We stopped for the night in Cody, Wyoming, where we had a motel reservation and put our dog Beryl into a kennel in Cody the next morning. I had made the kennel reservation over the internet and it worked out just fine.

Next morning we headed up through Shoshoni Canyon into Yellowstone. The road through the Shoshoni canyon has been redone and is much easier to drive, though it is set quite a bit higher. They even have a new state park there called Buffalo Bill State Park. William F. Cody did spend some time in Cody and founded a hotel there, which I believe now is still in possession of his grandson. But his headquarters and real home was in North Platte, Nebraska, at his Scout's Rest Ranch.

We crossed the Absoraka mountain range, through Sylvan Pass and handed the ranger our pass (from the Elderhostel) at the entrance to Yellowstone National Park. We drove a while and came to Yellowstone Lake. Beside it was a little fumarole that gave Adrienne her first smell of the hydrogen sulfide that that is in the steamy things you see in Yellowstone. Then on over Fishing Bridge. Used to be you would see people fishing from Fishing Bridge. But that is the spawning area of cutthroat trout, so they do not allow fishing from the bridge any more. Seems someone introduced lake trout to the lake, and lake trout eat the native cutthroat and the numbers of cutthroat are way down. Here is a picture of Yellowstone lake from the visitor center at Fishing Bridge. (I cheated a little bit--added the picture of the man and shaded it a little bluer using Photoshop.)

Then we headed north along the Yellowstone River. The road here is good to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, but from the Canyon area north there is quite a bit of construction up to Tower fall. Hayden Valley between the lake and the canyon had a large number of bison in it, many with calves.

The rangers have taken great pains to be sure there is no contact between bears and tourists, especially no feeding of bears. Bears are there however, also wolves, as several wolf packs have been introduced to the park. We saw no bears and no wolves. If you go hiking or sometimes if you go to just the right place early in the morning, you can see them. They are now recommending hikers carry pepper spray in case of a bear attack. Both the bears and the wolves feed on weak or abandoned bison young. The estimate now is that there are about 4 thousand bison in the park, where the normal number is 3 thousand. On our way between the lake and the canyon we also stopped by the Black Dragon's Cauldron-Mud Volcano area. Stinky area again. That area and the features there are much different than they had been when we were last there. The whole area now has walkways and is much larger.

After we had followed the placid Yellowstone river through the level Hayden Valley, of course we came to the falls and canyon of the Yellowstone River. I took Adrienne's picture of course with the lower falls in the background.

Someone took this picture of the three of us. Both these pictures were taken from Artist Point. That is very easy to get to and a great view. We did not go to the brink of the falls this trip. In an earthquake in 1985 Inspiration Point, another great view, was shaken off.