Stormy skies over Yellowstone

I was happy that it wasn't raining when I woke up this morning.  After filling up the tank and grabbing some lunch food, my sister and I headed over to Yellowstone National Park.  Now, when I left my hotel in Cody, WY, the lady at checkout said the highway at the park's east entrance was closed due to bad road conditions.  Since that last report was at 5:30 am, we thought it would be cleared up by the time we got there.  Wrong!  The ranger at the gate told us they didn't know when the entrance would be open, and gave us a map showing two other closed roads.  In order to reach our pit stop for the night in West Yellowstone, we would have to make a 6-hour detour around the park!

Not wanting to deal with the uncertainty, we opted to go with the sure thing and drive around.  So, we reluctantly wrote off our day at Yellowstone and headed back to Cody.  We were still dealing with the disappointment when we saw a couple of cars stopped on the side of the road.  They were taking photos of...bighorn sheep!  We joined them and I got some decent pics.  In addition, we had also saw a small herd of elk relaxing in a field on our way to the park.

When we got back to Cody, we glanced at the electronic highway sign displaying the status of all park entrances...and saw the east side was open!  Aaaagh!  We immediately turned around and made the 50 mile drive back to the east entrance.  We were so afraid it might close again by the time we got there, but thankfully, it really WAS open!  As we traveled the road up to Sylvan Pass, there was a light layer of snow on the pavement, but nothing my Outback couldn't handle.  Temps remained in the 30s throughout the day, but at least it wasn't raining!  We stopped at the Mud Volcano basin to take in the sights and sulphurous smells, and drove through Hayden Valley as we headed north. 

When we reached Canyon Village, I planned just a brief stop to take photos of the falls, but there seemed to be a bit of a commotion.  Vehicles were stopped along the sides of the roads and people were scrambling with their cameras to take pictures of...what?  Bison?  Elk?  Bear?  No...owl.  Owl?  Yes, owl.  A great grey owl to be exact.  Now, I've never seen such an owl, so my sister and I joined the mob.  The owl just sat in a tree and casually observed the silly humans.

After taking in the views at the Lower Falls overlook, we continued on to our final destination of the day, Norris Geyser Basin.  In my previous visits to Yellowstone, I don't recall seeing this area.  Old or new, everything is amazingly beautiful at Yellowstone National Park!

Tomorrow, we head on back to Yellowstone, bad weather or not.  There are rain showers in the forecast, but we have raincoats AND umbrellas.  Now, if I can manage to keep my camera dry...