The alarm went off at 5:15 AM and I proceeded to get up and prepare. I was moving pretty slowly as I could tell the physical demands of the previous two days were taking their toll. I was only halfway through with the trip, so this had me a little concerned.
I packed up the bike and left the hotel at 6 AM.
From my previous day's experience, I knew that finding food inside of Yellowstone can be tricky. Plus, given the time I was going to go through the park, I didn't know whether or not anything would be open. I decided to find some breakfast in West Yellowstone prior to starting the day's ride. I came across the Old Town Cafe that had an open sign in the window. Unfortunately, at 6 AM I was arriving at the same time as the people working in the restaurant, so it was about a 35 minute wait before I had food in front of me. Not the quick breakfast I'd hoped for, but at least it was tasty.
At 6:45, I was on the bike and entering the park. The first thing I noticed was how cold it was. The temp that morning had plunged to 38 degrees. I really hadn't prepared for a 38 degree day in July! Everything I read prior to my trip told me to prepare for possible upper-40 temps in the mountains, but nothing like this! I figured the cold would be short lived, as the sun was now up over the horizon, and it was a beautiful cloudless day.
Speaking of the sun, the next thing I noticed was that the morning glare made heading east rather difficult. Even with sunglasses on, the glare was tremendous. I wound up riding with my left hand extended to block the sun so that I could see the road. This made the sweeping curves rather interesting, with only one hand to steer, but after two days of riding curves I was starting to feel pretty comfortable with them.
The wildlife was out in full force in the cool of the morning. I saw plenty of elk. I noticed that much of the wildlife is pretty used to seeing people and cars. I would stop and take their picture and they would completely ignore me. Even the noise from my pipes didn't phase them. I suppose this is why people get lulled into a false sense that the animals are tame and try to approach them.
I saw two more wolves this morning, but once again they scurried off the road before I could get a picture.
After about a half an hour of riding in the cold, I couldn't take it any more and had to find something to shield me from the frigid air. I pulled over and dug in my saddlebags and found a pair of ski gloves and a neckie. This helped break the chill, especially the neckie. The gloves were warm for about five minutes, until the cold air worked it's way through the fabric. While I was stopped, I snapped a picture of the stream next to the road. There are little streams everywhere in Yellowstone.
One cool thing I noticed with the temps (pun somewhat intended) was that you could look across the park and see exactly where every geyser was located. Plumes of steam would rise high in the air giving themselves away. Here's a pretty neat picture of several geysers up ahead on the road.
I cut through Norris Canyon road in the center of the park, then headed north up Grand Loop road back towards the northeast entrance. This would have been a great ride except for the fact that traffic was starting to pick up and the cages move pretty slow in the mountains. Also, the road itself was in absolutely terrible shape. Very rough with lots of pot holes. It was like riding through a mine field.
I stopped and snapped a few pictures of a canyon along this route. The camera couldn't adequately capture the true size of the canyon. Also, apparently the week prior to my arrival a woman plunged to her death into this canyon because she crawled over the rock wall in order to get a better look.
I headed back up through the north east entrance towards Cooke City. I stopped to make a few adjustments to my luggage and took a few more snapshots while I was standing still.
At this point I saw one of the stranger sights on my trip. An old Chevy Vega was coming down the road in the opposite lane. You don't see too many of those anymore, and I certainly wouldn't expect someone to tour Yellowstone in one. I wish I'd gotten a picture. I'm sure there was a story there...
This is "Soda Butte". It's like this little miniature butte right in the middle of a field.
I left Yellowstone and rode back through Cooke City. It now being Saturday, the construction crews weren't working which meant that the pilot car wasn't running, and I could just proceed through the construction at my own pace. The road hadn't improved overnight, and 10 - 20 mph was all that felt safe, and even that was pretty shaky on the loose gravel.
The Chief Joseph Highway was now before me. This was supposed to be a great ride with lots of scenery.
I turned around for one last look towards the Yellowstone area.
The CJH was a great ride. Occasionally there were slow drivers that backed traffic up, but luckily there were plenty of passing zones so you could get around them soon enough. The terrain was different than that found in Yellowstone; there were fewer trees and more of a "desert like" atmosphere.
From the Chief Joseph Highway, I stopped in Cody, WY for gas and a snack. From there I headed west to Greybull. I decided that on the 50 mile stretch between Cody and Greybull, the speed limit should be 150 mph. This is among the dullest stretches of road on which I've ridden. It was during this stretch that for the first time I fought sleep while riding on a bike. Usually the vibrations and wind keep me quite alert, but on this day the road was dull and coupled with the exhaustion I was starting to feel, sleep was looming.
