Great American Road Trip - Day 13 (6/6) - Yellowstone & Grand Teton

The Stagecoach Inn provides a pretty bountiful breakfast, which many guests take advantage of (perhaps too much so for some of a certain eastern ethnicity), and I partook of some this morning.  After checking out and getting my things in order, I headed for the park again at around 9:30.  This time, I took the main loop road south toward the geothermal sites.  At one point the car traffic slowed to a crawl for 15+ minutes, probably due to bison on the roadway again.  I stopped at Lower Geyser Basin, Firehole Lake, and Midway Geyser Basin before heading to Old Faithful.  I arrived around 12:30, and in a stroke of cosmic luck the geyser began erupting right as I walked up to the viewing area.

After the brief show I went into the lodge to use the facilities and pick up a return souvenir for a certain "faithful" friend.  I considered having lunch at the cafeteria, but the line was too long for my liking, so I instead began driving toward West Thumb.  I made it to Grant Village a little after 2:00 and had lunch at the dining room.

After lunch I took off for Grand Teton National Park, which is connected to Yellowstone by 11 miles of the John D Rockefeller Jr Parkway.  In that park, I took the Teton Park Road, stopping by Jackson Lake, Signal Mountain, and Jenny Lake.  I then looped back on US 26/89/191 and took that to the Moran Junction, then headed east on US 287.  My lodging for the evening, the Heart Six Guest Ranch, was on a road off this highway.  I arrived at 7:30, 1.5 hours before check-in ended.  After checking in, and taking some pictures of my cabin, I walked over to the Buffalo Valley Cafe.  I originally intended to only get dessert, but switched to a grilled cheese and milkshake due to the light dessert selection.  I struck up a conversation with a group of two older couples from Salt Lake City dining at an adjoining table, and ended up sitting with them for the meal...which they kindly paid for.  After eating I walked back to the guest house lodge to use the WiFi, then back to the cabin.