Grant Village, Yellowstone Park, WY

Day 40: Thursday, June 27, 2013
West Yellowstone to Grant Village: 53 miles

Phil was up and packing for the road at 6:30. I crawled out of bed long enough to photograph him carrying his loaded bike downstairs, then flopped back into the bunk. I was awakened at 9:20 by the cleaning lady. So much for an early start.

Phil carries his bike downstairs.

The former Union Pacific depot was across the street from the hotel. It's now a museum dealing mainly with the parts the railroads played in Yellowstone Park tourism. I'll do a separate writeup on that.

After touring the museum, I had some breakfast that I'd bought the night before - plums and yogurt - and, since it was now lunchtime - went across the street to a McDonald's. But one look at their prices - $4 for a cheeseburger - drove me back to the Taco Bus for another macho burrito. And then it was off to Yellowstone.

I was here in 1954, 1967, and 1981, so have already seen a lot of the usual tourist stuff. And I didn't have time for the real backwoods adventures, so my goal this time was to make it through the park without seeing any wildlife. I came close: two scruffy-looking bison ambling slowly across the road held up traffic for a mile. And I saw an elk waiting patiently at the side of the road for cars to stop so she could cross safely. I did take the time to observe a few bubbling geysers, but no Old Faithful.

Here in the park, as well as on the ride from Ennis,
we saw many fly fishermen along the Madison River.

You can tour Yellowstone park
in a bus from the 1950s or the 1930s.

Yellowstone flowers

Okay, here's your token shot of geysers.

Grant Village is a camping area on the way out the south side of the park. While I was in the store there, some fellow cyclists hailed me. It was Jordan, Israel, and Natalee, three cyclists who had spent a night at the warmshowers jazz house back in Missoula. They had met another couple, Matt and Sarah, and we all shared a campsite at Grant Village campground in Yellowstone.

Camping in Yellowstone