Yellowstone & The Tetons

Did you know that a cyclist has to pay $12 to get into Yellowstone (and probably the other national parks, too) while a car can pay $20 and squeeze as many people in it as possible for that price?? Frustrating. To think that a cyclist coming into a treasured area like Yellowstone with little impact (environmental, noise....) doesn't get a better deal is quite absurd in my opinion.

That aside, our experience riding through the park was pretty amazing! We didn't see any more bears so we count ourselves lucky for the close sighting we had before entering the park. What we did see were bison.....lots of 'em! And let me just say that riding a bicycle next to a bison is a very different experience than crusing by in the safety of a vehicle. We first saw many bison out in meadows just doing their thing....but then we began to see bison in the road. We weren't sure what to do at first (except for Geoff who seemed to enjoy riding directly past them, close enough to touch), so we'd wait for big trucks or RV's and then put them in between us and the animals so we could get around them without getting charged. At some points we didn't have the benefit of RV'ers coming by at the necessary moments so we just had to go for it. My heart was leaping out of my chest until we were well beyond the big creatures!

We arrived that evening at Old Faithful where we stayed in a "budget" cabin because there is no camping at Old Faithful, not even for cyclists who don't have the benefit of just driving the miles to the next open campground. Because we're in this area so early in the season, the campground where we were planning on staying was closed. We had no choice but to stay at Old Faithful because the next campground available to us was another 50 miles or so. We rounded out our evening eating dessert and watching the famous geyser do its thing. The others took video and pictures so those will hopefully be forthcoming!

Next day we rode about 62 miles to our campground. We had all sorts of weather but then the skies cleared as we rode closer to the Tetons. Absolutely amazing scenery! I think the views we had on this ride were, for me, the most awe-inspiring of our entire ride so far! It was chilly and really windy (enough so that we were getting blown into the traffic!) but the skies were blue! Though there have been many issues with weather here this time of year, seeing the mountains under a blanket of snow is quite a sight! I know without a doubt that I will venture back to this area perhaps in summertime and explore more thoroughly.

We reached our campground around 7pm, cooked our food, shivered, cleaned our dishers, shivered, stored our stuff in the bear box, shivered and went to bed with hot water bottles in our sleeping bags. We woke to snow! Not sure the exact temperature during the night but we heard it was supposed to go down to the mid 20's.

That was yesterday......we were headed for Togwotee Pass. As we made the gradual climb out of the valley the weather deteriorated. The roads were bare but there were snow flurries as we continued. We stopped at mile 27 at the last possible accomodation before the summit. After listening to weather reports and considering that it was already 3:30 with nine miles to go to reach the summit, we opted to stay in the lodge. We sat in the sauna, had dinner in the lodge saloon and relaxed in our room.

It snowed most of the night and today it looks like it should be January, not June. The heavy equipment is in the lodge parking lot, tires chained, bucket at the ready. The road to the summit has been plowed but it doesn't look good. It's 10am and we have some decisions to make. We need to go forward. We can't afford to stay at this lodge another night. However, we have at least 15 miles of really nasty conditions and that's a bit unnerving. Stay tuned......