Oct 1st 2012 Little Bighorn territory to Yellowstone

Cody:
We left Little Bighorn territory intending to stay one night in Cody to break the journey to Yellowstone. We went to Billings first then south to Cody. We had read up on Cody and though we could easily spend two nights here and only get to do a few of the advertised activities. Have a look at this site dedicated to the town named after the famous Buffalo Bill Cody. Cody Website

Unfortunately for us Cody's season of attractions comes to a close at the end of September. Arriving the next day, October 1st, is clearly the worse time of the year. Practically all the shops were closed. The gun fights in the street, the rodeo etc had packed up and left town.

The famous Irma Hotel:
We went to the Irma hotel for lunch and to consider our options. The Irma hotel was originally built by Buffalo Bill Cody and he named it after his daughter. Find out more about this hotel by going to this site an  The Irma Hotel.


The photo above shows the dining room in the famous Irma Hotel. If you look very closely, at the mirror, you can see me taking this photograph.

There was nothing happening in Cody so we decided to take to the road again and drive the 130 miles to West Yellowstone.

Yellowstone
We arrived at the east side entrance to Yellowstone as the sun was beginning to go down. We were about one minute inside the park when we were confronted by this animal. It was a Bison (see photo below) He was coming in our direction, walking in our lane on the road. I snapped a couple of photos. I opened the window as he passed the car  and took another photo. His head was enormous. I though about touching him as he passed the car but was unsure how he might react, maybe damage the rental?



A large Bison approaches our car just minutes after we enter Yellowstone park.

This Bison passed my open window, I could easily have touched him as he passed, but thought it might not be a good idea.

A few minutes later we came across another Bison. I think he was watching me as I took this photo, eek.





We agreed that this was a great start to our Yellowstone adventure. The journey from the east gate to the west gate took longer than we expected. The sun was well gone down before we reached the town of West Yellowstone. We went for diner first and planned to get somewhere to stay for 4 or 5 nights after that.

Brenda took this photo of the sunset from within the car as we made our way from the east gate to the west.

The first few places we tried for accommodation had no rooms. We finally found a really nice hotel. They had reserved rooms for a group of Japanese tourists but did not need them all. One came free. We booked it for 5 nights.

We went to bed tired after the long drive and the near failure to get a bed for the night. However, after our encounter in the park we were excited about the new five days and what they might bring. We were not disappointed.

Related Links:

Some of our images from Cody and Yellowstone (Day 1)

Our Yellowstone Collection

The town of Cody

Irma Hotel

Yellowstone National Park