July 10, 2012

July 10, 2012

If yesterday was our lucky day, today was the opposite.  It was supposed to be an easy stress-free day; a little driving then relax all afternoon.  It started out easy enough.  We drove a mile back to Buffalo Bill Historical Center to go through the last section, the Plains Indian Museum.  It was kind of a bore.  Lots of Indian artifacts but little else.  I must add I don’t have much patience for modern Indian artifacts.  All the beautiful native artwork occurred after they were able to obtain manufactured goods from the white man.  I knew about Italian beads, but I didn’t realize even the bone tubes Indians used to make breastplates were made by an entrepreneur in New Jersey.  The few pre-European relics on display were all made from bone, twine, and rocks…straight from the Stone Age.  Specifically they didn’t want to adopt the ways of the white man, i.e. farming.  That was women’s work.  But they were happy to adopt everything else, especially guns, knives, horses, and liquor.

From Cody, WY, we made our way west up the Shoshone River valley.  Aimee learned that the river used to be called Stinking River because of the sulfur smell picked up in Yellowstone.  I thought I smelled rotten eggs last night.  Aimee just blamed it on me.

About ten miles west of Cody we entered a narrow canyon blocked by Buffalo Bill dam.  We stopped at the Visitor Center for a few minutes to learn about its history.  The dam looks like a miniature Hoover Dam.    At half the height, it was probably a prelude to later construction projects.  When completed in 1910, at 350 feet, it was the tallest dam in the world.

Less than an hour later we pulled into Yellowstone National Park. Thinking we were early, I was dismayed to see “Full” on all the campgrounds except the three on the opposite ends of the park. I also forgot how big this park is. It is a long drive to the other side. When we finally get to the north entrance all the campgrounds are full. This is a pet peeve of mine. The national park has millions of acres of land, but they purposely have insufficient campgrounds and they don’t allow overnight parking. Instead they prefer that everybody drive a hundred miles around the park and then leave…every day. That is environmental lunacy.

After driving seemingly all day through the park, Aimee and I are both frustrated and we leave via the North entrance in Gardiner, MT. Right outside the park is a US Forest Campground. A giant grassy field wide open that is virtually free. We have mostly stayed in forest service campgrounds this summer. The national park system can learn a lot from this sister agency.