Got up, got a bite and headed out to spend a few hours doing the 32 mile scenic loop around the Badlands. Our ultimate destination was Shoshone Lodge, just outside Yellowstone National Park, which meant around an 8 hour drive. Since we knew we wouldn't be able to do much in Yellowstone that day, we decided to just take our time and enjoy the scenery. Enjoy we did! We knew we would like the Badlands, but we didn't realize how much. We saw Bighorn Sheep, Prairie Dogs, and deer just doing their thing. Its really a gorgeous place.
Our route out of the Badlands just happened to take us into the town of Wall. If you ever drive from South Dakota anywhere near this place....probably from any direction....you'll know that its coming. Its kind of like Rock City. Signs and advertisements EVERYWHERE. They got their start by offering weary travelers FREE ice water. I guess back in those days ice water was a luxury when traveling the vast plains. Anyway, we knew it would be a tourist trap, but those kitschy little places are kinda fun sometimes. The trip inside was short and the fresh made donuts with maple and chocolate glaze was actually surprisingly excellent.
After leaving Wall we realized why Wyoming is one of the least populated states. Western Wyoming is absolutely gorgeous, but eastern Wyoming.......ugggggg. Its like a Mars landscape, but covered in brown grass as far as the eye can see(at least the section we went through). It has its charm, but it grows tired fast. So, we trucked on through at about 87 MPH (literally, the speed limit was 80).
About half-way through the drive to Yellowstone you can take a detour through Bighorn Sheep National Forest (Hwy 16). We didn't see any Bighorn sheep but we did see a whole lot of majestic scenery.
One of our favorite parts of this stretch was the drive from Bighorn to Cody, WY. Its other worldly and it does not wear thin quickly. Its also where we had our first (hopefully last) near disaster. The speed limits here.... even on two-lane highways are STILL 70 mph. The deer that tried really hard to leap in front of the van were apparently unaware of this fact. But, ever vigilant, Steph slammed on the brakes and did the classic "mom holding back the children from ejecting out of the front window" move on me. We watched as RIGHT at the last second two of the four deer split left while the others continued right. If they hadn't, one of the fawns would have likely died and our rented van would have been sad too.
After stopping in Cody to eat we quickly headed on to Shoshone Lodge. As you enter the east side of Yellowstone you are greeted by two towering mountains, split down the center by the Shoshone river, looking like a mammoth gate welcoming you in. Because we had taken our time on this stretch, the sun was close to setting as we approached the park. The sheer, two thousand foot cliffs were almost completely shadow as we passed them and the sky was a dim yellow. Awesome. Unfortunately, since the light was so low and we were running so late we had no time for pics. We have them in our head though.
We arrived around 9:30 at the lodge. We would describe it as kinda like Camp Anawanna. The rooms were separate cabins with no AC and decorated like Grandma's house. It was a pretty cool place, but we didn't even get to see it in the daylight because we had to be up at 4:45 the next day to try for a first-come-first-serve campsite in Yellowstone.
