Summer Vacation Trip - Day 5

We were up at 0700, ate breakfast (donuts, sausage and egg biscuits) with the hotel manager and were on the road by 0745.  We drove west on US-14 ALT and stopped to visit the Heart Mountain Relocation Center.  We got gas in Cody WY and then used WY-120 and WY-296 (Chief Joseph Trail) to cross the Absaroka Mountain Range.  It rained a bit and the temperatures were very pleasant.  There had been significant road damage (from an earthquake) but we made it through the area OK.  We switched to US-212, drove into Montana briefly and then entered Yellowstone National Park at the northeast corner.  I discovered that I'd left my driver’s license with the hotel manager.  It took a while, due to limited cell service, but we were eventually able to call her to ask that she mail it to my home.  In the meantime, we enjoyed seeing lots of animals in the Lamar Valley (1130) and backtracked on the road several times for bison and black bears.  We even took off road drive on the Blacktail Deer Plateau) while eating lunch (leftovers, snacks) in the car.  We stopped to take several walks: Slough Creek, Tower Falls, Lost Lake (our favorite because of the little ground squirrels and finding a bison carcass), Self-Guided with Forest Fire exhibits - all while driving between the Tower and Mammoth Areas.  Unfortunately, each of these walks was marred by rain.  At 1500, we visited the Hot Springs and took another walk, encountering elk near the Visitors Center.  Then it started to rain in earnest, so we decided to head towards our cabin for the night (I was glad that we weren't camping!).  As we made our way south; there was a lot of construction and traffic delays due to wildlife on the road.  We did get to see several good views but didn't delay until we reached the Old Faithful Area.  We checked into our hotel at 1900 had then went to the Visitors Center to listen to a Ranger presentation on wolves.  Mollie got a junior ranger book and worked on it while we waited for Old Faithful to erupt (2007).  Then we ate a late dinner (Yellowstone Lodge Cafeteria) and found our room (a frontier cabin).  We relaxed for the rest of the evening (no Internet or TV) since it continued to rain.  Bed at 2330.