World United States Wyoming Cody

Westbound Again

Cody WY May 6, 2012

So much for a day of nothing. We left here at about 9:00 to go back to the Sunset House for some grub and to gab with Jan a little. We got out of there about 10:00 and headed west to go see the Buffalo Bill Dam just outside of town. It was completed in 1910 and at the time it was the tallest dam in the world at 328 feet. It was modified to 353 feet in 1993 in order to store more water to meet the irrigation and electricity needs of the area. They don’t offer tours like they do at the Hoover Dam so it only took us about 45 minutes to see the dam and the Visitor Center. Since the weather was so gorgeous - 47° in town, bright sun and no wind - we figured we would head back into YNP via the East Entrance to take advantage of the sunshine. Before we even got into the park we saw a Mama Grizzly with a sub-adult cub and a small herd of Bighorn Sheep – the first ones I have seen since I was a kid. Once we got into the park it didn’t take long for us to see another Grizzly, this one with a yearling cub along Yellowstone Lake. From there we headed into Hayden Valley which historically is a good place to find both wolves and Grizzlies. Until today. We saw bison and a coyote, and 2 possible Grizzlies but if they were, they were too far away to confirm it. We drove through the Lake complex but nothing was open so we headed on to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and took some pics at Artist’s Point, and then headed to Canyon Village to see if we could find some food. The only food available was soup and chili so that’s what we had. Well, that and Pringles. We got on the road back through Hayden Valley again and spent about an hour scoping the valley for bears and wolves without success. We talk to people at all the pullouts to find out what they have seen and many of them say they have seen wolves but no bears. We have seen bears but no wolves. Just our luck. The trip back to Cody was nothing special, except for the number of deer we saw. In the area around the town – and I use that term lightly – of Wapiti we saw hundreds of Mule Deer on both sides of the road. I’m sure driving that stretch after dark is pretty dangerous and I’m glad we got through there at about 6:00. We have to do a little restocking tomorrow before we leave, then we will head towards Billings MT to hopefully get an RV part that we need, then head west from there on I-90 toward our goal of Seattle WA…in a couple days.

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