Days 41- 45 To mile 7800. The Rockies.

Days 41- 45 To mile 7800. The Rockies.

On day 41, we drove from Arnie and Ellen’s home in Snow Canyon Utah to the Wasatch Mountains  near the small town of Midway Utah.  This part of Utah, totally different from the desert in Ivins, is known for its skiing and nearby Sundance, of film festival fame. The state park was situated in the Wasatch Mountains,  well below the tree line  The park itself was comfortable and clean. There was a little lake near the entrance where children would fish.  We had great pizza dinner at an establishment in Midway that came in first place in Utah for local pizza in 2011.  It was GREAT pizza. The hand formed pizza dough was perfect and the pizza, baked in a wood-fired oven featured goat cheese and roasted bell peppers.  We washed it down with some very good local brews while we listened to a musician softly croon songs from the sixties and 70’s.  It was a great way to end a long, hard ride.

We left the Wasatch mountains near Provo and headed north for the Tetons.  Along the way we saw a lot of pronghorn antelope.  Seems like there was roadkill every half mile or so.  Not only was I saddened by the carnage, I was concerned about running into one myself, which would have been an unpleasant ending for both man and beast. We saw several herds of antelope grazing along the sides of the road. 

When we arrived at the Grand Tetons, we learned that most of the campsites for tents were filled.  Campsites were available at Gros Ventre near the southern entrance and we took it. Gros Ventre means Big Belly in French—an unfortunate but accurate reference to my current body habitus. It truned out to be a great choice.  We saw herds of buffalo, and occasional moose and antelope within a few miles of our campsite.

The Grand Tetons are unlike any mountains we had seen before, jagged and snowcapped. These are relatively young mountains, only a few million years old.  They came along long after the dinosaurs had left the scene.  About 10,000 years ago, they had been covered by glaciers that carved out lakes and canyons in the valleys to the east. So we were driving through and camping in green meadows filled with lush growths of grasses and sagebrush, low lying wetlands with abundant lakes, creeks and rivers—all with the majestic peaks to our immediate west. This makes for a very diverse habitat.  Indeed, there was plenty of moose sign right in our campsite.  At first Jo Ann asked ,”What is this dog poop doing in out campsite?”  Then she realized that it wasn’t dog poop: it was something else.  Moose! 

Jo Ann took some beautiful pictures of nearby moose.  She got a bigger kick out of seeing the moose than she did seeing the mountains.  As for me, it was all good.  In nearby Jackson we ate at the Million Dollar Cowboy, a famous local restaurant.  I would have preferred to ear at the $20,000 Cowboy, but the food was very good, if pricey.

Yellowstone is not far from the Tetons but it is more crowded.  We took the first camspte we could find, near Lewis Lake.  The campsite was primitive:  No showers, and only a pit toilet and a water tap about 200 feet from our site. The mosquitoes are voracious here, worse than anywhere we have been since Temisiscaming, QC.  Mosquito netting is recommended. Once we set up camp, we motorcycled to the Old Faithful geyser field.  Along the way we saw several elk and a few moose cows.  We hiked through the geyser fields and sat down to wait for Old Faithful to blow when glory when not more than 25 feet behind us, a plume geyser erupted.  It sure surprised me!  A solo bison sat unperturbed by the boiling water and acid a few feet below the surface. When Old Faithful and it did erupt, a fashonable 15 minutes late.  While daytime temperatures were near 90, at night the temperatures plummeted to the low 40’s.  Jo Ann said her teeth were chattering while she was in her sleeping bag!

On July 2 we slept in and breakfasted on muffins and coffee.  After breakfast, I decided I needed a nap and took one.  About 11:30 we headed out for Hayden Valley.  This part of YNP is east of the geyser fields.  We followed the edge of the beautiful Yellowstone Lake to Fishing Creek and from there, we followed the Western edge of the Yellowstone River.  This took us through the beautiful Hayden Valley, known for its abundant wildlife.  Elk grazed on shrubs a few feet from us, or bedded down in the lush prairie grass.  Huge bison herds grazed in the not too distant hills, some venturing very close to us. 

We picnicked on the banks of Yellowstone River where Jo Ann spotted a 16 inch cutthroat trout. “I think it must have been caught by someone.  It has blood near its throat.” 

“Uh, Jo Ann…These are called cutthroat trout.  Maybe that’s the way they come.”  We both watched the trout rise and take a nymph or fly nearby every few minutes. 

We traveled north to Canyon City, where the river has cut through the soft rock to make a canyon.  There is a beautiful waterfall there and we faithfully clicked away with our cameras. 

Between the trout, bison, moose, and abundant antelope, two beautiful lakes—Lewis and Yellowstone—and following the Yellowstone River through the Hayden Valley into the canyons, you could say we had a full and beautiful day. We capped off the evening with canned (but very tasty) chili, cheddar cheese, and a nice merlot.  Not a bad day. 

 On July 3 we left YNP through its east entrance.  This represented some of the most thrilling riding we’ve encountered.  Great twisties and hairpin turns through snowcapped mountains and lush valleys in crisp, clean air.  We entered the Shosone National Forest that was drier and not nearly as lush.  Then we headed into some exceptionally dry prairie land.  There were some low hills and canyons but the grass and shrubs were burned up.  It was about 105 degrees and traffic was minimal.  We had no phone signal and I was worried about a breakdown.  Fortunately that did not occur.  Finally we arrived at Ten Sleep and the terrain went green again as we entered the Bighorn National Forrest.

There were signs indicating the type of rocks that formed the canyon walls, some pre-Cambrian granite gneiss, 3 billion years old.  Some was Cambrian, about 500 million years old.  We arrived in Buffalo for a well-deserved motel break.  Showers and a soft, clean bed.