Wednesday 1 June (Linda’s birthday)

Internet still a bit vague about roads into Yellowstone. Looked at motels and decided on Livingston as an alternative. Decided to book Livingstone and write off money for Cody as it was too late to cancel (48 hours on internet booking).

Wiatress confirmed E Yellowstone only open until 8am (her daughter is local). Booking Livingston was a good move as we would probably have had to get up by 5.30am in Cody to be certain of getting through the park entrance by 8am. Thought we’d compensate by doing scenic drive via 14A to Lovell.

Went to car wash before setting off, as car was still filthy. There was a self serve pet wash on the site as well. Looked like being a really good day weatherwise and eventually temperature reached 87F.

Got back on the 90 west. After an hour or so we stopped at a Wyoming Visitor Centre near Ranchester.  Spectacular views across to the mountains. Spent a long time talking to a guy called Stacey who had his 400mm lens and Nikon camera. Talked about photography and wildlife. Les photographed a redwinged blackbird. By this time it was already around 80F. Got a free coffee and sat outside looking at the view.

Carried on along the 90 and went off on the 14 at Ranchester. When we got to Dayton we saw a roadside sign saying that the 14A was closed. Were unsure what to do. We could take the 14 to Greybull and get back to Lovell but weren’t sure if the roads north from Lovell would be open. Fortunately as we started to climb up into the mountains there were some roadworks. We asked the man operating the stop/go board and he told us that everything was fine so we pressed on. Spectacular climb up and still very warm. Kept wanting to stop at the numerous turnouts on the way up.

Fairly soon we got up amongst the snow rather than just looking at it. Stopped at Arrowhead Lodge for lunch - both our sandwiches came with fries and we couldn’t even finish the sandwiches let alone the fries! Really heavy snow here - the snow was half way up the windows at the back of the dining room.

Got to the junction with the 14A and there were no signs about the road being closed. There was a lodge half a mile from junction so we went down to that and asked. The lady said she would show us why it was closed and produced a photo of a man standing in front of 25ft of snow and asked whether we thought we could get our 4-wheel drive through that! Much laughter. When we parked there were signs warning to park well back from the building because of ice and snow falling from roof.

Carried on along the 14. Quite worrying in some ways. Deep snow everywhere. Quite a long way to go and not a vehicle in sight. Temperature dropped dramatically to about 54F. Really interesting. Lots of spots for parking to unload your snowmobile and lots of snowmobile warning signs. Snow must’ve been really deep as we could just see the tops of fences in some places. A long drive but eventually we started to go down again along a winding valley with lots of bends and warning signs.

Stopped at Shell Falls - a really well laid out visitor spot with lots of walkways or different views of the falls. A bit crowded as a coach was stopped there. Eventually got down to the bottom of the valley and the temperature went back up to around 80F. Found we could direct a couple of the aircon vents at the bottle holders in the front so that our water stayed cool. As you drove along there were signs telling you exactly which rock formation you were passing and how old it was. Stopped towards the bottom of the pass to photograph a good example of a fault.

Got to Greybull and turned north on the 310 back to Lovell. Saw another tower - red this time. It was near a university geological field station. Stopped at Visitor Centre at entrance to Big Horn Canyon NP. Would’ve been nice to spend longer at this spot. The Canyon has been dammed and the lake is 71 miles long.

Flogged on up the 310. The only thing of note was the 13 miles of roadworks where there was no tarmac. At one point there was shuttle working with a pilot car. Finally got onto the 90. Came off after a short distance to swap drivers and fill up again! Les pulled out of the filling station as a lowloader with a wide load and escort was making a slow turn in. As he did so there was a huge blast on a horn and for a second we thought we were going to be hit by something we hadn’t seen. As we accelerated way wondering who’d hooted at us we saw the train passing by - it had been the train whistle that we’d heard but it gave us a nasty shock.

A long flog of over 100 miles along the 90, following the railway and Yellowstone River. Interesting countryside without being spectacular and a pleasant drive as we very quickly lost all the traffic.

Finally got to Livigston at 7pm. As we checked in we mentioned about Cody and losing our payment. We asked the lady if she would phone the BW at Cody just to let them know we wouldn’t be arriving. She spoke to them and explained that we’d changed our plans because of the weather and the road closures and the travel difficulties and Cody immediately said that they wouldn’t make any charge - result!