Phew! We're in LaCrosse, WI now. I'm trying to catch up here on my blogging posts. The videos just take too much time to put together in the limited time I have while on the road so those will have to wait till later. Look for those in the future. Oh, I'm shooting most all of the video's using the GoPro Hero. It has several different attachment options. I have been using the suction cup mounted to the front windshield and a ram mount on the handlebars. www.Goprohero.com.
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After yesterday’s harrowing ride, we slept in this morning. We were up and off to breakfast at 8:30am. Tom stepped outside first today and was greeted by 40F temps. He even took a picture of his handlebar temp gauge to prove it!
After breakfast the temperatures had warmed to 53F. We headed north along the northern section of the Grand Loop Road heading towards Tower Falls. We passed through 8,000 feet on our way to Tower Falls and with it the temperatures dropped to 48F. We stopped along the way and Michele and Julie put on their rain gear to keep warm. Tom and Rob put on their jacket liners.
After a 20 minute ride, we arrived at Tower Falls. We had dropped back down in elevation and the temperatures were now in the upper 50s. We walked to the observation deck and took pictures of the falls and surrounding rock formations. Simply gorgeous!
One of the guides said he sometimes sees Peregrine falcons in the rock walls. Tom asked him about the tree damage and much of the large swaths are due to forest fires awhile back, but also the same pine beetles plaguing the SD forests as well as a spruce worm. He said the Park Service will not intervene since it is a natural occurrence.
Before leaving Tower Falls, Tom and Rob removed their liners and Michele removed her rain gear. The temps were nearing 60F now and the sun felt warm. Our next stop was Mammoth Springs.
Mammoth Springs is hard to describe—you just have to see it. Basically hot mineral rich waters boil to the surface and form mineral deposits. The size of this mineral deposit is …. well …. Mammoth! Whites, greys, oranges, browns, even greens and blues are all present in the mineral formations. Rob hiked up to the upper terrace from the lower terrace for some pictures. It was quite the hike!
Now the park service has taken the time to put up a lot of signs all around the Mammoth Springs that warn tourists to not stand on the springs or touch the water as it is quite hot and could scald you. This of course didn’t deter Michele. No, she couldn’t resist and had to see how warm the hot springs were. So she stuck her finger in the running water near the lower terrace! Well, she wasn’t scalded. The water was instead just warm. Later that night, she would read a pamphlet on the danger of “immersion” in the hot springs as you could contract Legionaires disease or fatal meningitis. We’ll be keeping a close eye on Michele in the coming days to make sure she doesn’t begin to show signs of illness. ;-)
After looking at the springs, we got some lunch at the local eatery at Mammoth. After lunch, the clouds moved in and the temperatures cooled significantly. We even had a light rain falling. Tom and Rob put back on their liners and then headed out the Northern entrance of the park to take pictures of the arch. On our way out of Mammoth there was a group of female elk and some youngsters sitting on a patch of grass at the northern entrance of the town. Our first elk sighting!! They truly seemed to enjoy being right in the thick of things, not a care in the world about the nosy tourists stopping to stare at them.
The northern entrance is actually in Montana so today we picked up our 13th state of this trip. Pictures and video play-time completed, Tom and Rob removed their liners once more as the temps had soared to 75F at the park entrance.
We then headed back into Yellowstone and Wyoming and to Canyon Lodge. Along the way, we saw two male elk just off the road. They were rubbing their antlers on some nearby trees and eating the grass. One even looked right up at us as we slowed to take pictures. They were impressive.
Back at the Canyon Village we topped off with fuel (we don’t want Tom to run out!) and headed back to the cabin for a brief rest before dinner. Soon after, we saw dark weather clouds coming our way. We ended our ride after only 90 miles and 8 hours. This was by far our lightest day of the trip and much welcomed after yesterday’s adventure.
Shortly before dinner, Mother Nature decided that we needed thunder and hail. So we had a spectacular hail storm just as we were getting ready to leave for dinner. The first batch of hail was the size of very small peas. Maybe ¼” in diameter. The second batch (yea, that’s right two distinct episodes of hail) was about 3/8” diameter. Enough of it fell to cover the ground and trails white. The temps must have dropped 10 degrees during the hail storm. It was pretty chilly.
We called for a shuttle bus instead of riding or walking the short distance to the dinning room in the rainy weather. As we were waiting for our table at dinner, Michele and Rob overheard three harried bikers hoping to catch an available room. One of the guys was red-faced, holding his head in his hands, and said aloud “we should have gotten here sooner.” They looked like we felt yesterday.
Although not as adventuresome as yesterday, today was very pleasant with awesome scenery, nice roads, and tolerable traffic. The forecast for tomorrow is calling for a good chance of rain with cool temps in the 50s. We’ll stay in the park tomorrow, ride to Old Faithfull and the geyser basin, have lunch at the Old Faithful Lodge, and check out the Yellowstone Canyon. Tomorrow night has a chance of snow in the forecast (about the only thing we haven’t had yet on this trip weather-wise) with lows around 35F. We plan on heading to the Grand Tetons Sunday.
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