's hunting lodge (Circa 1912). No one was present to give us a tour of the inside so I took whatever pictures I could get.
Stick benches on the front porch. The windows must have been original because the clarity of the glass was very poor & wavy. This would have been representative of standard glass used at the turn of the century.
I took this picture through the window. Lighting was very poor but it will give you some idea of what the inside looks like.
We left the lodge, sore butt, thighs, and all. We are on the way to Cody where we will spend the night and take some Ibuprofen!
We continued to see beautiful sights like this all afternoon and all the way to town. Unfortunately, the battery on the camera died. (probably the horse ride did it in) and we didn't capture the beautiful ride.
I can attest to the fact that it was gorgeous enough that I gave serious thoughts to going back the next day and photographing the scenery.
We arrived in Cody, Wyoming around 6pm & pulled into a campsite. Plenty of activities in Cody. They were acting out a shootout down at Irma's Hotel at 6:30. Also at 8pm there was a rodeo, too.
After discussing our condition after the horse ride, we opted for two Ibuprofens and chased it with some Crown & ginger ale. It took about 3 hours before one of the remedies kicked in.
Tomorrow we will visit Buffalo Bill Cody's museum and then travel to Montana to visit "Little Big Horn Battleground Nat'l. Park.
We sure could use a hot tub!
Happy Trails!
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