Wild West Road Trip - Day 8

Day 8 - Cody, WY - Jackson Hole, WY - 20th July

We started our day early as Mr C and the girls had their 1hr horse trail ride at 9am, and boy were the girls excited.

Picking out their horses

The Cowgirls and Mr C ready to roll

As we had two very excited girls, and we were early the girls got to watch the cowboys bring the horses in and debate over which horse they would each like to ride - if only it was that easy. We felt very lucky to have found these guys, as Mr C had rung around a few places prior to our trip and no-one would take kids under 7 on a trail ride, but by chance we found these guys the day before and they had informed us, that both girls could ride a full sized horse for the one hour trail ride as they would be attached to a guide. Perfect

Cowgirl Ruby and her horse Dunny

Cowboy Mr C ready to go

The Three Amigos 

And off they went, and why didn't I join them you may wonder, well I was designated photographer of course, ok that's not the truth, it's because I am not at all keen on horses, they scare me, so I choose to take the photo's then sit in the shade, in the peace and quiet and write postcards - it was bliss. I got chatting to a lovely gentleman too, he and his wife, had sold up and were cruising across America in their RV, and he still worked, the beauty of having a mobile phone and computer, that's the life. 

Ruby returning with Chase her guide

Tilly on Ambrose

Mr C said the trail was really good, they went down by and followed a river, and that the cowboys leading the trail, were informative and they had competed in the Rodeo the night before, the one we went too.

All I can saw is the girls had the best horse ride ever, Ruby even managed to tell me about the actual horse ride, where they went and what they saw.

After the ride, we headed back into Cody for a coffee and smoothie, before setting off for our next town Jackson Hole, which took us through the world famous Yellowstone Park - now I had enjoyed every part of the holiday so far but this was the part I was most looking forward too seeing Yellowstone Park.

Yellowstone Park was only 50 miles away from Cody and after a lovely drive to it, we entered through the East Entrance, to begin our Yellowstone adventure.

Yellowstone National Park is huge, it's 3,468 sq miles and spreads across 3 states of America, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, most of the park is in Wyoming and it comprises of lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges. it is a place of extreme national beauty.

Lake Yellowstone

An Elk in the under growth 

beautiful views all around

On the drive into Yellowstone, you are all of a sudden hit by the beauty of it and the massive lake - Yellowstone Lake that is in the park - the lake itself is 7,732 feet (2,376 m) above sea level and covers 136 square miles (350 km²) with 110 miles (177 km) of shoreline. Yellowstone Lake is the largest freshwater lake above 7,000 feet (2,133 m) in North America.

Our first stop was to see an Elk in the undergrowth, you can always tell if there is something worth seeing in Yellowstone as all the cars stop by the side of the road and everyone is out with their cameras, us included.

Next we had lunch at a cute little diner in Lake Village, then we decided to go and see Old Faithful, which is a geyser, that erupts about every 92 minutes. it is not the largest, nor highest in Yellowstone but it is the most regular, with the boiling water shooting out to a height of 130m in just 15-20 second.

We were lucky that we only had to wait about 30 mins before the next eruption was due, so we went for an ice-cream and sat in the viewing area keenly waiting on the Old faithful to erupt and more or less on the time they predicted off it went and it just kept going.....

.....and going and going, Old Faithful went on for ages, it was great to see and you could feel the heat coming off that water too, they say the eruptions can shoot 14,000 to 32,000L of boiling water to a height of 106 to 185 feet (32 to 56 m) lasting from 1.5 to 5 minute. It was truly amazing to see.

From here as it was getting late in the day we started making our way to Jackson Hole, our stop for the next 2 nights. We drove out of the South entrance of Yellowstone Park and down through the Grand Tetons and Jackson Lake (more about those to come later), until we reached Jackson Hole, a beautiful town at the bottom of the Grand Tetons Mountain Range.

It was a very picturesque drive and reminded me somewhat of the South Island of New Zealand, along the way we were lucky to see wild bison/buffalo again.

We stayed at The Rustic Inn and it was lovely, and our treat as it was not cheap, but well worth it, we stayed in a log cabin, there was a creek, tee pee's, camp fires, the all important outdoor pool etc etc

The Rustic Inn and grounds

We decided to dine at the hotel restaurant that evening as it was getting late, we bought ourselves a S'mores kit from them for dessert, and heading up to the camp fire to make S'mores.

Toasting our marshmallows for the S'mores

Our S'mores kit contained skewers, marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers, and if you haven't heard of S'mores (like I hadn't until I came to America) you basically put a piece of chocolate on top on a graham cracker, toast your marshmallow in the fire, until it is soft and gooey and not too burnt, then you put the marshmallow on top of the chocolate, place another graham cracker on top and swish together and eat, yummy yummy.

We had fun making these in the camp fire, under the stars, it was a late night but worth it.

To come the beautiful Grand Tetons and Ruby studies to get her first Junior Ranger Badge.