The Wapiti Valley, named after an Indian word for elk, is located between Cody and Yellowstone National Park and is the most direct route to the park from Cody. The valley follows the North Fork of the Shoshone River as it cuts through the Absaroka Range of the Rocky Mountains. Its beautiful mountain scenery, volcanic features and an abundance of wildlife make travel up the valley a true Western experience.
Yellowstone National Park's fantastic vistas
and wildlife are found just west of Cody. Yellowstone marks its 138th year in 2010. Each year some three million people visit the world-famous park. Encompassing about 2.2 million acres, this first national park in the world is dotted with numerous lakes including Yellowstone Lake, which is the largest and most prominent.
After entering the park from the East entrance
we travelled along the Yellowstone Lake up to Fishing Bridge, then up toward Canyon
Village and on to the Tower Roosevelt area where we stopped to view Tower Fall.Tower Fall is located on the east side of the Grand Loop road, about 16 miles north of Canyon Village, Adjacent to the General Store is a short trail that will take you to a fine view of the falls, which tumbles 132 feet out of a fantasy land of tower-shaped volcanic rock before joining forces with the Yellowstone River. The path the leads to the bottom of the falls has washed out and can no longer be used, however the view from above is beautiful!
About 1 mile ahead on the right is the Calcite Springs Overlook. It gives you a bird's eye view of the Narrows, the narrowest section of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River.
River. Of all the memories you will carry back from this magic place, few will be fore satisfying than those of the 23-mile-long Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.From Tower Fall we continued north to the Northeast entrance. The road takes us back to Cody through the old mining towns of Cook City and Silver Gate, Montana. The road through northeast Yellowstone Park, linking Cooke City, Silver Gate and Gardiner is the only Yellowstone road open year-round. Cooke City is home to only about 100 people year round, but the population swells with Yellowstone tourists in the summer, hunters in the fall and snowmobilers in the winter.
Once again our visit to Yellowstone was very impressive!! Each view is so spectacular.
From here we will travel through the park and stay in West Yellowstone for a few days. We plan of seeing the west side of the park and then travel down to Grand Teton National Park.
Stay tuned for more later.
Love to all, Candy and Johnny
