6,000 miles, 31 days, Countless NP/SP's and Sturgis!

I think a lot of it had to do with them getting on the piss too much! lol

Cool people. Wish we could have met up with them in Sturgis

Haha, funny report!!

Day #22... Grand Tetons to Yellowstone


Not really any rush today as we're just going to Yellowstone and that is maybe 70 miles away.

Get rolling around 9 or so and make the casual stroll up to Yellowstone.

Some beautiful views on the way in:




And some cool waterfalls:

Lewis Falls:



Gibbon Falls:



Kepler Cascades:





I had done some research on Yellowstone and there is 3 historic hotels in the park. The Old Faithful Inn, Mammoth Springs in and the Yellowstone Hotel.

I figured why not pamper mama a bit and stay at these three places. I had to book them a long time in advance to get a room so I figured this should work out good.

We get to the the Old Faithful Inn around 11 or so and are greeted with Old Faithful in all her glory.




The Inn itself was pretty cool. All constructed from huge logs that created a big main room where a guy was strumming a fiddle



We get checked in and the decide that it's time to get out of dodge because it was a absolute ZOO at the Old Faithful Inn. Japanese tour busses, thousands of tourists etc...

I should have thought of this before booking this place because even though major beauty was all around us it felt more like disneyland than yellowstone. As I mentioned before I don't do well with crowds so this wasn't sitting well.

I asked a park ranger about this and he said 75% of the people are gone if you come in April/May or Sept/Oct so if you'd like to have WAY less people go outside of the summer months.

This was a theme we dealt with the entire time we were in Yellowstone.

We figured it out after day 1 and from then on we got up at dawn to see the sights and then we'd be done by 10-11 am when all the Japanese tour busses started showing up.

They did find GringoZilla quite interesting though!



So we headed back out to go check out some of the famous sites near old faithful like the Grand Prismatic Springs which is a thermal vent bacteria pool that is superheated so all these crazy bacterial colors come out. There is no "skin" or "filter" on this shot. That's really what it looks like. :eek1



There were also random Blue pools all over that looked like a bowl of windex:




Hiked over to "Morning Glory" to see another super colorful pool but apparently douchnozzle tourists throw coins, bikes, trash in the pool which blocks the thermal vents and that in turn changes the temps and certain bacteria die off.

This pool used to have all the colors of the rainbow and now it's left with this. Still pretty cool though!



To be continued....

OK, what's next??

Day #23/24 - Old Faithful to Mammoth Hot Springs to Yellowstone Hotel (Yellowstone)

So we're doing one day in each place since it's only 45 miles between each hotel. Easy 3 days in yellowstone with short/slow rides between places. Gives us plenty of time to sight see and relax.

There is a waterfall on the way from the old faithful inn to mammoth springs called Fairy Falls so we decided to hit that up.

As usual we go early to avoid the crowds so we were the only ones hiking out to the falls that morning. No bear spray so just did the usual loud talking, hand clapping etc.. to let the locals know we were coming through.

Nothing to exciting on the hike. Got to the waterfall and it wasn't gushing by any means but it was kind of cool.




Here I am in Bear Killer mode with my beat stick and multitool knife to save mama when yogi bear comes for his PB&J sandwich.




Hung out there for 45 minutes or so and headed back. By the time we got halfway back the crowds were already on their way. If you go to yellowstone during this time of the year early and late hikes are the best times to see things.

Got back on the bike and rolled on. You have to be careful on the roads here not only because of the wildlife. It's the gawking tourists who stop in the middle of the road that will get you. They just slam on their brakes when they see anything without considering the people behind them. Cutting across the road right in front of you etc...

Anyhoo... This is when we saw our first buffalo but we didn't get pics because it was too far away. Got to see some big elk too but there was 200 tourists already surrounding the elk so we kept going and figured we'd see another one later.


Kept rolling on our way to Mammoth Springs...

To be continued...

Day #23 cont....

Fun ride through Yellowstone except when the traffic log jams or when there is road work and it becomes 1 lane only. But the views and peaceful scenery hit you on every turn. I just love being in the wilderness.

Mama got a little artsy fartsy on the back:



We get to the mammoth springs lodge and our room has a private jacuzzi so I'm stoked to be able to soak the bones a bit.

We got here early so not much to do but go check out the hot springs which are similar to the ones by the Old Faithful Inn but they are a different temp and different minerals/bacteria.

