They call me Mellow Yellow(stone), quite rightly

So today was a big one, making the relatively short drive from Billings to Yellowstone National Park. I could make you listen to me ramble on about how cool it was, but we both know you want pictures. I'll be here for witty banter when you get back from the gallery...

Yellowstone Park

Cool, huh?

A few things to note:

• The southern entrance/exit to Yellowstone was closed. This wouldn't be all that significant except that that road is the road to Jackson, Wyo., and Grand Teton National Park. So no Teton for me.

• It was a pretty snowy day in the park, but kind of what you would expect Yellowstone to look like. The snow was pretty light for most of the day until I got to Old Faithful at around 4:30. The next eruption was not due until around 5:45, so I had some time to kill. Over the next hour, the snow went from slow and steady to near-blizzard conditions. It got to the point where I wasn't even sure if I'd be able to see the geyser when it finally went off. But the Yellowstone gods smiled on us few brave souls, and around 5:40 the sky opened up, the sun came out and Old Faithful did its thing.

• The southern entrance closure meant I had to leave via the west entrance, which proved to be very lucky. First of all, the road to the west entrance had by far the most wildlife of any part of the park I'd seen. Second, US-191 was a beautiful drive through the Gallatin Mountain Range that lead to lucky thing No. 3 - dinner at the Bugaboo Cafe in Big Sky. There I had the top meal of the trip thus far, a bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin. Sadly, they don't have a Web site, but if you're ever in Big Sky, head on over there.

So that was Thursday, Day 10 of this adventure. I drove from Big Sky to Butte for the night, and the plan for tomorrow looks to start with driving to Missoula for lunch. After that, it's probably on to Spokane, Wash., via Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, but we'll see how it goes.