Wildlife

On the way to Cody, Wyoming we made a quick stop at the Devils Tower. What a funny formation, just sticking out of the prairie. For the Lakota and other tribes this is a sacred place.

One time around the monolith and we got back in the car. Off we went to Cody since we were still following the advice of Doc, the Park Ranger. Cody is a pretty touristy western town and in summer with all the rodeos and saloon shows it must be spectacular. But in winter Cody is just a tiny, sleepy town.

So we followed Hwy 14 towards the closed road of Yellowstone Park and had a wilderness experience. Everywhere – on the street or the fields – we found hundreds of bighorn sheep, mule deer, elks and bison. We also had one bold eagle. It was just fantastic.

Doc told us that we should drive up to the Beartooth Pass but the road will be closed towards Cooke City so we had to drive a detour of 400 km (250 miles) to get to the northern entrance Mammoth Hot Springs of the Yellowstone National Park.

Unfortunately at the Cody Visitor Center the woman told us that the road would be closed but we could continue with own risk. Especially since we have a 4 wheel drive and everyday cars would drive the street. So she checked cameras online and said, we are good to go. With some concern I mentioned our truck camper, so we would be very heavy but still, she said, this wouldn’t be a problem.

The landscape up to the Beartooth Pass was just stunning and we enjoyed the ride. We finally came to the point where the street was closed. And well, it didn’t look passable. So we checked from another road and there parked several trucks with trailers. This was the perfect area for snowmobiles.

We saw another road going towards Cooke City and we followed slowly but we decided to turn around. This was way to much snow and than we got stuck while we backed off. It started snowing and getting dark – no shovel – we dug and put our levelers and brush-wood under the tires. Took us half an hour but finally we managed to get out again.

So let’s better listen to Doc and take the route around. A couple of days ago Micha had ordered a generator online since we couldn’t find the right one in the stores. We had it delivered to Bozeman since we wanted to stop by on our way to Yellowstone. Finally we had our generator.

The way to the Yellowstone National Park was crazy windy and our truck camper rocked the whole night.