ExploringRTW
Registered user
USA - Wyoming
Shortly after entering the park we saw more wildlife than we had done for the whole of Alaska, with Deer and Bison aplenty.
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I'm sure it would look so much better hanging over the mantelpiece...
At one point about 5 Bison were just ambling down the road towards us and there was no where for us to retreat to so I decided to take the opportunity to get some live action shots….and hope they didn’t take exception to the sound of the bike.
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Walking burgers!
....They didn’t and we lived to get to one of the first hot springs in Yellowstone, the Paint-pot, which we got to just before sun-set and it was stunning, words cannot describe, hopefully the photos will tell part of the story.
Paint pots...
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We had a bit of a dead-line this evening as the park entrances close at 20:00 and that meant we had to either find a room inside the park or get back out again to find one. One thing and another we finally arrived at the site of Old Faithful which has a lodge, the time was 19:25.…..and is about 30 miles from the entrance. The park has a maximum speed limit of 45 mph and slower at places. We knew wild life were wandering around and so any faster would be very dangerous……I’ll let you do the maths. ….Fortunately, we managed to get one of the last cabins for $90.…a very warm and cosy cabin which we were both very grateful. Alas no Internet access or TV or hot tub or dancing girls but it was warm and it was very very cold outside with snow on one of the roads in the park, although we haven’t actually seen anymore since yesterday.
The next morning we awoke to the realisation we were staying in Yellowstone itself and our cabin was only 100m from Old Faithful! We had arrived in the dark and still had not seen it. The skies where blue and not a cloud in sight. So after a quick shower we headed for some breakfast in the main lodge next to the geyser. The breakfast area was just muffins, sandwiches and coffee and very expensive. But we had timed our breakfast to perfection as old faithful erupted during us munching breakfast.
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The Old Faithful...
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Obviously "Old" isn't relevent in this photo...
Over breakfast we worked out our route for the day in the park and plan was to head north up to Mammoth Springs then across to the north east corner making a circle of the top half of the park. The only issue we may encounter was on the route back there was a pass that had been closed due to snow on the previous day. Worst case was we would have to retrace our route.
The ride up to Mammoth was interesting as there were either waterfalls or hot springs either side of the road and the formation or the springs at Mammoth were so different to the others. I’ll leave it to the Photos to describe these better.
Mammoth....
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From Mammoth we headed up to Tower Falls and here there was a huge gorge with a river at the bottom. As always in North America it is difficult to understand just how vast these things are compared to the places in the UK. Wooky Hole has nothing on the magnitude of these cliffs.
Tower Falls
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From there we headed onwards and higher and stopped beside the road to have lunch with the mountains behind us and the Bison grazing a hundred meters or so below us.
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Just another Lunch...
After lunch we headed for the pass that was previous day covered in snow. It was open and there was no snow to be seen. This part of the park had also been closed for most of the summer for road reconstruction and it was a nice change to ride on a smooth un-rutted road. It would have been great fun to speed up and have some fun around the mountain bends but a) were on Dakars b) there is so much wild life it would be suicidal. The views were great and photo stops were required.
The pass
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The next day was our final day in the park and the plan was cover the south eastern part of the park to see the Lower Falls and Yellowstone Lake. After yesterdays breakfast we made our own in the room, loaded up the bikes and headed off.
The first part of the route today was a retrace of the previous days but it was overcast and drizzling which made the whole views and scenes look completely different but after lunch the skies cleared and the great views of the park came back. Today seemed to be Bison day as they were everywhere wandering up and down the road. Sitting on the bikes you do feel really vulnerable with the large creatures ambling past.
The Lower Falls were very impressive and there was a long walk down from the car park to the bottom of the falls. I just hope you appreciate the selfless effort we go to get you these pictures.
Lower Falls...
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Due to the unexpected long walk for the falls we headed to the southern end of the park later than we wanted . In some ways this is good as we had sight of magnificent sunsets over the Yellowstone Lake….
Yellowstone Lake...
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….the downside was it was dark by the time we arrived at the park exit and we had a very tentative journey ahead riding in the pitch black with wild elk and bison wandering up and down the road. The first accommodation we could find was about 7 miles outside of the park. They had room at $185 a night and the restaurant was already closed. The next place we 25 miles down the road. Given the costs we set off . Apparently this next section of the road was part of the Teton Nation Park and very beautiful as the autumn colours were out, and there was a large lake with a mountain backdrop but given it was night we saw nothing. The only thing of note, apart from the cold, was had to slow for a large Elk standing in the road. We arrived at the Jackson Lake Hotel and picked up a good sized room for a $100. Pricey for us but given the circumstances we had to roll with it. We grabbed some food and a quick beer and called it a night
The next morning we were up fairly early and headed for breakfast in the Hotel. The service the previous night wasn’t to hot and this morning it was no different. You definitely got a feeling you were in the way of the staff’s social life…
As we had missed what was meant to be a very scenic section we decided to retrace our steps before heading off to Jackson Hole. The ride was much quicker and the colour of the trees were a mixture of lime greens and vivid yellows set against the background of lake and the Teton mountains.
