We are in Cody at the Ponderosa Campground. The sites are tight, but that is to be expected in a town where the emphasis is on tourist activities away from the RV. Fun town, but too many people here on this holiday weekend for us. We are enjoying our time with the Diesel RV Club, but we had yesterday off to do sightseeing. We decided to drive the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, the Beartooth Scenic Byway, and take a detour into Yellowstone since we were nearby.
I am first going to show you some pictures of lovely tundra flowers since they were out in full bloom. These are found more abound 9,000-10,000’ this time of year. They are all incredibly small, the tallest poking their heads up 4”, but most 1-2”.
Around 8000’ the meadows were awash with larger flowers due to their milder conditions. White, shades of purple, pinks, yellows – a riot of color.
Oh, and the roads themselves? Marvelous as usual! I never get tired of the views.
The Yellowstone detour didn’t get us a lot. We did see only the second moose we have ever seen in the park itself only a few miles from the northeast gate. We have seen a number of moose outside the park, but they stay pretty hidden inside.
And of course we had a bison jam. It was a small group with a bunch of cows, yearlings, and a few calves.
The bison slowed us down for about 20-25 minutes, and just as it cleared we were stopped by tow trucks removing three wrecked cars just a few miles down the road. That took 45 minutes, so we just took a bit more sightseeing and turned around. We finished our drive back to the campground from Red Lodge on the flat roads, and the entire trip took about 8 1/2 hours.
And yes I know this is terse, but the data service here is dreadful! I can’t get anything more than 1-3 mbps down and 0.5 mbps up even sitting right outside the campground store. Our phones and hot spot are only picking up LTE signal, and everything is painfully slow. Maybe we can find better service soon.