Cody, WY

Jessica and I went to Cody, Wyoming! Cody is the nearest city to Canyon Village (where I live) in Yellowstone. I wanted to go on a hike but Jessica said it would be worth my time - and she was right!

The drive to Cody was BEAUTIFUL. I'm not talking your normal mountains that are far off and pretty, I'm talking beauty that is all up in your face. Also, the weather at Canyon has been really gross (40 - 50s during the day and 30s at night- and cloudy/rainy), so to go to Cody (lower elevation) where it was 65 degrees and sunny was wonderful. It was more than wonderful, it was glorious!

See!? Beautiful! Jessica and I stopped at the Buffalo Bill Dam. It was neat. I am a little bit confused on how this dam works - it looked like it was taking water from a lake that was really low but it looked cool (and that's all that really matters).

This is the ball they use to clog up the dam. I think it's crazy that it's made out of wood, yet it's a sphere.

As Jessica and I were walking, this random guy said he would give us ride the visiter center (it's about 1/8 of a mile - aka not far at all) but his cart was full - so he promised he would give us a ride back to our car. And sure enough he kept his promise.

Also, here is proof Jessica doesn't like her picture taken (middle photo).

When we got to Cody, we did some thrift shopping and walk around the neighborhoods. It was nice to walk around houses. It actually felt like spring - flowers were blooming and trees were green. I found this really odd tree that appears to have a normal trunk but "birch tree like" limbs. Also, a baby deer.

My favorite food is Mexican food. So, of course we ate Mexican! It's really strange how much you start miss simply things like restaurants and food options.

Dear Blog readers,

please be thankful for the opportunities to go out to eat and tacos whenever you want. Some people do not have that luxury and it sucks.

I just thought this was weird:

After eating Mexican food and going to that weird place with all the big horn sheep heads, Jessica and I went shopping on the main street and we looked for Lance.

Back Story: I worked with Lance in 2008 at Old Faithful. I knew he lived in Cody but I had no idea where. Jessica thought maybe he had a job working at a fly fishing store but she wasn't sure.

And guess what!? WE FOUND LANCE. He does work at a fly fishing store!

It was really exciting to see him again. He said he would give me fly fishing lessons for free! And I've really want to learn how to fly fish. I hope he wasn't lying.

I really love Cody. I could see myself living there someday. Lance said they only get about an inch of snow in the winter and that sounds wonderful. Look how cool it is to drive around, the mountains are in the background all the time:

So, we left Cody and made our way back home to Yellowstone. But just as we were about 1/2 mile outside of the park, there was an unusually long line of cars:

I went to find out what was going on. Apparently, there was an avalanche and it would take about an hour to clear the road. Jessica took a pictures of me walking back and I liked them, so I'm posting them even though they don't serve a purpose.

We didn't want to wait in the car for an hour so we went to a little stop where Buffalo Bill's hunting house was. His house was closed but the gift shop was open:

We also walked around outside and enjoyed the nature:

I like this picture of Jessica (see if you can find the bison and the antelopes):

After an hour we headed back to Yellowstone. It was really scary driving over the road where the avalanche just happened, but we made it. And saw a bear!

The drive home was just as beautiful as the drive there. We stopped at an overlook of Yellowstone Lake and it was gorgeous. You could see the Grand Tetons (middle picture):

When we were about 20 minutes away from home, there were some cars in the middle of the road stopped taking photos. This is not uncommon. But I was super curious what they were taking photos of because it was so dark outside. As I drove by, I saw something that looked like a monkey in the tree. So I pulled over, grabbed my camera, and walked towards it. It was a porcupine!

And that ended the awesome trip to Cody, Wyoming. Here's some photos of me that I like but couldn't fit anywhere: