Day 12 West Yellowstone to Wapiti

In the latest towns we have felt like the only tourists or foreigners. Pocatello and Rexburg are hardly towns you travel from Tokyo or Paris to visit. West Yellowstone is. A lively mountain town with restaurants, shops and many languages spoken as many visitors use the town as a base to take several visits into the Yellowstone National Park.

We set off fairly early, as we knew that it would be a long day but the line for entry plus two photo opportunities, one at the park’s entrance and one at the state border crossing to Wyoming meant that it took some time before we got into rhythm.

But what an amazing invention the bicycle. Without pedaling too hard and with a heart beat rate of between 100 and 110 you can roll effortlessly through the Park and take in the smells of pine, the views of the mountains, rivers and wildlife. A lot of buffalo and also grizzly, according to a bear “manager” or a guy whose only responsibility was to keep track of the bears and make suure that people do not get too close. We did not. The brown spot on a meadow across a river might as well have been a big buffalo turd. It did not move while we were there, but we were told that the grizzly had been up five times this morning and gone back to sleep at its elk carcass, which it was guarding. Yellowstone National Park was as gorgeous as expected. Once again the fact that we had to do most of our sightseeing from the saddle only has its pros and cons. You are a little handicapped that you do not have time to take a hike. On the other hand the speed of 15 miles per hour gives you an opportunity to really sense the beauty. It was one of those days, where you see everything in 3D and can almost look behind the stems of the trees.

Other Adventure Cyclists

It is a matter of prioritization, however. We met more bicyclists today. First there was Meg from South Africa, who had flown over to Salt Lake City and took a loop around Idaho and Yellowstone. Her pace was more relaxed than ours and she will sometimes leave her bicycle in a campground and go on a day hike.

Later we met Paul who was on his way from Boston to San Francisco. He had quiet his job in the District Attorney’s office in Massachusetts and was averaging 60-65 miles a day to realize his dream of crossing the States. When he makes it to San Francisco, he will go to Iowa and work for Bernie Sander’s campaign. Paul mentioned a French couple he had met, but they were travelling at a much lower pace. We met them later, and the man of the couple was hauling a trailer up the hill.

Paul on his way to San Francisco – we meet so few bicyclist that it is an event when you do

Hope to return some day

In conclusion a beautiful day in a park that I would like to return to with Charlotte and possibly the kids one day, if they are still into family vacations. If not as standard tourists we could go as volunteers like Varda and Rich. A retired couple living in Tampa signs up every year on a government website and this year they had chosen Yellowstone. Rich was painting the brown part of the signs and Varda was painting the letters, which required a little more finesse than Rich was able to muster – according to Varda. Rich seemed to agree while semi-napping in the truck.

Varda from Tampa on volunteer summer work in Yellowstone

After lunch we had to get on a truck to pass some roadwork and after an ascent to Sylvan Pass it was (almost) downhill along Shoshone River to our home away from home Green Creek Inn.