CODY, YELLOWSTONE, BEARTOOTH PASS – DAYS 7-11

We got up early the next morning and headed to Yellowstone on the bikes. B-I-L and S-I-L followed us in the truck, which was comforting since we were in unfamiliar territory.

Yellowstone is spectacular, but, the ride in and around the park on all sides is as good or even better. Saw lots of animals and had pretty good luck until we got up around Mammoth Hot Springs where the traffic backed up due to sightseers. We rode about 10 miles up and down a mountain on the bikes moving about a car-length at a time. That was very tiring for me and Louisa, but, every time I looked she had this big ole grin on her face.

When we got past Mammoth Hot Springs the traffic cleared up a bit, so we were able to stretch the bikes out some until we hit a few construction zones. By the time we got through these it was getting on later in the afternoon and we were about 150 miles from Cody and decided to head back. Somehow, we got separated from the truck and could not reach them on our phones, so we took off.

Louisa said the she was getting sleepy and cold, which is not a good thing on a bike, I got behind her and watched to see if she was ok. She got a little close to the edge a couple of times but, we made it back around dark. The truck rolled in about 30 minutes later. After a couple of beers, I don’t remember what we did for dinner that night.

 

Waiting in traffic. See the grin on her face.

 

Yellowstone Lake

 

A mud volcano

 

 

 

Looking at the weather forecasts, it looked like the next day was going to be the day to take Chief Joseph Hwy. and Beartooth Pass. I met a guy from Arizona that rode the pass with his wife that day and he gave me some good information.

We got up and kicked around till around 9-10 checking the bikes and gear. We really did not know what to expect, except we figured it would be cold at 11,000 ft. So, we layered and took off.

The first leg was traveling up Chief Joseph Hwy. to the junction of Beartooth. We stopped at an overlook I think was called “Dead Indian Pass”. You could see the road we were to take winding around and around down the mountain in front of us. We saw a few vehicles and a couple of bikes, but, not really that many on the day we went.

The roads were winding but were nothing too difficult and the weather would range from being cold on the top of the passes to warmer in the valleys. The one constant was the wind.

We got to Beartooth Hwy sometime after noon and headed toward Red Lodge. The pass was clear of snow, but, there was plenty on the sides of the road. I finally figured out what those tall poles they have on the sides of the road were for. That is the only way someone could figure out where the road was if it had 20 ft of snow.

It was colder on the pass, but, I never had to add the heavy duty fleece. We took our time and enjoyed being closer to heaven. We met a couple of other bikers at the store on the top of the world, they were kind enough to take a couple of pictures.

We finally crossed into Montana and dropped down below the tree line. A nice guy came up at the rest stop and welcomed us to Montana and took a couple of pictures for us. We descended off the mountain in to Red Lodge and started looking for a place to eat and of course visit the Beartooth HD store.

By the time we finished eating it was around 3 pm, so we gassed up and headed the easy way back to Cody. After resting a little we headed down the Irma Hotel and watched the nightly gunfight.

 

Dead Indian Pass