Buffalo Bill Dam reservoir
We woke up to 54 degrees. We didn't even put on the heater because it was a very comfortable 66 degrees inside the Minnie. By the end of the day the temperature was 77 in Cody Wyoming (the closest weather station to us).
I got up at 7:15 and got dressed. We had a quick breakfast of a Hostess Coffee Cake and a half of a banana. We weren't in any hurry to leave because we only had 30 miles to go. We put everything away and secured. Then we walked over to Walmart to get some toe spacers. Larry's little toe has been bugging him. We left Walmart about 9:00.
On the way to Wapiti Campground in the Shoshone National Forest we stopped by the Buffalo Bill Dam and visitor center. The drive there was beautiful and we went through three tunnels. We parked the Minnie at the dam and walked around. It was a gorgeous reservoir and dam. The reservoir went for miles. While walking to the visitor center we saw some of the equipment that use to be used at the dam. We saw a huge upstream cableway winch, a balanced plunger valve and a hugh wooden sphere. The visitor center was very nice with displays on how the dam was built and it also showed a movie about the dam. They ran a shuttle from the visitor center to the parking area and back to the visitor center free of charge. There was a lot of drift wood by the dam and they say every fall they clean the drift wood away. Every spring the drift wood floats down the reservoir and collects at the dam. In the fall they use a crane to load the drift wood on a barge and they get rid of it. It was very nice to walk around and check out the dam.
Balanced plunger valve
Upstream cableway winch
Buffalo Bill Reservoir
One of the tunnels we drove through
Before getting to Buffalo Bill Dam we saw a couple of herds of elk. There was a big bull looking over his harem. There was no place to pull over to take a picture of them.
After walking around the visitor center and dam we went back to the Minnie. We were back on the road. There was a little road construction right at the dam, they were working on the side of the road. We didn't have to wait too long probably a couple of minutes.
We arrived at Wapiti Campground around 10:00 and found a site with no problem. We decided to take a power site for $30 a night but because we have a senior pass it was $15. It's a beautiful pull-through site with a lot of trees and a view of the mountains.
There is no internet so Larry setup the Starlink. Yesterday, Larry did some research on the Starlink because ours is cutting out now and then. A gentleman suggested it could be power related, when the dish is partially blocked from the sky by trees it uses more power. So today because we had power Larry experimented with that suggestion. It was stable all day, it didn't matter if we ran it on AC power or battery, it was stable. We are again camped within some trees so Larry has no idea what the problem was.
After lunch we did a 2 mile walk around the campground and to the next campground from us, about a half mile up the road. We wanted to check out the trail there. While looking for the trailhead we said hi to a horse in one of the corral. It was very friendly and wanted to be petted but the master wasn't there so we just said hi. We weren't sure if it would bite or not. The trail is a horse trail and looked pretty rough. A section of the campground was fenced off for an outfitter. We figured they take people horseback riding in the mountains. When we got back to our side of the rode we walked to the river. We walked on a beautiful bridge that goes over the river. While standing on the bridge we saw a white speck on top of a ridge. I took a picture it was a bald eagle. As we were trying to figure it out another eagle flew overhead. While on the bridge we talked with another camper and her dog. We had a great walk.
The river
The horse we met
Out of focus because the eagle was too far away
A little rain storm came through about 4:00 and only lasted about a half hour. It cooled things off.
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I would love to hear friendly comments on anything at all. Ruth