Blue Sky Mining

Another perfect day! Since we couldn't ride the Going to the Sun road, we got an early start towards Yellowstone NP. From Whitefish we travelled due south to Kalispell before turning southeast on Montana 83.

We rode non-stop for just over 100 miles to Seeley Lake where we stopped for tea/coffee. Along the way we passed through miles of woodland running along a chain of lakes, occasionally getting gimpses of lakefront dwellings and boats at docks and out on the water.

The road took us down a broad valley, with a range of snow dressed mountains on either side. Seeley Lakes is a cute homey town. We stopped at a cafe where the porch roof was supported by cowboy caryatids carved from large treetrunks.

When we turned left at the intersection with Montana 200, the landscape abruptly changed, and we rode through cleared farmlands with rolling hills. Suddenly we found ourselves riding under a blue sky that stretched from horizon to horizon in every direction and we were mining it for evrything we could get.

From 200 we picked up Montana 141 and took this through to Route 12 which led us into Helena, the capital of Montana. It was a bit after 2 pm, and we were lucky to be able to order lunch at a great little cafe just as it was closing. We reviewed our progress as we ate.

According to our planned itinerary, we were going to stay overnight in Great Falls before heading to Gardiner (which is on the northern edge of the Park) tomorrow night. We were already 100 miles further south of Great Falls and had the opportunity to get even closer to Yellowstone NP. We had come over 200 miles but there was still time left in the day and we were feeling relatively fresh. The roads were were on had a 70 mph speed limit most of the time, so we made rapid progress. The further we rode the closer we got to the snow-capped mountains around Yellowstone.

We pushed on along Route 12 through Townsend and all the way to the intersection with Route 89 which took us south through Ringling and Wilsall to Livingston. We are now about 50 miles north of Gardiner and 60 from Yellowstone and almost a full day ahead of schedule. We are looking forward to having extra time in Yellowstone.

When I checked our bike's computer I found we had covered 337 miles (the furthest we have ridden in one day so far) at an average speed of 57.3 mph - the highest average speed we have recorded. Fuel economy was good at 49.0 mpg.