3 days without internet... here is an update on our progress since Missoula

Sunday night we spent in Missoula Montana, leaving us about a 5 hour ride to the north entrance of Yellowstone, which lies almost at the boarder of Montana and Wyoming. At breakfast Monday I read of two fatal Grizzly attacks in the past week, one somewhere in Yellowstone, and one at a campground in Cooke City, where we will be staying after we leave the park on Wednesday.

As we rode along interstate 90, we passed through the Sapphire Mountains and had a view most of the morning of the Anaconda range to the South. About 50 miles prior to reaching the park we began to follow the Yellowstone River, and stopped for peanut butter along the banks. From an overlook we happened to see some whitewater rafters far below heading downstream.

The first point of interest after entering the park from the North is Mammoth Springs, which has a hotel, a couple of restaurants, several natural travertine terraces, and elk. Lots of elk, they roam freely, crossing streets and spending the day sunning on the lawns of this area which is set up much like an old small town. There are signs warning of the dangers of approaching the wildlife, but these are hard to avoid.

We rode about ½ way down to the middle of the park and checked in at Canyon Lodge and Cabins. Our accommodations consist of what they call a cabin, which appear to be little more than clusters plywood boxes on piers of concrete block, each cluster containing 4 ‘cabins’. We do have our own bathroom, 2 twin beds, and one wall that backs up to the cabin next door. We have stayed in other cabins, here and elsewhere, but so far, this one seems to be the most primitive of them all.

Despite the news of recent bear attacks, Debbie is still determined to come face to face with a grizzly or black bear, and on our first day we came within a few minutes of doing just that. We had ridden further south in the park looking for a place to eat, when at a gas stop another guy on a bike told us of a grizzly just 2 miles down the road and whipped out his digital camera as evidence. We followed his directions, but by the time we arrived the bear had apparently moved on.

The road in Yellowstone consists of two interconnected loops, one in the north and one in the south, and wildlife is everywhere. In just the first afternoon, we saw the elk at Mammoth, got pictures of bull elk, saw bighorn on distant cliffs and got up close and personal with bison (buffalo). I just read that we are not supposed to come within 100 yards of wolf or bear, and 30 yards of elk, coyote, deer, bighorn sheep and bison. The problem is that no one explains these rules to the animals and bison in particular tend to go where they want, when they want, often slowing or stopping traffic while they cross the roads or simply use them as their own personal walking trail. Twice on the way from dinner traffic was stopped for this reason. On the first encounter as we sat in traffic the animal walked slowly up the road towards us, choosing to cross over no more than 3 feet in front of us. We could only sit and wait for the cars ahead to move as he eyeballed us as he passed. A few minutes later, we came just as close as we had to squeeze past another traveling down the middle of our lane.

Once in our cabin for the night we found the walls are thin and our neighbors occupying the other 3 cabins in our pod, a family visiting from a place rice makes up a great portion of the diet, were unduly noisy… but it took but one heavy handed fist against the common wall and there was not another sound the rest of that night or the next.

Tuesday we headed south on highway 89 through Grand Teton National Park and into Jackson Wyoming for lunch. The area from the North entrance to Yellowstone down to Jackson may, to me, be as beautiful a place as you can find anywhere. Shortly after leaving the South Entrance we had views of the Teton Mountain Range for the entire hour ride to Jackson. We followed the road along the Snake River and shared the road with as many bikes as RVs… bikers tend to become more prolific as you get closer to Sturgis this time of year.

On the ride down we had crossed the Continental Divide, the divide that separates rivers that drain to the Pacific from those that drain to the Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic. On our return we were looking for the sign in order to get a picture. As we climbed, we both saw the sign suddenly come into view, and I slowed quickly, pulled off the road onto the gravel turnout and applied the brakes again. As we came to a stop the bike lost traction in the loose gravel, I lost my footing and we were suddenly standing next to a bike laying on it’s left side. 5 seconds later we had lifted it back up and were checking for damage…. mine was a scrape on my nose from my glasses, hers a bruise on her left foot.

Wednesday was our last in the park and we spent it riding to The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Old Faithful, several water falls and geysers before heading out via the Northeast entrance toward Cook City where we will stay tonight. Lodging choices here were slim, and so months ago I had made reservations at the Super 8 Motel here. I now recall that we met a couple from Montana on the cruise and they were familiar with Cook City and assured Debbie that this was the best of only a handful of motels in town…it didn’t matter because when we arrived we were happy to have a room as everything was sold out. We walked 1/8 of a mile to the other end of town for dinner as recommended by the man at the front desk. Our hosts are 2 of only less than 100 folks who live here year around… about 200 live here in the summer months… there is no cell service in town, our room does have Internet, but we were unable to make long distance calls so Debbie had to use the owners phone to call and give an update on our safety.

Tomorrow we will ride the Bear Tooth Highway, the highest road elevation in Wyoming (10,947 ft) and Montana (10,350 ft)