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The Tetons
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The Road....
Once we reached the start of the park we turned around and headed back. Mike had noticed a trail off to the right on the way out so on the way back we headed up there. In the end it was just a rough track to a campsite but we had our first water crossing on the bikes for this trip. A few miles further on we stopped to fuel up and grab some lunch.
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The first water crossing. Me thinks it will get wider and deep later in the trip!
Parked next to us was a van with two small dogs that Mike wanted to take a photo of .
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Killa and Jaws?
After asking the owner for permission we started to talk to Barbara and her husband. We found out that they were a singing duet and when they found out what we were doing they sang us a couple of songs to us in the car park. This was the first time this had happened to us but will it be the only occasion?
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We continued the journey and as we had only a few miles to do to our destination we took side trip off on a posted scenic route.
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This was a good ride and we stopped by a lake for a while and laid out in the sun. Ahhh this is the life.
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The bike gear is still on... don't want you ladies going wild...
All to soon we were off again.
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A couple of miles on we spotted our first wolf about 400 meter from the road. The camera was out and another tick to the collection was added.
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A few miles from Jackson we took our last detour of the day to the town of Teton. Shortly joining the road we came across a lot of cars packed beside the road. After a quick question to a bystander there was a male, female and baby moose all just off the side of the road. The camera was out again and multiple ticks added to the collection.
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The road to Teton turned to gravel for a small section but we were soon back on the hard stuff and into Jackson Hole.
We spent the next two days in Jackson Hole catching up on the washing and E-mails. Not very interesting but it that’s life on the road for ya.
We left Jackson to meet Kent and Garry who we had met in Seward. They had kindly offered to put is up for a few days and it was an offer we couldn’t refuse. We had to leave at 04:30 in the morning to make it where they lived in Fort Collins in the same day so we set off in the dark. Boy was it cold. We had two hours riding before sun rise and the temperature definitely felt way below freezing. The heated clothing was on fully power but it was struggling to keep us warm.
We stopped for breakfast after 130 miles. Mike switched off the bike then tried to restart it. The bike was having none of it so we left it and went for a long warm breakfast.
After breakfast we had the thought of bump starting Mikes bike which would help in warming up but would n’t do our spirits any good. Anyway he tried the bike and it started. Things were looking up. As we grove on the weather was warming up nicely and by the time we stopped for lunch it was a pleasant 70 F. We had a good run and we were at Kent’s by 18:30 but very tired.
Shortly after entering the park we saw more wildlife than we had done for the whole of Alaska, with Deer and Bison aplenty.
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I'm sure it would look so much better hanging over the mantelpiece...
At one point about 5 Bison were just ambling down the road towards us and there was no where for us to retreat to so I decided to take the opportunity to get some live action shots….and hope they didn’t take exception to the sound of the bike.
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Walking burgers!
....They didn’t and we lived to get to one of the first hot springs in Yellowstone, the Paint-pot, which we got to just before sun-set and it was stunning, words cannot describe, hopefully the photos will tell part of the story.
Paint pots...
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We had a bit of a dead-line this evening as the park entrances close at 20:00 and that meant we had to either find a room inside the park or get back out again to find one. One thing and another we finally arrived at the site of Old Faithful which has a lodge, the time was 19:25.…..and is about 30 miles from the entrance. The park has a maximum speed limit of 45 mph and slower at places. We knew wild life were wandering around and so any faster would be very dangerous……I’ll let you do the maths. ….Fortunately, we managed to get one of the last cabins for $90.…a very warm and cosy cabin which we were both very grateful. Alas no Internet access or TV or hot tub or dancing girls but it was warm and it was very very cold outside with snow on one of the roads in the park, although we haven’t actually seen anymore since yesterday.
The next morning we awoke to the realisation we were staying in Yellowstone itself and our cabin was only 100m from Old Faithful! We had arrived in the dark and still had not seen it. The skies where blue and not a cloud in sight. So after a quick shower we headed for some breakfast in the main lodge next to the geyser. The breakfast area was just muffins, sandwiches and coffee and very expensive. But we had timed our breakfast to perfection as old faithful erupted during us munching breakfast.
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The Old Faithful...
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Obviously "Old" isn't relevent in this photo...
Over breakfast we worked out our route for the day in the park and plan was to head north up to Mammoth Springs then across to the north east corner making a circle of the top half of the park. The only issue we may encounter was on the route back there was a pass that had been closed due to snow on the previous day. Worst case was we would have to retrace our route.
The ride up to Mammoth was interesting as there were either waterfalls or hot springs either side of the road and the formation or the springs at Mammoth were so different to the others. I’ll leave it to the Photos to describe these better.
Mammoth....
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From Mammoth we headed up to Tower Falls and here there was a huge gorge with a river at the bottom. As always in North America it is difficult to understand just how vast these things are compared to the places in the UK. Wooky Hole has nothing on the magnitude of these cliffs.
