We Made It!

(Posting for Friday, June 6th)

Today started out like any other day. We had a restful night in Cody after the rodeo. Everyone slept until around 8am, and we headed down to breakfast shortly thereafter. After a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, I let the kids soak in the pool while Steph sorted and organized our newly clean clothes in anticipation of heading into Yellowstone later today.

We got the car repacked round 11am, and took a few minutes to get pics of the kids with some of the stuffed animals in the lobby of our hotel. After a quick stop at Wal-Mart, we headed to Old West Town just West of downtown Cody. Old West Town is a collection of old settler buildings that were relocated to Cody starting in the 1960’s. When you walk through these buildings – some homes, a school and some stores – you get a feeing of how hard it must have been on those settlers who gave up a life in some major city, packed everything they could in a covered wagon, and headed West in hopes of a better life for their family. I can’t imagine packing the Gray Family in a covered wagon and heading West to start a new life. It gives you a new appreciation for those who explored and settled the West.

After Old West Town, we headed back into Cody for some lunch at Bob’s BBQ. Lunch was great – the kids liked the ribs, but they didn’t think they were as good as Nolan’s… After lunch, we headed towards Yellowstone and made a quick stop at the Buffalo Bill Dam on the Shoshone River. The wind was whipping, and cold, but we found our way inside for a quick stop. We headed on towards Yellowstone early afternoon.

We finally reached Yellowstone shortly after 3pm today. We stopped at the park entrance for the obligatory pictures, and enjoyed some snow flurries as we entered the park. When we left Cody earlier today, it was sunny and about 60 degrees. When we hit Yellowstone, it was a bit overcast and mid 40 degrees.

We worked our way into Yellowstone and were amazed at the lack of cars – we felt like we had the place to ourselves. We saw plenty of snow covered mountain tops – and the occasional pile of snow next to the road. As we worked our way through the mountains and closer to Sylvan Pass, the snow picked up, and we began to see more and more snow on the side of the road. We kept meeting cars that were covered with snow. We were excited, but didn’t think much of it.

When we passed through Sylvan Pass, the snow became omnipresent. It began snowing harder, and the lakes we passed were frozen over. As we worked our way from Sylvan Pass down to Lake Yellowstone and Fishing Bridge, the snow picked up considerably and began to accumulate on the road. Just East of Fishing Bridge, we met a snow plow. When we passed Fishing Bridge, park rangers were starting to shut down the roads in the park. We were allowed to continue on the Lake Hotel, but the road North to Canyon was closed because of the snowfall.

We finally reached Lake Hotel around 5pm. It was a little difficult to navigate, since all of the signs were covered with snow. As we checked in, we learned that most of the roads in the park were closed this evening because of the heavy snowfall. As we worked our way to our room, the power went off in the hotel. It quickly came back, but probably went off another 3 or 4 times in the early evening. The snow has tapered off as I write this around 10pm local time, but we’ve probably gotten 5 or 6 inches of snow here today.

After we checked in, we bundled up the kids and headed out to the front of the hotel facing the lake. The kids had a blast playing in the snow – making snowmen, snowballs and snow angels. We chatted with an older couple from Birmingham who were visiting the park with their grandchildren.

After our romp in the snow, we changed into dry clothes and headed downstairs to the lobby of the hotel. The hotel is 100+ years old, so the lobby is a grand thing, with large windows overlooking the lake. Steph thought it was quite similar to the hotel in the movie the Shining. We hung out in the lobby for several hours. The kids enjoyed hot chocolate, while Steph and I enjoyed some great micobrew beers. We broke the bag of games and played cards while we watched the snow.

Later this evening we had dinner in the main dining room. Dinner was great – the food was good, but the experience was perhaps better. Lake Hotel throws you back to a simpler time – no phones, no TV – just great scenery, conversation, drink and food. We had a great dinner watching the snow and snow covered landscape out huge picture windows.

The roads should be cleared at some point tomorrow, but I couldn’t imagine a better place to be snowed in. This is truly a little piece of heaven.

We've taken tons of pics, but will get them posted when we find some internet...