Yellowstone

We took Friday off this week and went to Yellowstone. We left after rotation on Thursday at 4 o'clock and made it to our hotel in Cody, Wyoming around 7 o'clock. Cody is about an hour from the east entrance to Yellowstone. We had dinner at Trailhead Bar that night and then went to bed early to prepare for a full day at Yellowstone. 

We left the hotel on Friday around 10 o'clock. Our plan for the day was to see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and then drive the scenic highway called Beartooth Pass, but one of the roads was closed and the new route would have added 4 hours to the drive. After seeing the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, we headed towards Old Faithful. We stopped at Mud Volcano Thermal Area on the way there. This area has a ton of muddy hot springs and smells like sulphur, so we didn't hang around for long. We then drove about an hour to Grand Prismatic Spring and walked on the boardwalks built around the spring. Then we drove to a trailhead right down the road and hiked 0.75 miles on Fairy Falls trail to an overlook above Prismatic. We really enjoyed seeing the spring from both viewpoints. We ended the day at the Old Faithful. Make sure you check the schedule for times that it is predicted to erupt. We didn't plan ahead of time and ended up waiting an hour and twenty minutes and getting caught in a downpour. Our drive back to Cody was full of wildlife sightings. We saw an elk, a fox, and a mama bear with her cub! 

                          





On Saturday, we left the hotel around 7 am because we had a lot of driving to do that day. We drove Chief Joseph's Highway and then through Lamar Valley. This valley is known for having a lot of wildlife, including wolves and bears, but all we saw were bison.  We drove back through the valley and had lunch in Cooke City at Beartooth Cafe before going on to Beartooth Pass. This drive is said to be one of the most scenic in America. It took us about 2 hours to go from Cooke City to Red Lodge, Montana. The drive was beautiful and we saw snowboarders and skiers taking advantage of the leftover snow at summer ski areas. We took a faster route back to the hotel and took a quick nap before getting ready for dinner and the Cody Rodeo. We had dinner at WYOld West Taproom. The Cody Rodeo usually costs $23, but the night we went was $10 night. We watched bull riding, calf roping, barrel racing, and acts by the rodeo clown (who was from Montgomery!). The rodeo usually lasts about 2.5 hours, but we left around 10. 

                                  
   
                                                        


On our last day in Cody, we took a whitewater rafting trip down the North Fork of the Shoshone River. We  booked with Wyoming River Trips and met our guides at their office in Cody. They bussed us about an hour towards Yellowstone to the start of the route. The trip covered 17 miles and lasted about 3.5 hours, including a stop for lunch. We hit class 3 rapids and had a great time! We headed back to Fort Washakie after rafting to prepare for a week in clinic. 

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