On our way back towards Yellowstone we went on a guided tour of the Lewis and Clark Caverns, and spent the night in a small town called Ennis. Next day we visited the "Wild West" town of Virginia City before spending most of the day driving through Yellowstone National Park, checking out the sites we had missed last time. On arriving in Cody, there was still time for us to attend a real rodeo. From Cody we drove through the Big Horn National Forest, stopping to see the Medicine Wheel, a native Indian monument, before spending the night in Sheridan.

August 4, Sunday

We got up at 0800, packed our stuff and got into the car. Since there was no place in Conrad where we wanted to eat breakfast, we drove south for almost an hour until we reached Great Falls. Here we had breakfast at a place called Mozart's, all having Bacon omelette. Although very large, we were all quite pleased with the meal.

Time was now 1030 and we continued driving south. The temperature seemed to have climbed somewhat since yesterday, and it was quite pleasant outside. As we drove, the scenery changed from grassland to mountains. We stopped to take photos one place where there was a particularly scenic view over a river, but then basically drove (with a few stops) until around 1450, when we arrived at the Lewis and Clark Caverns.

We signed up for a tour of the caves (8$ each) at 1530, and while we waited the sky darkened considerably and it looked certain to start raining. We hoped the rain wouldn't start until we were inside the caves, but unfortunately it started a few minutes early. At 1530 our group started walking a trail up to the cavern where we would meet the tour guide. It was much further up to the cavern than anticipated and since the rain was gradually getting worse, we got rather wet. In the end, it didn't only rain, but hailed! Eventually we could seek refuge at the cavern entrance, though.

Our guide was called Heather and she started by giving the history of the cavern. It had nothing to do with Lewis and Clark, but there was one guy who illegally had run his private tours in the cavern. Unfortunately, this had led to lots of destruction, but there was still a lot left. It took us around 90 minutes to walk through the entire complex. We walked through some amazing cavern scenery, seeing all kinds of interesting formations. Heather briefed us about various things as we walked into new rooms. We were all really satisfied with the tour.

After the tour, we once again got into the car and drove southwards towards Yellowstone, looking for a place to stay. The first town we came across that had motels was called Ennis and since it looked like a really cosy small "Western" town, we decided to stay. After checking the prices, we decided on one room at Fan Mountain Motel, at 70$ including tax. Not having eaten since breakfast, the first thing we did was to go out to dinner. The first restaurant we saw was the Ennis Cafe, which looked rather shabby, but made reasonable Buffalo Burgers.

After walking up and down the main street, we had dessert at the Dairy Queen (Brownie Earthquake and Strawberry Shortcake). After buying some further snacks at a supermarket we returned to the room at 2045 to relax for the evening. Took a shower before going to bed.

August 5, Monday

The day started at 0800. After packing our stuff we went down to the main street and had blueberry pancakes for breakfast at Aunt Jenny's. Then we drove the short distance to Virgina City. This town was even more "Wild West" than Ennis and really looked as you would expect such a town to look like. Having once been the capital of Montana, it was now mainly for tourists, though. There were lots of souvenir shops inside the historic buildings.

Next we headed for Yellowstone. Before entering the park we stopped in the town of West Yellowstone to have lunch. For simplicity we just ate at (a very crowded) McDonald's, after having briefly checked out the town. Then it was into Yellowstone again, trying to drive the roads that we hadn't been to last time before exiting at the Eastern entrance.

We spent most of the day inside the park. On our way through we saw moose (elk?) several places and also large herds of bison. However, most impressive was the Yellowstone Grand Canyon which was absolutely spectacular. In my mind it was even more interesting than the geysirs. We also saw several hot (???) including the Sulphur Cauldron, Mud Vulcano and one called (quite appropriately) the Dragon's mouth.

By 1800 we arrived in Cody again, this time to stay the night. Motels were clearly more expensive here than in Greybull, so we ended up with two rooms at the High Country Motel Inn at 70$ each, our most expensive night in America. They sold rodeo tickets at the motel, and we went for the most expensive ones at 14$ each. The woman also told there was a free Western show in Cody tonight, having started at 1800, so not wanting to miss that we drove straight to the city center without even checking out the rooms first.

We caught the last 20 minutes of the show, which was okay. I didn't quite understand the story, but it ended up with most people getting shot :-) Now we were really hungry so we stopped at the first restaurant we could find, which was pizza hut. Everybody had buffet which was very good, especially the dessert pizza.

Finally, we could check out our rooms which (as usual) were okay. However, there was a problem with the lock at me and Tina's room. When we were leaving for the rodeo, we couldn't figure out how to lock it properly, and as Tina kept on trying, suddenly the whole door handle came off! We left it for the motel owners to sort this out while we went to the rodeo in good time before 2030.

In advance I didn't really know exactly what went on at a rodeo, although I had an idea that cowboys were going to trying riding at wild horses. I was mostly concerned that the animals would not be hurt for amusement, but fortunately my fears appeared to be unjustified. In the beginning of the show a woman rode into the center of the arena with an American flag, and then everybody rose for the National anthem to be sung. However, people could hardly hide their amusement when the horse kept on peeing during almost the whole song, creating a large pool below him!

The rodeo lasted about 1h and 30 minutes and consisted of several different events, from people trying to ride wild horses and bulls, cowboys trying to catch a cow with a lasso, riding a horse around a track in the fastest possible time etc. In between the events, some comedians/clowns made various jokes. All in all, it was quite an interesting experience to have been at a rodeo.

On our way back we stopped at Wal-Mart and bought some chocolate pudding that we later consumed in our rooms. I also had the time so update the diary this night.

August 6, Tuesday

We were up by 0830 and packed our stuff into the car. Breakfast was eaten at McDonald's, and then we walked around in Cody for a while before driving on. We followed another "scenic route" than when we came in the other direction, but the scenery was mostly desert. At 1200 we ate lunch at Taco John's in Lovell. There was a War memorial there which we also checked out before continuing into the Bighorn National Forest.

As we drove up into the mountains the scenery again changed dramatically and we had several great views of the plains below. We drove for several hours through the park, always stopping at places of interest. Particularly interesting was the Medicine Wheel. To see it we had to walk for about half an hour from the parking lot, which was very pleasant despite us being rather sthort-breathed due to the altitude of more than 3000 meters.

The Wheel itself was several rocks placed in a specific pattern. It had been created by native indians, though nobody knew when and by whom. However, it was still used as a place of worship by various indian tribes, which could be seen by various "things" that had been tied to the fence. We were more or less the only people there, which allowed us to ask the ranger present a lot of questions.

After spending the better part of the day in the park, we exited on the other side of the mountain and drove the short distance to the town of Sheridan to spend the night, arriving around 1800. We ended up with two rooms (43$ each incl. tax) at Super Saver Motel. The rooms were quite small, but okay for one night.

After settling in, we drove through town and stopped at Taco Bell to have dinner (a real fastfood day!). I had a "southwestern steak combo", which was okay. Then we spent an hour shopping a variety of things at the nearby Wal-Mart, before having dessert at Dairy Queen. We had a small "Chocolate Xtreme", which was more than large enough (I wonder how anybody can possibly eat a large one!) before returning to the motel.