Day Ten: A day in the Tetons

We diiated from the itinerary today and went to the Tetons instead of straight to the lake area.  The reason for this is because tomorrow and Monday are forcasted to be nasty and cold. Today was supposed to be nice and warm, so instead of loosing all our Grand Teton time to bad weather, we went down there today and will take our chances on the weather to finish up here in Yellowstone.  We are at the Lake Lodge tonight, on the shore of Yellowstone lake.  There is no TV, no radio, no cell phone service, no news paper and no Internet service in this who;le part of the park.  So I can only hope that yesterday and today get posted before we get home.
We left Old Faithful this morning and headed south, through the remainder of Yellowstone and into Grand Teton National Park.  We decided to do the Teton Loop while the weather was nice and we completed it just as a pasing shower came through.  There were not many animals out showing themselves.  We did see a black bear on the way to the top of Signal Mountain but I couldn't get a picture of him (or her).  On the way back to Yellowstone, we did se two herds of bison.   Lately, since the first day, we had seen only solitary males so it was good to see the whole family.  We saw a couple of moose (no antlers) along the banks of the Snake River, so I guess that will have top do.  The Teton Mountains are amazing and filled in the gap the lack of animals left.  The drive back to Lake Lodge was long and maybe driving down there created extra driving but it was beautiful. 
We have had dinner and are geng ready to do some laundry, since both of us are out of underwear.  I hope to be able to send this tomorrow from somewhere in Teton National Park.  Sorry about the delay.

Day Nine: Yellowstone, Mammouth to Old Faithful

Funny how the most exciting and beautiful lodge has no Internet at all!  We were so caught up in the ambiance of that great old building that we never got over here to use the "facilities". The Snow Lodge, where I am now, is just across the parking lot from the Old Faithful Inn, where we stayed. I booked  in March and already they had no rooms with en suite bathrooms.  Our room, however, was charming and comfurtable with a view of Old Faithful. 
We started out yesterday morning from the north and stopped at several attractions, the mopst notible of which was Grand Prismatic.  It is one, however, that is much better in pictures than in person because they must take the pictures from above.  We went through Firehole Canyon, a little scary but not as bad as some places we have driven.  There is a swimming hole there - nobody swimming tho.  We got here early - about 1pm - and had veggies and dip for lunch that we purchased at the store.  Once we checked into our room and watched Old Faithful twice, Dean decided it was Manhatan time, since it was Friday night.  He had a few - sure not the number he usually has on a Friday night - at $10.00 each!  We went out to view the beautiful stars and watched Old Faithful erupt in the dark, then went to bed.
Still no moose, bears or wolves.

Day Eight: Yellowstone Canyon Lodge to Mammouth Hot Springs Lodge

We woke up this morning to icy steps, frozen doors and windows on the car and bright, beautiful sunshine.  After breakfast we drove to the north-east part of the park, over a mountain, to Tower Falls.  After oohing and aahing for awhile, we headed west toward the Mammouth Hotsprings area, where we are spending the night.  We took a walking tour of old Fort Yellowstone, watched a movie in the visitors' center, and hiked to a few of the closer hot spring formations.  Short hikes limit our exposure to the sights and also make us finished with an area quicker than as if we walked further.  Dean is doing well, but taking it somewhat easy.  After all, it's only been a little over 4 months since his surgery.
We have seen our share of bison once again, and have enjoyed the elk roaming around the lawns here at MHS.  On the way here we drove through the black tailed deer habitat but didn't see a single one.  We did see a bison with an injured hip - probably hit by a car and probably he'll become wolf food once the weather turns cold and hunting gets more difficult.  Sad but the way of life in the wild.
After we checked in, Deano had a little nap and then we went out insearch of some geysers.  We drove down to the Norris Geyser Basin and went to see Steamboat Geyser.  Since it erupts every 4 months to 4 years, we were happy to see some little spurts coming out!  We returned to MHS for dinner, which was very good and now we're in our cabin, without TV or radio.  So Dean is reading about what's on for tomorrow and I'm sending this to you all (no TV, no radio, but yes folks - there IS high speed Internet!  Go figure!).

Day Seven: Cody to Canyon Lodge, Yelowstone

When we left this morning, we went to UPS and mailed home some Irma Hotel glasses and all the other little trinkets I have bought.  Then off we went toward Ywllowstone.  We stopped at the Buffalo Bill Dam and practically got blown away by gale-force winds coming across the reservoir.  We took a couple of pictures and left - too cold to dally.  Dean discovered that he had not checked out of the hotel and he still had the keys in his pocket.  So we stopped at a little post office along the way and mailed them back.  As we continued on the weather got worse.  It was snowing hard on the mountaintops as we headed toward Yellowstone.   As we got to Yellowestone Lake, the sun began to come out and by the time we got to the Gand Canyon the sun was out so we did some short hikes. I did a long hike to the brink of the lower falls.  It just about killed me!  Dean was the wise one - sat in the car and waited.  We have seen lots of animals - bison of course, and a moose and mule deer and cayotes.  Eating tonight at the Canyon Lodge.  Our cabin here is cozy.
9/2 note dinner was great at the Canyon Lodge.  there was frost on the car this morning.  But the sun is finally shining brightly.

Day Six: Deadwood to Cody

We left Deadwood and drove for awhile on Interstate 90 unitl we headed into the mountains on Route 14.  Getting out of the valley and into the mountains was an enormous climb.  Hats off to my frineds Terry and Lolly who did it with a big ole motor home pulling a car!  We climbed and climbed until we reached the top at 8,400 feet and guess what?  There was snow!  It looked like they had gotten about an inch overnight but while it was cold, the sun was melting everything it touched.  We drove on until we reached Shell Falls.  My friend Gina, who was born and raised in the Cody area, told me not to miss Shell Falls.  I expected a little waterfall off the side of the road with possibly a small hike.  Bur nope, it is a BIG watertfall in a huge canyon and there is a nice little visitor center.  It was a great break in the hair-raising snakey drive up and down the mountains!  Once we got back to the plains, we encountered another thunder storm.  Storms and even the clouds are diferent here.  I actually understand that they really are the same but out here you can see so far unimpeeded that it all seems bigger.  We saw rain coming from huge black clouds miles away but it was hard to imagine that it wasn't right down the road.  Lightning is huge and beautiful.  It all missed us.

Once we arrived in Cody, we had lunch at the Irma Hotel, named for Buffalo Bill's daughter.  Then we went to the Buffalo Bill Museum and spent the afternoon there.  In five hours we barely scratched the surface!  I had to drag Dean out of the gun rooms.  To me all of the thousands of pistols and rifles looked the same.  I took a nap.  Returning to the Irma, we watched another hokey but fun gun fight in the street, checked into our room, changed into warmer clothes, and went to the Cody Night Rodeo.  We were very lucky - it was the last one of the 2010 season!  It was Dean's first rodeo and I think he enjoyed it.  It was nice to see all the events that out neighbors compete in.  We ate rodeo food, but that was fine, since we had a great lunch earlier.  To bed now.  I almost forgot!  We came to the airport with the plane graveyard that Lolly told me about.  Dean drove thruogh gates labeled "private" and drove right out on the runway to get to the planes way out.  I had to yell at him - he didn't believe it was a runway!  Sometimes I wonder about him!  And BTW, we never did go to those planes wat out there!  Whew!!!