Yellowstone and the mad mad rush to get there

June 21, 2023

It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad world

quote of the day:

“Life is an adventure, and it’s more fun to take the scenic route!” – Unknown

I left the town of West Yellowstone this morning around 9 o’clock. When I woke up the temperature was 39°. An hour later it was 37°. I waited until nine as the weatherman said it would warm up to 45 by then. It was 40.

My route today took me east through the upper portion of Yellowstone national park. I thought from my map research that I had about seven or 8 miles to go before I would reach the gate to the park but I was wrong. The toll booth is just outside of West Yellowstone town. I expected a line of cars waiting to get into the park, but I had no idea the line would start in town and cover several city blocks. It was a total traffic jam. Even the red lights were ineffective as no one could go anywhere. Of course I was on the bike, so I went right to the head of the line. My wife had purchased a lifetime, national parks pass for me Last year. So when I got to the gate, I basically rolled right through. I was still under the impression that the main gate was separate from the tollbooth. I have been told that the road had no shoulder. I was, however, riding on the shoulder, so I figured I was on some sort of county road that led to the main park entrance. I was wrong again. There was no main park entrance on this end of the park. The shoulder continued until I reached the canyon Campground where I’m staying tonight. Quite an unexpected treat since traffic is heavy and there are lots of huge RVs driven by old men who probably can’t see well and have enlarged prostates and are anxious to get someplace they can pull over since they’ve had to pee for the past half hour. Busy place.

I don’t know what’s going to happen with our popular national parks as they are incredibly crowded. I would imagine overtime one would have to reserve a day to visit and the numbers entering the parks would have to be controlled on a daily basis. It’s just mad to see so many people on the roads through such a beautiful tranquil park.

I’ve never been to Yellowstone before, and I am traveling west to east on the northernmost road, not north and south on the more popular road where old faithful lies. So I’m not going to see all the most popular tourist attractions. However what I have seen today is absolutely incredible . I had to quite stopping at every overlook to take pictures or I would never have gotten through the park. Unfortunately, there is no cell service today and probably none tomorrow so I’ll have to post pictures later. At one point I stopped to take pictures of a waterfall and noticed that cars were stopping along the road. I thought this may be a Yellowstone traffic jam due to bison on the road so I hopped on my bike quickly to pedal to the front of the line and see if I could get a good view of the bison. I peddled for over 3 1/2 miles before reaching the lead car only to find out that this was not a buffalo blockade but road construction. I talked to some of the people in the cars and they had been waiting for an hour and a half to two hours. I figured the construction must be extensive but when I got to the area they were paving three or four sections that were only about 40 feet long each. Ignoring the blockade, I rode past the flag man and past the construction to have the entire road to myself, at least until they let some more cars go through behind me.

At one point, there’s an option to take a side road, which leads you to some unusual rock formations. I believe it was called the Virginia cascade area. Anyway, the rock formations look like sandstone. They were obelisk in form with rounded surfaces. Sort of like taking wet sand at the beach and making a Sandcastle. The road was single lane and one way in my direction. To the left was a sheer cliff going upwards several hundred feet. To the right was a sheer cliff going straight down several hundred feet to the river below. I’m not sure how many times the road has been washed out but it was interesting to see what was actually holding it up. In many places, there was a framework of telephone poles, somehow attached to the side of the cliff in a sort of honeycomb fashion. This was then filled with rock and dirt to support the road above. And it was a bit scary to ride upon.

While I have not seen any herd of bison I have seen a few. Three were out in a field and at first I thought they were huge boulders which are all over the place here. I saw a lone bison about 50 feet off the road in a small clearing in the woods. He was just laying there watching the cars go by.

On this NE corner of the park there are also a number of small Hot Springs. It’s amazing to see the sulfurous hot waters just spring from the earth like magic. I can’t imagine the forces at work just below my feet. Hard to imagine but this whole area is one gigantic volcano. There are sign’s everywhere warning about the heat beneath the surface. How far til you hit molten magma?

There’s no way I can describe the beauty of this place. I hope to get some photos loaded in the next couple of days. Until then pray for warmer weather. It’s supposed to be in the upper 20s low 30s again tomorrow morning. I’m anxious just to get out of these mountains and get to the flat prairie east of Cody.

Today's ride: 40 miles (64 km)
Total: 909 miles (1,463 km)

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