Yellowstone Park to Cody Wyoming

The day we headed east out of the park was chilly.  We’d had some rain overnight and in some areas of the park there was evidence of snow one the ground.  It’s definitely time to get out of here and start heading south.  

But first, we’ve decided to travel across the top of the state, heading towards our eastern destination of Rapid City South Dakota.  More on that as we get there!

Our skies were cloudy and, in some areas, rather dramatic as we exited the park and headed down the canyon into Cody.  This stretch of our travels is one of my favorites so far.  The canyons are gorgeous, multi- tiered and quite colorful.   Around every corner is a gorgeous view.  The highway is good and would be great fun in a small sports car!

This part of the country has lots of rolling hills, quite colorless at times then,  a colorful area appears.

We spent 2 days in Cody, most of them at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.  Tom had wanted to see the Winchester Gun collection. Several years ago, the town co-mingled all the ‘big’ museums into this one.  Your ticket allows you two day of entry – it’s that big!  

Unfortunately, the Winchester portion is under remodel so the largest part of the exhibit was not available.  Instead, they’ve got a small portion set up for viewing, with several other displays mixed into the other areas of the Center.  We did a lot of walking to find all of them, and we did.  

They also do a raptor demonstration.  Well, after our falconry show in Scotland, any other show will be hard to top!  Two employees brought out a Golden Eagle and a Vulture.  Mostly talking about the birds, while the birds sat and ho- hummed! At least this was included in our entry fee!

We also went out and explored the area.  Tom’s always looking for a ‘birding hot spot’ and we headed out looking for the spotted birds.   

One local hot spot was right on the Shoshone river.  We were there early and it was quite chilly, so the mist coming off of the warm river interesting to photograph. Unfortunately, these are just mallards... we have seen many!

A Western bluebird is hiding from Tom who is on the other side of the fence!

We then headed north to a couple of small lakes.  We’re always looking for animals and critters and this trip was no exception. This trio crossed the road right in front of us.

While it was well past sun up when we got to the lake, the wind hadn’t come up yet, allowing some lovely reflection shots. 

Tom and I split up on walks such as these.  I went left, while he headed around the lake keeping the sun to his back for the best bird photos.  I don’t mind, and actually quite like, back lit subjects.  

  

I found a plant about ready to let its seeds go, and spent some time playing around with the shots. Unfortunately, all of my reference books show the plants in blossom mode, so it’s very hard to ID them when they are sometimes at their coolest stage!

I waited for just the right gust… and was pleasantly rewarded!

After we’d wrapped it up, we headed back to camp to get back on the road and head east.