Pretty cool cascading event with white milky pools:



Another one:



It was nice being at the last few destinations early so we had time to relax and get some down time. I'm not a huge fan of having reservations on motorcycle trips since so many things can change your course/time frame.

Whether it be break downs, meeting cool people you want to go somewhere else with, you partied too hard and shouldn't be riding a motorcycle since you'd still blow a DUI etc.... Having non stop reservations makes it much more stressful as you HAVE to be at the next destination so you can make the next days reservation etc... etc...

After the next stop we are reservation free minus one night at the Buffalo Chip. Can't wait! Freedom!!

Just an FYI.... There is going to be a LOOONG delay on updates to this ride report as I am leaving for a 33 day/9000 mile ride in Africa in a couple days.

I'll finish it up when I get back on Nov 14th. I'll also do a ride report on the Africa trip.

Wow, good for you! Looking forward to that RR. Have a great trip.

In case you haven't come across it yet, this guy is on his way there
as well.

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=922561

Ride Africa, if I had the money that's what I'd do during the gov shutdown Hey look for radioman while ur there, great guy to meet.

This mesage was sent from the Capitol rat hill

Yeah I was following him too as I'm a lifelong surfer and have been all over the world chasing waves. That board on the back looks like a nightmare waiting to happen. One fall to the left and sianara skegs and the amount of fiberglass damage might be un-fixable.

I'll keep an eye out for him!

I've been following his thread too and it would be cool if I could meet up with him. He's doing my dream ride!

Whew!!!

Made it back from Africa and finally got my life back in order.

I'll get back to updating this ride report and then I'll start the ride report for mennleo's and my 9,000 mile/35 day ride through 9 countries in Southern Africa!

What a blast that was!!!



Here's a hint on how that trip went:

can't wait! put a link in this report for your next one so we can follow it also

FINALLY getting around to the Africa report and one day I'll get this ride report done too as there is lots of naked Sturgis women/pics and other crazy stuff that happened (fights etc...)

Here is the Africa link:

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=966306

O.K. This is going to take some serious memory skills after 9 months, the Africa trip and planning my next 1.5 year trip through 20+ countries!


Anyhoo... Back to Sturgis trip....

So we roll out of the Yellowstone Hotel ready to start pounding some miles. We know Sturgis is getting close now and we're ready to get our party on!

So we did read about the BearTooth Highway being rated the #1 scenic drive in America so we had to go check it out.


On the way out of the northeast exit from yellowstone we ran into a bunch of Buffalo so that was cool. BIG basterds so you have to be careful and respect their space.





And then we got up into the Beartooth Highway and it did not dissappoint!


Sweeping vistas over and over again with insane mountain backdrops.

Steep, sharp hairpin turns and steep drop offs. You'll be using the heck out of all of your brakes and engine compression if you want to rail this road but beware as there are a lot of deaths.:huh

Also pay attention to the weather forecast as you get up high and snow, sleet, rain etc... is very common. We hit a nasty little storm up top that had black clouds over us the whole time threatening to drop on us but it didn't. Got lucky there but it didn't make for good pics so that sucked.


Was beautiful though!!

Shot across Montana down into Wyoming. Across Wyoming into SD.

At this point we were just trying to bang miles. We were sturgis bound and after seeing so many awesome natural wonders we were ready to get some drinks in us and hear some good concerts


Along the way I slaughtered an entire generation of bug families:






We also passed a few things along the way that were cool.



Big Horn National Park Montana:




Mount Rushmore South Dakota:




Devils Tower South Dakota:




Crazy Horse Memorial South Dakota.

Pic was right when they were blasting. See the dust? This thing is going to be crazy big when it's done. Sadly the whole thing feels like a money grab profiting from the indian nations demise.




Jewel Cave South Dakota:

30 stories beneath the surface of the earth. One of the largest caves in the world sq foot wise. Not the huge caverns of Carlsbad Caverns but still cool crystal formations. :eek1








Got to camp at a FAT campground near Jewel Cave.




Seen some interesting road signs too:







But nothing like the signs in Africa!





And they are there for a good reason!!!

Who the hell is miles? First time I've heard that guy's name in the RR...

He's a wiley old coot with an incredible ass. Kind of like the sasquatch. Hard to find but when you do.... Oh boy!

600 photos that look like pro shots, and the one picture of your wife in a bikini was taken with a 35mm Potato. WTF Man!? :huh

Great ride report!