Thursday, June 11, 2015

Buffalo Bill Dam

The 53ish mile drive between the east entrance of Yellowstone and Cody, WY is one of the 300 most scenic drives in America. It's no wonder why. You drive through the Shoshone National Forest, along the Shoshone River, near the Absaroka Range. The rocky mountains are a wonder to look at, with contours that beg for the what-does-it-look-like game. Seriously, it has a Cars sort of quality.
We made the drive today for the third time (we drove from Yellowstone to Cody and back earlier in the week to get a prescription for John) and it was even more interesting than the first.

We stopped at the Buffalo Bill Dam. This region of Wyoming is desert and early family's settling here had difficulty farming, so the dam went in in the late 1900's. Originally called the Shoshone Dam, it was the tallest dam in the world when it was finished in 1910. It's since been both renamed and improved upon, but it continues to serve it's purpose well. The views are amazing and the dam itself is at least as cool, if not cooler than Hoover. I know that may be hard to believe, so come see it for yourself. These pictures don't do it justice...

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Lewis and Clark's Forgotten Trail

We're finally back out on the road! 
Our time at home was great and we accomplished a lot, but we were all getting antsy being in one place for so long, so we tied up our loose ends  (for now) and left Eastern Oregon this morning. 
Because our schedule and overall plan has changed so drastically we spent a lot of time talking and praying about where to go next and we finally settled on Yellowstone National Park. 
We did a little over half the drive today, heading north from John's hometown into Walla Walla, Washington and east from there. We followed Lewis and Clark's Forgotten Trail, the path they took home after reaching the Pacific Ocean, along the Snake, Clearwater, and Louscha Rivers. G and P have studied Lewis and Clark quite a bit, but I realized today how little history says about their return trip, so there were lots of stops today to read historical markers and discussion on how their return trip differed from their initial venture. 
The drive was beautiful and there was a lot of quiet time when everyone was just staring out the window. 
We're calling it a night in Missoula, Montana and driving the rest of the way to Yellowstone tomorrow. 
Here are a few pictures from today's drive that I snapped on my phone...