Yellowstone NP

We tried unsuccessfully to make an early start this morning, having 60 miles to ride to Yellowstone. It was a perfect day without a cloud to be seen, but quite chilly and I had the heated grips on.


The Yellowstone River ran quietly alongside the road as we headed south. Near Yellowstone the road took a turn to the east into Yankee Jim Canyon, and suddenly the river was in turmoil as it tumbled over rapids.

We stopped for coffee in the pretty town of Gardiner, right at the northern entrance to the Park. Rather than pay another $20 for National Park entry, we enquired about an annual pass. At $80 for both of us, this seems like a bargain – what a pity we didn't buy one at the first Park we visited...

Not far inside the Park we came to Mammoth Hot Springs, one of a number of highly developed areas with visitor centre, hotels and places to eat. We stopped briefly to watch a movie about the history of the Park before taking the board walks around the terraced pools created by the sulphurous hot springs. Some of the walkways were quite steep and we were beginning to feel quite warm in our motorcycling gear.

Continuing on our way we came to Roaring Mountain. Apparently the roar of steam venting from the fumaroles on the side of the hill could be heard for miles in the past, but these days it is more like a loud whisper.

In the carpark we met some other bikers who had been married only 2 days before.

Further south we stopped at the Norris Geyser Basin where we had our picnic lunch and walked around some of the board walks, taking in a half a dozen or so geysers. The sky had started to cloud over, but with high, fluffy white clouds that served to keep us cool.

The Artists Paintpots a little further on were a series of steaming pools with a range of colours from milky blue through green, tan, brown and black.

The roads led us through high alpine meadows and at times alongside meandering streams, at others beside boiling torrents of rushing water. Everything about this place is full of wonder, beauty and inspiration.

Time was getting away from us – I had not imagined how much time we would need even for a quick look around. Fortunately, we are running a day ahead of schedule, so we don't have to rush. We headed straight for the Old Faithful geyser, bypassing other geothermal areas along the way. I was hoping we might be lucky enough to arrive 10 minutes before it erupted, but as we got off our bike, we could see a high plume of water above the trees, telling us we would have to wait another hour and a half for the next eruption. We used the time to call at the visitor centre and enquire about accommodation. There were no beds available at any lodgings in the park; the nearest place outside the Park where we might stay was West Yellowstone, 30 miles away. We made a number of calls. The first motel we rang was booked out: the second was $150 a night. We got lucky with our third call, finding a motel room for half that. With that organised, we sat down and had a well-earned beer before wandering over to the viewing area to watch the show.

Within a minute of the predicted time, the geyser erupted in most spectacular fashion. It was all over rather quickly, and being 5:50 pm, it was time to head off to our motel. We had a number of unscheduled stops along the way to photograph buffaloes and a deer. Fortunately they were only interested in sleeping or eating. They are large animals.

With the traffic all one way leaving the park, the going was slow, and it was a bit after 7 pm when we finally got to our motel. After dinner we took a walk around the centre of West Yellowstone. Virtually every store was either a diner, T-shirt, clothing or gift shop. Anything that wasn't, was a service station. The night lights bring the town to life. It all screamed “tourist trap” but in a really nice, homey way. We like it! It caters for everyone.