Posts Tagged “mountains”

We had a big day today full of some exciting surprises! We woke up in Sheridan and took a quick drive through the historic downtown area where there are some cute shops and restaurants (in original buildings from the 1910s and 1920s). There are also a bunch of sculptures downtown as part of a public art project they have going on:

After that, we headed out. Today was supposed to be about getting distance behind us and moving on to our next location, so we weren’t bothered by the fact that it was a bit cloudy and rainy, at least in the beginning of the day. Our route took us through the Big Horn Mountains!

This was a beautiful drive. Somewhere in the middle of it, we saw our first snow of the trip!

It was weird because it was quite warm in Sheridan this morning. It was just a light dusting in most places, but we did manage to engage in a mini–snowball fight. I’m hoping the snow doesn’t get much crazier than this, though, because we totally do not have appropriate outerwear. (Foreshadowing!)

We passed right by Shell Falls, but unfortunately they are doing construction there and we couldn’t actually walk along the path where you can see the falls well. Right after Shell Falls, we found ourselves in this crazy canyon area with really beautiful and unusual rock formations all around:

Right outside of the Big Horn Mountains, we saw this thing (which we later discovered is called Chimney Rock):

As we continued west, we also saw some wild horses (in a protected area):

Our next stop was the town of Cody, founded by Buffalo Bill. Cody boasts a h-u-u-u-g-e Buffalo Bill museum and cultural center, a charming downtown, etc., but we went for this:

Old Trail Town consists of a bunch of structures that had been in Wyoming and Montana ghost towns; they were moved to Cody and reassembled. It’s kind of like a cross between 1880 Town and an actual ghost town. It was pretty good!

Our route out of Cody sent us into more scenic routes and through the Shoshone National Forest.

Look at all those switchbacks. I can’t even tell you how totally over switchbacks we are right now. And eventually, we saw something I personally thought I would probably never see:

We decided just last night to come into this tiny corner of Montana so we could go into Yellowstone through the Northeast Entrance. So now we’re at a hostel-y feeling Super 8 in Cooke City, Mont. It’s very exciting! Oh, except for the fact that it was totally snowing when we arrived!! The snow began pretty much right after we crossed into Montana. It was kind of a sleety snow and very cold (remember our lack of appropriate outerwear). I scrapped my big plans to do laundry at the motel this evening in favor of a relaxing and very delicious dinner down the street at the Beartooth Cafe. Cooke City looks adorable in the dark, so I can’t wait to see it in the daylight tomorrow!