Our Longest Biking Day

There is not a lot to see in South Dakota once you get past the Black Hills, the Badlands, and of course "Wall Drug". We saw all these attractions when we came through in 2008 so we just drove. In fact with stops every hour to eat or cool off (see picture of Bev applying air conditioning....she missed the wet Tshirt contest at Sturgis) we covered almost 600 km before stopping at the Earth Inn in western Minnesota. See Bev standing on a nicely mowed roof of this "underground" motel.

Sturgis Bike Rally

Sturgis is enjoying its 70th bike rally this year and, as in 2008, we are visiting it one week before it really blasts open. You'll see us arriving, with the Sturgis name on the hiil; and, the bikes are parked in front of the tatoo joint....Dave and I got tatoos......nah, just kiddin'.....but we did have lunch in the infamous Knuckle Saloon and bought the requisite Tshirts. AND all sorts of bikes come to Sturgis, they expect about 350,000 this year and you can see that some have certainly seen better days!!

Cody to the Big Horn Mountains

Travelling frrom Cody, we croseds the rolling hills of Wyoming. There were a number of oil wells dotting the dry landscape. We then climbed the last mountain range of this trip, the Big Horn range. It is amazing how the temp dropped from 100F to 60F in 30 minutes while climbing Power River Pass to the top and at 9,600 ft. The rocks behind the bikes by the stop sign are pre-cambrian, more than 3 1/2 billion years old. We then descended down to Buffalo, joining the superslab I-90 for the boring trip back east.

Chief Joseph Byway & Beartooth Pass

We left Cody for a day trip up the Chief Joseph scenic Byway - Route 296 - and then up and over Beartooth Pass (10,947 ft...the bikes are fuel injection, but we are not so we were a bit out of breath at the summit) - US Route 212 - and down through a series of tight switchbacks carved out of the mountain cliffs into Red Lodge. This spectacular road was the highlight of our trip.

Cody Rodeo

While in Cody, we went to our first rodeo. Bev was thinking the guys were a bit wussy, taping up their arms, wearing a neck brace and then the action started...she could heard saying "OH MY GAWDD, who ever would ride that??" All things American, the rodeo began with parading the flag, the national anthem and prayers for both the livestock and the cowboys. Many limped off, cowboys that is, not the animals..

Yellowstone

We saw Old Faithful Geyser...it used to blow every 30 min but is now every 70 min; there are bench seats and at the entrance you'll be told when the next blow will be AND it is!! We have included a picture of the morning horizon, with steaming hot springs all over the hills. Quite a spectacular site. You'll also see a picture of Tower Falls. We left Yellowstone crossing up over Sylvan Pass, our 6th and final crossing of the continental divide. We stopped off at Buffalo Bill Dam, just outside of Cody, Wyoming.

Animals in Yellowstone

We took a tour of the north loop of Yellowstone and in addition to Mammoth Hot Springs and Tower Falls we saw; a mother cinnamon black bear with a cub, a mother grizzly with two cubs, two osprey fishing in the canyon of the Yellowstone and numerous relaxing elk. The highlight of the trip was was a real close up view of a six point elk buck (it was right beside us, not afraid and not aggressive as its antlers still had velvet fur). Off tomorrow to Cody, Wyoming, and will do the southern Yellowstone loop along the way.

The Tetons

On Sunday we drove north from Jackson through the Tetons National Park, into Yellowstone and on to the town of West Yellowstone. En route we stopped to take pictures at the Jenny Lake lookout , the north end of Jefferson Lake and beside the Yellowstone river canyon. If you 've never been to Yellowstone, you MUST plan a trip. You'll be on top of a volcano = the caldera with magmatic heat powering eruptions, geysers, hot springs, fumaroles and mudpots.......you get a glimpse into the Earth's interior.

Snake River Canyon Whitewater Rafting

When we drove up the Snake River canyon on route 89 from Alpine to Jackson, we saw the river winding down the canyon with people rafting and thought it would be fun. And so, after the mundane task of doing laundry the next morning, we went whitewater rafting down the Snake River Canyon (Evil Kneivel jumped this 100 miles downstream). Compared to rafting down the Ottawa River, this was much tamer but so much more spectacular due to the canyon scenery...and the water was a heck of lot colder. We posted a picture of us going down one of the whitewater drops....and we were relieved that our guide managed to stay with us....he got air borne. We have also included some canyon pictures for your enjoyment.

33rd Wedding Anniversary in Jackson

We celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary in Jackson Wyoming by going on a saloon crawl. We started off at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar where all the bar stools are saddles - much more uncomfortable than bike saddles. We then moseyed on to the Silver Dollar Saloon where the bar has some 2000+ sliver dollars embedded in it. We finished off at the Snake River Brew Pub where we sampled some great local brews. After staggering back to the motel and sleeping off the beer, we returned and enjoyed a late night Italian homemade pasta dinner with wine.

Four States in One Day

We began the day in northwest Colorado and quickly drove into Utah and had breakfast in Vernal. We then headed north on route 191 which has a nice climb via 10 switchbacks out of the dry tumble weed plain into the cool aspen groves of the the higher altitudes. We then passed into Wyoming and the Flaming Gorge area (just look at the view of the upcoming road in the distnace), stopping for lunch in Mountain View and continuing northwest to Montpelier in Idaho.

A North West Colorado Travel Day

Remember when we used to camp?? Well, you can see that motels have their advantages.....when loading bikes, it can take 4+ trips with bags, etc or just one trip with the baggage cart.

Today we travelled west on I 70 through the spectacular Glenwood Canyon and on to Grand Junction. From there we headed north on route 139 through a series of canyons and up and over Douglas Pass (see picture looking down into valley to upcoming road). The road up the 8,500 foot pass had lots of tight curves and switchbacks, but the weather was great and not too cold. Driving twisty mountain roads is fun but also exhausting due to the intense concentration required. Bev was thirsty afterwards.

Later in the afternoon we saw dark clouds ahead (remember that earlier blog on rain?). We decided to don raingear and head off, after all we only had 33 miles to go.....NOPE wrong decision !! we hit intense thunderstorms with winds higher than we have ever experienced. Two storm fronts were colliding and Bev could hardly hold the bike up, we had to do a U-turn on the 2 lane highway (THAT was a bit scarey with traffic and the gusts) and went back to the town of Dinosaur (top northwest of Colorado). We'll try for Utah again tomorrow. The next day we met a couple in Vernal Utah who has passed us in a car the previous afternoon when we were doing our U-turn. They said that shortly after passing us they drove into rain that was so heavy that they could not see and had to pull over to the side of the road till it passed, adding that they'd never have seen us had we been pulled over at that point! Good thing we turned around.