We’ll call this day “The Drive”. We got started late – 11 am – thinking that the drive to Yellowstone would be just a few hours. And the drive started out beautiful as we went through Big Horn. Tremendous views with mountains and a huge canyon with a nice river running through it.
But alas, that was the end of “beauty” for a long while. We had found the ugly middle of Wyoming. Brown. Dusty. Flat. Boring. We ate at a small town Café (that appeared to be the name) and I paid for that the rest of the day. There was construction on the 2-lane roads where we had to follow some DOT guy for miles on a gravelly road. There were some parts of it that had a bit more rain and looked like Central Illinois, with corn and fence lines with trees. Lots of shacks and mobile homes.
We were glad when we finally started getting toward Cody. By that time it was pretty far into the afternoon and any hope to stop in Yellowstone were fading. Once out of Cody the landscape got significantly better. Great mountain vistas. Rivers. Canyons. 
We got to Yellowstone at about 6pm. Michelle wanted to drive after being bored out of her mind for the past 8 hours. Yellowstone is beautiful. Waterfalls, the lake, cliffs, mountains, all of it. We sped past. There wasn’t much traffic to speak of.
We got to the main intersection and traffic started to pick up. Then, we came to the dreaded “construction”. First it was 15 miles of gravel – and people driving slowly. Then we came to a dead halt. One lane DIRT road. We waited through that and got moving again, finally coming to the South Exit. We thought our troubles were over and our room awaited. Alas, no. 25 miles of dirt road with parts of it one lane. Slow, dirty, bumpy. The construction equipment everywhere. Trucks. Why did they have to do that at this time of year??? (because of winter, of course). Why did they have to complete rip out the road???
It took us 2-3 hours (or more) to get through Yellowstone and to the Jackson Lake Lodge in Grand Teton NP – our final destination. After some discussion, we got checked in and got all our stuff into the room. It’s a nice second story room – big with tall ceilings. A balcony overlooking some wilderness area. Lovely. Michelle was grouchy and tired so opted to stay in. I went back to the lodge.
This is a classic National Park lodge. Huge lobby with huge picture window looking out at the mountains. Patio below where you can attempt to spot wildlife grazing in the huge meadow below. Lake between us and the mountains. A bar where you can sit and view the sunset whilst sipping a “Sustain-tini”. A folk singer.
It was just beautiful. Got some pictures of the sunset and the half-moon glowing. I had 2 “sustain-tinis” and some hummus for dinner. Got to bed nice and tired.
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