Day #7: Jackson WY. to Cody, WY.
Day 7 started in Jackson WY, also called Jackson Hole. We were going to eat breakfast at "Bubba's" but it was too busy. Instead we ate at the Village Inn. After passing through the tourist area of Jackson, we entered Teton National Park. Almost immediately we saw a bison in the pasture. The Tetons are magnificent and they have snow spotted about the peaks.
Today is actually about our half-way point. It is hard to think that we are now more than half-way through our Wild West Tour. Next we entered Yellowstone National Park, just looking on the map you can see how large the park really is. The first thing we noticed was the number of new trees replacing the burnt down ones that had been left after the fires. As we drove in from the South entrance the clouds started to come in and it looked like rain. Thinking it was pass pretty quickly we didn't stop to put our gear on and we got pretty soaked. The rain came down for about 15 miles and it was a cold rain. Fortunately there was about 15 miles to go to Old Faithful and the sun came out which helped us dry out.
We reached Old Faithful and had about 30 minutes until the next predicted eruption. We listened to one of the Rangers explain how Old Faithful works. He described it using a coffee percolator and how the water boils at the bottom and then spews up through the hole at the top. Old Faithful erupted at about 2:20pm and we watched from the boardwalk. After that we ate at the Geyser Grill and bought a few souvenirs.
From there we headed towards North-East Entrance to continue on our route. Lucky for us it again started to rain, this time it was really windy and we had to fight the rain for about another 15-20 miles. We saw a couple elk. This route through the park was scenic and mountainous. As we crested one of the mountains we came across a lot of parked cars. They were all staring down into the valley below. We approached and asked what was down there and they said there were Coyotes. There were 2 or 3 adults that were eating an elk and 4 pups that were playing some distance away. You could see them with the naked eye, but the were very far away and binoculars helped a lot. This was an amazing event to witness, Mother Nature at work.
After the coyotes we continued down the mountain and headed into a plain area, where the bison wondered about both in herds and alone. We actually had one cross the road right in front of us. You really get to understand how large they are when you see them up close, they are large and ugly!
Yellowstone is an amazing place, we cheated it by not staying for more than a day, but we both knew that our plan was to ride not necessarily see the sites. If nothing else this trip has touched the taste buds for what the West has to offer. I will definitely be coming back to spend much time in Yellowstone.
We left Yellowstone and headed toward Cody WY. we had to travel through some construction, but once we where past it the road was another amazing route. It was 81 miles from Yellowstone to Cody, and they were a wonderful 81 miles. 212 and 296 offered some fantastic riding. Then we entered the Chief Joseph Highway. This road, I think was probably the best one on the entire trip thus far. This highway is full of twisties. There were plenty of 20mph and 30mph turns, which we were able to take at about 40mph. WOW was this road fun. I can't wait to share the photos from this road.
Today's ride was our shortest distance, a measly 277miles. Needless to say it wasn't our shortest day out. We ended up getting into Cody around 8:30 PM. The funny thing was as soon as we got to our camp site we ran into some Star members from Washington State. Chapter 154 from Burlington WA, and Chapter 350 from Renton, WA. They were a great group and we chatted for quite some time.
Did I mention that Cody was full of bikers due to the Hells Angels being in town? We rode back into Cody to eat dinner at The Irma, which was Buffalo Bill's Hotel/Restaurant. The Irma Bar is all cherry wood and is the most photographed thing in Cody, except, I forgot my camera back at the campsite.
Today's ride was both the best and the worst. The best because the scenery was unbelievable, the trip through Yellowstone was unimaginable. The worst, because we cheated so many things by rushing through. Yellowstone is one place that would take more than a week to see. It is unmatched in any one place that I have been to date. The amount of different geography is just amazing.
Speaking of Amazing, when we got into the KOA in Cody, there were Amazing Race postcards at the front desk. Apparently the Amazing Race, seen on CBS, was in town about 2 weeks ago.
In one word, today was: UNBELIEVABLE!
-matt-
P.S. I am working on the photos from the trip, be looking for them soon.
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