Like the previous day, the alarm clock was set for 6:15. I had slept fitfully, and I awoke at 5:45 needing the restroom. I knew that once I got out of bed that my body wouldn't relax enough for me to go back to sleep for half an hour. So I reluctantly crawled out of bed and began preparing for the day.
Looking out the window we were relieved to see some blue sky amidst the clouds. There were still puddles in areas from the previous day's rain, but the pavement was mostly dry. Stepping outside we were discouraged to discover the temperature was a cool 43 degrees. Knowing that once we hit the mountains in Yellowstone the mercury would drop even further, it made us wonder just what we had gotten ourselves into. The high for the day was supposed to top out at 58 degress, but that was at the lower elevations and wouldn't happen until late in the afternoon.
To make matters worse, our clothes had partially dried overnight, but still were damp. I opened my luggage to discover that it too had leaked during the rain and most of my clothes were also damp. Our boots were still very much soaked. Nuts.
When packing, I had made a crucial error in my decision making. I have a nice thick leather jacket that I use in cold temperatures. It is rather bulky and I didn't have a good place to store it, so I opted to leave it at home. Instead, I brought my sweatshirt jacket thinking I could just add layers of clothing underneath. It worked well in theory, but the temps we experienced on this trip were quite a bit lower than expected (or typical for this time of year) so I found myself really regretting the choice to leave my heavy jacket at home. Jon didn't make that same mistake. Bully for him.
The best way I could think of to deal with this unexpected cold was to put on as many clothes as I could. I started with a base layer of thermal underwear which I was proud of myself for including, until I unfolded them and discovered that I had accidentally brought two bottoms instead of a bottom and a top. Rats. I picked the drier of the two pair and put them on.
With no thermal top available, I put on a damp long sleeve dry-wicking shirt I had brought. Over that went a t-shirt, sweatshirt and then my sweatshirt jacket and vest. On bottom I added jeans and my chaps. In an unsuccessful attempt to keep my feet a little drier I put on two pairs of socks. As soon as I put my feet in my wet boots they soaked through, so that didn't help much.
One saving point was that I had brought both my balaclava and winter gloves, and that they had been stored in the saddlebag where they remained dry. Jon brought neither, and was envious the whole day. But more on that in a moment.
We were in no hurry to get out the door and into the cold, so we took our time in our room. I broke out the leftover pizza which had partially frozen in the mini-fridge. Thankfully the room also contained a microwave so I was able to heat the pieces up slightly. I ate two pieces which would suffice for breakfast. As I mentioned before Jon isn't a breakfast guy, so he said I could have his two pieces. Rather than forcing myself to eat them I opted to put them back in the fridge for the next day.
Our hotel was on the west edge of town, a few hundred yards from the foot of the mountains. For people who stay in Cody, it really is a pretty convenient spot for accessing the park.
Finally around 8:00 we finally rolled out of the hotel parking lot. Because of the rain the previous night we didn't bother to stop and fill up our gas tanks, so we had to do that first thing. About 1/3 mile east of our hotel was a station. After filling up his tank Jon went inside the station to look and see if by chance the gas station sold gloves. The ones he brought were too light and wet. Unfortunately they didn't. He hoped to find somewhere in the park to buy some better gloves, but I was skeptical that he would find anything. There's not much for commercial goods or services inside Yellowstone.
West of Cody, the entrance to Yellowstone is 50 miles down highway 16. Really, they could put the entrance right on the edge of town because that's where the scenery starts, and there are no intersecting roads (non-gravel, anyway) that you could take to go anywhere else.
We rode along and snapped pictures. Traffic was very quiet, which was fine by me.
Off in the distance I could see some clouds that looked rather ominous. I really didn't want to hit rain again, but it kind of looked inevitable.
I'm glad I packed my winter gloves, but by the time we went about 30 miles down the highway the cold wind had made their way through them and my fingers were getting very cold. My toes were freezing as well from the wet boots. Jon's hands were completely frigid as his gloves were both thin and wet. The temp was dropping as well because we were climbing higher and higher. By this point it was easily in the 30s.
About a mile from the southeast entrance to Yellowstone there was a lodge. Attached to this lodge was a gift shop. We pulled over in the hopes that perhaps they sold gloves. Also I needed the restroom.
We shopped for a few minutes and gave ourselves a chance to warm up. Jon did find a pair of work gloves, the kind of which a person would use to rake leaves. They weren't what he was looking for, but he bought them simply because they were dry. He also picked up some souvenirs for his kids.
