After coffee, breakfast, my cousin came by to say hello. She hadn't changed a bit! Even though she was now 42, I would have recognized her! Still as pretty now as she was at age 10! Most of us don't age that well. I guess I'm still a little jealous! After a bit of catching up on family news with my cousin and Aunt, I repacked. It was time to lube the chain, so I tried to get the bike up on the centerstand. I still had not perfected this, and it was complicated by the fact that my ankle was still a little sore and that the bike was on a dirt & gravel road. Despite the nagging pain in my ankle, I managed the task, then added a little bit of oil and was on my way.
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The ride through the Tetons is too beautiful to describe, so I won't even try . You have to make the trip to appreciate something like that. The scale and majesty of this country is something most people do not experience. Those that do usually do it in a car with rambunctious children distracting them, or surrounded by their "mobile motels". Few experience it on a motorcycle. Traveling in a car will never be enjoyable to me again. My desire to stop every couple of miles to take pictures was outweighed by my wanting to have lots of time in Yellowstone, so I settled for just a couple stops. I have never been too happy in the past with photos I have taken of mountain scenery. To do it right, you need to spend days there getting the right lighting, and looking for good vantage points. At one of the photo stops, I returned to find my bike windshield covered with flies. What a sight. A close inspection revealed that the little cannibals were chowing down on the remains of their recently departed cousins. Leaving them alone, I gently eased the bike out of the parking lot. Scientific studies are lacking in the area of fly gripping power, so I was curious to see how much speed it would take to get the last one off. Those little guys are tough. The last fly was finally whisked of at 73 MPH! The miles quickly passed, and before I knew it I was digging around for my entry fee at the Yellowstone entrance. My first stop was of course, Old Faithful, where I planned to get the number one tourist picture out of the way, then enjoy the rest of the day.
In contrast to the beauty of Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone shows an ugly side. I had forgotten about the previous fire which decimated major portions of the Park back in the 80's. Arguments have been made endlessly on both sides of the issue, but my personal opinion is that it was gross negligence and incredible stupidity to allow something like that to happen. A controlled burn here and there is one thing, but those responsible for allowing that fire to rage on and on should have been burned at the stake, or at least fired! The park service is now doing their best to convince all of the visitors that what occured was a natural and healthy thing. They tell all the visitors how periodic fire is a natural occurence, and healthy for the environment, and even needed for many species of flora and fauna to thrive, and that's true, but damn, people, this is a National Treasure here!! Do it on an area by area basis, say a few percent a year, and do it like the logging companies do. Hide it!! Leave a few hundred yards of pretty green trees bordering the roads and major tourist sights intact. Then, everyone is happy!! The tourists see beauty from their car windows, and the eco-freaks can hike in to see their "natural environment", complete with charred tree stumps and ash covered meadows. Since the "natural" fires had been suppressed for decades and decades, it stands to reason that if left unchecked, nature was going to catch up with a vengeance!
As soon as I rode into the parking lot for Old Faithful, I knew I was in "tourist land". There was hundreds of cars, the huge Yellowstone Lodge, and gift shops!! There appeared to be a major exodus underway, so I correctly guessed that the geyser had just spouted (my usual timing). This gave me about 75 minutes to walk around, buy a hat (it was hot), and just "chill" for a bit. Too lazy to unpack my tennis shoes, I spent the next couple of hours walking around in my cheap engineer boots, almost causing a couple of blisters.
Finding Old Faithful itself was no problem. It is ringed by a huge wooden plank walkway, with rows of benches ringing it. There are also numerous signs in the "forbidden zone" telling the tourists to stay on the walkway. I could have taken lots of pictures of idiots standing right next to those signs having their pictures taken. If people weren't forced to keep their distance, you would have at least a couple of dozen scalding deaths a year, and Old Faithful would probably belch beer cans with every eruption!
The geyser was running a few minutes late, then there was a minute or so of "pre-eruptions" that quickly fizzled. One precocious little boy asked his father "Daddy, maybe it ran out! Are we too late?". That brought back memories of earlier vacation trips with my daughter. Sure do miss the zillions of questions I had to answer. Old Faithful eventually lived up to its name, and I popped off a dozen or so photos. (In the interest of saving precious Server space, you only get to see one)
Despite my sore feet, I managed to beat the crowd back to the parking lot, mounted up, then rolled off to find a campsite. Madison campground seemed close by and appealing, so I picked a site, quickly set up, then ventured out to see a bit more of the park before it got too dark.
One of the nice things about Yellowstone is the wildlife. You have a much better chance of getting a good view here than in many other parks, because despite the best efforts of the park service, the critters here are fairly used to humans. We've been camping and hiking there for over a hundred years. The most impressive sight that first day was a couple of crows on the side of the road. Those suckers were huge! With the constant traffic, they never run out of road kill. They looked big enough to eat any coyotes that might contest them for the meal!
My plan to hit Yellowstone in the middle of the week paid off. Except for a small backup caused by road construction, the traffic was extremely light. The top speed limit in Yellowstone is 45 mph, so you sport bikers will go nuts, but I enjoyed the easy pace through the park. My quest for souvenirs took me out the West entrance to the town of West Yellowstone (curious name?). Tourist heaven! Gift shops, restaraunts, curio shops, hotels, motels, camping supplies, just about anything you could possibly need. I gassed up (46.5 MPG), bought a few patches and stickers (can't fit much else on a loaded Nighthawk), and headed back in to the park.
After four days on the road, my camping gear finally got unpacked! Out came the supplies, and soon a culinary masterpiece was heating up on my little Coleman multifuel mini stove; white rice and an MRE entree of escalloped potatoes and ham. After dinner, I stuffed everything in a bear locker, made a few phone calls to report my safe arrival, then headed down to the "amphitheater" for the nightly ranger show. We got the usual park service B.S. about the fire, and how it was good for Yellowstone; some bear horror stories to encourage everyone to use the bear lockers, and a zillion mosquito bites. A lovely evening otherwise. Ranger "Holly" even read a poem that she authored about bear safety (don't quit your day job, Holly). Not wanting to ruin her evening, I withheld the fact that I was the only one using the bear locker in my area! After the show, I climbed into my tiny little bikers tent, zipped up my cramped little sleeping bag (next time I'll get the X-Long size), and dropped off. About an hour later, I was rudely awakened by some heavy footsteps outside my tent, and some snorting sounds! Frozen with fear, I just layed there as quiet as can be, waiting for the claws to gut me. Not much else you can do in that situation. There wasn't any food in my tent, so I assumed I was safe, but it's still not a very comforting feeling just laying there with absolutely no options. I wonder how many people actually violate the National Park Service "no firearms" policy? I would have felt much better with a Colt Anaconda or S&W Model 29 under my pillow! After an hour or so of terror, I drifted off to sleep.
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