I think we were a bit early heading out to Yellowstone this year, but we did get to see a few baby animals and while it was busy, it was not packed. We made it to Cody and went to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. It is Smithsonian-affiliated and you can tell. It had 5 museums dedicated to art, Plains Indians, guns, Buffalo Bill, and nature. Andrea had never been there before. The next day I checked the roads and the road into Yellowstone was closed. We had reservations at Mammoth that night, so we drove around the outskirts of Yellowstone up to Livingston and into Gardiner. It was rainy, but we mainly saw snow on the ground from previous snows. Mammoth might only be 6,000′ elevation while some of the passes approach 10,000′ elevation. We had a cabin in Mammoth which was great. The outside was rough, but the cabin had heat which was needed as it probably was in the 30’s during the night. We took it easy in Mammoth the next day to let the temperature get a little warmer. As we drove down to Old Faithful, we saw coyote. At first, we thought he was coming towards us, but he was going back and forth from a dead beaver. It was interesting to watch. He would head to the beaver, but once he got enough attention from cars, he would back off for a while. We saw him go between the beaver and his perch a few times. As we approached the west entrance road, cars were backed up from Old Faithful. It took us about two hours to get 16 miles due to what could have been 6 to 10 bison. We thought it was odd that that few bison could cause that big of delay. It could have, but we later heard a 25-year-old woman got gored by a bison near Old Faithful which could have led to delays too. Down in Old Faithful, we checked into our cabin and walked around. We saw a lot of snowmen and saw Old Faithful erupt a few times. We ate at the newer lodge and had a nice trout dinner. The next day, we went to a lot of sites that we missed when the East Entrance was closed including the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the sulfur/mud pot area. We also saw a black bear.