(is this the 18th?) more Yellowstone

Drive back into Yellowstone from the west. Thoday was really spectacular (see, there's that word again). Went through the central part and out the east exit. The recent fires in the east seem to demonstrate the Park Service hasn't learned. (Or maybe this is just a result of their activities from a while ago.) The forests around Yellowstone are in pretty good shape. Hit the upper and lower falls and many others. Took more picture today than any other day. Went through the "Grand Canyon". I liked it better than the one in Arizona. :-) I really need to return to Arizona and see more. Same with Yosemite which I will probably get to in Aug. (Not!) Yellowstone is by far the best National Park I've been to. It's more like a National Forest than any other Park which means it is used for multiple purposes beyond just preservation. I pref the conservation approach.

Shoot. This next paragraph is an entire page of notes! The east entrance is all screwed up. Not sure why. The Shoshone Forest is pretty nice. I'm spending the night here in a better part. I spent the evening in Cody. Went to the museum because my mom insisted. I really thought it would suck. It wasn't bad at all. The worst part was that I got there late (like 6.30pm) and it closed at 8pm. I didn't get to see everything I wanted, but pretty much. Cody is a nice town. Although all these tourist towns are getting on my nerves, reminds me of Florida.

(I broke up the paragraph from my notes.) I thought I was going to have to take a very round about route to come back to Yellowstone through the North East entrance. But I found a sign to Chief Joseph Scenic Byway. Sounded good, so I took it. (I don't think it was on the map. The only map I took was of the Western US. It didn't have lots of roads, but it's good enough to get around. Last time I had a map of the entire US. I take the position you can't be lost if you don't care where you are or where you are going.) Very good choice (taking Chief Joseph), cuts off a lot of time and mileage. It was beautiful while it lasted. Unfortunately I didn't get on it until 9.30pm or so. Not enough daylight to really appreciate it all. Tomorrow should be nice though. I was bummed that I only saw one bear, a grizzly, and that was very short (mostly just saw its butt as it walked away). Hopefully my wish doesn't come true tonight since I'm camping in bear country. :-) (Unlike some people, you know who you are! I slept quite fine and didn't chicken out and go sleep in the bed of a pickup or my car. :-)

I put all the food in the trunk. Hopefully no bears tonight, but plenty tomorrow in the Park. I also hope it doesn't go down to 50 degrees F again. That's too cold for my skinny ass. I've already had 2 of those 50 degree nights and I'm bracing for a third. (Funny how after a couple more weeks I wasn't comfortable unless it was 50. In Mt View, it only goes down to about 60 and that's still a bit warm for me.)