Wind Chimes Cottage Bed and Breakfast Cody

... pre cambian rock that was over 2.5 billion years old.
One word of caution when signs say loose livestock, believe them. Leaving the mountain, cows were unfenced and crossing the road. Our day was slowing to a crawl as we reached Cody, WY. Due to weather and possible road closures we decided to call it a day and found an amazing steakhouse. Great way to ...

... morning we got up early and made our way to Wyoming, which immediately proved Andrew's premonitions correct that it was both incredibly beautiful and desolate. We learned that Wyoming is America's foremost coal producing state and were awed by how barren the areas right off the highway were. We drove through Bighorn National Forest which took us to our first +9,000ft elevation, and some seriously scary mountain pass driving. We then went on ...

... road running out to the school.  The claim of fame to this little gem of a place is that outlaw Butch Cassicy once lived in the area and was arrested outside the Cowboy Bar which is still in business today. 

We were grateful that we did not rush here for the parade and were wondering whether we should have even contemplate visiting the community barbecue hosted by the ranchers wives, but we did. 

The whole set up was reminiscent ...

... then we drove to within fifty feet. Later down the road we saw another group of 50 or so and parked right in the middle of them as they walked around our car, mothers nursed babies, a few males fought, others grazed and chewed cud and totally ignored us. It was truly awesome. Later down the road we saw wild burros and stopped to get out and feed them from our hands. We tried to leave, but they put their heads right ...

... with your savings"), Big Bear Taxidermy and the Crazy Woman Saloon (tautology?) were a few of the options available to us. The road dragged us up and through the Bighorn Mountains where, at the plateau, not only were the views of the plains we'd travelled across incredible, but also the temperature plummeted some 25 degree Fahrenheit in a matter of minutes. The 15 or 20 minute plateau drive in icy temperatures was ...

... springs so I stopped at the hot springs for an hour or two and just relaxed in the pools. There are couple of different pools available and each one is a different temperature.

By the time I arrived in Cody it was early evening so I went for a couple of beers at a nearby bar and then went for dinner in an italian restaurant, which was really good. I was expecting tomorrow to be a long day in Yellowstone so I made sure I wasnt out too late this time.

... on the Castle at last feeling that maybe Yellowstone is not too bad after all, we have seen a bison! After a couple of more miles we spotted a large black moving animal out on the plains, quietly walking along, we stopped and tried some zoom photos and we spot a 2nd bison as well, gee we are nearly at herd stage! Ok moving on, then before long we come around a corner and gee there they go, no kidding the herd we saw was at first glance around 100 -120 animals, we stopped ...

... here really love their food. Everything is enormous, entrées are more like mains, burgers are enormous, 1-litre drinks are the norm instead of 500ml bottles or smaller cans... good luck finding those... it seems size SMALL has been completely wiped off the menu and if it does appear, it's definitely more like a medium or large in any other part of the world. So back to Cody and early the next morning, we took a fantastic tour to see wild Mustang... the horses not the cars. Very ...

... and left them in a bag on the door. I managed to leave my fleece jacket there and didn't realize it until the next day, bought another. She mailed my original back to my address on the sign in slip. Nice people! There was extensive damage as we left town the next ...

... Rushmore. We couldn't believe the scale and artistry. I mean, Lincoln's mole was 16 ft. wide! We stayed for quite a while and did the presidential walk, which takes you right under the monument so your looking up at the faces. After that, we geared down and rolled down the mountain, enjoying the largest small ice cream in the world and then we were off to our destination... 8 hrs. away. Cody, WY is the ...