Thursday, July 22nd

We’re checking out of America’s Best and the little girl behind the counter thinks we haven’t paid for our room! Indeed! I bring her my color photocopy of my receipt and Marilyn parks the car to bring hers. "Oh, yes; I remember you!” I should hope!

Anyway, on to get gas and to Old Trail Town, an outdoor museum comprised of old cabins and stores which have been moved from all over Wyoming to the site of Buffalo Bill’s original choice for Cody. It recreates a street scene with cabins and such on both sides of the street and old wagons down the middle. At the far end of the street there are graves of such Wyoming notables as Jeremiah “Liver-Eating” Johnson, Jim White, Jim Bridger, John Colter, Floyd Stillings and Bill Cody, Buffalo Bill’s Grandson.

There are photos of some of these men’s remains being dug up and reburied here in this honored spot. Most interesting were the photos of Jeremiah Johnson which feature Robert Redford as one of the pallbearers!

The buildings include a cabin used by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the Hole in the Wall Gang as well as a saloon they enjoyed. There is an old schoolhouse, a livery stable, a store, a blacksmith’s shop and a number of cabins. There is even a letter from a man who is about to kill or be killed, to his father. He says, “Don’t worry for me, I am all right now, living or dead is all the same to me.” Hard stuff to read.

We’ve whiled away the morning reliving the old west – or at least imagining it! And hit the road, stopping briefly at the Buffalo Bill dam and reservoir. There’s also a stop for a really remarkable formation that looks like the ruins of an ancient civilization.

Marilyn stops for me to walk back to a couple of little waterfalls by the side of the road. The light is perfect to form rainbows at their bases! We’ve made it back to the park. Hooray!! And another wave of the magic pass! This time we ask for a new map because ours is falling apart! It has been loved to death! The ranger laughs as she hands over a new one!

This is new territory for us. We are approaching Yellowstone Lake, the largest high-elevation lake in the country. That means it is above 7,000 feet. It is so big that it makes its own weather! When we stop at the shore, there are actually whitecaps crashing on the shoreline! And there are lupine growing just above the high-water line.

We cross Fishing Bridge across the Yellowstone River where it flows into Yellowstone Lake and turn left to find Lake Village. This is another of the large villages in the park with its own post office and clinic, general store, Lodge and Hotel. We are staying in one of the hotel cabins. It is bright yellow, like the hotel itself and has two double beds and a bathroom ensuite! Yeay!!

We check in just in time to drop our things at the cabin and return to the hotel for an historic tour. Ted is our tour guide and we later learn that he used to drive the old yellow tour bus when he was a college student in the 60s. He and his wife have returned to work summers now that he is retired. He tells us that the Northern Pacific Railroad built Lake and several of the other hotels in the park and traces its remodeling and changes in ownership. Lake was remodeled and enlarged several times by Harold Reamer, the same architect who designed the Old Faithful Inn. Interestingly enough the beautiful fireplace in the lobby was purchased from a catalog! However, the tile manufacturer did make a water fountain especially for the hotel to match it.

Ted tells us that the employees are called “savages” and that their dining hall is called “the zoo” because there are 38 different nationalities represented and languages spoken. Back in the day, the Northern Pacific hired blue-eyed, blond Scandinavian young ladies to work in the hotel; but they had to bring their mothers to the interview, to be sure that the moms approved. They lived in what is now The Annex and slept in bunkbeds.

Dear Ted was a charming man, but I don’t think I could have heard the phrase “It was a different time and a different culture” one more time than the ten (or more) that he used it!

The restaurant at the hotel is supposed to have a three-star rating and was recommended by Jason, the chuck wagon manager at Roosevelt, but nothing on the menu appeals to us and the prices, don’t either. Instead we go to the cafeteria in the Lodge and have spinach pie, two sides and a roll and butter for under ten dollars. It is more food than we can eat! We should have gotten the child’s portion!

After dinner we hurry back to Hayden Valley for another chance at the wildlife. Before we get out of the parking lot there are mule deer to greet us. There are two yearlings and a six-point buck. Oh, and a robin!

Down in the valley there are, would you believe it?, bison everywhere. What a difference a week makes, though. Now there are lots of bulls in the herds. We really aren’t looking for any more bison, so we drive on. Not much else is out there tonight, so we stop to take pictures of LeHardy Rapids, which are pretty awesome.

There is a special treat awaiting us there, white pelicans. At first there are only two, but as we watch, two more join them and a great blue heron flies along the river and lands in a tree across from us.

The sky is darkening (they don’t really have sunset here) and we take a picture of the moon over a nearby lake and as we return home, just before our turn off, there is a male elk grazing.

Home and to bed. There really isn’t any hot water in our shower, so I pass, although Marilyn the Intrepid, calls the water “tepid” and spends a minute or two in it. Brrrr. Not for me! A little nightcap and I’m down the count!