Day 3 – Cody, WY to Keystone, SD

Day three of our trip found us in the Yellowstone gateway town of Cody, WY. We woke up, forced ourselves into a brief workout at the hotel fitness room, and hit the state highways east across Wyoming. I’d driven through Wyoming before, from the Montana border on I90 all the way south to the Colorado border on I25 and was not excited at all. Wyoming consists of the most absurd amount of grass of any state in the entire country. The landscape, for hours of driving, is an unbroken visage of rolling grassy hills with the occasional cow to only mildly break up the monotony.

Approaching the Bighorn National Forest

The Bighorn National Forest, however, is quite different. The forest starts about an hour and a half east of Cody, near the very small town of Greybull. The state forest itself is striking. The road winds its way up a series of switchbacks next to a dramatic, colorful canyon, passing by Shell Falls and then reaching the 9,000+ foot pass. The road then descends steeply and curvily towards Dayton, WY. This was a very unexpected stunning break in the monotony of the grasslands.

Shell Falls

Bighorn National Forest - This canyon dominates the landscape for the first part of the drive.

As we approached the top of the pass, snow started to crop up on the road around us and by the time we reached the summit, we were driving in a full-blown snowstorm. We made much of the switch-backed descent in similar weather.

Snow at the top of the Bighorn National Forest

After we descended out of the Bighorn National Forest, we continued east across Wyoming, quickly joining up with I90. The monotony of the grasslands quickly resumed and night fell. We stopped at Devils Tower, but it was too dark for pictures. Several hours after Devils Tower we arrived in Keystone, SD.