Saturday 1st October

Today was overcast in West Yellowstone and soon turned to intermittent rain. After breakfast we went and shopped for food for a couple of days, whilst we were in a town with a largish supermarket. We then drove north and east through the park to Cook City where we are staying for three nights. Luckily when we stopped at Tower Falls

and the Calcite Spring the rain stopped and the sun tried to come out. The gorge was quite spectacular with sheer cliffs gouged out by the Yellowstone River.

We then drove to see the Petrified Tree (a redwood caught in volcanic eruptions and turned to stone)

before driving down the Lamar Valley to the north east exit of Yellowstone. Even though the clouds and rain were rolling in it was very beautiful and we saw several large herds of bison as well as deer and a big horned sheep by the side of the road.

Cook City is just what you'd expect from an old west town from the movies, and is mostly closed for the winter, but we bought some fresh farm produce from a couple who have a stall here every week (usually Sunday but just so happenned to be today). The sun came out in the late afternoon and we sat outside our little cabin with a cup of tea, playing bogle.

Sunday 2nd October

We decided that we would strike while the iron was hot, so to speak, and drive over the scenic Beartooth Pass today as the weather forecast was worsening. We had intermittent sunshine all morning as we drove the 48 miles from Cooke City to Red Lodge over what must be one of the most scenic highways in the world.

The pass itself is almost 11,000 feet high and had some snow on the ground but luckily not on the road. We stopped many times on the way to take photos of the wonderful mountain scenery and had lunch at a pub in Red Lodge.

On the return journey the clouds had rolled in and visibility was very poor. Partway down the pass we had a hailstorm which was quite exciting if rather deafening, but we reached Cook City safely.