My daughter sent a message at 4:30 in the morning telling me they were just leaving Colorado Springs to meet us in Yellowstone. I woke up enough to read the message, then happily went back to sleep
When I woke up again it was 6:30 and I felt rested and ready to go but Beckham was still sound asleep. He really didn't want to wake up. So I fiddled on the computer for a while trying to figure out what we were going to do for the day.
I often do my motorcycle trips this way. Get to one spot, then figure out where and how to get to the next spot depending on the weather and how I'm feeling. I also like to give myself the chance to discover new points of interest along the way.
The big decision was whether to ride hard and try to get to Yellowstone as fast as possible, or take the time to look for fun places to stop and visit. After a bit of route planning, I discovered that we could swing by Martin's Cove with only a minor change to our route, so that became the plan.
I opened the windows and woke Beckham up at 8:00 so we could get ready to go. I started packing my things up and when I turned back around, Beckham was fully dressed in his riding gear, including his helmet. I didn't want to laugh at him or make him feel bad because he looked so eager to get back on the bike. I reminded him we still need to eat breakfast so he had to take helmet, gloves, and jacket back off.
After breakfast we loaded our gear on the bike and got dressed for real. Beckham is really proud of the fact that he can buckle his helmet on all by himself now, even with his gloves on.
We gassed up on the way out of town, then followed the GPS to highway 220 out of Casper.
It was a nice cool morning with temps in the mid 60s. I was concerned that Beckham might be chilly because he gets more wind than I do, but he kept insisting that he felt fine.
We stopped at a couple of scenic overlooks along the road for pictures. We passed Independence Rock historical site, and I should have stopped, but I'd received a message from Koren that they were already near the Wyoming border, so I thought we needed to keep going. Later I learned that "Independence Rock" was given it's name because anyone travelling the trial needed to be at the rock by July 4th, or they'd run the risk of hitting snow storms before clearing the Rocky Mountains.
Not far past Independence Rock we arrived at the entrance to the Martin's Cove visitor's center.
If you're not Mormon, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. During the mid 1800s, many Mormons were leaving Europe due to persecution and a call from Brigham Young to come to Utah. Many of these church members were very poor and couldn't afford to outfit a full horse and wagon for the journey, so the church encouraged them to build inexpensive carts that they could load their belongings to pull across the plains.
In 1856 a company of handcarts left late in the season and were caught out on the plains during an early blizzard. A relief company of wagons was sent out an met the handcarts, but the blizzard was still raging and the wind was killing people and animals. The leader of the company led the people off the trail and up into the hills where a depression in the hills provided a barrier to protect them from the wind.
We took pictures at the front entrance, then rode into the visitor's center and took the tour. I would have liked to hike over to cove, or better yet, pulled a handcart over but we were out of time and had to get going.
At 1:30 we were near the town of Lander. We needed to eat lunch, so I asked Beckham "What do you want to eat?". But we were listening to an audio book on my phone and he couldn't hear me. As we came around the corner I saw a McDonald's ahead, so I pushed the button that stops the audio book to make it easier to talk. The music stopped and I asked "Do you want to eat at McDonalds?" and a female voice answered me and said "Not for me thanks".
I freaked out! Was my CB transmitting or something? Who the heck was hearing my private intercom chat with Beckham and how were they talking to me?
Then the same voice said "Dad? What's going on?". I finally recognized the voice as my daughter Koren, Beckham's Mother. What had happened was that she'd just dialed my phone and I'd pushed the button to answer the phone before it even rang. So I was on the phone with her when I'd asked my questions.
I asked Koren where they were but she didn't know. I told her we were just entering Lander and were going to find something to eat. I told her we'd arrive in Yellowstone at about 6:00 because we weren't going to rush. She said the GPS said they'd arrive at 5:00 and were about to stop themselves since they were just approaching a town as well.
Then she said "Wait, did you say you were in Lander?" and I said "Yes". She said "We're just entering Lander".
