Yellowstone!

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June 25th 2007

Published: August 7th 2007

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Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces

Terraces are built up by the pools of hot springs.

I'm on my way to Yellowstone National Park, home of Boo-Boo and Yogi Bear! It's the first national park in the world founded in the late 1800's.

On my way I pass through the Grand Tetons National Park. I didn't bother to visit because I'm so focused on getting to YNP but next time I plan to visit. On the way I meet Bob and Steve from New Mexico and Oklahoma who are also riding to YNP.

I'm not able to secure a camping spot until the Thursday, so instead I'm staying 3 nights at a cabin at Lake Lodge and 4 nights at the Canyon campgrounds.

First stop is to visit Old Faithful, the main reason for my trip. It blows approximately every 92 minutes and I arrive in time to watch it as the sun goes down.

I decided to get back into shape and go on a couple of hikes. The park rangers are great for recommending routes (more on that later). I chose to hike up to Avalanche Peak where I could get a 360 view of the park overlooking Yellowstone Lake. Along with the spectacular view at the top, I

Yellowstone Geothermal Basins

Gorgeous!

a spot a shy chipmunk chewing on a twig. After testing my patiences I manage to snap a photo of the animal. Before I head down, I hide out in a wind blind to eat my my cookies 'n cream powerbar. Well guess who shows up! Someone must have already fed this rodent.

In the afternoon I hop on a boat for a tour of the lake. This park is huge! It's amazing politians had the forethought to set aside so much land for a park.

I check out of the cabin and move to my campsite. The resident bison escorted me off the property. The video will explain everything.

I’m in sitting in front of the campfire writing this blog. I’m waiting for the restaurant to open so I get some coffee and sit somewhere warm. Perhaps I should explain the predicament I’m in. I purchased a 2 season new tent when I was in Bend OR because my older 3-4 season tent was too big and I also wanted a lighter tent for backpacking. To cut down on weight I also didn’t bother to bring my down sleeping bag and opted to go

Bisons

Aka buffalo. According to the park ranger, they're not really related to buffalo.

with wearing my riding leathers if it got really cold. Well, the reason why a 2 season tent is so light is most of the walls are made of mesh instead of fabric which keeps it wonderfully cool and ventilated but doesn’t trap any heat in the night time. This wouldn’t be a problem because most of the camping it’s quite warm at night anyways unless you’re in Yellowstone located in the sub-alpine which is a nice way of saying over 7000ft altitude. It gets as cold as 4C at night. Unfortunately the stores here don’t sell down sleeping bags (synthetic don’t compress well enough to fit on my bike) and the nearest REI is several 100 miles away. So huddling in front of the campfire it is!

June 25th

I leave Yellowstone by the north east gate on the way to Cooke City. Hwy 212 is awesome and reminiscent of the top of the world highway between Alaska and Yukon. The crosswind is so strong that it actually pushes the bike off course through the switch backs. Interesting!

As I cruise through Red Lodge it's so pretty that I decided to spend the night here. I