Devil's Tower National Monument

Once again, we awoke around 5 am in our room at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. After we got our showers and ate our raisin bran, we went for a walk on the shore of Yellowstone Lake. We tried to find a virtual geocache that is near the lodge, but a recent tree fall covered the cache site.

We hadn’t heard from Cindy or Mark by 7 am so we asked the front desk to contact them for us. Because we didn’t have a cell signal or internet at the lodge, we were unable to receive the texts that Cindy had been sending us. They met us in the main lobby, and we took Mark’s pickup.  We drove north through the Hayden Valley to Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon, which is on the Yellowstone River between the waterfalls and Yellowstone Lake.

Yellowstone's Lower Falls

Our first stop was at Lower Waterfall of the Yellowstone River , which is one of the most photogenic spots in a photogenic park. The falls are beautiful from any angle. We drove back down the canyon toward Yellowstone Lake stopping at places along the drive that looked interesting. We saw quite a few bison and many pronghorns but did not find a moose or bear. Since we were out early, we were hoping to see either of these near the rivers but had no success.

Mud Volcano

The Mud Volcano Trail has a network of trails through steam vents and boiling mud. A number of visitors there, but it was certainly not crowded. Because she wasn’t feeling well, Mary got separated from us and was walking a trail that was longer than she expected and didn’t have as many interesting features as the main trail. We walked back along the trail with her especially to the Dragon’s Mouth, which is a hole in the rock that is stained green by minerals in the steam that continuously flow from the hole. As the steam pulses out, a growling sound comes from the rock. Other nearby areas have sulfur steam vents and boiling mud pits.

Dragon's Mouth Spring

We left the mud pot area and returned to the lodge parking area, said our goodbyes to the Whittingtons and drove out of the park toward Cody, Wyoming. Between the park exit and Cody we saw a lot of people pulled off the road looking at something in the bushes. We pulled off the road and saw two young bear cubs romping at the side of the road. We learned that the mother had just been killed on the road and the authorities were waiting for Fish and Game to remove the cubs. We took several snapshots of the cubs then continued toward Cody.

Orphaned bear cubs

We filled the 2018 Camry fuel tank in Cody getting gas for $3.19, which we thought was a deal given the prices around $3.59 near Yellowstone. We cancelled our room in Buffalo, WY, allowing us more time to visit Mt. Rushmore and Badlands National Parks on Thursday. Mark and Cindy were going to stay in Cody for a couple of days and planned to visit the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. We would enjoy visiting Cody and the museum on a future trip.

Our drive east on US. Rt. 14/16/20 was uneventful and went quickly with the high speed limits in Wyoming. We especially enjoyed the geologic signage that the Wyoming Department of Highways places at road cuts describing the formations and ages of each rock layer. Granite Pass on the route was over 9000 feet in elevation and was a beautiful drive despite many switchbacks and steep grades. We recognized many of the place names like Ten Sleep, WY from Craig Johnson's Longmire books.  Mary drove from Sheridan to Moorcroft on I-90 where we exited to visit Devil’s Tower National Monument. We got behind a pickup from Idaho pulling an older travel trailer which was going at single digit speeds on the road to the monument despite the 35 mph speed limit. We moved much better after getting around him.

This huge volcanic intrusion is quite impressive. We walked around the monument and took a lot of photos from several angles. We saw a man with a Hatfield-McCoy Trail T-Shirt who was from Mason, WV. We had a nice chat with him and continued our visit. We went to a remote viewing area to take a few more photos and the late afternoon light was perfect on the Devil’s Tower. We were pleased that there was little smoke from western fires.

We took US 14 back to I-90 at Sundance, WY and continued east to Spearfish, SD where we picked up Taco Bell at the drive through and took it to the Spearfish Super 8. The young man at the front desk was very pleasant and gave us a quiet room at a reasonable rate. Although a typical Super 8, the room was clean and quiet, so we were happy.

Once in the room we quickly did our German lessons and checked our email since we were unable to do either yesterday. We are looking forward to visiting Mount Rushmore and Badlands National Parks on Thursday.