June 26, 2022
Day 36 - Hatchett USFS Campground, Wyoming to Grant Village Campground, Wyoming
Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks
Another tough one in the books. I sleep poorly in a tent especially when I’m freezing. It was in the 30s when we woke up.
After breakfast in the resort next door we lit out for Grand Teton National Park. It was mostly downhill and the views defy description.
We stopped often to gawk. Throughout the day we stopped to chat with eastbound riders from both the TransAm and the Great Divide mountain bike routes. We gave up after a while because there were so many of them.
We rode along Jackson Lake for many miles. It’s water level was obviously low.
When we entered Rockefeller Wilderness the trees were mostly dead. Wildfires? Blight?
There was a 6% climb that killed my legs.
After a week of anxiety about Yellowstone, we rode in without any difficulty. In fact, there wasn't even a line at the entry gate.
Once inside Yellowstone we had to ride over the Continental Divide again. I was on fumes. To my right was the Lewis River. It carved a spectacular canyon into the landscape. It gave me vertigo to look way down there. It didn’t help that there were no guardrails in many places.
Traffic was strangely light. It looks like many visitors cancelled their plans to visit the park after the floods wiped out the roads to our north.
It was a relief to see the sign for Grant Village. The check in for the campground was chaotic. The clerks had no idea what they were doing. We ended up with a decent campsite after much agro.
We all had hot showers which felt divine for me since I hadn’t had a shower in three days.
After our bathing, we rode to the restaurant. Reservations are normally needed but there were so many cancellations that we were seated immediately. Mark and Corey had bison burgers. I had spinach ravioli which was amazingly good.
At the Grant Village general store, I bought a fleece throw to supplement all the clothes I could wear in my tent. Fingers crossed that, unlike last night, I don’t have to visit the toilet at 3 a. m.
We had planned to ride 30 miles to Madison inside the park but it is closed as are most other facilities. Tomorrow we’ll ride 50 miles to West Yellowstone and do as much sight seeing as the day allows.
Today's ride: 60 miles (97 km)
Total: 1,942 miles (3,125 km)
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