Jeff's Alaskan Bike Trip 2010

We left the Tetons park to get to Yellowstone just in time for Old Faithful to have completed her show. We stunk around for the next hour and half to see it blast. You can watch other geysers in the area give off steam too, but none gush up like Old Faithful. A small chipmunk entertained us before the show. Old Faithful arrived right on time. We enjoyed the show, but we had to get on the road.

It takes 4 hours to get out of the park from Old Faithful on the southwest side to Bear Tooth highway on the northeast side. We got to see our first bear. It was a small black bear. John was admonished by the ranger for trying to get too close to get a picture. LOL

We saw some female elks and their babies. We saw more bison. Only this time, we saw an entire canyon bottom full of several different herds. You can only dream of the times when that space was covered in bison. With a stream running down the middle and high sides on both sides of the road, I thought of the Indians living there in peace with all they needed at their disposal. A little while later, we saw another bear. This time it was a grizzly bear. He was much bigger and a different color. A ranger was also at this site monitoring the bear and the humans.

Heading out of the park. we started into the Bear Tooth Highway. This highway climbs up one side of a mountain and then back down the other side. The road here has been under construction for 3 years. It was drawing to a close. The signs stated they had put down oil on the road and it would be very slippery for bikes. That's great news since this road is nothing but switchbacks going up and down the mountain. The corners on top are 20-25 mph. The corners at the bottom are 35-40 mph. You ride and ride until you reach 10,947 feet. I actually missed the sign as I was paying attention to the road. The decline down the other side took 16 miles. There was actually a lake at the top. There are no trees at that elevation. It's definitely a top 10 ride of any one's lifetime.

We are now in Red Lodge, Montana. It's actually kinda of a happening town. I ate another buffalo burger at a nice restaurant. It was much better than the first one I had. I also had the 13 year running famous clam chowder. It was good. We have along day of highway riding in front of us as we head to Sturgis tomorrow.