From A(lpine) to B(ozeman)

It rained overnight but this morning the sky was cloudless and by 8:00 a.m. the temperature was already in the high 60s and by the time we left Alpine, at 8:30, it was already 71F.  Almost immediately after turning north the Route  began to climb, gaining altitude from the 5600 feet of  Alpine as it paralleled the Snake River.  From the relatively flat lands to the south the road snaked its way through the mountains.  Where yesterday we had only scrub brush at the beginning of the day, changing to periodic stands of various species of trees, now the hillsides were covered with evergreens while cottonwoods crowded the river.

 

We arrived in Jackson Hole before 10:00 a.m. and stopped at the main park in town.  This park is unique in that each corner has an entrance which  is made of interlocking elk antlers.  The antlers aren't from hunters.  Instead they are the antlers that are shed by the bull elk after the mating season is over.  The Boy Scouts go out and collect them and the antlers are then auctioned off with the proceeds going toward the local elk winter feeding program.

 

Jim at the Antler Arch, Jackson, WY

John at the Antler Arch, Jackson, WY

 

The streets have sculptures of various local animals as well and one studio has examples of its work displayed outside in the parking lot.  We walked around downtown then visited Cowboy Coffee, a local coffee shop for a cup of their dark roast and a cinnamon roll.  Both were excellent.  In the shop we met three couples from East Anglia, southeast of London.  They had rented H-Ds at Black Hills H-D in Rapid City, SD, and had been riding for six days.  They were planning to make it to Thermopolis, WY, and eventually back to Rapid City on July 4th.  They would then return to England.  Except for one day near the Devil's Tower when it rained and they had to wear their 'wets', (rain gear for those who don't speak English) they had had great weather.

Bear sculpture

Moose sculpture

Sculpture of a local Indian (the American term)

 

Stagecoach in Jackson, WY

 

We headed north from Jackson Hole toward the Grand Tetons. I didn't know it before but found out that in French, Grandes Tetons means Big Nipples.  The French guys who named these mountains either had vivid imaginations, or they hadn't seen a woman for a long time.  The mountains are spectacular seeming to jut out of the flat land at their bases.  The snow left of their summits emphasized their rugged contours.

The Grand Tetons

Mountain rising from the valley bottom

 

 

At one of the viewpoints I took a photo of two travelers and back in the parking lot Jim and I met a couple, Paul and Becky from Hinsdale, NH.  He was a Vietnam veteran who spoke of seeing the Pacific for the last time more than forty years ago when he flew back to Oakland, CA, form Danang, South Vietnam in the back of C-141 transport.  They had been on the road for a week and had five more weeks of riding left to do.. They were going to cover a good part of the west before heading back to Vermont in early August.  I took a picture of the both of them with their camera so they would have a picture of themselves in the Grand Tetons.

Paul & Becky from New Hampshire

We continued North to the entrance of Grand Teton National Park.  The entry fee for a motorcycle is twenty dollars but the ranger in the ticket booth asked if Jim and I were older than 62.  Since we were, we were able to buy a lifetime pass to any US National Park for ten dollars.  I was eligible for that two years ago but no one ever asked me so I paid a lot of money that I didn't have to visiting national parks during the past two years.  We were able to use our passes for the first time when we entered Yellowstone Park a while later.

 

The park is spectacular wherever you are in it.  If there was a god, and s/he had a back yard, I'm sure that this would be it.  Around every bend there is something new to see, from big game animals, to sparkling rivers, lakes, and ponds, to steaming pools and geysers.  It's all here.

Yellowstone Lake

 

We rode to the West Thumb then headed west to see Old Faithful.  We crossed the Continental Divide three times with the highest point being almost 8400 feet.  As we were stopped there we saw one of the stupidest things I've ever seen.  A motorcycle rider was using both hands to take a picture of the sign.  It was amazing that he was able to keep his bike under control.  I'm fond of the saying, "Stupid should hurt," and Jim says, "You can't fix stupid", but this guy appeared to have defied all odds and survived long enough not only to buy a bike but to avoid killing himself on it while doing stupid crap.

Jim at the Continental Divide

Those hillclimbin' Harleys!

 

Closer to the geyser we stopped to see the Kemper Cascades, waterfalls that cut their way through a steep gorge.  As I parked Big Red a man approached and complimented me, saying that my motorcycle was the nicest bike he's ever seen.  He was a farmer from Nebraska.  The conversation hadn't gone on for too long before the politics came out.  Out of the blue he said, "We're losing our democracy.  The communists (intentional small 'c') are trying to take over.  I wanted to ask him how 'he' was losing his democracy, or what a communist was, but it wouldn't have made a difference.

 

The Kemper Cascades

 

I'm amazed at the ignorance of so many people here.  They endlessly repeat the drivel they hear on Fox News wit apparently no critical analysis of what they are saying or understanding of what is actually happening in their country.  I believe that Fox News is responsible for feeding on the climate of fear that always accompanies change.  While the large corporations plunder the word economy, these guys are focusing the small things.  And Fox News gives them simple slogans and talking points through people like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and the other talking heads on that channel.  For the last three days, every restaurant we went into had Fox News on and in the last  motel rooms we rented, Fox News was on when we turned the TV on.  It's frightening that people are so willing to blame rather than try to figure out what is really going on.

Old Faithful recuperating

 

Old Faithful was a bust.  Just as it happened last year, we missed the eruption by ten minutes and were going to have to wait another hour for the next one.  We declined and left, heading north.   We saw a bull elk beside the road so we stopped to take some photos before continuing on to the Artist's Paint Pots to see the boiling pools, colourful bacteria, a hole which roared continuously with escaping steam and a small fumarole which behaves like a geyser.

Bull elk grazing in Yellowstone Park

 

Red Spouter

Boiling pool

Fountain Paint Pots

Erupting Fumarole

 

As we rode on we came upon dozens of cars and trucks parked along the road, viewing a herd of buffalo.  We stopped again so I could take some photos of these magnificent animals before continuing on.

Buffalo resting.

Having a dust bath.

 

Our original plan was to continue north, exiting the park at Gardiner, MT, riding to Livingston then catching I-90 to Bozeman.  It was along ride late in the day so we changed plans and exited at the West Portal, at Madison, MT, then took Route 191 along the Gallatin River to Bozeman.  The ninety mile ride is spectacular and the river parallels the highway for a good part of the way.  This river is the archetypal fly fishing river and as we rode along I saw two fly fisherman in the river.  We stopped, went down to the river and spent time speaking with the anglers.  They obviously loved this type of fishing, and while catching a fish is a bonus, I got the sense that it really wasn't about the fish so much as it was about the whole experience.  Catching a trout is just a bonus.

The Gallatin River

 

 

The fly fisherman

 

This road is a motorcyclist's delight.  It twists and turns along the river and it keeps you on your toes.  There is a dark side though.  In one thirty mile stretch we saw approximately twenty-five white crosses, often in twos and threes along the road.  They are used to mark spots on the highway where vehicle accident fatalities have occurred.  I haven't seen such a high concentration of these markers in all the riding I have done in the past three years, and the one we saw were only on one side of the road!

 

The ride into Bozeman after we reached the flat land was uneventful and we were easily able to find a motel for the night.  After settling in we walked to a bar, had a burger and a beer then returned to the motel to prepare for tomorrow.  We have no idea where we'll go tomorrow, but today was the best riding day of the trip because it was all on two lane roads that were fun to ride and we still put in 417 kilometres in eleven hours of travelling.  We'll have to talk to the people at Yellowstone H-D to see if they have any suggestions and we'll go from there.