John Colter Trail 1807 — 1808

Day 31: September 13th, 2005 Canyon Village — Cody

Morning Fog Canyon Village, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Today is my mechanics appointment in Cody. Therefore I don’t have too much time for any visits today, unfortunately. I am even awake pretty early. But when I leave the house, the cold really hits me. It is extremely cold, probably below freezing! And there is ice on all cars around. Additionally there is some fog — which gives the whole area a special scenery. There are many small ice needles on my CB mount. Hopefully the picture, I have taken, will work out (unfortunately only the video worked)…

But for now I must remove the ice from my windshield. Lucky me I have an ice scraper with me. But the couple at the car next to me are working with a piece of wood, because they have no ice scraper in their rental car. But they are almost done. Therefore they turn my offer down to use own of my ice scrapers.

Then I drive over for breakfast. I am lucky, because they are not really busy. I even receive a table immediately. But then I must wait. It takes around 10 minutes until my server eventually shows up. Then I must learn, that they are out of eggs — great, that is something they could have told me at the beginning. So I have to search through the menu again to find something without eggs. After another 10 minutes he shows up again and tells me, that they can offer me some scrambled eggs — that is almost perfect! Probably they take it from the buffet, but that is also fine for me. But after my breakfast I must wait for another 10 minutes until this guy shows up eventually again. I haven’t had such a miserable service on my whole trip so far. And they are now not really busy around here!

Due to the waiting I have lost now a lot of valuable time. So I am able to pay around half past nine. Then I walk quickly over to the local post office. Whereas you should not expect too much by the term office. It is more like a woodshed. I buy the missing stamps for my post cards, then I am able to continue my journey.

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Just past the branch to Grand Loop Rd is a gas station. Because today I will make many miles again for the first time, I need to stop there. In the meantime the fog is gone and the sun comes out. It seems to be a real nice day today, even when the start is pretty cool.

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Around a quarter to ten I am ready to depart. Today I am even able to drive over the pass in sunshine. This really gives me the chance to see this beautiful landscape. If I would have not been under this time pressure due to my appointment in Cody, I would do way more stops. But this forces me to reduce my stopovers to the real big highlights on the road.

Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Goats, Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Goats, Grand Loop Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

But on my way into the valley is a forced unplanned stop. First I am not able to see what is going on. There is only one ranger to see in the middle of the road, who takes care of the traffic. Then I see a bunch of mountain goats, who cross the road and walk up the hill. Sure, everyone stops here now to take pictures. So I exceptionally do it also the touristy way and take some pictures out of my car.

NE Entrance Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

NE Entrance Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

NE Entrance Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Then I continue to Tower Junction. There I turn to the east and follow the Lamar River through Lamar Canyon on the NE Entrance Road to Soda Butte Creek. Then I follow this one to the exit of the park. There I am really in the footsteps of John Colter.

Bison, NE Entrance Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Bison, NE Entrance Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Bison, NE Entrance Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

NE Entrance Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

But on this road is another forced stop over: This time there are really some bison on the road, which I need to video tape and take pictures, like all the other drivers. Then I continue.

NE Entrance Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

NE Entrance Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

NE Entrance Rd, Yellowstone National Park, WY

At the park exit I must realize, that the fee station is again not occupied. So I definitely have no chance to pay for my park visit this time.

Highway 212, Cooke City, MT

While saying thank you I continue my drive and reach Cooke City. This is a real cute small town with beautiful logger buildings. However the gas prices are a killer here: $3.40 per gallon regular is more than extreme. Especially if you remember that I payed 30 cent a gallon less in the park!

Highway 212, MT

Highway 212, MT

When leaving the city, there is the next surprise: There is no chance to continue due to a road construction. According to the lady with the stop sign, I must wait around a quarter of an hour, until I am able to proceed again. Then I must follow one of these “Follow Me” cars through the road construction.

This road construction goes for more than 20 miles and I almost have the impression, it will never end. Eventually I reach the end and I am able to proceed through beautiful landscapes again.

Highway 212, WY

Highway 212, WY

Then I reach the exit to Chief Joseph Highway (Highway 296) and I follow this one again up to Dead Indian Hill.

Highway 296, WY

Highway 296, WY

Highway 296, WY

Highway 296, WY

Highway 296, WY

The drive through this valley offers me again very beautiful impressions of the mountain region until I reach this part of the pass up to Dead Indian Hill, which I have already been traveling. Because I know this area from my last drive up here, I don’t stop for further pictures. Also I am running out of time and I don’t want to be late in Cody.

Highway 120, WY

I reach Highway 120 and continue in direction of Cody.

Around 2pm I arrive at the Conoco gas station, where I hand over my warranty papers to Rob. He takes a very long look at it. Then he just says, that he is not able to do anything. As I am still able to drive with my transmission, I must either drive to Miles City, where the transmission was installed or to Billings in Montana, where the transmission has been rebuilt. Pretty much pissed off I drive to my motel and check in. Due to my reservation, I am forced to stay here overnight.

Then I call Randy in Miles City and tell him about my transmission problems. He promises to immediately set up an appointment with his friend in Billings, who has built up the transmission. I assume, that I could be there between 10am and noon. At least I definitely must not drive to Miles City.

Because I am already out of spare transmission oil, I try to find some synthetic transmission oil around here. But in whole Cody is no synthetic oil available!

Because I am already at Wal–Mart I buy another phone card. Then I check the video taping of today at my motel. Due to all the driving scenes, they are way more than expected. Around 7pm I drive again over to Wal–Mart to buy another package of DV tapes for my video camera. I have almost used all of them.

Around a quarter past seven I pay and drive over to the Sunset House for dinner. They are extremely busy right here! But I am lucky and receive a table immediately. My server is super busy and therefore the slower service is absolutely excused. You can really tell, that she is working extremely hard.

But a real experience is the cook, who calls the servers whenever a dinner is ready. Just therefore you must have dinner there at least once in a lifetime — whereas the food is also really great! I didn’t expected this much.

Around a quarter to seven I pay and drive back to my motel. There I feed my GPS, before I go to bed really early. Let’s see, what tomorrow will bring…