Tower Falls
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From there we headed onwards and higher and stopped beside the road to have lunch with the mountains behind us and the Bison grazing a hundred meters or so below us.
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Just another Lunch...
After lunch we headed for the pass that was previous day covered in snow. It was open and there was no snow to be seen. This part of the park had also been closed for most of the summer for road reconstruction and it was a nice change to ride on a smooth un-rutted road. It would have been great fun to speed up and have some fun around the mountain bends but a) were on Dakars b) there is so much wild life it would be suicidal. The views were great and photo stops were required.
The pass
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The next day was our final day in the park and the plan was cover the south eastern part of the park to see the Lower Falls and Yellowstone Lake. After yesterdays breakfast we made our own in the room, loaded up the bikes and headed off.
The first part of the route today was a retrace of the previous days but it was overcast and drizzling which made the whole views and scenes look completely different but after lunch the skies cleared and the great views of the park came back. Today seemed to be Bison day as they were everywhere wandering up and down the road. Sitting on the bikes you do feel really vulnerable with the large creatures ambling past.
The Lower Falls were very impressive and there was a long walk down from the car park to the bottom of the falls. I just hope you appreciate the selfless effort we go to get you these pictures.
Lower Falls...
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Due to the unexpected long walk for the falls we headed to the southern end of the park later than we wanted . In some ways this is good as we had sight of magnificent sunsets over the Yellowstone Lake….
Yellowstone Lake...
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….the downside was it was dark by the time we arrived at the park exit and we had a very tentative journey ahead riding in the pitch black with wild elk and bison wandering up and down the road. The first accommodation we could find was about 7 miles outside of the park. They had room at $185 a night and the restaurant was already closed. The next place we 25 miles down the road. Given the costs we set off . Apparently this next section of the road was part of the Teton Nation Park and very beautiful as the autumn colours were out, and there was a large lake with a mountain backdrop but given it was night we saw nothing. The only thing of note, apart from the cold, was had to slow for a large Elk standing in the road. We arrived at the Jackson Lake Hotel and picked up a good sized room for a $100. Pricey for us but given the circumstances we had to roll with it. We grabbed some food and a quick beer and called it a night
The next morning we were up fairly early and headed for breakfast in the Hotel. The service the previous night wasn’t to hot and this morning it was no different. You definitely got a feeling you were in the way of the staff’s social life…
As we had missed what was meant to be a very scenic section we decided to retrace our steps before heading off to Jackson Hole. The ride was much quicker and the colour of the trees were a mixture of lime greens and vivid yellows set against the background of lake and the Teton mountains.
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The Tetons
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The Road....
Once we reached the start of the park we turned around and headed back. Mike had noticed a trail off to the right on the way out so on the way back we headed up there. In the end it was just a rough track to a campsite but we had our first water crossing on the bikes for this trip. A few miles further on we stopped to fuel up and grab some lunch.
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The first water crossing. Me thinks it will get wider and deep later in the trip!
Parked next to us was a van with two small dogs that Mike wanted to take a photo of .
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Killa and Jaws?
After asking the owner for permission we started to talk to Barbara and her husband. We found out that they were a singing duet and when they found out what we were doing they sang us a couple of songs to us in the car park. This was the first time this had happened to us but will it be the only occasion?
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We continued the journey and as we had only a few miles to do to our destination we took side trip off on a posted scenic route.
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This was a good ride and we stopped by a lake for a while and laid out in the sun. Ahhh this is the life.
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The bike gear is still on... don't want you ladies going wild...
All to soon we were off again.
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A couple of miles on we spotted our first wolf about 400 meter from the road. The camera was out and another tick to the collection was added.
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A few miles from Jackson we took our last detour of the day to the town of Teton. Shortly joining the road we came across a lot of cars packed beside the road. After a quick question to a bystander there was a male, female and baby moose all just off the side of the road. The camera was out again and multiple ticks added to the collection.
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The road to Teton turned to gravel for a small section but we were soon back on the hard stuff and into Jackson Hole.
We spent the next two days in Jackson Hole catching up on the washing and E-mails. Not very interesting but it that’s life on the road for ya.
We left Jackson to meet Kent and Garry who we had met in Seward. They had kindly offered to put is up for a few days and it was an offer we couldn’t refuse. We had to leave at 04:30 in the morning to make it where they lived in Fort Collins in the same day so we set off in the dark. Boy was it cold. We had two hours riding before sun rise and the temperature definitely felt way below freezing. The heated clothing was on fully power but it was struggling to keep us warm.
We stopped for breakfast after 130 miles. Mike switched off the bike then tried to restart it. The bike was having none of it so we left it and went for a long warm breakfast.
After breakfast we had the thought of bump starting Mikes bike which would help in warming up but would n’t do our spirits any good. Anyway he tried the bike and it started. Things were looking up. As we grove on the weather was warming up nicely and by the time we stopped for lunch it was a pleasant 70 F. We had a good run and we were at Kent’s by 18:30 but very tired.
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Great photo's. Just the sort of ride I want to take one day....
