Friday, July 30, 2010

Part II of Day Drive to East Entrance Of Yellowstone Park

7/17/2010 After we left Lake Butte Overlook, we continued east toward the East entrance of Yellowstone. Even where there has been fire, God creates beauty. After a beautiful drive going up, we start to decline through the Sylvan Pass at 8530 ft. There is road construction going on. Joe thinks maybe they are widening the road, because a lot of avalanches occur here and block the narrow road. A steady drive of down, down, down! Looking back at the pass. We are going down into that canyon below. Again looking back from where we just drove. Joe said he was glad we didn't come into the park from the east entrance, because it would have been a very slow steep climb. After leaving the east entrance, we enter into the Shoshone Forest, where a man was killed this spring by a bear. There were RV parks all along the road, starting outside of the park entrance. The road follows a river down the canyon. We saw many people fly fishing all along the river. This part of the drive was exceptionally beautiful with the reddish mountains, blue sky,and yellow fields of grasses. We had met a couple, on top of Lake Butte Overlook earlier that day, who had told us the drive was beautiful and to drive to where the two rivers join. It was getting late and we found a sign that talked about two rivers joining, but this is all we found. Off to the right in the picture, you can see where a stream enters the river. Maybe it was somewhere else, but this was good enough for us! Time to turn around. If you keep going east, you will come to town of Cody Wyoming We used some restrooms at this point, and turn back toward Yellowstone. As Joe drove, I took some pictures out the window. When we approach the pass, I took a picture of the many small falls that were seeping out through the rock walls along the highway. As we re-enter into more flat landscape, we see another area of one of the areas effected by either fire or beetles. We made another stop at Lake Butte Overlook, so I could use internet for a while. When Joe found out I wanted to work on a blog, he said, "let's go home so I can get a book to read, since we are only 5 miles away". On our way home, just next to Steamboat Point, we saw a crowd along the road, and a Rangers and her assistant. That always mean there is a bear around. I tried to get a picture as we drove by. See the small dot left of the sign. Great picture huh! These guys are too close, and the rangers will be instructing them to move back as soon as they see them. We stopped so I could get a better picture of the bear, but there were too many people and with me being to short, I could not see over them. We went on home and Joe got his book. Back at Lake Butte Overlook, we see it looks like a storm is brewing. I work on my blog for a while, while enjoying the view, as the storm seemed to pass. As we head back home we see the bear is still eating the grass next to Yellowstone Lake. The crowd is still there, as well as the Rangers and their crowd controlling orange cones. Because it was getting late, I told Joe I would buy dinner at the General Store at Lake Village, next to Lake Yellowstone Hotel. We both had a cheese burger with chips and water for a total bill of $16, not including the tip. Guess we won't be eating out again soon. When we left the store, we enjoyed this sunset. We have never seen clouds like this. Joe said he saw a lighting strike in the cloud. I am sure glad we didn't think about eating at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. Our budget would have been blown for the rest of the month.

1 comment:

  1. Ohh..very cool cloud. We love yellowstone! Have fun!!

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