Day 19- July 10

Day 19: July 10th 33356 miles on the odometer

I wake up early and often. There is quite a bit of traffic on the main road so it is a bit noisy. At one point I hear the sound of grass being torn apart, so I carefully pull back the tent flap to watch the cow elk grazing about 4 feet from the tent door. By the time I get Ceci awake and the camera out the cow has moved on. Not to worry, there is a small herd of cows and calves moving through the camping area, so we still get some good pictures. I hear a lot of bugling, but can’t find a bull elk anywhere.
We pack up and eat breakfast at the same Village Grill. It is again mediocre at best, but it gets us on our way fairly quickly so we can see the sights. We spot a couple of grizzly bears, but they are a bit small and far away. We also see some bison in the distance. Not a bad park for wildlife viewing, but we aren’t getting the show you can see on the Discovery channel.
There are a lot of hot springs in the park. The bubbling mud smells pretty foul and doesn’t look much better. The pools, however, are fantastic. The smell is still bad, but the colors are incredible. More than the wildlife, I think the pools are the highlight of the park. They are hard to describe in any way that can do them justice.
Almost forgot the other highlights of the park. Old Faithful is not the only geyser, but it is a big one. We watch a couple of smaller ones blasting steam and water into the air before we settle down and wait for Old Faithful. We just missed an eruption when we got there so we wait almost an hour for her to blow. There are a couple of false starts that lead me to believe we got gypped, then a tall blast that puts that idea to rest. It was worth the wait to see it.
Having seen most of what we wanted, we head south to the Grand Tetons. I have seen them before from the other side when I lived in Idaho, but Ceci has never seen them at all. Friends from home have been building them up since long before we left, so expectations are high. We are not disappointed, they are quite outstandingly beautiful. It would be nice to spend about a week or two engaging in outdoor recreation here, but we don’t have the time. Other than the scenery, there isn’t much to do here if you can only spend an hour or two so we take some pictures and stop at a pretty good Indian museum at the visitor center.
Our next destination is the Black Hills of South Dakota so we head east on Hwy 26. The map says it is a scenic route, but major enough that we can make good time. We are slowed down by a fair amount of road construction. It is starting to warm up and dry out again as we head back into high desert, though the transition is gradual and more scenic than the desert southwest. I know I’m starting to get road weary when I see what looks to me like a hermit crab carrying a peanut shell across the road. I tell Ceci about it, but she never saw it. I must be hallucinating. Later I see a long snake crossing the road. Big enough that by the time I recognize it, it is too late to miss it. Bull snake of some sort I think as I run over its middle. Ceci sees me hit it, so at least I’m not hallucinating. I feel a little better when she says it was still slithering away after I hit it.
It is quite hot by evening. I had hoped to reach Thermopolis, but we stop for the day at the Sundowner Motel in Riverton. Rooms are somewhat expensive around here and not always available. The Sundowner is an older but decent place, and I don’t want to take a chance on finding nothing available after sunset in Thermopolis. Besides, they are offering an ex-military discount. There is no laundry facility, but after three days the shower and bed are very welcome.
We got an unusual early start today, so we were able to do a good bit of sightseeing before putting on the miles in the late afternoon. By my odometer (now a point of contention), we covered 259 miles today.