Ray, the friendly host, talked with us a bit more. He said a bear was eating a dead bison on the road last night while we were sleeping. Sorry we missed that (I think). Ray is the friendliest host we’ve met so far.
We saw a lot of bison and a few fast antelope, but no elk yet. We rode to Roosevelt lodge. For some reason, I was expecting a grand lodge, but it was not that. The fancy lodge is at old faithful, which we’ll see today.
We saw Tower Falls with the crowds. Unfortunately, the shoulder is narrow and the cars plentiful but the good thing is that they go around you. The 2,8000 ft climb was tough partly because of the flies. I even inhaled one while breathing deeply.
We rode into the visitor center and saw the giant (20ft x 20ft) relief map that I helped. We had a beer and some chips and met Russ McCoy (www.ManBikeWorld.com) from Albuquerque on his solo, 6 month tour. Personally, I couldn’t do that. Before dinner, we rode over to “Inspiration point” to view the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone – grand indeed!
We got a nice hiker biker spot in the campground and ate dinner at the grill. It’s a bit corporate here with all the souvenir shops and generic food but the sights are fantastic.
Since the hiker bikers are grouped together, we had a chance to meet Cedric and Marie from Paris. They are doing a huge tour based on events like ballooning in New Mexico, and rodeo in Cheyenne, etc and ending in Key West. We shared stories and tips until our eyelids wouldn’t stay open.
Today we see Old Faithful and try to ride 57 miles to Grant Village. See our location at http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0cIJX8KkXrcyEJ3YaaXscdp8p9RGZRKkL
We rode 43 miles.
Wow! Absolutely beautiful. Thank you for all the great pics and tales.