Colorado Cruiser: 2013 Summer Ride - Day 7

My alarm went off at 4:30am, but I was too tired to get up right then, so I hit snooze, then again, and again. By 5:15 I was feeling a bit more alive, so I got up and dressed as quietly as I could.

The phone weather app told me it was 55 degrees outside. In the winter, I usually won't ride if it's below 50 unless I put on full heated gear, so I figured I could handle 55 degrees for a while and it would very quickly warm up.

I got on the bike and headed out. Then I stopped again to put gas in the bike. NOW I'm ready to ride. I stopped to get a picture by the big stone arch at the entrance to the park but it's probably too dark to get any details. The park entrance was closed and had a sign reading "Pay on your way out". So I zipped on by. Well, when I zipped, I mean, I rode about 25 miles an hour on by. It's early in the morning which means animals are moving and I want to be able to stop if something crosses the road in front of me.

I rode the 5 miles into Mammoth Hotsprings, then up to the 1st terrace above the springs. There was a scenic drive going back in and around the various springs. I rode to each parking area and walked around the boardwalks and read the various signs. I tried taking some pictures but it was still too dark to see anything. Eventually the sun began to peak over the mountains. At 7:30 I started back towards the hotel where John and Angela were up and having breakfast. I grabbed a couple of eggo waffles and toast, then headed up to the room to wake up Nan and Kyle.

We started loading the car and the bikes. While we were loading, it hit me that today is the last day of the group ride. Angela and I walked across the street to a grocery store and bought sandwich fixings for lunch.

Once we were loaded up, we rode to the gas station then on to the Entry way arch for a group photo.

Once in the park, we rode into Mammoth and stopped at the visitor's center. From there I led the group to the side road I'd taken that morning. We parked and looked over the old hot springs that gave the area its name. Next we stopped at Orange mound to take a few pictures.

The temperatures were in the high 60s and felt great. There was scattered clouds that looked like they could threaten rain but never did. The 24 miles to Norris seemed to fly by way too fast even though we were going about 40mph. When we reached the Norris guyser basin we turned into the parking lot and found spots to park.

We went down into the basin and split up to walk the various paths through the guysers. We saw signs all over warning that the ground in the area was unstable and could be a thin shell covering hot water, but we also saw allot of footprints from people walking out from the paths. There are some dumb people in these parks.

We spent an hour looking around then got back on the bikes and headed East towards Canyon Village. Someone came over the CB to say "I'm ready for lunch" and within a mile, Nan turned the car into a picnic area. It was a beautiful wooded area with picnic tables spread around. We grabbed the best table and unloaded the food. We had ciabatta rolls, ham, roast beef, turkey, lettuce, pickles, carrots, and chips. It was a perfect lunch.

We sat in the picnic spot for almost an hour laughing and joking together. As much as we wanted to stretch this day out, eventually we had to load up and move down the road.

We passed through allot of areas that were burned in the forest fire. Most have recovered so much that you can't tell it was burned, but a few were still barren. We visited the park with our children a year or two after the fire when there was still allot of controversy over the policy to let the fire burn and many people were still proclaiming that Yellowstone would never be the same again. 17 years later and the park is as beautiful and diverse as it ever was.

We stopped at the lower falls overlook but opted not to walk down to the falls. We've already walked a bit in motorcycle boots and didn't feel like doing any more today. We walked along the rim looking at the 2 different water falls and taking a few pictures.

From the falls we headed South along the Yellowstone River. It was still very cool and overcast as we rode. It felt great on the bike. We came up to a series of sulfurous vents and pulled into the parking lot. We walked over to the Dragon's Tongue fumarole. There was an elevated platform you can climb that puts you right in the steam from the vent. It was a very warm and sulphur smelling steam cloud. The constant rumble from the cave was pretty impressive. Eric said the black dragon fumarole was even more impressive, but again, that whole walking in boots things prevented us from going.

Back on the road heading South we came into a small valley filled with Bison. There were a few hundred spread out on both sides of the road. Ahead of us was a line of cars coming the other way. They were being blocked by a Bison in the road, but as we got closer, it turned out to be 2 bison. A Mother and her baby, and the baby was nursing. The two didn't seem to be bothered by the cars backed up behind them. The first few cars knew what was going on, but the farther along we rode, the madder the drivers became until a car with people hanging out the windows yelling to get moving. They didn't know the road was actually blocked and thought it was just people gawking.

Eventually we came to the Fishing Bridge. Nan turned out that way on accident and we all followed (we've learned not to get separated). We drove across the bridge then turned around to come back and turn South. John said over the CB that he wanted pictures by the lake, so nan found a big enough pullout for all of us. I hopped off the bike and ran down by the lake to take a picture back towards all of the bikes. I also spotted a large group of ducks that seemed to be swimming in formation so I snapped a picture.

When I got back to the motorcycle I noticed that one of my idiot lights had come on. The FI light was staying lit after starting the bike. I sat for a couple minutes listening for anything amiss in the motor. Everything seemed fine so I eventually followed everyone else headed toward Old Faithful. I kept listening to the bike and watching the temperature guage to see if something else goes wrong but nothing did.

We parked in the Old Faithful parking lot and walked over to the store to get ice cream. It looks like we just missed the eruption so we've got nearly an hour before it erupts again. I got into line for ice cream and the rest of the group were 10 people behind. So when I got up to order, I waved Nan and Kyle up to join me. The lady took our order and money, then passed us off to another guy who also took our order. I guess we could have gotten anything we wanted from him because they didn't communicate at all.

With ice cream in hand we walked over to Old Faithful. There is a big raised walkway ringing the geyser with benches for watching, but the benches were out in the sun and it was getting warm. We decided to stand back under the trees and sit on some of the fallen logs. It was nearly 40 minutes before the eruption started, so by the time it was erupting we only watched for a couple minutes, then headed for the bikes with Old Faithful still spewing behind us.

We gassed up the bikes here at Old Faithful, then started down the road towards Jackson. There was 100 miles to go and it was after 5:00 so we skipped most of the pullouts. But we did stop at the Grand Teton sign for another picture (and a bathroom break).

Back on the road we twisted the throttle and burned down the road toward Jackson. We were going so quick I only managed to get a couple of pictures of the Grand Tetons.

When we rolled into Jackson we hit a huge line of cars. It wasn't an accident, it was just poorly designed traffic lights. We spent almost 20 minutes trying to get through town to our hotel which was out in a residential area. These were the smallest rooms we've stayed in. A single queen size bed that you can barely move around and a bathroom that looks like an addon. We offloaded a few of our bags then headed back into town to get dinner. We've had so much BBQ this trip that we opted not to do that again. Instead we went to a mexican food restaurant named Happy Pigs.

It took 30 minutes to get in, but once we were in, we had some of the best service we've had all trip. Water constantly full, chips and salsa refilled. Order taken and food delivered timely. And to top it off, the food was very good. It was a great meal to have for our last night together.

By the time we got back to the hotel it was 9:30 and time to go to sleep. I was too tired to write this report.

Ready for my early ride