The trip into Yellowstone

 The day we left Alliance it was sunny and beautiful. We drove toward past Hemingford, waving toward my sisters who live there and onto Wyoming. 

There are some incredible landscape changes from Western Nebraska into the area of Cody, Wyoming. 

 

Fort Robinson state park is a huge change from the open prairie grasslands of Nebraska. 

 

It was then that we realized that his moving truck was going to have a pretty difficult time going up some of these long, steep hills. We were going about 20mph up these hills by the top, but it didn’t last long before we got back in the open prairie grasslands of Wyoming. 

 

The difference then becomes that we saw the mountains in the distance and antelope scattered throughout the fields around the roadways. 

The mountains seem to stay forever in the distant foreground as the surrounding area became longer hills and large grassy valleys. Every once in a while there would be an outcropping of sandstone sculpted by the high prairie winds. It was what seemed to be a never changing landscape until we drove into the Shoshoni Canyon and, oh boy, did it change!

 

 We started driving down into the canyon with high rock walls on either side of us. We drove through some tunnels and could see where the railroad paralleled the road and also went through tunnels. The river was flowing beside us and the road twisted and turned with it. 

 

We found a spot to pullover to allow us to soak up some of the surrounding beauty and awe. The kids found a small waterfall and creek and we all were amazed at the new and stunning landscapes around us. 

 

After a short break there, we continued our drive through the canyon and came out the other side to see more…prairie lands.

 

This is NOT my photo.

Oh, fun side story: We are driving northwest and we had been seeing tons of antelope, a few whitetail deer, and some mule deer, but all of a sudden, there was an elk on the side of the road. My husband calls me up on the walkie talkie and said “Honey, that is the biggest damn deer I’ve ever seen! Did

you see that?” I said “Yes, I saw it, but it was an elk.” I was laughing so hard and he messaged me back and was like “Same thing”. No dear, they're not the same thing.

The mountains were still off in the distance, but grew closer as we approached Cody, Wyoming. We had pre-planned to drop the moving truck and trailer and my car off in a secured storage lot so that we could take the camper and the truck into Yellowstone. It was getting to be around dinner, so we ate dinner in Cody and then headed up to Yellowstone. I didn't get any photos in Cody this time around, but will post many more as the story of our journey continues.

We drove through the some beautifully daunting and almost evil looking mountain areas and then areas that appeared to be appeared to be soft, rolling hills as we climbed in elevation toward Yellowstone National Park. 

As soon as we crossed into the Park, we saw a grizzly bear on the side of the road. It was almost a 100 mile drive to get from Cody to our campground, Grant Village Campground, on the West side of Yellowstone Lake. It was raining on our drive in and it seemed as if the sun was setting, but it seemed to set for hours because of the mountainous terrain we were in. 

Everything around us was incredible and beautiful. As we came up to the lake, we saw elk everywhere and saw (and smelled the sulfurous) steam coming up from hot springs around the lake. 

By the time we got to our campsite, the kids were fast asleep, it was dark, and it was cold! We set the camper up quickly and everyone got into bed and slept the night away so that we could have wonderful adventures the next day!