It turns out they were about 1 mile behind us and probably would have caught us shortly anyway.
I pulled over to let them catch up with us, then followed them through town as we looked for someplace to eat. We found a pizza place that looked pretty good. It violated one of my basic rules because the parking lot was empty, but we figured we'd give it a try.
It turned out to be a great choice. We got cheesey bread sticks and 2 big pizzas. There was nothing left of either one when we got done.
Beckham and I got on the road faster than they did, but I knew they'd pass us pretty quick. I'd told Rex to pass and keep going because I was riding slow and taking it easy with Beckham on the bike.
As we passed through the town of Dubois I saw a huge Jackalope out in front of a gas station. Normally I'd have just passed by, but I decided to flip around and go check it out. I got a picture of Beckham beside the giant Bunny, then noticed a sign saying that the big jackalope was inside. So we went in, and sure enough, there was an even bigger one inside with a saddle on it and a sign saying it was ok to ride and take pictures.
Back on the bike we pushed on toward our goal. We crossed a pass in the mountains and as we came down, we could see the Tetons in the distance. It was the beginning of the national parks.
I pulled up to the gate house and told the guy I was going to Yellowstone. He said I still had to pay for the Tetons as well, so I handed over 40 dollars for a week long motorcycle dual pass. That was a bit steeper than I'd expected.
The speed limits max at 45 through the parks, and there is so much traffic that you're limited to that speed or less. So the last 80 miles took us nearly 2 hours to get into Yellowstone and up to the Madison Campground.
We didn't know where our group was, so I started riding up and down the loops looking for anyone I might recognize. I told Beckham to look as well because they're his relatives, not mine.
We finally found them on the 2nd to last loop back in the "Tents Only" camping area. They had 5 spots all grouped together. Koren and Rex were already well into unpacking. Beckham and I parked, then joined in setting up camp.
Koren was doing "Pintrest Camping", meaning she'd found a bunch of useful tips to make a camping trip better on pintrest. For example, once their tent was up, she laid down some interlocking play mats to give their tent a nice spongy floor rather than having to discover that pinecone or sharp rock in bare feet. It was pretty cool.
I setup my small tent in the official camp spot that was about 10x10 with thumb size rocks. It gave me a fairly smooth surface and great drainage.
Once things were unpacked and camp was setup we gathered around the kitchen for dinner. We were having deep dish dutch oven pizza. At about this same time the rain began to fall. We huddled under the 3 popup awnings to eat but the rain didn't last long, only 20 minutes.
I think there were 15 adults (including me) and about 18 kids. It was a good size group and Koren and Rex's little boy, Gideon Fox, was the youngest. So he got passed around from cousin to cousin like a little prize package.
At 9:30 we went to a campground presentation by 2 of the people that work on the Hubble Telescope. They talked about the discoveries the Hubble has made and how many of the pictures were taken and colored. They also talked about the future of space astronomy.
There were 3 big telescopes setup in an open field, but half way through the presentation the clouds began to pour into the valley and lightning started to strike around us. They cancelled the star viewing and everyone headed back to their campsites.
It was dark by the time we got back to camp, but a nice big fire was burning. We sat around the fire and joked while parents started getting kids in bed. I packed it in at about 10:30.
I'll save the night's events for the next blog.
Beckham ready to roll, except we need to eat breakfast
Pretty little lake, scenic overlook
Beckham at the overlook
Construction traffic, this was our view for 40 minutes
Devil's Gate on the pioneer trail
Martin's Cove
Beckham pulling a hand cart
This is what most of central Wyoming looks like
Tony's Pizza in Lander
More wide open Wyoming
Beckham by a Jackalope
Beckham ON a Jackalope
Beautiful mounts, finally
Grand Teton
Yellowstone
Beckham, nearly done riding but ready for more
Camp kitchen, making pizza
Beckham's cool new walking stick
Rex and Sydnee setting up their tent
More tent setup
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