June 21 Ride Report–Yellowstone National Park

I have to say that the decision to run from the rain north of Missoula and Glacier National Park turned out to be a great decision. Yes there were times inside Yellowstone that I thought it was going to rain, but it never did. What has 4 legs, stands up on 2 of them most of time, and has no consideration for others. Hint: It a species that comes in all shapes and sizes and blocks traffic. You guessed it, “Humans.”  Ok maybe because I rode through the Yukon, Canada and saw ever single animal that was in Yellowstone, maybe I was a little immune to it. But come on, these folks would just stop their cars in the middle of the lane, open the doors, run to closet position they could get with their $5000 lens, oh and didn’t close their doors, and take picture after picture after picture with no regards for anyone. It’s as if the world revolved around them. So glad the wife didn’t come with this time, because I might have gotten an ass chewing. I’ll explain the why I did what I did first. My BMW is oil cooled supplemented with air moving across the head fins. Sitting idle for long periods of time cause my bike, to run hot. Not critical hot, but enough to make premium fuel spark knock when I do finally start to move. So I sat as long as my patience's would take, then Mark started threading this two-wheeled animal down the center line sometimes weaving into opposite direction traffic to cool the engine. I got a few dirty looks, but hell, they were just as illegal as me for abandoning their car in the middle of the road. I know Lori would have said something because she let it be known she didn’t like lane splitting in California even though it was legal.

That was the worst part of the day and it happened a lot toward the end of the day, but it’s all good.

I did a clockwise 200 mile loop around Yellowstone and I visited and photographed ever site that I built a waypoint for. I did a lot of waterfalls and I’ve been here before, but I just do not remember visiting the falls that I pictured. I also do not remember as much steam being released as I saw this particular trip. Air temperature swings were also large because of elevations. I think my highest altitude that I actually saw on the GPS was 8900. The only thing that I didn’t see was the actual blow of Old Faithful. I should have done my route counter clockwise and stopped at Old Faithful first so I could see it again. I have seen Old Faithful fire off several times, but I hate missing it since I came this far. The issue was I wanted to spend some time with a friend.

So the reason that I didn’t stay and wait for Old Faithful was because I didn’t plan it correctly, people holding up traffic, and I wanted to spend some time with Doug and Brenda Meikle. I worked with Doug for many years until his retirement. We also use to ride motorcycles together but his passion has overcome him. Doug is a very passionate Fly Fisherman. He traveled from Virginia to spend 2 months near Island Park to do just one thing, Fish. Brenda, bless her heart, pretty much lets him have his way when it comes to this passion. He told me he plans on doing some sight seeing while here, but until I hear Brenda confirm it, I will be skeptical. Doug fixed the steaks and Brenda the potato's and I enjoyed the food and the company. Brenda even bought me some birthday cupcakes. Pretty Awesome. Time went by way to fast and as darkness fell, the BMW and me left for our campground just 3 miles north from where the Meikle’s were staying.

What an overall great day and all because of the rain near Glacier National Park.  There are 100 photo’s in the Pictures of the day.

Pictures of the day