Today was a rather wet and dreary day, at least for the morning. We stayed dry in a museum for a while, and then headed back into Yellowstone to explore the Lake area.
Breakfast, Sunrise, Breakfast
We started our day in the Airbnb by waking up early to finish doing the laundry. Then, we split a day-old microwave-warmed orange sticky bun leftover from Cattail Bakery in Red Lodge. After finishing our laundry and loading the Jeep in a sporadically torrential downpour, we headed over to The Station by Cody Coffee. This restaurant is an old filling station now converted into a breakfast and coffee shop. We filled our paper cups and travel mugs with their exceptionally hot coffee, each ordered an egg, cheese, and ham crêpe, and ate our breakfast while the rain pattered down on the building’s metal roof. A hearty pinch of salt made the coffee much better; the crêpes were surprisingly good and very filling. So, I’ll count this place as a pretty good option for the middle of Wyoming on a rainy morning.
Buffalo Bill Center of the West
After breakfast, we were some of the first people in the door of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, a massive complex made up of five museums: Buffalo Bill Museum, Plains Indian Museum, Cody Firearms Museum, Whitney Western Art Museum, and Draper Natural History Museum. After getting our tickets at the front desk, we made our way through each of the museums, trying to squeeze in as much as possible during the morning. This was the only day it really rained on our trip, and the timing couldn’t have been better for an indoor activity.
Cody Firearms Museum
Beginning our tour in the firearms wing of the building, we were quickly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of items the museum held. They have over 10,000 artifacts, including some of the rarest firearms in existence. In the basement, there is an archive and research center that authenticates and researches old firearms that people bring in – dating back to the French & Indian War, and even earlier.
Plains Indian Museum
Next, after walking by the raptor display (no idea what was there, access would have required walking outside in a downpour), we browsed through the Plains Indian Museum. This was also fascinating. Dad particularly enjoyed seeing the life-sized earth lodge; I was fascinated to see “Lone Dog’s Winter Count”, an animal skin depicting the most significant events from each winter during Lone Dog’s life. This served somewhat like a Rosetta Stone for western history, particularly because it documents the Leonid Meteor Storm in November 1833, “The Night the Stars Fell”. I’ve read about this and seen it in many documentaries, so it was fascinating to see it in person.
Draper Natural History Museum
Walking out of the Plain Indian section, we went through the natural history museum, which spiraled down, going through each class of animals. This area was very engaging and had lots of fascinating info, so much so that I was apparently too distracted to take pictures.
Buffalo Bill Museum
The central wing of the building houses the Buffalo Bill museum, dedicated to the life of its namesake, William Frederick Cody. This was also fascinating, as I quickly realized I knew some, but really very little about Buffalo Bill. It was interesting to see his touring schedule, which made me exhausted just to read about it. He loved the west, and dedicated his life to sharing it with others through his touring show. There were a lot of archival videos and interactive displays, which we much enjoyed.
Whitney Western Art Museum
Finally, while Dad rested, I quickly walked through the art wing. I don’t care much for the abstract stuff, but it was neat to see paintings of historic Yellowstone. Some artist had his studio set up as a museum at the end of the wing, but I was out of energy and decided it was time to wrap things up rather than reading another sign.
We picked up a souvenir from the gift shop, bought a snack or two from the museum’s cafe, drove back across to The Filling Station to get a coffee refill, and hit the road.
No Moose Pond
Leaving Cody, we drove back down Yellowstone’s east entrance road and into the park. Shortly after we passed through the east entrance station and approached Yellowstone Lake, we rounded a steep curve and saw a sizable crowd gathered at an overlook. This could only mean one thing: wildlife! Sure enough, there was a grizzly bear eating an elk carcass by the side of a small pond, which I later learned is called “No Moose Pond” by locals, even though it’s unlabeled on official park maps.
