West 2021:
Day 20 - Buffalo Bill State Park, WY

	Saturday, May 22, 2021: We awoke early and were thrilled to see that the skies were clear.
	We mixed up a quick oatmeal breakfast so we could hit the road quickly.
	What a beautiful day!
	We were thrilled to see the Grand Tetons, which had been completely hidden the day before.
	We were back to following the Snake River once again.
	This was the first of several deer during our early morning drive.
	Wow - those are some gorgeous mountains.
	Here are some more pretty deer.
	Our first attempt to get to the drive along Jenny Lake failed as we found ourselves at the visitor center instead of where we wanted to go.
	We drove a little further up the road before we came to the road that we were looking for. Along the way, we found the scenic clearing where our tour bus unloaded us to take pictures on our last visit here in 2005. This is the place where Debbie and Jill were photographed then, but we didn't manage to line up the photo quite right.
	We did manage to duplicate the photo of the place where we stopped to eat our lunch on our 2005 trip.
	The view of beautiful Jenny Lake was nearly the same too.
	We encountered more "accidental" animal prints in the path just like we had seen at Craters of the Moon.
	We highly recommend visiting national parks at 7 AM when no one else is around yet.
	We continued through the park, stopping to see the view at Signal Mountain Lodge.
	We drove along Jackson Lake, ...
	... crossing the Snake River once again.
	Another pretty view.
	About an hour earlier, Tom had mentioned that he really wanted to see a bear with cubs. Debbie laughed and laughed, because that would obviously never happen. That was before we came across this little traffic jam with cars pulled over everywhere.
	Debbie snapped this photo from the van before we also pulled over to get a better photo. In this photo, there is a baby bear on the far left, a mama bear not very far away, and two more bears on the right side. Not shown: the baby bear that was very close to his mama, but we'll see him in a moment.
	Our camera has a 40x zoom built-in so we were able to get close shots even though we were very far away. Here's Grizzly Bear #1 ...
	... and Grizzly Bear #2.
	Here's Mama Grizzly with one of her two cubs, just as Tom had requested. There you have it - proof that Tom can make the impossible happen with his mind.
	We moved on quickly so that someone else could take our parking spot and continued to enjoy the views of the Grand Tetons as they slipped away from view.
	By 8 AM, we were leaving Grand Teton National Park, ...
	... and driving through Teton National Forest.
	Ten minutes later, we were at Yellowstone National Park.
	As soon as we passed the magical border, we noticed steam on the Snake River, so we were definitely in the land of geysers and steam vents. This was where we parted ways with the Snake River.
	It took less than 10 minutes to get through the gate at the south entrance and we were off. We were crazy to visit Yellowstone on a weekend, but that's just how the dates worked out.
	There's the Lewis River down below as we started to gain some altitude.
	Soon, it was right along side of us.
	The snow was getting deeper as we gained altitude.
	We crossed the Continental Divide for the first time of the day.
	Our first stop was West Thumb Geyser Basin where we parked and immediately encountered more animal prints in the sidewalk.
	We headed to the loop trail ...
	... and immediately encountered some elk grazing near the path.
	Let's start the geyser roll call! First up: Mimulus Pool.
	This is Twin Geyser. But which one is it? The good twin or the evil twin?
	This is the Abyss Pool.
	Look into it. Look.
	This is Black Pool.
	King Geyser.
	Here are Big Cone ...
	... and Fishing Cone, both of which are right on the edge of Yellowstone Lake, ...
	... as is Lakeshore Geyser.
	We spotted another elk along the water, ...
	... and watched him as he started to dip his hooves in the lake.
	Here's another pair on the hill as we rounded the loop trail.
	Here are Bluebell Pool ...
	... and the appropriately-named Mud Pots.
	Back on the road again, we passed the Continental Divide for the second time ...
	... and the third time. Yawn.
	This falling rocks sign looked really odd to us. When we saw the same sign mounted right-side up later in the day, we realized what the problem was.
	We went to the Old Faithful area just to see if anything at all was visible, but it wasn't. All of the steam in this area combined with the cold temperatures to create a constant fog. Fortunately, we had seen all of it on our 2005 trip. We took the opportunity to do some shopping at the Old Faithful General Store and get some gas instead.
	Build your own six pack? Using local beers? Don't mind if we do!
	We also picked up a couple new flavors of freeze-dried entrees to try, and got some more milk and bread.
	We spotted our first bison of the park in the Biscuit Basin area, ...
	... where we got out to do more sightseeing. We parked in the parking lot right next to Firehole River, which featured steam vents right along its shores.
	First, we encountered Black Opal Spring, ...
	... then Sapphire Pool. It was tricky to photograph these because of all of the steam in the air.
	In addition to all of the named geysers, there are lots of random holes in the ground spewing steam.
	Here are Shell Spring, ...
	.. Avoca Spring, ...
	... Mustard Spring, ...
	... and Black Pearl Geyser.
	Beyond the small loop trail, we could have hiked on trails that went on for miles, but we headed back because we still had a lot of ground to cover.
	One of the great things about visiting when it is cold is that you can see plumes of steam all over the park.
	Bison.
	More bison.
	Even more bison. We did not photograph all of the bison we saw. You're just getting the highlights.
	Pretty scenery.
