Yellowstone

We left Bozeman following the interstate east until we reached Livingston and turned right on to Hwy 89. This route was a very pleasant ride that took us to the community of Gardiner for a fuel stop, only 1km from the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park. This national park is huge. It spans the three states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. The ‘Grand Loop Road’ that completes a full circuit of the main attractions is a 282km journey, so including the ride from Bozeman to our destination for the day at Cody, we had a full day’s riding (over 400km) ahead of us – most of it at a slow speed through the park.

We meandered our way from the north entrance to Mammoth Hot Springs. Yellowstone is basically a huge volcanic plateau and over half of the worlds geothermic activity (hot springs, geysers) occurs here. We then rode the loop around to Canyon Village where we stopped for lunch and then rode back up the other side of the loop to Tower Falls. There was a lot of road construction underway (and unpaved road), so we turned around and rode back past Canyon Village and continued down the Hayden Valley to Fishing Bridge. 

By this stage in terms of wildlife we had only seen two mule deer. We soon past a herd of elk and then started encountering more and more bison.We pulled up alongside some and parked on the other side of the road (with engine idling!). Tracee got off to take some photos when one of the massive beasts seemed to take an interest in us. I assume it was because out of all the other vehicles on the road, the Harley was the closest to resembling a small bison? I am not sure how good the eyesight of a bison is – but it may have thought it had found a mate? Tracee started to panic a wee bit and said “What should I do?”  I replied, “Just jump back on the bike and keep taking photos!” The beast kept walking across the road towards us sniffing the air and I guess in the end decided that the scent of the Harley wasn’t that attractive after all and turned aside and walked past us to the other side of the road. These are magnificent creatures to see up close and the adult males are huge – I wouldn’t want to have one charging at me!

We spotted more bison as we continued on our way around Yellowstone Lake towards the east entrance. We saw one rolling in the dust by the side of the road and a small group eating the bark from trees. I was mildly disappointed not to see any predators (wolves and bears) on this our second trip through Yellowstone – but such sightings are not that common as most of these animals tend to avoid close proximity to human activity. In spite of that, Yellowstone is an awesome place to visit – especially on a motorbike.

After leaving the east entrance we had a ride of about 85km to our stop for the day at Cody. The town of Cody has a distinct ‘Wild West’ feel to it and was named after William Frederick Cody (aka Buffalo Bill) who was instrumental in founding the town in the late 1800’s.