Day 20 – Thursday, October 21

Up early and out the door. Heading to the parks today. Tetons and Yellowstone. Decided to head to Jackson and use the south entrance. Set the maps. We had a couple of hours just to get to Jackson. Distances out here between waypoints is incredible.

Beautiful country out here.

We had two passes to go over getting to Jackson. Both intense. Went over the first. 25-30mph. We were above the snow line. Got on the other side. Irena does not like mountain driving too much. Cute little town. Beautiful vistas. Pointed to tehe big mountains in the distance. See those? Those are the backside of the Tetons. We need to get on the other side of those.

Headed over the pass. At some point saw a welcome to Wyoming sign. Got to Jackson. Just kind of drove through. Fueled up across from the National Elk Refuge. Huge plains and wetlands. Huge. Headed north. The Tetons were on our left. Just awesome. Still my favorite. Just plain majestic.

In due time we entered Yellowstone. You could literally spend weeks here and not see everything. Its about 3,500 sq miles. We had a few hours. Headed north for a couple of hours. Stopped at some of the sights just off the main road. Vistas worth taking pictures or exploring further are everywhere.

Decided to visit old faithful geyser. One of those iconic points in the park. That would take a few hours. Distance in the park, parking, walking to geyser, waiting for it to erupt, gift shop, return etc. This park is not for the faint of heart. Crowds in summer peak are huge. International tourists are especially drawn.

This obviously is off season. Most gift shops are already shut down for the winter. The north part of park already shut. The south entrance, where we came in was shutting down next week. At any rate, old faithful is always impressive. For thosJe not familiar, there are geysers and steam vents throughout the park.

Crossed over two continental divides on the way to the geyser and on the way back. Snow on the ground everywhere. Since we got in the park. Decided to head out to the east entrance and head to Cody, Wy for the night. Google maps was showing about 2 ½ hours and it was mid-afternoon. Most of that time was just getting to the east entrance.

Just and incredible drive. Just incredible. Mountain vistas, lakes, waterfalls, rivers, just everywhere. Buffalo just standing on the side of road. Signs warnng of moose, elk and bear as well but did not see any of those.

Well made it to Cody. Buffalo Bill Cody fame. Neat historic western town. Could spend time here too. But we have home in our sights. Still quite a ways to go and we pushed 4,700 miles so far.to

Found a neat local bar. Had a couple of drinks. Found a hotel. Decided to have dinner first. All this without leaving our barstool!

Checked in to a modest hotel right downtown. Found an Albertson’s grocery nearby and hunkered down for the evening. It was dark and we were tired. Need I say more.

Tomorrow we head south and east to Cheyenne. Visit a friend. That will be 3 weeks on the road. Saturday head east. Talk of big weather in the midwest over the weekend. Need to find out what that is all about.

Life is good…