Up Early! To Yellowstone with stops along the way.
4 hours, 15 minutes
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On the way: A sunrise surprise.
Speeding along at 80MPH (that was the speed limit), we saw a roadside pointing to Hell's Half Acre.
It's a pull off about 40 miles outside of Casper.
Think of a violent, multicolored tear in the earth, filled with jagged stalactites and steep cliffs.
Standing on the edge of this canyon, you can almost hear the Indians' whoops and bison
screams floating on the ceaseless wind.
Your senses become overwhelmed as the sun creeps higher and every color in the spectrum is revealed.
It's angry beauty.
Make the stop.
Hell's Half Acre to Thermopolis — 1 hour, 15 minutes
Have you heard of Thermopolis?
The road between Casper and Yellowstone delivers some of the most beautiful scenery we have ever seen. North America shows off her best here. Seemingly endless prairies transition into mesas and bluffs. Rifts in the landscape reveal geologic time scales in eons and eras. And, finally, as we descend into Cody via a narrow pass, a powerful river roars to our left as towering cliffs and mountains engulf us in an eerie twighlight created by mountain shadows.
"Let's stop in Cody and get some T-shirts," Suzanne says ...
Thermopolis to Cody — 1 hour, 15 minutes
We figured Yellowstone T-shirts would be 2x the price in the park, so we decided to stock up on gifts in Cody, WY — a nice surprise with a Kanye twist.
"Buffalo" Bill Cody founded Cody.
He was so impressed by the development possibilities from hunting and proximity to Yellowstone Park that he returned in the mid-1890s to start a town.
Bill killed 4,282 buffalo in eighteen months in 1867 and 1868 ... what a tragedy.
At the height of the Plains Indians culture, there were over 60 million buffalo in across the plains, but by 1900, there were less than 300.
The plains are empty now, but just imagine — 60 million big shaggies!
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Watch the Ken Burns documentary on the plains Indians and their reverence for the buffalo.
Cody is a long main street with a mix of legit store and junk shops for tourists. It feels very much like a western outpost. We stumbled on Surf Wyoming, a design shop that celebrates the spring river surfers in Wyoming. Great stuff!
Bought some shirts and hoodies. Then, we rambled down to Granny's. It's an old school diner. Our server had been there for 30 years and served Kanye when he had a ranch out here in the early 2020s. She had stories.
Cody to Yellowstone — 1 hour, 20 minutes
After an eventful day we finally arrived at Yellowstone's east entrance. It's a fairly long drive into the park but we passed Lake Yellowstone and through Hayden Valley. Yes, the Bison are here ...
We checked into our hotel in the park — the Canyon Lodge & Cabins.
They're new and pretty nice, but bare bones. If you go mid-summer, keep in mind there is no AC. If there's a game you want to watch, there are no TVs — but do you really want a TV in Yellowstone? We really enjoyed being shielded from the yappy news for a few days.
They have a cafeteria for guests. It feels a lot like being in a ski lodge and the food, well, it's nothing special. Think Disney World food or a grocery store buffet.
Lots of mac & cheese, rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, etc.
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You're at altitude! Drink lots of water. We got to 9,000 feet on one of our hikes.