We rode the remaining mile to the park entrance. I went through the line first, and then pulled over to wait for Jon. To my dismay, it was starting to rain. Not at all what I wanted to happen as my winter gloves were not made to be rain repellent. If those got soaked I was in deep, deep trouble.
Jon came through the line and we headed into the park. From this entrance the first thing encountered is a climb up the mountains and over Sylvan Pass, which peaks at over 8500 feet in altitude. As we rode up the mountain the rain started to come down harder and harder. I decided I had better pull over and put on my rain gear, if for no other reason to use as wind block because by now the temps were really cold. Jon had put on his rain gear from the get-go that morning.
I pulled into a turn-off area and parked my bike. As I got off, something felt funny. I reached up and wiggled my backrest and it came off right in my hands. Great. So now not only did I have to ride in the freezing cold rain, but I had to do it without my back support. This was quickly turning into a very long trip.
I put on my rain gear and bungeed the backrest to my rear rack. Perhaps if it wasn't so cold and rainy I might have been able to fix it, but at this point I didn't feel like messing with it. Three days later in the comfort of my garage I was able to re-attach it in about 20 minutes as it was just a bolt that had vibrated loose. It would have taken me much longer to try and repair it on the road without all my tools at my disposal.
With my rain gear on we headed back out. A little further up the mountain and the rain turned to snow. Really. It was coming down pretty hard. I probably should have snapped a picture but at this point I had bigger fish to fry.
At the next turn-out I pulled over. Jon and I had a brief discussion about the feasibility of continuing on. My concerns were that my gloves would get soaked further and we would wind up with frostbite or hypothermia. If this happened deep in the park, we were pretty much stranded. Jon's concerns were the wet roads and sharp corners, and if the temp continued to drop would the roads get icy and snow packed. His were also valid concerns for getting stranded.
I really hated the idea of coming this far on our journey and then turning back before we saw much of the park. We were only about 5 miles in, but I also knew that continuing on was going to be a gamble. So I looked to Jon to give me his thoughts and sway me in either direction. He was rather non-committal about continuing on or turning back as well. I really didn't have a solid grasp about which was the best choice. I decided that we would forge ahead for a few miles and then re-evaluate. If things got any worse then we would turn back, but if they improved then we could keep going.
Thankfully, once we made it a few miles further over the pass the snow stopped, and a few miles further the rain stopped. The temps were cold but my gloves weren't too wet, so we forged ahead. I could handle cold as long as there wasn't moisture too. Jon would admit to me that when we stopped he kind of wanted to turn back but at the end of the day he was glad that we didn't.
With the weather more under control things started to get a little more enjoyable. We started snapping pictures and seeing the sights.
Parts of the park show evidence of past fires, either from the great Yellowstone fire from 1988 or from controlled burns. Early on, great efforts were made to suppress wildfires as soon as they started. Because of this the park area was ripe for a huge burn which happened in 1988 when 36 percent of the park went up in flames. Since then when wildfires start they are allowed to burn a portion of the park without growing out of control. The occasional burning of the forest is actually part of the natural cycle and is beneficial in the long term.
We knew we were in Yellowstone when we started to see geysers.
Yellowstone Lake is the largest freshwater lake in North America above 7000 feet.
We headed west until we crossed the fishing bridge, then at the Lake Village junction headed north. One of Jon's worries would be that we would encounter a potentially dangerous animal like a bear or a buffalo while on our bikes. We pulled up to a line of traffic and sure enough, down the road here came a buffalo. As luck would have it Jon was parked on the inside lane closest to the buffalo. I assured him that as long as we didn't do anything stupid the animal would just pass by and ignore us. Thankfully, I was correct.
A little further up the road we came to our first planned stop: the Mud Volcano. This is an area with lots of thermal activity, most notably a big pit of bubbling mud for which the area is named.
Having only one day to tour Yellowstone, we weren't able to spend too much time at any of our stops. We did walk around for about 10 minutes and snap some pictures, though.
We also had another "up close and personal" buffalo encounter.
Back on the bikes we headed north towards the Yellowstone Falls area. It began to spit a little rain again. It actually would rain a bit on and off for the next few hours, but never very heavy. For that I am thankful.
We walked over and took some pictures of the upper falls. These two pictures were snapped from two different locations but wound up looking nearly identical.
