Montana - Bozeman

We left Jackson around 7:30am and headed west on Highway 22. We passed through the small community of Wilson and then started winding our way up Teton Pass. At that hour of the morning the air was chilly to say the least.

We crossed over the state line into Idaho (the potato capital of the USA), branched off at Victor on to Highway 33 and then on to Highway 20 for a scenic ride back over the state line into Montana and the town of West Yellowstone at the western entrance to Yellowstone Park. It was a great ride with rolling hills through Idaho and then a climb up to pine forested hills on the way to West Yellowstone. We saw a large stag with a good set of antlers on the side of the road. He ran back into the forest at the sound of the Harley rumbling past him.

Our reason for visiting West Yellowstone was to see the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Centre. This is a wildlife sanctuary for rescued grizzlys and grey wolves as well as an educational facility. As we had yet to see them in the wild, we thought we would make sure we at least saw them rather than not at all! The day was warming up by the time we got there, so the wolves (like all canines on a hot day) were just lying in the sun. Not very exciting at all! The grizzlys however, were very impressive. We happened to time our visit at feeding time - which meant they were very active in overturning rocks and dead branches to discover the meat hidden by the rangers.

After our visit to the wildlife centre, we continued north up Highway 191 to Bozeman. We had been told by a shop owner in West Yellowstone that there had been a number of grizzly sightings in the last week or so along this road as it cuts through the western boundary of Yellowstone National Park. We were (nervously) hopeful we might see one - but it was not to be.

Bozeman is an agricultural town with a population of 27000. It is situated in the Gallatin Valley in the heart of what was once a sacred Sioux Indian hunting ground.