Day 8: It’s beginning to look a lot like…Canada?

Looking at the trip itinerary, the stop at Yellowstone was the first real step away from city stops. I mean I’ve been to Pittsburgh, Cincy, Chicago, St. Louis. Heck even the Mount Rushmore area was rather developed given the tourist attraction that it is. Yellowstone though, Yellowstone was different.

I got a feeling for how the day was going to go as soon as I left South Dakota. I was up and out by about 5 am Central Time because I knew I had about a 9 and a half hour ride ahead of me. So as I begin my trek, I look out the window and see beautiful snow covered trees barely visible through the heavy fog. I continue my drive and as I follow the bend of the road I see 2 or 3 deer just grazing. (Quick side note, I see now why they get hit all the time because they literally froze upon seeing me. Not a great survival tactic.) So the day started out with a heavy dose of nature before I even crossed into Wyoming.

Upon crossing into Wyoming though, I quickly realized that I had severely underestimated how pretty it was. When tasked with coming up with a list of the most aesthetically pleasing states, I’m not sure how many people would have Wyoming anywhere near the top of their list. Well as things stand right now, it is number 1 on my list. With its grass covered hills and backdrop of snow covered mountains I couldn’t help thinking that it looked like a set. This didn’t look like real life. This was so picturesque that it looked like it was created artificially.

As I drove on and into Bighorn National Forest the sights only got better. The road twisted and turned all the while enclosed on either side by steep hills, still with that mountainous backdrop. As the drive continued on though the roadside landscape changed from green to bright white. I passed a sign that said Powder River Pass Elevation 9666. I was driving into what looked like a scene out of a New England day in January. It wasn’t currently snowing, but the ground was covered in snow that couldn’t have been more than a week or so old. I was struck at how white it was. The snow I’m used to seeing on the side of the road is black with dirt and exhaust. Not so here, it was stark white making the green of the pine trees and the blue of the sky really pop. Feeling a little bit like I was driving through Canada now and not Wyoming, I found myself really hoping I wouldn’t have to set up camp on a bed of snow. The roads got steep again and as I wound my way back down the snow cover began to diminish. I was feeling a bit more relieved by the time I finally hit the sign that welcomed me to Yellowstone Park. Stopping to take a few pictures in front of the sign, I realized that if Bighorn National Forest was that beautiful, I legitimately had no idea what I was going to be in for once I started exploring Yellowstone.