Day 5- Yellowstone/Grand Tetons to Great Falls, MT

Grand Tetons

Our first camp

treating the poison ivy with hand sanitizer

What!?!?!?!

a real sign......

scary beast

yet another beautiful sunset

DAY 5

We got into Yellowstone sometime after 3 am. Going past The Grand Tetons, about midnight, lightning was flashing, so I tried to get a few shots. It didn’t really work the way I wanted it to, but I still got a nice shot.

We were thinking hotel, but ended up just finding a camp site that a really nice security guard let us stay in for free. The only catch was that we had to be out by 8am…….. The tent was set up and we were snuggled into the half way blown up air mattress.

Got up a few minutes before 8 and packed the car just enough to get out of there so we did not have to pay the $37 camp fee.

I showered, well shaved in the lodge bathroom. And into the park….. We were heading to Old Faithful. On the way Jolie saw her first caribou and we took lots of pictures. When we pulled in the parking lot we saw hundreds of people walking away. Dang! I told Jo she should see it since we were there. An hour and a half later and a really crapy meal, Jolie was like “Is that all.” Boy howdy. It was less exciting than I remember.

We got out of the park and headed on north. I was so excited to ride again. I still feel weird about not riding yesterday…… Looking back it was the right decision. That would have been a horrible night.

The ride was for sure one of the best. We headed north into Montana. Two separate times the clouds literally parted for us. The were storm clouds as far as the eye could see in both direction… And in the middle, beautiful blue skies…. This happened twice.

We changed our route and went north to Great Falls instead of Glacier Park. This will get us in a good place for the morning and we will be on an interstate instead of a two lane road.

On Interstate 15 N. I ran into the mother of all rainstorms. It rained hard for 20 miles and then the skies opened up and the sun blared…. (SIGH) And 15 minutes later it started hailing and thunder and lightning…… Still beautiful and awesome to be riding. We made great time and the bike is doing awesome.

PS, I used my new biking shorts and they are dreamy. Kinda weird changing in a parking lot.

-Sam

Day 5 cont...

The last thing sam said to me last night before we went to sleep was "if you hear something pawing at the tent, don't slap it." WHAT!!! So, twice during the 4 hours we slept, i said to sam, in a soft whisper, "Sam, did you hear that?" And twice he responded in a low groggy groan, "no." Of course it was just the wind blowing across the tent. We were perfectly safe- the camp ground even had a guy that circled the grounds every thirty minutes- plus he said that all the bears were down the road at the free camp ground. What have we learned from this.... don't stay in the free camp grounds outside of Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons.
Headed through Yellowstone this morning- looking for animals. Still, no bears. Then we headed to Old Faithful, which i'm sad to report was kind of a let down. At least I can say I saw it... right.?
Drove out of the park, unloaded the bike and comtinued north through Montana- the land of the perfect log home nestled at the bottom of a mighty mountain and sometimes, as an added bonus, it's also on the lake . Going up 15N we got caught in a bit of a storm which turned into a hail storm that made me more than a little nervous- thank God we had already pulled over at an underpass. We waited it out and pushed on to Great Falls.
The best part of out route change is that we had both showered and had dinner by 10:30- glorious.
Now, on to a good night's sleep and a late morning.
-Jolie