Westbound Day 17 – 276 miles – Buffalo to Yellowstone Park

Monday, 4 July 1994

Refreshed from a good rest the Caddy makes the long climb out of Buffalo resolutely if not exactly easily. The windy pass topping the Bighorn Range reaches just a few tailfins short of 10,000 ft and the green scenery on the eastern side abruptly changes to an almost desert-like vista to the west. We descend through Tensleep, negotiating a 4th of July parade, and on to Greybull where we stop for lunch, a surprisingly good lunch at a place called Lisa’s. Is Wyoming going to be the culinary highlight of this leg of the trip?

Westward through Cody, another town which looks like it would make an interesting stop if only we had more time, the scenery gets really dramatic as we climb alongside the Soshone River to Yellowstone Park. Progress has not exactly been fast because there have been so many interesting pullouts, viewpoints and photo opportunities all the way from Buffalo. But finally we enter the park, see our first Yellowstone buffalo (bison if you want to be scientific), find our room, go for a walk, see our first moose and have another excellent meal in the historic old Lake Hotel at Lake Village.