After a wonderful stay in the historic Old Faithful Inn, it was time to continue our journey east. The temperature dipped to 28 degrees last night; we made the right decision not to stay in a tent. As we drove the approximately 65 miles to the park’s east entrance (exit for us), we passed by more spectacular scenery. We traveled along the shore of Yellowstone Lake for approximately 20 miles. It is a rather large lake covering 136 square miles with approximately 110 miles of shoreline. It is 410 ft deep. Somewhere along the way, there was a bison on the side of the road having a mid-morning snack.
Heading east we passed through ranch country with some rugged terrain and interesting rock formations alternating with gently rolling hills and green fields. Cody is considered the Rodeo Capital of the World because of it’s nightly rodeos and it is one of longest runningĀ successful professional rodeos.
We decided to spend the night in Thermopolis. It’s a small town along US 20. We headed to “downtown” for dinner and lucked out. This evening was the annual brewfest with live music, crafts, craft beers, and various types of food to choose from. We opted for the BBQ food truck. The food was delicious, and we enjoyed the company of some locals who shared their picnic table with us. We picked up some cookies at a local bakery, and headed back to our room. It was time to try and catch up on the blog
Road sign of the day: Emblem (Wyoming) population 10. I believe that it has the same population since I went through it years ago. It is farm/ranch country and definitely has more than 10 buildings. According to Wikipedia, it is an unincorporated community, but the surrounding rural area brings the population to over 100. It also has a post office!