	We stopped at Terrace Spring for a short walk on its loop boardwalk. It wasn't very visible with steam everywhere, ...
	... but this little pool made it worth the walk. We took a break and ate sandwiches with our freshly-purchased bread at our dinette before moving on.
	We saw a right-side up version of the incorrectly installed falling rocks sign we had seen earlier.
	We didn't stop to get a photo of this waterfall. According to her family vacation photos, Debbie had seen this many years earlier.
	Yellowstone sits on top of a giant caldera, and here is part of the caldera rim.
	We managed to find a parking spot in the massively crowded parking lot for Artists' Paintpots, then set out to see them. This sign told us that it was a mile walk to the paintpots and we could see that the trail was covered with puddles and mud, so we turned right around and left.
	We headed to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The view from the north rim was stunning. There's the Yellowstone River flowing downstream.
	However, we could see that the classic viewpoint for the lower falls was across the canyon, so we drove over there next.
	We took a "shortcut" through the lodging area to get there. It turned out to be a very long, twisty dead end so we had to backtrack, but we did get to see several shiny new lodges that looked fairly recently built.
	We didn't stop to see Upper Falls or Crystal Falls, but we did drive over the Yellowstone River nearby. That counts, right?
	We spotted another Travellers Autobarn camper van just like the one we had seen at Shoshone Falls a couple of days earlier.
	When we saw the view at Artist Point, we knew we were in the right place. At the head of this magnificant canyon are the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River.
	We crossed back over the Chittenden Memorial Bridge over the Yellowstone River and continued south.
	Pretty scenery. At this point, the Eurovision finals had begun but there was almost no cell service anywhere in the entire park, so we knew we'd be watching it much later in the day. Debbie's cousin in Sweden was messaging her about it and Debbie's replies took anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes to go back out.
	We stopped at Sulphur Caldron, which was the first place in the park that smelled at all like sulphur. It did not disappoint.
	Bison.
	We stopped at famous Fishing Bridge, where fishing is no longer allowed.
	This is the general store at Fishing Bridge, where Debbie's mother worked for a summer back in 1960.
	This gigantic fireplace appears to have held up well.
	The store must look radically different than it did when Irene worked here.
	This is where Irene met her friend - and now our friend - Marley, who was also working here for the summer. They remained friends for the rest of Irene's life. Over sixty years later, we are still in touch and are also friends with Marley's daughters, Jennie and Gena, whom we had just seen in Seattle eight days earlier.
	The dormitory where Irene and Marley lived that summer is next door to the parking area.
	Our route out of the park took us along the north side of Lake Yellowstone.
	Pretty.
	The lake is so large that it is easy to think you're looking at an ocean shore.
	We noticed some odd coloration in the water. As we got closer, we realized that we were seeing steam vents and springs that were spilling into the water.
	This area is called Steamboat Point ...
	... and we got out to take a look. How nice to have this part of the park to ourselves!
	We drove through the mountains, passing several ponds or lakes where the surface ice hadn't melted yet.
	Pretty scenery.
	Fallen rocks. If only we had been warned!
	We got out at Corkscrew Bridge Overlook for a second. There it is - what appears to be a dirt road with a hole underneath it.
	A few minutes later, we passed this handsome guy by the side of the road. He's a yellow-bellied marmot, just like we had seen at Pompeys Pillar earlier in the trip.
	That beautiful mountain in the distance is Sleeping Giant.
	We left Yellowstone National Park via the East Entrance, ...
	... and immediately entered Shoshone National Forest.
	We followed the North Fork of the Shoshone River all the way to our campground.
	The last half hour of our drive featured many interesting rock formations.
	See the arch up there? No?
	Here's a closeup for you.
	More pretty scenery.
	We were on the Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway.
	We were now in ranch territory.
	This cool building near Wapiti is called the Smith mansion. It was built over a 22-year period until the builder was hit by falling lumber and fell to his death.
	What an adorable mailbox!
	Our last point of interest for the day was in a field a mile or two from our campground. What can it be?
	It's a Big Boy! Roadside America comes through once again for us.
	We had seen large herds of deer in some of the fields with horses, but this one was the funniest sight: a horse, galloping playfully, terrorizing the deer in his path.
	We arrived at Buffalo Bill State Park shortly after 3:00 PM.
	After getting to our site and learning that there was no water hookup, and then learning that the water and dump site were also still closed for the winter, we drove to the restroom where Tom filled up a couple of water jugs for us to get by.
	Our campsite was very nice, with a view of the North Fork of the Shoshone River.
	After a picture-perfect day, some rain was on the way and Tom had more work he wanted to do on the leaks on the rig. This was now the seventh attempt at leak repairs, we think.
	Dinner was fixed, eaten, and cleaned up before we remembered to take a photo, so here's the package. This is one of the meals we bought in Yellowstone and Tom loved it. Debbie didn't mind it either once she picked all of the peas out of her serving.
	The sky cleared up after a couple of hours of on-and-off rain, so we got out to check out the scenery all around us. Pretty.
	Also pretty.
	Also also pretty.
	After seeing magpies fairly regularly, Debbie finally got a picture of one hopping around the grass near our campsite.
	We toasted to a perfect day at two amazing national parks with a Grand Teton Brewing Sweetgrass pale ale and a National Park Series Old Faithful Ale. Day 21 >