Montana is really Big

Wednesday, September 30
Yellowstone the long way


Took off from Sheridan, Wyoming for Yellowstone. We were headed for the east Yellowstone entrance and planned a stop at Cody, Wyoming on the way. After driving across a steep curvy road which was under construction at the peak, we decided to stop at a little store in Shell, Wyoming to take a break. We had driven a couple of hours and Cody (named for Buffalo Bill) was only an hour or so away. While talking with the lady at the counter, we noticed an intense conversation by a tour bus driver with a load of passengers from England. Turns out, the east entrance to Yellowstone was closed this morning due to a major fire along the road that crosses the park to get to "Old Faithful". The option, was to head north to Montana and continue on I-90 to Bozeman, Montana and come down from the North. No problem? Not if you don't mind a 300 mile detour. We were actually lucky, since if we had not stopped, we would have gone an additional hour or so and then had to backtrack. More "good karma". Just outside of Bozeman, we ran into a snowstorm. The temperature remained around 35, so the roads were just wet. After driving 411 miles today, we are settled into our hotel at the West Enterance on the Montana/Wyoming boarder. Even Homer was silent today as we toughed out the long drive.