Tetons and Yellowstone

Hello friends, family, and other random internet people!

So it has been a little while since we updated you all about our cycling adventure, or as somebody else phrased it “pedal bike”.  We have much to catch you up on, some days may have started to run together, but the general gist of what we have been doing is all correct… I think? Also, this is a long one.

Day sixteen was fairly uneventful, we went from Idaho Falls to the middle of the Palisade Reservoir and camped out up there. It was just another day of stunning views and a great day of riding.

Day seventeen  we followed the less mountainous of the routes to Jackson, Wy, then to a town about 6 miles west, called Wilson, where we got to stay at the swanky pad of a Warmshowers host, Walt. He was the bees knees. He let us soak in his hot tub, showed us off to the local bike shop (which gave us some awesome discounts on some more supplies that we needed), gave us some great advice on routes to take and what to expect, and he cooked us a great dinner of stir fry.  ALSO! Rose got a flat tire! The first misfortune in over 1000 miles! It was no big deal.

Day eighteen was stunning. We rode most the day next to the Tetons and marveled at their glory. About half the day we were even able to ride on a bike path. It was a day of photos and tourism. We were even able to find a campsite for $5! Hiker/bicycler special. We are all about discounted camping.

Day nineteen through twenty two we made our way up the hills to Yellowstone National Park! We immediately encountered the worst roads we have been on yet. This might be partially due to the horrible winter they had this past season, about twice as much snow as normal, but there was little shoulder for us to ride on. With the careening RVers, much of which were rented, big trucks, and tour busses, it was a slightly scary experience. That being said, it is a truly amazing place and such a weird part of the world. We decided to play tourist and stay in the park for a little while. Yes we knew it would eat away at some of our precious time, but it is well worth it. We have to take the opportunities to see what is around us and leave the deadlines aside. That is partially what this trip is about, to see the country, and why pass up the first national park? SO, we went to most areas of the park, to the Disneyland like section of Old Faithful, to some of the side hikes. We were able to have great timing one day, we biked a little out of our way to see Lone Star Geyser, which only goes off every 3 hours or so, and within 5 minutes of us being there it went off. This was our first big geyser we saw. It is amazing the amount of energy that just goes shooting up in the air! Next when we were walking around the Old Faithful area, we decided to walk around the boardwalk and sure enough as we made our way to Grand Geyser, which only shoots off every 4 hours or so, it started to shoot waaaaay up in the air, we stood there mesmerized by the awesome force of nature.  The next day we decided to have a no ride day, and hitched a ride up to Mammoth Hotsprings. There was even thunder and lightning up there! We had some wonderful driver hosts and everyone was super nice. The next day we still played a little bit of tourist as we made our way to the east side of the park. Along the way we came upon a pretty large traffic line up, so we meandered our way through it to stumble upon a herd of buffalo, not just three or four buffalo, it was more like 100-150. They scattered the hillside and grazed on grass on the side of the road. It was a very humbling experience to ride next to a wild beast that could gore you with a slight turn of the head. It was great to be able to be so close, but also very frightening.

On day 23 we made it from Bridge Bay Campground all the way to Cody, wy. It was a good 80 mile day, but after the first 15 or so miles of uphill (sometimes with an 8% grade) the rest was downhill with the wind at our back. It felt more like a 60 mile day. We both averaged in the mid teens, Dan at 16.4mph and Rose at 15.8mph.

We will be posting pictures, updating the map and mileage the next time we have internet! Hopefully it’s soon!

Soon to come: We will dominate the Big Horn mountains, and the East side of Wyoming.