I munched on some candy I had in my pocket and drank a soda I bought in Cody to keep me awake. There were tons of Harleys going the opposite direction with some pretty scary looking dudes on them. I later learned that the national Hell's Angels rally was being held in Cody starting the next day.
I continued on down highway 16 to Ten Sleep. My original plan was to eat lunch in Ten Sleep, but I was running behind schedule due to me getting out of West Yellowstone later than I had planned. I opted instead to eat a char broil microwave burger at the gas station. I was planning on having all-you-can-eat prime rib that night for supper, so that helped my ability to choke down the char broil.
While I was paying for my lunch in Ten Sleep, a "well-to-do" woman came in and with a New England accent demanded to know where the "attractions" were. The lady behind the counter busted out laughing and said "Ma'am, you're in hicksville. There's no attractions around here!" The woman said she would settle for something as simple as a waterfall. I looked at her and said, "there ain't a waterfall for 200 miles." She huffed out of the store.
Truth be known, there probably were waterfalls closer than that, but I could tell she wasn't the type to hike through the woods to see them.
It was around this point that I noticed my lips were starting to hurt. I figured it was just the wind and didn't pay much attention to them.
The weather on this day was hot, in the upper 90s. To the east of Ten Sleep there was an irrigator in a farm field that was spraying water onto the highway. It was wonderfully refreshing to get soaked with water as I rode by. Unfortunately, three minutes later I was completely dry again.
I was now at the foothills of the Bighorn mountains, heading east on highway 16.
This section of the Bighorns was scenic, but not near as pretty as the northern section on highway 14A. The road was much faster, allowing me to ride 60-70 mph without having to slow down too often. I was having a ball riding and didn't take any pictures in this area.
One thing I noticed happened several times on this trip, was on long steep inclines where passing is allowed, when passing an SUV the drivers seem to think you're challenging them and proceed to speed up as you're going by. Of course, any motorcycle can outrun an SUV, especially when climbing a hill, so their efforts are futile. The only thing they accomplish is making life more dangerous for everyone by forcing the cycle to accelerate to 90 mph to complete the pass before oncoming traffic approaches.
I had passed one white Chevy Blazer where apparently the driver was upset that I passed him on a hill. He then apparently tried to "prove a point" that he could go as fast as I could and started to ride my tail. As we came to a down hill curve marked at 40 mph, I easily held my speed steady at 65 mph through the curve and watched in my rear view mirror as the driver panicked and struggled to keep the Blazer on the road. After that, the person backed off and stopped trying to keep up.
Once through the Bighorns, I picked up interstate 90 at Buffalo and rode on to my next scheduled stop in Gillette. Gillette is not very scenic, so I took a picture of the bike instead of the town. By this time, my lips were really screaming (not literally - you know what I mean.)
I continued east on interstate 90 until I got to Sundance. It was in this section that I saw my next curious sight. The sun was beating down, there weren't any clouds and the temp was in the mid 90s. However, two identical bright yellow Goldwings went by with both riders dressed head to toe in full rain gear. I'm not sure what that was about.
From Sundance I headed south on highway 585 to Four Corners. I'm not sure why they call it Four Corners, as it's a "T" junction so it really only has two corners. Anyway, at that point I headed up highway 85 into the Black Hills.
Although I have been in the Black Hills countless times in my life, I had never taken this route before. It was fun to see an area of the Hills that I hadn't seen before.
I arrived at my hotel in Deadwood, SD at 5:37.
I was pretty beat by now, but that didn't stop me from calling my buddy Dan and informing him that in approximately an hour I was going to have a prime rib buffet while he was sitting back in Sioux Falls. Dan loves prime rib, and I knew this would rub on him. It's odd how we take such pleasure in tormenting our friends.
After a shower and a shave I was feeling more human. My lips, however, weren't doing well at all and looked red and swollen. I figured out that it wasn't the wind, but sunburn! I had no idea you could sunburn your lips. I had sunscreen on everywhere else, but it never occurred to me that you could burn your lips as well.
I took the Deadwood trolley down to the Gold Dust casino where I ate the prime rib buffet. I love horseradish with my prime rib, however after my first bite and my lips exploded, I realized that sunburn and horseradish don't mix. I ate the rest of the meal sans horseradish. It was still pretty tasty.
After dinner I wandered around the casinos for a while, and spent $3 on the nickel slots. I'm the worlds worst gambler. If I ever lost $10 I'd be begging the casino owner to let me wash dishes for a couple of hours to earn my money back.
By 9:00 I was on the trolley back to the hotel, with plans to be asleep by 10:00. Once again, though, I wound up watching something stupid on TV and didn't fall asleep until 11:30.
Man, my lips hurt.
Miles Logged: 556.8
Time In Saddle: 11 hours
Gallons of gas used: 13.287
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This page last updated on 06/28/2018