The Yellowstone

I started the Sunday morning in Idaho Falls... With the time zone difference from Tennessee I seem to wake up early and caught a good pic of the sun rise from my hotel window... The hotel was right next to the Snake River which makes me want to go fishing... I wanted to get to Yellowstone. Prior to this day I had only 7 states left that I hadn't been to. After my ride that will be down to 4... I started in Idaho, then went to Montana, where the West Yellowstone Visitor Center is, and then into Wyoming for Yellowstone.

On the ride to the West Entrance Visitor Center I passed this place called Bear World, which had just added a billboard saying they have 45 black and grizzly bears... The funny part was right next to that billboard was another temporary billboard sign saying "We Are Hiring!!!"  I thought "I don't think so... The guy you are replacing probably got ATE!!!"   It made me laugh...

I got to the Visitor Center and wanted to buy an entrance pass and get some road condition information... It was a cool place with a bunch of Park Rangers and videos on the wall of people who did not pay attention to the "Don't get close to the Wildlife" advise.. They paid the price... A really neat thing was since I am a senior citizen I could get an annual pass to all National Parks for $20... What a deal!!!

Driving through the park was all I thought it was going to be... I can't describe the awesome views and vistas... There were lots of Buffalos that were a nice distance from the road and many geysers all over the place...

At the Biscuit Bend Geyser there was a really big Buffalo standing right next to the road eating grass and paying no attention to anyone.... The cars lined up in front of me to stop and take pictures... When it was my turn to be close to him I felt pretty exposed sitting there on a bike... I mean, he was 10-12 feet away and looked as big as a truck.... (Notice there is no picture of him here.....)

Old Faithful was all it was supposed to be... There wasn't too many people there but enough. I notice perhaps half of the people looked to be from another country... I walked to the Geyser and got there maybe 5 minutes before it went off... The video below was an easy catch..

After Old Faithful I had about 100 mile drive to the Cabin I had reserved in Wapati, WY... I figured it was a nice easy drive but not so much (Still a bunch of fun)...  I went over the Continental Divide (8100 feet) so I guess was officially on the East side of the Rockies.... When I got to the East Entrance Road there was significant road work going on and I drove on dirt and gravel for several miles... I also notice this small little sign saying "Ice on Road Ahead, may need chains)... I pulled over next to one of the construction workers and ask her if I could get through... She was so nice and said the road was fine since it was the afternoon... She warned me to be careful and watch for run off... I was hoping I would stay at a lower elevation but the road went over a mountain range that was up to about 12,000 feet I think... There was about a foot of snow but none on the road... It was on some of the shoulders which was too close for my liking. I wanted to stop and take a picture but I was right behind a caravan of cars and I wanted to stay with them... It was a very tense 20 miles of driving... Once I finally got through that I thought again I was home free, BUT there was a big warning sign that an active wildfire was ahead... (I said COME-ON!!!) It turned out that the wildfire had burned out so all was good and it was a beautiful drive to my cabin...  The cabin is in the middle of nowhere Wyoming and was built in 1910... I really like this place and will tell y'all more about it tomorrow....