Road Trip Day 6 - Wednesday

We awoke around 8 and were on the road by 9. Within an hour we were off
the major highway (90) on route 16 in a roundabout path to Yellowstone.
Just before the town of Buffalo signs warned us that route 16 was safer,
more scenic, and shorter. We stopped for gas and the folks there agreed
that 16 was superior to 14.
Deb was driving as the road started climbing from the mostly flatlands,
to a pass through the Bighorn Mountains. The scenery was stunning and we
both fell in love with some of the log homes built into the sides of
hills. We climbed and climbed and climbed some more, and just when you
figure we'd have to be on our way downhill, there was another higher
mountain in front of us. The higher we got the worse the snow became.
Poor Deb drove through at least 7 miles of snow covered slick roads, but
she toughed it out and refused to yield the wheel. There were times we
were only doing 35 mph.
Finally we started down the other side of the mountains and passed
through some incredible mountain pass canyons. It took us close to 2
hours to get to the town of Cody, and as we got to the far side of town
were alarmed to see a sign warning that the road was closed 50 miles
ahead, at the entrance to Yellowstone. I must admit that I'd gotten a
bit nervous about this as we went through the Bighorn mountains as I'd
noticed on the map that Yelowstone is smack in the midddle of the
Rockies. At this point I did something that all you guys reading this
are going to gasp at, I stopped in the visitors center and asked...
Seems the east entrance is closed every winter and the only way in is
the northern entrance. Even then only the northern part of the park is
even accessable, leaving out Old Faithful! She also mentioned that the
park was looking at several inches of snow that evening and 5 to 10
Thursday. At this point Deb and I put our heads together and realized
that we weren't going to be able to do it all without running like
madmen and driving REALLY long hours. The new plan is to head south
through Utah and return to thr focal point of the trip, Arizona. We
started the long trip south and were a bit worried about driving through
the South Pass" as we had been warned by the visitors center of bad
weather through the pass. We stopped for gas just before making the
decision on wether or not to chance it and I noticed a truck towing a
motor home facing the opposite way. I asked if they'd just come through
the pass and he said yes and that it hadn't been too bad. The 120 miles
from Lyman to Rock Springs has some of the sparsest population I've ever
encountered. At one point we must have gone 40 miles without seeing a
house. Nor did we encounnter more than a dozen vehicles. The roads are
flat, straight, and long and its not difficult to find yourself driving
better than 80 mph. The South Pass is another beautiful mountain pass
with looming walls of stone on both sides.
We made it to Rock Springs and decided we'd try for Evanston, which was
a few miles east of the border. Plan was to stop for food along the way
but we ended up not finding anything and having dinner at 9 pm. We found
a Howard Johnson's which was furthest from the highway. We passed out by
10:30 (MST).

Bruce and Debbie
http://rosey462.blogspot.com/
notsosilentbruce on AOL IM