Monday, 8/19
Trying out a new area of the park in the Colter Bay area, we decided to hike the loop out to Hermitage Point and then back along Swan Lake. Overall, not as interesting as some of the other hikes and a bit more exposed on an open peninsula rather than though mountain valleys. That said, we did get to see a bit of wildlife – mostly birds on the little lakes and ponds along the trail. It was about 9 mile round trip and I think our longest stops were at the point to have lunch and then when we sighted a bald eagle and watched it circle for a while.
Back to the recommendation of the hostess at Jenny Lake Lodge, we stopped at the other pizza recommendation in Colter Bay Village and got a giant chicken pesto pizza accompanied again by endless diet Pepsi.
Our evening was mostly occupied by the drive up to and through Yellowstone. We got to the park itself just before dark, and with no chance or real expectation of scoring a campsite, so we just continued on through and out the east entrance to Cody for a place to stay for the night. We ended up finding a room at “A Wyoming Inn”. The hotel was nice enough, though I did get laughed at by the outdoor Asian dinner party for using the room’s trash can to get ice for the cooler.
I’m generally not real fond of this drive through and out of Yellowstone method. We’ve done it a couple times now and I’m not exactly sure what a better plan would be. It just seems wasteful to drive 45 minutes to an hour past your destination just to turn around and go back the next morning. Finding last minute camping does require showing up in the morning though, so departing the Tetons in the morning to go to Yellowstone wouldn’t cut it, though driving in from Cody is not necessarily a recipe for early arrival either. I guess the other option would be to just car-sleep at the campground the night before and be in line when they opened the next day.
Not a duck