Next we went up the trail to Artist's point where we could get a good look at the lower falls and the canyon. This is an extremely scenic area and one could easily spend a good portion of the day here. In fact, when I was here with my family four years previously we spent a long afternoon on both sides of the canyon and didn't see everything. This was one of the sights that made Jon remark that he needs to return with his family to share the park with them.
Jon was getting hungry, which made sense since he didn't eat any breakfast. I wasn't starving, but I could eat (it seems like I can always eat) so I agreed that it was a good time for lunch. We were only a few miles from Canyon Junction where there was a cafe available.
It was nice to take off my helmet, balaclava and sunglasses for a few minutes. We went in the camp store and discovered they were having "Christmas in Yellowstone." The staff was all dressed in Christmas attire and they were playing carols on the PA. I'm not sure if this was a regular event or if they were just celebrating the unseasonably cool weather.
There was a grill available but had a line so we opted to just purchase some pre-packaged sandwiches. Things aren't cheap in Yellowstone. I got a chicken salad sandwich, a bag of chips and a Pepsi and it cost $9 plus change.
Unfortunately all of the tables inside the building were full. It would have been nice to sit down somewhere heated. Instead we sat outside on a picnic table. We relaxed for nearly an hour and ate our lunch. Occasionally drizzle would start for about 30 seconds, but then stop again.
Back on the road we headed north up through the mountains towards Tower Junction. The temps were cold enough that I was having trouble with my camera. I lost a few shots because the auto-focus wasn't working. A few times when I turned the camera on I would get a memory error, requiring me to cycle power. Once temps got more reasonable later the next day the camera functioned without issue.
Once we passed Tower Junction we toured the north end of the park heading towards Mammoth Springs. The rain started to come down steady. Not heavy, but more than sprinkles. My concerns about wet gloves were re-vamped but the rain stopped again before the gloves got soaked. Some of the pictures turned out kind of blurry, I'm assuming because of a mixture of the auto-focus freaking out in the cold and rain on the camera lens.
As we were riding along I saw a green Cooper Mini come up fast behind Jon. The driver seemed rather impatient and I thought to myself, "I think that idiot is going to try and pass both of us at once." The road was marked with a double-line indicating no passing, and rightly so because it was very curvy and difficult to see if there was any oncoming traffic. Sure enough my suspicions were correct: the driver pulled out and gunned it. There was a blind corner coming so I jammed on the brakes to give him room, and it's a good thing I did because another car came around the corner. The Mini pulled back into his lane.
As we rode I watched this Mini repeat the unsafe passes with the cars ahead of us. Jon, a police officer by profession, I'm sure was about coming unglued. We pulled over to snap some pictures when a park ranger car went by with his rollers on. Jon remarked, "I hope he's going after that guy."
Jon was correct. As we came into Mammoth Springs we saw that the ranger had pulled over the Mini, presumably to give them a ticket for unsafe driving.
When we reached Mammoth Springs we had logged nearly 150 miles since we left that morning. Yellowstone is a pretty big park (about the size of Conneticut.) Along with its size, it has been preserved pretty well without too much human interference. Because of this, gas stations aren't around every corner. In fact, there are only five pumps available in the whole park. Imagine the state of Connecticut only having five gas pumps.
One of those pumps was in Mammoth Springs so we opted to fill up now. As I was filling my bike, I got the sudden intense urge for the restroom. It must have happened because I suddenly stood up after sitting for so long. I told Jon that I couldn't wait for him and that I'd ride over to the public restroom area and meet him there.
The parking lot for the restroom was packed, mostly due to overflow from the other parking lots. I found one little space and squeezed in my bike. By the time I got off I was in full-on run mode to the restroom.
After some much needed pressure relief, I came back out. Jon had found my bike and parked behind it because there wasn't enough room in the space to park the bikes next to each other.
We spent a few minutes walking around Mammoth Hot Springs and taking some pictures.
We hit the road once again with Old Faithful being our next destination. Just south of the Hot Springs area we got caught behind a vehicle driving 15-20 mph. As I noted on my previous trip to the park there are some people who, rather than driving until they see something interesting and then pulling over and getting out, will just drive real slow through the whole park. This would be fine in your typical state park that is five miles from end to end, but it was 50 miles to Old Faithful and I really didn't feel like riding four hours to get there.
Thankfully after a few miles the driver noted that behind us that there was a lengthy line of vehicles, so the driver graciously pulled over to let everyone pass.
About this time it started to rain again, but to my delight it stopped after a few minutes and was the last rain we would wind up seeing for the rest of the day.
