Road Trip Day 28, Yellowstone

Awoke this morning a little weak and weary, but a shower and lovely hotel breakfast did wonders. We stayed at the King's Inn, which had a display of African trophy animals that the owner had shot himself. There were lions, gazelle, a huge rhino, elephant head, zebra and ostrich.
We were treated to an impressive drive through Buffalo Bill State Park from Cody to the East Entrance of Yellowstone. We drove through a gorgeous valley with snow-capped mountains all around. Just under the lush green grass was bright red soil. Kevin declared a no-media day, so the kids could take in the surroundings.
As we climbed the mountains and entered Yellowstone National Park, we saw more and more snow, piled 5+ feet high in some places. The lakes, solidly frozen over just a couple weeks ago, were now breaking up and slushy with big islands of ice and snow in them still. Despite the gorgeous scenery, I lost my fight against sleep and drifted off as we wound around Lake Yellowstone. At some point, the group stopped and went on a short hike to see the bubbling paint pots and colorful hot springs, but I slept through that as well. After that, we drove to Old Faithful to watch it spout (which we were told was a little more frequent than usual because they'd had quite a few earthquakes lately). We were given money to buy lunch in the cafeteria in the lodge there, and I couldn't resist sampling the bison meatloaf. It was OK, quite lean, in fact, but I must admit I enjoyed the mashed potatoes and gravy that came with it more.
We drove North through the park and our our next goal was to see some wildlife...we weren't disappointed! Along the road we came across many small herds of bison with hefty little babies - tan little calves just resting and chewing their cud along with their mamas and papas. Before the day was done, we also saw lots of elk and dear and one black bear foraging for food in the woods. We also stopped at Upper Falls and walked a short trail to view the river, swollen with fresh snow-melt, roaring over the cliff in a tumultuous boil. J.J. and I went back up near the parking area and did target-practice with his cool, new hand-carved eagle sling-shot, flinging pine cones and pebbles at the tree trunks.
We went back up into a snowy mountain range and down into grassy valleys filled with sparkling streams as the sun set and turned the puffy clouds various shades of pink. Just as we were leaving the park through the North Entrance, we were treated to a herd of buffalo running along the undulating hills, the little calves romping along as quick as the lumbering cows and bulls. It's the first time I ever saw these huge creatures moving that quickly and I couldn't help but think of the brave native peoples who hunted the bison not too long ago.
After another hour and a half of driving, we stopped in Livingston, MT where Junior's grandmother fixed us all burgers and fries at her restaurant, "The Dawg House." It was a short half-hour drive to Bozeman where we stayed at Kevin's alma mater, an SDA boarding school. It was past midnight as we unload and flopped into our sleeping bags for our final night on the road!