We started the day fairly early... I got up around 7am, showered, and we were on the road around 8:30. The plan for the day?
1. Old Faithful
2. Grand Teton
3. Whatever we have energy left for
A view of the hotel (the Alpine in Cooke City, MT) room (did I already show this?)
The sink wasn't in the bathroom, rather it was in the bedroom... interesting, but nice.
Turns out that one of the roads through the park (that would have saved us over 20 miles) was still closed for the season. So, we had to divert through the town of Mammoth Hot Springs (where a good deal of the park staff make their home) and turn southward through the park toward Old Faithful from there.
So, the entire route, here, was a pretty rough ride for a single day. 175.4 miles (round trip) is tough on sportbikes, especially when the roads don't curve all that much! But the trip was worthwhile.
Tired and sore already we rolled into the 'Old Faithful' area... basically a metroplex of motels, restaurant and other tourist things, built up around the geyser. We got some lunch and stretched out, the headed for the geyser.
The obligatory visitor's center shot.
The main boardwalk approaching the geyser.
A basic area shot.
This was supposedly a SLOW day, remember a good many roads through the park were still closed, it's still 'off season'.... I don't even want to think about how busy it must be here during peak season.
Looking left along the boardwalk.
Right along the boardwalk.
The geyser erupts about every 90 minutes... thankfully, after lunch and our little walk to the geyser we didn't have long to wait...
Geyser shots...
So, after the eruption we mount back up and head for Grand Teton. Unfortunately, as we approach the mountain, it starts raining, so we decide not to stop for shots on the way there and instead push on through to Jackson Hole...
A shot of downtown Jackson
MMMMM... blizzard!
We never did figure out what they were after.... but there were four of them, all in a big hurry. They stopped just outside the DQ and all ran underneath the bridge nearby....
Clear weather on the way back, so we stopped to get some shots of the Tetons.
Here's some info on the Tetons.
... and a couple more shots of the Tetons.
So, after getting a few shots of the Tetons, we made the long journey back through Mammoth Hot Springs...
Here's a few shots of Mammoth.
We got back to Cooke City, MT completely worn out. This little town is sooo small that only one restaraunt is open each night... each one takes a turn cooking something for the town, it's tourists and residents (at least during the off-season). Our first night in town was fantastic food at the Bistro, the second evening we had dinner at the Soda Butte Motel & Casino where I had a pretty good broiled trout and Dave got a decent fillet. Our last night in town we were in the bar across the street from the motel where I had a fairly good chicken sandwich and Dave got a burger and fries.
Anyway, now that I'm done describing our diet for the past couple nights... back to some Yellowstone info! Well, let me first say that sportbikes DO NOT BELONG in the park. While we weren't the only ones, we were definitely out of place. I didn't realize this when planning the trip through the park, but it turns out that Yellowstone is FIRST AND FOREMOST a wildlife refuge. If you area a wildlife enthusiast, then Yellowstone is totally the place for you! There were cars parked all over the place... on both sides of the road, in the middle of the road, around blind corners... anywhere that some random animal just happened to be close enough to the road for a bystander to catch a glimpse of.
Here's a shot of the bison.
And another of some mule deer (at least I think that's what they are...)
The biggest business in the park, by far, are 'wildlife tours' where people pile into big SUVs or vans and get shuttled around the park by folks who carry large telescopes for viewing the wildlife.
Anyway, what I'm getting at is, this isn't the place to enjoy the 'scenery' at a moderate pace. Expect to stop FREQUENTLY... and expect to overheat, FREQUENTLY. Bison and other animals were often blocking the road entirely. Of course, as it turns out, a Yoshimura exhaust on a 600cc sportbike is quite effective at clearing the roadway, much to the dismay of onlookers who wanted to 'reach out and touch'.
While it may be considered bad form to 'clear the road' in this way, I was less than 5 feet from the bison on more than 5 occasions... each of which involved 'clearing the road' for a fairly long line of vehicles that seemed to want nothing more than to sit for however long it was going to take for the buffalo to eat its fill of the grass growing in the cracks of the road.
Ok.. rant-off. Don't get me wrong, I totally love wildlife .. all I'm saying is, if you really want to enjoy Yellowstone, go in the early season (because I totally can't imagine the traffic stopped on the roadway during peak season) and go in a convertible and plan to hike... hike a lot! Don't go on a sportbike!
OK.. enough of that mess. We stayed our last night in Cooke City in the Soda Butte Lodge because no rooms were available at the Alpine Friday night. Shortly after arrival in our room we realized why all the Alpine rooms were booked.... the rates were higher at the Soda Butte, and there wasn't any AC, the toilet didn't flush well and the window to the room had been busted, and taped back together! What a dump! But hey... it was that, or find a campsite at nearly 10pm after having been on the bikes all day.
Anyway, that's Friday's update... more to come.
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