We came to another line of cars stopped in the road. As I suspected it was another "buffalo jam" where every vehicle slows down to go around the animals standing in the road, and pauses for a moment to take a picture. Rather than waiting until we got right up on the herd, I took my picture from a few car lengths back so when it was our turn we rode right by them without stopping.
Just north of Norris Junction we ran into road construction. I had looked at the road construction web site for Wyoming before we left and knew that there would be delays at this spot. There was a sizable line of cars waiting as the road was single lane for several miles and the construction crew would hold traffic in one direction for a while, then let cars go from the other direction. During my last visit to Yellowstone in 2010 there had been similar construction a few miles south of this one between the Norris and Madison junctions, so I knew what to expect.
When we got in line to wait I parked my bike and got off to stretch my legs. Jon stayed on his bike to wait. Occasionally someone from behind us in line would see me walking around and also get out of their vehicle to walk up and ask what was going on to cause the traffic jam. They always seemed dejected when they discovered it was due to construction and not something like a bear or a severed head. I snapped a few photos while we were waiting.
The temperature now was probably around 50 degrees, with the sun occasionally peeking out from behind the clouds. It still wasn't warm, and I think this picture of Jon demonstrates that we were a long way from being comfortable. The chill from the morning's ride lingered in our bodies. I still was wearing my rain gear, not so much for rain protection as just another layer of warmth.
Once it was our turn to go through the construction again, we were back on the move towards Old Faithful. This side of the park offered plenty to see, but unfortunately our day was running out of hours so we couldn't stop. After our planned stop at Old Faithful we had a 120 mile ride through the park ahead of us to get back to the hotel. If we wanted to be back before dark, and we really would prefer to be back before dark, we couldn't "stop and smell the roses", which was a bummer.
After riding for an hour and forty minutes to go 50 miles (things move slow in the park) we arrived at Old Faithful. We parked in the lot and I took a few minutes to remove my rain gear. My rain gear is kind of a joke. I bought it at the Walmart hunting section years ago for something like $7. It is olive drab in color and is basically like wearing a tarp with sleeves and leg holes. It doesn't breathe at all and as demonstrated several times on this trip has a tendency to leak in spots. But I'm a cheap sort and for the relatively few times I've needed it over my riding career I can't justify spending hundreds of dollars on nicer rain duds. In any event, it was no longer raining, the temp was warming a bit (up to 52 degrees) and I didn't feel like looking like a doofus any longer on this day so I took them off. To say my rain gear isn't stylish is an understatement. A couple of Hefty bags with holes poked in them would probably look better.
Contrary to popular belief, Old Faithful isn't the biggest geyser at Yellowstone, just the most famous. It originally got its name because it would erupt much more frequently than other geysers of comparable size. Old Faithful will erupt approximately 65 minutes after an eruption lasting less than 2.5 minutes or 91 minutes after an eruption lasting more than 2.5 minutes. All eruption predictions have a plus or minus 10 minute window.
We walked out to the geyser viewing area and located a park ranger. She told us that Old Faithful was set to erupt at 4:42 plus or minute the 10 minutes. It was a little after four at this time, so we had a few minutes to kill.
We went into the gift shop and browsed around. I bought my son a Yellowstone baseball, and bought my wife some Yellowstone socks. Both gifts would turn into hits when I returned home in a few days. Jon looked for something for his wife but didn't find anything he liked. The shop was very busy and I think the crowd was getting to him a bit, so I quick paid for my items and left.
There was a snack bar across from the gift shop, and our meager lunch was wearing off. I bought a cappuccino and a lemon poppyseed muffin. John bought a cappuccino and a cookie. The muffin looked pretty big behind the glass, but when they handed it to me it looked significantly smaller.
We walked back out to the viewing area and enjoyed our snack while we waited for Old Faithful to do its thing. It was about three minutes late when she blew. Every eruption is different, and this one turned out to be on the smaller size. There was a couple large spouts shooting about 100 feet in the air, but most of the water only went up about 25 feet or so. There was a lot of bubbling and gurgling between larger blows. The crowd was impressed, but of the three times I've seen Old Faithful erupt this was the smallest so I was a little let down.
Now it was time to head back to the hotel. As I mentioned earlier we were roughly 120 miles from Cody which meant probably a 2.5 hour ride through the park. The good news is the temp was rising and the traffic was dwindling so that last 120 miles turned into my favorite stretch of the whole trip.