The bear put on quite the show. He swiped at a coyote trying to steal a bite of elk, fished with his enormous claws in the edge of the lake, and strutted around showing off his jiggly winter blubber and thick fur coat. We watched him for over 30 minutes, and then decided to move on, after we’d gotten our fill of pictures and videos from our convenient high vantage point.
Lake Butte Overlook
After a brief drive that dropped us down to lake-level, we pulled up the short side road to Lake Butte Overlook, which has a rather self-explanatory name, and a great view of Yellowstone Lake. We hiked up a steep hill, and were rewarded with even more stunning views of the lake and surrounding landscape.
A very nice man with a very nice spotting scope pointed out to me that there was another grizzly in a distant field some 600 yards away. It soon disappeared into the trees. There was also a wolf pack in the same field, which I was able to capture with my camera – though the wolves are still tiny in the frame. Look just above the treeline in the photos and you might be able to see white, grey, and black dots lying down in the yellow grass.
We could see a storm rolling in quickly across the lake, and the wind was picking up significantly, so we decided it was time to head back to the Jeep to warm up our frozen fingers and eat our “lunch” that we purchased at the museum. We got a couple mini to-go characterie packs, which turned out to be pretty good other than the exceptionally stale crackers. They had some cheese, some nuts, grapes, and a few other little goodies. It wasn’t a spectacular meal, but we enjoyed a spectacular view from the car while we ate.
Pelican Valley Trail
We felt slightly recovered from being on our feet all morning at the museum, so we decided it was time for another hike. Without much distance or destination in mind, we decided to undertake at least part of the Pelican Valley Trail. The full trail is 6.2 miles one-way, but is more of a “journey hike” than a “destination hike”. We started the hike by crossing through some open meadows by the Pelican Creek. The trail was muddy from recent rains, but navigable.
Soon we came to a densely wooded area. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw something moving in the trees. Can you spot it too?
Sure enough, after an intense game of “I Spy” (except we didn’t know what we were looking for), we spotted a great horned owl perched in a tree. It flew and landed on a different branch, completely silent as it flew – a surreal thing to witness. I didn’t have my wildlife lens to get a close-up photo, and unfortunately by the time I attempted to sneak closer it flew away.
Continuing down the trail, we passed through densely wooded areas, with occasional patches of now-wilting wildflowers and grasses. You could tell bison and other animals occasionally used this trail as a cut-through, so we were very intentionally making noise and keeping an eye out for animals.
Soon, the trail opened up into a long, fairly narrow valley lined with grass. It seemed to go on forever in both directions.
Following the path up the valley, we were eventually rewarded with a wide panoramic view of of the greater Pelican Valley, with bison in the distance and a hawk swooping down over our heads.
The trail and its distributaries continued on for many more miles, but we decided to turn around and head back to the parking lot. Retracing our steps, we had a pleasantly uneventful journey back to the car, where we wolfed down a “that hits the spot” bran muffin and blueberry muffin, also leftover from Cattail Bakery in Red Lodge. In total, we hiked about 4 miles on the trail, but it seemed much longer because of the squelchy mud that stuck in our hiking shoes and slowed us down.
Fishing Bridge
Not more than a couple hundred yards down the road, we stopped in the Fishing Bridge General Store and visitor center, brushed up on our ornithology/strigiformology (you might have to look that one up, I did), and walked down to the beach at the lakeshore for a quick view. Not pictured: we also saw a tremendous amount of the trumpeter swans in a pond just off the lake. I didn’t take any pictures because at the time I didn’t realize it was a bank of rare swans…we both mistakenly thought it was a gaggle of Canadian geese, which are creatures most vile and detestable. Instead, you can enjoy a picture of this massive swan mannequin from the visitor center; I assure you it is significantly bigger than you’d ever imagine.
Wildlife Spottings
We decided to head over to the Lake Hotel to check into our lodging for the evening. Beside the pullout for the hotel, there was a herd of elk with a rather grand bull leading them.
