Yellowstone National Park
In our usual style, we mucked around too much (the smell of socks was too much and the laundry a must on the way in)... and arrived late. Al suggested not to get excited until we got to the campsite. The problem was herds of Bison on the road, a moose, and a little black bear climbing a tree! Yellowstone is not what you might expect from a national park quite as grand as this one... there is a macca's at each of the four entry points, and roads around. But they are a blessing when the weather is this crappy... you can play ride and spot the wildlife just by looking for all the parked cars! Even though we were wet and frozen much of the time, there was plenty of traffic, so we were pleased it wasn't yet busy season.
We had 6 and 5 days in the park, and managed to see black bears, grizzlies (with cubs!), pronghorn herds, elk herds, big-horn sheep, moose, and beaver. And old faithful lived up to its name. Days were spent admiring the different parts of the park; West entrance for first bison, North entrance for grizzlies, waterfalls, and those famous terraces, the road east from there for black bears and bighorn, lamar valley for more bison and pronghorn, Dunraven pass for spectacular views (8500ft plus!), the lake area just so you remember it's winter/spring (parts of the lake were still frozen, and we had a day stuck in the tent in spectacularly crappy weather), old faithful area for the geysers and springs, and lastly, the southern section for elk. And two days hiding from the rain and trying to stay dry.
Yellowstone blew us away, it is truely a spectacular and special place. Best of all, it surpassed our expectations. Chris got to tick off on one of those places she has wanted to visit since her late grandad first gave her a book on north america, while Al ticked off all the wildlife except wolves (which he reckons are native to canada, so wasn't too concerned about anyhow)
We were fortunate on our travels around the park to meet other like minded riders (making a change from all of the stuck up, arrogant and unfriendly harley and BMW riders. Like chris, Brian learned to ride in Laos/SE asia, and decided a trip up the USA from bottom to alaksa would be cool. Admitedly, he spent a bit more time on the road before setting out! You can follow Brian's blog at www.bikeandboots.com We were grateful for the tips on where to go heading south, and wish him all the best with the cold and wet! We also met two dirt riding chicks (Lisa and Claudette) that told us about Moab, and gave us an off-road book. So, done with the rain, we and cold, we headed south into Utah/colorado in search of canyons, heat, red rock and some awesome trails.....
So here we now are in Moab, contemplating the ever changing scenery that is the USA (fantastic to travel!), and whether we still need our standard high calorie diet (bacon and eggs and or pancakes and maple syrup for breakfast, burgers and/or sandwiches for lunch, cooked dinner with extra bacon fat for dinner, and the 6 coffees a day). We'll update the photos as time allows over the next week/tend days we are based here. At least there should be no more using our mufflers to warm our hands up on for a while...
