Day 14 (550 miles)

Today we left the Grand Tetons and headed to South Dakota.

We got a late start (we did not leave until 10).

Here we are folding up the camper.

We decided to drive back through Yellowstone, so we could see the east side of the park. There was road construction along the way so the drive was extra long.

We stopped along the way and saw a lot more of the park.

Here we are by Yellowstone Lake.

 

 

 

Wyoming is farther along with the Pine Beetle than the Rocky Mountains.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we were driving through the park we came up on several stopped cars and a ranger. I asked what they were looking at and they said a Grizzly Bear. The ranger said he was about 100 yards away and could cover that distance in 10 seconds jumping logs and all.

If you look closely right in the middle of the picture there is a brown lump of fur. That is the bear. He got up a couple of times, it was really cool.

 

Here is a picture along the way out of the park.

 

 

 

 

After we left Yellowstone we drove through Cody Wyoming and ended up on Route 14A. As is turns out U. S. Route 14A snakes up the incredibly steep western scarp of the Big Horn Mountains in one of the most amazing set of switchbacks anywhere. Colleen was driving when we started up this mountain and she did not like it. At one point she had the gas peddle to the floor and we were only going 20 and still loosing speed. The car was starting to overheat and Colleen was starting to loose it so I told her to pull over and I would drive.

Around one of the next turns we saw these two moose.

 

 

 

 

Near the top of the mountain there was a rest stop so we stopped to let the car cool down and decided it was a good time for dinner. Alexis was eating a sandwich in the car and felt something on her leg. She jumped out of the car and was freaking out.

 

Here she is after the bug. it was the size of a silver dollar. A little freaky!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We started out again and headed into the clouds literally! Everyone was excited Ashley wanted her window open so she could touch a cloud. This picture was taken at 7 PM and we still had a long way to go.

We did not get to the campground until midnight, and I was worried about setting up the camper after quiet hours. Quiet hours in most campgrounds are 10 pm-6am. After navigating the crazy roads in the dark and rain we found our campsite. As it turned out both of our camping neighbors we up. They ended up staying up for hours they were quite obnoxious.  We got the kids into the camper by 1.  I ended up reading until about 2 because I was wired after the stress of the drive.