At the next turn, I spotted another grey blob high in a tree. This time, instead of a Great Horned Owl, it was an even-larger Great Grey Owl. It was staring down at us from the tree, eyes aglow and rather angry-looking. We watched for a while, managed to gather a very large crowd from other cars that pulled over, and then resumed our mission of finding the night’s lodging.
Lake Lodge-Ing
Dad dropped me off at the Lake Hotel, complete with its iconic pale-yellow paint job, bustling grand lobby, and live music. It’s almost like stepping back in time. However, my visit didn’t last long, because we were staying in one of the Lake Lodge cabins, so we needed to check in a short distance down the drive.
The Lake Lodge is just as grand, but in a much more rustic way. We checked into our triplex cabin, which was cozy, simple, and very nice. We FaceTimed home, freshened up a bit, and decided to head back out for the evening and sunset. We had a very late dinner reservation at the Lake Hotel Dining Room – but were lucky to have one at all; it’s a very popular place.
Mud Volcano
We decided to follow the Yellowstone River downstream to Mud Volcano, a smelly geothermal basin known for strange water features and boiling mud. We got to see a couple features we missed two trips ago due to boardwalk construction, so it was worth stopping in.
Pelican Creek Nature Trail
Backtracking to the Lake, we decided to undertake another hike, this one quite easy and short. The Pelican Creek Nature Trial (not to be confused with the Pelican Valley Trail, which we hiked earlier) is a 0.6 mile loop that winds through a meadow, forest, and down to the lake. It was a very relaxing hike, and the soft, spongy, moss-covered ground was a nice contrast to the thick mud and hard concrete that had defined most of our walking today.
Lake Sunset
As the sun began to set, we drove around the Lake, stopping at various overlooks to take pictures as things caught our eye. We were treated to a beautiful sunset over the mountains, as elk grazed along the lake shore and birds fished in the shallows, creeks, and ponds.
Late Dinner
Back at the cabins, we took a nice hot shower (complete with a heater in the bathroom ceiling to offset the drafty walls), changed clothes, and reorganized our luggage some. Our dinner reservation was not until 20:30, but we went over to the Lake Hotel lobby about an hour early to relax, and to see if there was any chance of us getting a table sooner. There wasn’t.
Our wait and rumbling stomachs were rewarded with a fantastic meal. We started out with their house made bread and butter, and a salad with tomatoes, candied pecans, and a huckleberry vinaigrette. For our main courses, Dad ordered grilled shrimp with cheesy polenta, green beans, and cowboy caviar; I ordered their rabbit ravioli with a browned mushroom sauce. Both were good, but the ravioli was one of the best dishes either one of us have ever eaten. We both said we could’ve just had the sauce in a cup with a straw. For dessert, we split a goblet of huckleberry ice cream and their Basque cake, which was like pound cake, but served warm with a pastry cream filling and a brandied cherry sauce over the top. Once again, both were very good, but the Basque cake stole the show.
After dinner, we collapsed in bed, our feet and legs aching from close to 10 miles of hiking/walking today. It was worth it though, as was the wait to eat dinner after 21:00.
Yellowstone Lake Hotel
Yellowstone national Park
We honestly had pretty low expectations for this, given how most of the national park food we’ve had has been routinely mediocre. We couldn’t have been more surprised. It was a genuinely amazing meal, and an incredible historic setting to enjoy it in.
* – Would definitely visit again
** – Exceptional, must visit if you’re in the area
*** – Worth making a special trip to eat there
Video
Here’s a video from today’s adventures.
The Best Things we Saw Today
Isaac
The best thing I saw today was… “the great horned owl flying silently in the Pelican Valley”.
The best thing I ate today was… “rabbit ravioli, with honorable mention to the Basque cake”.
Jerry
The best thing I saw today was… “the view from Lake Butte Overlook”.
The best thing I ate today was… “rabbit ravioli, with honorable mention to the Basque cake”.
Conclusion
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Tomorrow we’ll continue through the eastern and southern sides of the park, and venture over to a remote corner of Yellowstone that most people never see.
– Isaac & Jerry
