Day 12: Bridge Bay to West Yellowstone, MT – 79 mi + 6

This morning was hard. It rained off and on all night, so it took a while to break camp because everything was wet. It was cold and foggy and took me a while to get my riding layers right, and then just as I’d gotten into a rhythm I got my first flat ever on this bike. I fumbled around a bit trying to find the key to my locking skewers an then with the actual flat-changing. By the time I got back to west thumb and grant village I was hungry and grumpy, so I stopped at the grant service station for a highly caloric muffin, pop tarts, and air for my tires. Not 5 miles up the road to Old Faithful (which just opened today) I got another flat. This time John from Steamboat rolled up, as did the German brothers who were in te campground last night (they are riding from NYC to San Francisco). Shortly after getting moving, we crossed the continental divide again- it’s been so frequent I can’t keep track of which side in on anymore.

John didn’t stop for old faithful (he’s already seen it), but the German brothers and I pulled in…and arrived just a few seconds after it had stopped erupting. What disappointment… We didn’t have two hours to wait for the next one, so back on the road.

 The rest of the day was uneventful- I cruised down the Madison River to West Yellowstone(the touristiest wanna-be cowboy town in existence) found an overpriced national forest campground 3 miles out of town (it cost half as much for a hiker/biker site in the park!), and went back in to town for a hamburger and ice cream cone.

I determined riding out of the park that Yellowstone is probably better seen from a car- the campgrounds and sites are too far spaced to comfortably get around by bike, and the scenery between sites is unremarkable. Teton, on the other hand, has little in the way of attractions but is perfect for ogling at 10mph.

Moral: disappointed by Yellowstone, would like to return by car. Two states down, two states and three provinces to go.