We buzzed through the park at a pretty good pace, not speeding but not slowing down much for curves. This is where I noticed that Jon was really becoming more comfortable in the twisties. We were taking corners 10 to 15 mph faster than their rated speed and he was keeping up with me without any trouble.
When we passed by the continental divide we had to take the obligatory picture. The term "continental divide" sounds really cool until I explained to Jon that all that means is rivers on one side of the sign flow to the Pacific Ocean and on the other side they flow to the Atlantic Ocean. It's a lot less romantic sounding when you put it that way.
Traffic was really light now, with which I was perfectly fine. We pretty much could run as fast or slow as we wanted and didn't have to deal with any other traffic. Occasionally there would be a spot where cars were pulled over to view a buffalo or a small elk, but they weren't photo-worthy.
That is until we came across this giant twelve point bull elk standing on the side of the road. This was the biggest one I've ever seen in person, so we pulled over to take some pictures. My camera kind of messes up the perspective of how close I was standing when I took the picture; I probably was 20 feet away from it. It seemed pretty used to people coming up and taking its picture, but I was prepared to take evasive action if necessary. There were lots of cars parked in the area of people also getting a photo, so I figured if it came after me I'd try to use a car as a shield. It pretty much ignored all of us anyway so whether or not that would have been a successful strategy became a moot point.
Back on the bikes we continued on through Lake Junction to the East entrance. Or East exit from our perspective. We had another rider join up behind us for about 30 miles. We pulled over to take this picture and he gave us a friendly wave as he left the park.
On the 50 mile stretch of highway from the park into Cody we probably saw fewer than 10 other vehicles. The speed rose to 55 mph, and then further on bumped up to 65 mph so we really put the hammer down and rode the curves hard. It was a great ride.
Roughly 20 miles from Cody I spotted something weird I'd never noticed before on my previous travels down highway 16. (Editor's note: according to Google the statue appeared sometime in 2013, which would explain why I hadn't seen it on previous trips.) Out in the middle of a field was a Big Boy statue. Sioux Falls had a Big Boy when I was a child, but the restaurant closed nearly 40 years prior. When we visit my wife's family in Ohio we'll occasionally eat at one as they still exist as a chain.
I pulled over rather quickly, or at least as quickly as I could without having Jon run into my rear end. I asked him, "Did I just see a Big Boy statue in the middle of a field." He agreed that if I was hallucinating that he was having the same visions. I decided I needed to get some pictures so Jon waited while I went back and snapped them.
We reached Cody about 7:40. I was hungry and looking forward to a meal, but we opted to make a quick stop at the hotel to drop off some of the clothes we were wearing. Now that we had come down to a lower elevation the temp had warmed up to a blistering 58 degrees. In addition to removing a layer of clothes I also ditched my wet boots for a pair of dry socks and tennis shoes. I'd had enough of the trenchfoot. Jon hadn't brought extra shoes, so he had to suffer with wet feet for a little while longer.
Coming into town the previous night we had noticed a BBQ place just a few blocks down. That had sounded good to us all day so we made plans to head there for supper. When we pulled in, though, the parking lot was empty. Not only was the restaurant closed, it looked like it hadn't been open in a long, long time. Bummer.
Down the road we saw the Buffalo Bar and Steakhouse, and that sounded kind of good so we rode down there.
We parked our bikes and started to go in when Jon looked across the street and saw "Champs Chicken." Chicken sounded good to him so he suggested that instead. Seeing as I'd been craving BBQ all day, I didn't have any strong opinion between steak or chicken so I agreed. We rode across the street for some chicken. As a bonus, the chicken place was attached to a gas station so we could fill up before tomorrow's ride.
We ate our chicken meals. The chicken was OK, but their root beer was really good. I drank a glass and a half. My mouth wanted more but I knew my body didn't need that much sugar. One of the rare times in my life I've shown discretion.
After we were done eating we filled our tanks. The gas station had stacks of free newspapers (advertising) next to the register, so I grabbed one that I later used to stuff my boots in an attempt to dry them out.
Back at the hotel we called our families and took turns cleaning up in the shower. We watched a little bit of a TV show called "Fat Guys In The Woods" where a survival expert takes some couch potatoes into the forest and teaches them to live off the land. It's the show that was playing in the background of the weather channel. We crawled into our beds and called it a night around 10:30. We were quite tired from the day but I had to concur with Jon's assessment when he said, "I'm cold, tired and in pain but I'm having a blast."
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This page last updated on 06/28/2018