2016 Motorcycle Adventure (DAY Ten)

I woke to another glorious day of sunshine.  Today my goal was to travel back up into Yellowstone Park and visit Old Faithful, the famous geyser that got it’s name because it erupts as regular as clockwork about every 90 minutes.

Just outside Cody I passed the Buffalo Bill Dam built back in 1910 to harness the water from the Shoshone River. It now provides irrigation to much of Wyoming and has changed the dry parched soil into fertile ground for agriculture and an industry that helps support the town of Cody. Here are a few shots of the dam on both the high and low side.

Climbing out of Cody I had to stop at the top of Shoshone Pass for a photo . If you look closely at the picture there is a tiny pocket of snow to the left. The temperature dropped dramatically with the higher elevation which was much appreciated as things had really begun to heat up down below.

All around Yellowstone Lake are millions of dead trees which begs the question, why? There are several theories. Some say it’s blow down caused by high winds. Others say they were killed by fire, probably from lightning. Still others suggest that the soil and the geothermal area in which they grow has killed them off.. Whatever the cause new growth is slowly replacing the dead trees. Because it’s so dry the dead wood doesn’t rot like it would in a Muskoka forest so they stand for decades until the wind blows them down.

I rolled into the parking area at Old Faithful around 1:00 pm only to find that he had just blown it’s top moments before I arrived. Because the geyser is so reliable they actually have a clock in the visitor centre that tells visitors when the next eruption will occur. Since I had about 90 minutes to kill I decided to have some lunch and then take a stroll along the boardwalk that circles the geyser. It was getting pretty warm if you were standing out in direct sunlight and so I stepped off the boardwalk, perhaps three feet to get a little shade. No sooner than my foot had touched the dirt I heard somebody yell, “GET BACK ON THE BOARDWALK”! I turned and realized that the “boardwalk nazi” was yelling at me. I told him I was just wanting a little shade and he didn’t care. Oh well, I was technically wrong so it wasn’t worth an argument. Here are a few shots of some of the geothermal pools in the area.

As the  time approached the 2:30 pm eruption the crowds surrounding the mighty geyser began to build. Each one clasping their camera or iPhone in anticipation. Old Faithful was teasing the crowd because there were several minny eruptions that had the crowd noticeably excited. I heard one guy say, “Okay, he’s done. Let’s go.”. Then, without warning the geyser erupted. It was quite spectacular and I took several shots but what was so predictably human was that no sooner was it finished than everyone started to leave. They had seen what they came to see, got their photos and were now on to the next attraction.

I had to stop at the Continental Divide for a photo op. A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is not connected to the open sea.

Just south of Yellowstone is the Grand Teton National Park. I had paid my entry fee yesterday when I entered Yellowstone and was really looking forward to the experience but my good old Garmin GPS led me astray and I wound up missing the park but luckily not the incredible mountain views.

After leaving Yellowstone I set a course for the KOA down in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The afternoon at the lower elevations was getting warm again and I was really looking forward to a nice refreshing swim at the campground. Well, I finally arrived around 5:30 pm only to find that they were all booked up. I had ridden about 250 miles, dealt with frustratingly slow RV’s on windy mountain roads and all I wanted was a place to sleep and relax. The gal at the KOA suggested that I go south about 10 miles to a National Forest campground because the next KOA going south was over three hours away. I reluctantly climbed back on my “iron horse” and pushed on. These forest campgrounds have almost no facilities other than bathrooms, no electrical hookup, no water and no wifi. All I could imagine was a sleepless night wondering if every sound was a bear trying to tear apart my cooler for the food inside.

As it turned out I found a very primitive campground I shared with two other families and had a very nice chat with one of the guys who gave me some excellent suggestions for tomorrow as far as the most scenic route to Salt Lake City. Without wifi I was able to write my blog on MS Word so that I could copy and paste into my blog once I found a wifi spot in the morning. All’s well that ends well.