Day Fourteen

We were going to drive all the way up the left hand side today, and then back down the right hand side, then out the East Entrance towards Cody. Then we realised this would be about 220 miles. So we shortened it, a bit.

We drove up to Mud Volcano and Sulphur Cauldron. Mud Volcano is an area that is full of springs, geysers and bubbling mud pools. It's AMAZING, and beyond belief. It's just so weird and supernatural. There's this one cave that has water and smoke bubbling and billowing out of it. It's like Lord of the Rings. It's incredibly interesting and so different. Nature, at it's most raw and bizarre. Very cool indeed.

Of course, you don't think any of this at the time. Because ALL you're thinking is

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF GOD IS THIS WRETCHED SMELL?"

It is the worst stench you can POSSIBLY imagine. The strongest, most potent smell of Sulphur. Definitely what hell would smell like. It catches in your throat, and burns your nose and it just SUCKS. I can still sort of smell it, in a traumatic-sense-memory type way.

So we got back in the car, whacked the A/C on high and got outta there.

We drove to Cody. By now we are both exhausted by being wowed. I'm all wowed out. But the drive to Cody really was beautiful. Again. Very wild west - big reddish rocks, just like in the movies, and ranches. Roosevelt called the drive from Cody to Yellowstone "the best looking 50mile sidewalk in the world". Or something like that. Might not have been Roosevelt. Might have been a different Pres. But, essentially, it's SO lovely that one of the Presidents at some point commented on how good it is.

Arrived in Cody, and checked into a VERY classic Motel, and then headed downtown. It was super-wild-west. Boot shops and hat shops and saloons, all brilliantly cowboy. And real cowboys! Men in jeans and boots, clicking up and down in hats and moustaches.

It was Rodeo night, so everywhere was jammed. We went to the Irma Hotel, which was started by Buffalo Bill himself, and is pretty much as he left it. Inside the restaurant was MENTAL. Chandeliers of antlers and dead animal heads on the Walls. We had some good old fashioned American fare, and then headed back to our motel.

Another super dooper day. Tomorrow, Buffalo.







-- Post From My iPhone