Goodbye West Coast, Time to Head East to the Heartland! Part 2: The Rest of Yellowstone and Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas and St. Joseph

The rest of Yellowstone National Park starting at Norris Geyser Basin:

Artists Paintpots:

Driving from the Paintpots to the Lower Geyser Basin:

Gibbon River

Gibbon Falls

Gibbon Falls

Not sure if the pictures does this crow justice...it was HUGE!!

Approaching the Lower Geyser Basin

Fountain Paint Pot:

Firehole Lake Drive:

Passing thru the Middgle Geyser Basin

More Middle Geyser Basin and on to...

Biscuit Basin:

There was a bit of a breeze crossing the bridge into the basin...

So we tried the other way.

Don't I look happy??

Trevor's Solo Shot, Deep in Thought

Old Faithful:

The Drive from Old Faithful to the South Entrance:

Lewis Lake

Goodbye Yellowstone!!


We had changed our route a little, decided to skip Utah and from Yellowstone headed for Dubois, Wyoming. We left Yellowstone via the South Entrance and drove thru the Grand Teton National Park.

Grand Teton's and Grand Teton National Forest:

Out of the Park and Heading to Dubois, Wyoming:

They were doing some crazy construction...we drove like this with a guide on 2 separate occasions for almost 10 minutes each time!

And then the rains came...

In Dubois we found a cute hotel called the Black Bear Inn and posted up for the evening. Exhausted from a long day of sightseeing, we enjoyed the beet soup we had packed and hit the hay.

Bears were all over the room!!

Mmmm...we added some green onions and sour cream to the already tasty beet soup we had frozen from our cleanse diet.

Gorgeous Sunset over the River

We were really excited to enjoy our soup and sunset by the river!!

Normal happy again :)

Bears with glasses in the bathroom even...

And free lessons on Christianity, who could ask for more??

Baby Bianca wasn't happy to leave yet another one night stay :(

The Picnic Area by the River

Black Bear Inn

Welcome!

The Black Bear Guards the Parking Lot

A bit more leisurely with our departure on the fourth day, we slept in and left Dubois by 11 a.m. Driving thru Wyoming it was crazy how little there was to see besides nature. Rarely any company on the road, we flew thru the state until we encountered some nasty fog and rain.

Kathy's Coffee

The Black Bear Inn gave us coupons so we figured why not?

Leaving Dubois and the Rest of Wyoming:

As we entered Colorado, it cleared a little but you could tell a storm was coming!

Wyoming/Colorado Border to Brighton, CO:

It got nasty there for a bit...could hardly see the car in front of you!

Really??

Let the corn begin...there would be no shortage of this where I was going...corn heaven!

We headed to Trevor’s aunt’s house in Brighton, Colorado which is about 30 minutes outside Denver. We arrived just in time for dinner. Trevor’s aunt had invited all her kids and their families over and had prepared a mouth-watering spread of food, including my new favorite dessert, Baklava with Rhubarb. It was fun to finally get the chance to meet more of Trevor’s family!

Wired from our post dinner coffee and eagerly anticipating the end of our journey, we left Brighton around midnight to complete our last and longest leg of our trip. 11 hours and we would be in St. Joseph! Trevor’s aunt and uncle had given us some tips on the best route to St. Jo and Trevor took the first shift. He drove 3 hours thru the storm and into Kansas. I was never able to fall asleep (I’m not a big coffee drinker and was extremely wired) so I offered to take over the driving. It was a straight shot thru Kansas with the exception of a few very small towns along the way; I set the cruise control and kept my eye out for animals! I think we saw more dead animals on the night drive thru Kansas than we did the whole rest of the trip. Once a large owl almost flew right into the windshield!

I was starting to doze off but made it long enough to see the sunrise over the vast prairies and fields that make up Kansas. It was like nothing I have ever seen and very beautiful in a unique way. We were truly in the country now.

Trevor had fallen asleep immediately after I took over the driving and I held out as long as I could. Once my eyelids became heavy, I woke him up and he finished the drive to St. Joseph. We arrived around 11 a.m., unpacked the cats and fell asleep. It felt great to know we wouldn’t be waking up and cramming ourselves into the car again...

And Ben was pretty happy too!! :)