Yellowstone and Old Fizzer

Thursday 28th

We got away from Cody good and early to enter the Eastern entrance, cut through the middle of the Park and spend the night at West Yellowstone,  just the other side of the Western Entrance. However, we immediately found ourselves arguing with Carmen (our GPS) over the direction we were heading, as she was insisting we drive in the opposite direction to the entrance to Yellowstone.  After some deliberation we found she was set to avoid toll roads and, as she considered the State Park fee to be a toll, she was going to take us on a 5 hour, 300 mile trip around the top of the park to get to West Yellowstone, where we would see nothing but freeways. A quick change to the settings and off we went for the 133 mile journey as planned.

Once you leave Cody (elevation 5000 feet) you travel the Buffalo Bill Highway through the Buffalo Bill State Park, past the Buffalo Bill reservoir formed by the Buffalo Bill Dam – there seems to be a fixation about this fellow around here.

Once in the Park, you climb to around 8000ft to cross the Sylvan Pass before descending to Yellowstone Lake. There is still snow on the surrounding mountains and at the summit of the pass, and a few kids were skidding around on it.

Coming down towards the lake we found a bunch of cars just stopped on the side of the road and teams of people out of their cars an milling about. We thought there had been an accident, but it turns out that someone had spotted a Grizzly Bear in the trees and they just stop dead to see it, regardless of the traffic. We later deduced that that was the best way to know there was wildlife about – watch for the stopped cars and pointy tourists. .Anyway, we got to see him too and was our first encounter with the Yellowstone fauna.

After the lake we continued around towards the “West Thumb” on the way to the “Old Faithful” geyser and happened upon our second encounter – this time with Bison (but not to be the last)

We stopped to buy some lunch at the General store by the lake and found this guy just wandering around among the tourists and businesses. In the store, we also got a taste of just how many people we were going to encounter in the park.

A couple of miles further on, we passed a small herd of female Elk grazing in a paddock and then just a couple of miles further, we came to another “tourist jam” looking at a large male in the forest by the roadside.

From there it was up and over the Continental divide (8391 feet) and on to “Old Faithful”, arriving just as it finished playing. However, it took us another 15 minutes of driving around looking for a car park and avoiding the squillions of tourists who were leaving after the event. We finally found a park, had some lunch and figured by the time we got to the benches by the geyser, it would be about 45 minutes from the last eruption and ready to go again. We got a good spot and sat and waited….and waited….and waited…in the hot sun. Finally, after 50 minutes, “Old Faithful” sputtered into life and promptly stopped. Another 15 minutes and a couple more sputterings, and it finally burst into life. I have seen Pohutu erupt in Rotorua several times and was expecting something far more spectacular – in fact it was considerable disappointment. Unlike Pohutu, with its thumping and whooshing, O.F just makes a noise like a squirting fire hose (and looks a bit like one too). It didn’t even go as high as I have seen Pohutu go.

We both walked away feeling like we had been robbed – but the eighty or so bajillion tourists around seemed satisfied. However as we were leaving the carpark, we stopped at a pedestrian crossing for some of the horde, and a huge Bison stepped out from behind a bus and casually strolled by in front of us. We were so shocked we didn’t have time to get a pic of him, but seconds later, another one did the same and Carolyn got video of him walking right in front of us as bold as brass (it's 28MB, so too big to load onto the post)

By now we were about Yellowstoned out, so we hit the road for our overnight stay at West Yellowstone, which is in Montana, and just outside the Western entrance to the park. Since it was only 3.30pm and the motel’s check-in time was 4pm, we decided to drive to Idaho, since we had never been there and it was only 9 miles away. So we did and stopped at Howard Springs Wayside Area in the Targhee National Forest, Idaho, turned round and went back to check in to our motel. So in less than an hour, we had been in  3 different states, and one of them twice!

West Yellowstone is a small resort town and we went downtown to get some groceries. It took us 10 minutes to get a park at the supermarket and every bar and restaurant had queues waiting to get in.

Up until now, we have had incredibly good weather – if anything it has been too hot. However, the forecast was that this was about to change and tomorrow the temperature in Yellowstone was expected to plummet into the single digits (in degrees C) with thunderstorms - and this for the day that we planned to drive the scenic Beartooth Highway, where the temperature was forecast to be -1 at midday.

Friday 29^th

At 7am the sky was overcast and black. And, as forecast, it 7.30 it started to hail, and then heavy rain which eased enough for us to pack up and leave. It rained all the way to Mammoth Springs and the temperature was 5C, about 20 below what it was yesterday. We also encountered about 10 miles of roadworks, with a half hour delay to even cross them, b ut there were still plenty of tourists when we reached the thermal area – all about with their brollies and raincoats. We weren’t much in the mood for picture taking, sorry

At this point we had to decide whether to go straight out of the park and go to Billings, or take the risk of going to the Northeast entrance and over the Beartooth pass and see little, if the rain persisted. In the end we opted for the riskier option, since the pass was something we had really looked forward to. About 10 miles from the entrance to the park, the rain stopped and  we came across these 2 grazing by the side of the road, with the usual attendance of tourists.

We don’t know yet what they are as they don’t show on any of the lists of animals in Yellowstone, but they appear to be some kind of deer or antelope. There were also herds and herds of Bison across the river flats, but we had plenty of pix of them up close so we didn’t bother taking more.

As we exited the park and began to climb towards Beartooth, the rain stopped completely and the clouds cleared and we began to get to see the surrounding scenery. Carolyn had bought a jacket at Mammoth Springs and had decided to wear it afterwards.

When we had a pit stop at Beartooth Lake, we were at 9000 feet and there was plenty of snow on the ground

And by the time we reached the top of the pass at 10950 feet, there were even people skiing up there. However, the weather from Yellowstone was quickly heading our way and just after we took the pix below, it began to snow – so we thought we had better skedaddle. (BTW take a close look at the guy in the middle of the  group in the last pic. He was actually firing a pistol at something in the valley below while the others looked on with binoculars – another good reason to skedaddle!)

The road winds down the side of the mountains for 22 miles and drops from 10000 ft to around 5500 at the bottomof the valley, but only goes a couple of miles horizontally. It was raining and the road was winding and quite busy – so, sorry, no pics.

We continued our descent into Billings , Montana and, for the first time in  over a week were below “mile high” status at a mere 3160 ft.

On the subject of elevations, we have been amazed how many cyclists we have seen on this part of the trip. From Casper to Cody, all through Yellowstone, and even over the Beartooth pass. Apart from the steep grades, you get breathless enough just walking around, let alone riding a bike. You don't have to be crazy to do it, but it probably helps!

Tomorrow is a long haul, so this is enough for now