Jellystone

Day 9 West Yellowstone, Montana
Distance Traveled: 290.7
Cumulative Distance: 3009
Maximum Speed: 111 kph
Moving Average:59 kph
Temperature Range: 14.4 - 22.2 degrees C

We ended up having our first campfire of the trip last night. A real treat, especially as this is now two trips in a row that I have been dragging this axe along with us. Nan's new friend sold us two packets of wood, one dry, one wet. Nan spent half the evening splitting the wet wood down to slivers so that it would burn but she did a good job and in the end, most of the wood burned completely down before we doused the coals.

On the road in the morning, actually, ahead of our usual departure time, our first stop (our choice) was Jackson, Wyoming where we had over priced coffee and over priced baked goods but tasty nonetheless. The U.S. Federal Reserve was meeting here today and I did present myself however, they didn't care for the smell of campfire.

Angling is extremely popular; we have seen people fly fishing or casting just about every day of the trip.

The Grand Tetons

The famous Jackson Hole ski resort. 

We had just happened to drive by a little place with two bistro tables out front so we thought it would have potential so driving around the back looking for a place to park, we discovered that it was a totally happening place: a big and outrageous coffee shop, akin to Oso Negro in Nelson, though not quite as funky. Nan discovered "banana Nutella bread" and she resolved that she would figure out how to bake it.

Our little section of gravel road riding north through Teton. Small price to pay to avoid a lot of traffic.

We knew from the onset that Yellowstone was going to be a challenging target. It is hugely popular and while the infrastructure is first rate, it is in limited supply. Traffic is gnarly as the roads are narrow and often with no shoulders; invariably, tourists are going really slowly or stopped on the road to check out the scenery or the occasional animal. While in the park, we saw two buffalo and one elk; this was good for about one hour of stop and go traffic. Actually, the second buffalo was largely unnoticed by the traffic, so TWO animals were good for an hour of stop and go traffic. Also, there was 17 km of road construction with one way traffic, so we waited about 20 minutes for our turn and lastly, we waited about 20 minutes for entrance into Yellowstone Park. For what would have been our shortest distance day of the trip, it was incredibly long as we got to West Yellowstone after about seven hours.

Nonetheless, I was determined that Nan get to see it. Both Yellowstone and Teton are great destinations to see at least once; I had been through here with my buddy Tom six years ago on the Utah on Motorcycles trip but then, Nan had flown home before we had finished, so had missed out on this part. It is a worthwhile experience though, with no disrespect to the Americans, not nearly as interesting as our own national parks. Of course they would not like to hear that but the mountains are smaller, fewer animals and the roads, as I said above, are narrow with no shoulder. You can't expect to put people in a location like that and expect them not to stop and look and it can make for dangerous situations. Also, every place that there was a trail head, there would be an overflowing parking lot with hundreds of cars, to the point where they would be spilling out onto the road and parked along the edge. No shoulders, don't forget. Part of the issue might be increased traffic because of the eclipse, but either way, it was busy. I had done my best to try to steer us around some of the traffic by choosing the "smaller" of the two roads north through Teton to Yellowstone but that also meant that a small section of the road was on gravel. Fortunately, it had been wet down at some point so not dusty at all.

Crowd waiting for Old Faithful

Of course, no visit to Jellystone would be complete without a visit to Old Faithful. It is a popular destination inside the park so there were thousands of people around. I was glad we were not trying to park a car but with a motorcycle, we were able to park up close. I had looked online when we were in Jackson having coffee to see the predicted schedule of eruptions but the Yellowstone website makes a point of saying that it is not possible to predict the timing of the geysers, that they can erupt anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours apart. Not that I was really expecting to time our arrival, especially with all the stop and go traffic, but I thought that if I knew roughly when it might go, we could "make an entrance". No worries, it was a long shot.

As it happened, as we were pulling into the parking lot, we could see the geyser spouting over the buildings ahead of us. We were about five minutes late to get in, park the bike and get positioning. However, we were undeterred and parked, went into the information centre, and saw that the next eruption was estimated to be at 4:07 p.m., a little over an hour away. Considering I had just read on the website that the timing was impossible to predict, I thought that was an amazing attempt at precision to forecast down to the minute.

I'll have to say that the hot pools are a great attraction; for those willing to get off their motorcycles, there is great exploring.

Wandering around the information centre killing time, I learned that the water in the geyser is seeped precipitation, rather than from aquafirs. Rain and snow melt seep into the ground and "percolate" through the rock as deep as four kilometres where it gets heated by, well, you know, dirt. And the water we see shooting out isn't necessarily from last winter's snow pack, it might be ten years old or thousands of years old. Also, Old Faithful isn't the biggest geyser in Yellowstone nor is it the most predictable however, it is the most predictable large geyser. The biggest geyser erupts two to three times a day, so doesn't have quite the following as Old Faithful. The locals call it "Somewhat Faithful". I have to admit, the Yellowstone geysers beat our ink pots.

We had rain, near the end of our day, the first really for our trip. Even though it started not long after we left the Old Faithful area, with 50 km to our destination, it was easily over an hour because of the one elk. We didn't get soaked, just my arms got wet but there was such a short distance remaining, we couldn't be bothered with our rain "onesies", as Nan calls our coverall-styled rain suits. The sky had looked grip off and on at various points in the day and we knew sooner or later, we would have to face our payment for all the good fortune we had experienced so far. With a motel awaiting us in West Yellowstone, we could afford to roll the dice and risk a soaking.

Even the good ol' boys need to see some new territory. Check out that plate.

This forest is natural re-growth from the fire several years ago. 

We ended up in a cute little motel called Moose Creek. I say it's "cute" is because it is; very quaint with paper-thin wood paneling, pine furniture, and old fashioned fixtures in the bathroom. For the record, I would say they are original. The place has been around for quite a few decades I would say but it is clean and for this night, out of the rain.

It is notable in that it is the only place I could find that would take a reservation for one night; all the other places that looked decent had a minimum two night stay. Maybe there is merit to a two night stay in West Yellowstone, but that is not our M.O. this trip. Our real reason for staying here was because I was worried about whether we could find a camping spot in Jellystone and hotels in the park are extremely expensive. It turns out that concern was warranted because as we crossed into Yellowstone from Teton, signs at the park gate indicated that all the campgrounds in Yellowstone were full. This was at 1:45 p.m.

We went for dinner to a very nice restaurant. This is something we haven't enjoyed yet on the trip because the locations weren't working out. Ontario didn't seem to have anything but Interstate fair and when we are camping, not inclined to go for dinner. However, with our proximity to Yellowstone, we figured we could find something better than Chicken Fried Chicken at Country Kitchen.

We found MC Lounge, which was not a bar but a restaurant, though they did have a bar where people could sit and eat. There was an extensive wine list as well as a long list of craft beer, both of which had some appeal to us this evening but we were sensible and chose just wine and not both. We split buffalo nachos and then each had a nice piece of tenderloin, accompanied by a bottle of Justin Cabernet from Paso Robles, in honour of our friends who live in Atescadero, California, near by. It was a night out on the mid-point of the trip, and a real treat.

Pictures in the morning.