Mounting Mountaina - Flashbacks from the past...

[GatorTiger]

Work sucks... My company had two weeks worth of project work for me to do in Helena, Montana. "And you better take the bike, cause we ain't paying for the airline ticket!!" "Ok, ok!!!! Yes, sir!!!"



The plan was to leave Friday after breakfast to beat the rush hour traffic. So I packed the night before:







Guess my trusty steed felt more like an ass with all the jerry-rigged luggage, made water-'proof' with garbage bags. Yet it didn't let me down at all!!!!

 





Hoooooooooold it right there! Something is off here... I didn't use garbage bags this time!! What is going on? Didn't we have this before? Dey-sha-vue (or som't'n simply sim'lar like dat...) Well, it's not really deja, more like a time capsule. One that was swallowed and now gives you heartburn. At least you can taste it again and again and again... <smiley>



That strikes me quite a bit lately. Among many the strongest one was when I was following the trip advrider's own Rogue1 took a little while back, riding through some of the parts and abouts that I traversed back in '89 on a road trip from Pensacola, FL, to Sacramento, CA. After being hooked to his report I had to interrupt my highly planned sequential slide scanning (analog goes digital by evening efforts) and slide in those from the trip back then... Taken during the before-digital-age they have this kind of romantic vibe of colors to them. Quite intriguing! Having been in my early twenties back then I did have a bright moment (not very common at that age I guess ) and took 'location pics along the way. So now I was able to Ò by just scanning the pics in Ò to reconstruct my route back then almost 100%!!! It was fun re-living that trip looking at all the pics!



Then something else struck me: What was I thinking back then?! Probably nothing, being young and all, but looking at the trip route, the roads I took, the places I visited... No! The places I didn't visit!!!!! Maaaan!! Back then I wasn't into bikes (took the trip in my car). Back then I had only been in the US for six months. Back then I only knew about all the typical touristy spots: Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, Four Corners, Yosemite, and so forth. The good stuff hid in that cloud of cager ignorance and waited to be discovered later... Like when I grew up... Like now... (?)



To be continueth... (I'm still processing pics and all...)

[GatorTiger]

Sorry for the delay... Bad triple-w connection in the hotel and lots of work... (sigh)



Days 1&2 (Atlanta to Durango):



Well, as most times the plan didn't hold... My plan was to go to Helena, Montana Ò again Ò via Durango, Colorado, Saturday night in time to have some beers with some more Tiger riders, who would get together for one of this year's Tiger Ride-Ins that weekend. After that I had a day of 'sightseeing' in mind before super-slabbing it to Montana on Monday. For that I had to cover the first 1600 miles to Durango in two days.



It was 11:30 am on Friday before I was finally able to hit the road! It's amazing how all these things that 'just need to be done before you leave' accumulate before departure... Oh well... Gased up, geared up, and hyped up I hit the road right in to the heart of Atlanta. Rush hour was passed and before I knew it I passed the first of many state lines: Sweet west of my home Alabama! And was promptly greeted by the AL-mighty state animal: The tar snake:







Superslabbing is good for covering distance and making time, but usually not the preferred choice for a scenic ride (at least on the east half of the continent). Yet passing the town of Riverside I got to see some great scenery also. Waterfront property is a great thing!







Which changed into some architecture that is out of this world. I had a ball seeing this:







And before I knew it I was in Tennessee passing the bridge



into the next state:





Four down... Then I got to Oklahoma. Five down. Stayed the night near OK-city and was on the slab again 7:30am the next day. That's when it REALLY started to get VERY windy... Didn't seem to be a rare occurrence, though:



Texas... Six down... And on we went with the cat just eating up the miles and me baking in the sun...





After a while I came across this thing:





They claim it to be the biggest one in the Western hemisphere. While I cannot proof them wrong I have a hard time believing it, however. It was a good landmark, though, to make the ride not so monotonous. Yet I did have an I-90 flashback here. Remember I-90 from my last trip?



Photo taken a few hundred miles due north. This is what I had to get behind me in order to get to Durango:





Lotsa North-South similarities. These were man-made, though. I would get natural ones quite frequently further on in the trip. The closer I got to Durango the more uneven the landscape got. I felt like Luky Luke riding into the sunset after a hero-job well done: "I'm an ole lonesome comboy..."





New Mexico... Seven down... Evening light brings out the colors and the surface structure of the lands:



and make for nice dork shots





One day I will get a good one in... Soon after that shot the sun was gone and so was the light. Colorado... Eight down...



I made it to Durango that night around 10pm and tried to find the guys. Evidently bad weather had all but a couple convinced to leave early to hopefully avoid it. Some did not get lucky in doing so: 50 mph gusts and hard rain made those 1000 mile trips less than enjoyable.



It turned out that the ones that did stay behind had gone to grab some grub somewhere. No tellin' where and for how long. So I couldn't bunk with them. Since I didn't have any reservations made (my trip was not completely certain until a couple of days before I left) I tried to get a room. However: everything was booked! Football games, fall colors, and plain ol' tourists had taken any chance from me to sleep in a bed that night. And any other option to sleep in a bed would have made my wife very angry. So there went my two options...



What to do? StrikingViking is very right: the adventure starts when things stop going as planned! So I decided to follow the path I had laid out for Sunday and maybe come across a motel along the way where I could crash. On I went on US-160 heading West... By now it was almost 11pm, cold, dark, and the road full of deer. I had to dodge them left and right. As a matter of fact it got pretty annoying. I wasn't in a hurry or what not, but being tired, cold, and exhausted don't go well with dodging deer on a motorcycles. So when I saw the sign for the Fallen Tree campground I pulled in right away. Since I was planning on doing some camping the next weekend I had all my camping gear with me. Being tired, cold, and exhausted not only don't go well with deer and motorcycles, but also with pitching a tent! It was dark, I had the Maglite between my teeth, and shivered my way through putting up the tent (it was in the lower 40 by then and after over 840+ miles - 600 in strong and gusty side winds; you can even see the uneven wear on the tires... unreal! - I didn't have much resistance against the cold left).



Finally I had the tent up (the I one I wanted to sleep in, suckers!!!), the sleeping bag in, and just needed to tidy up the campsite a bit when I opened my tank bag and found the left-over, empty beef jerky bag! Shit! Pointing my Maglite around the area revealed no enlightenment about safe-boxes anywhere!!! And that's when the bears came into the equation...



To be continueth...

[GatorTiger]

So there I was. In the middle of the woods, total darkness, all alone, with a beef jerky bag. Regular flavor... Yet empty... And nowhere to bear-safe-put it. The only thing I could think off is to put it into my hard cases hoping that the fact that the bag was empty and that the cases are watertight also seals in the flavor; essentially at least not attracting any wild beasts.



Off to sleeping bag...



So I was lying there all bundled up in my tent, trying to get warm and to go to sleep, trying to ignore my paranoia...



Suddenly: THUMP! What was that? Sounded like a tree trunk hitting the ground... Then: "ROOOOAAAAR"!!! By now I'm upright! Oh shit!!! - "rooooaaaar" - There it was again! From a different direction... WTF? Ok now! Stay calm! Just pull the blanket over your head and everything will be fine. Right?! "ROOOOAAAAR" F*ck!



Well, I tried to go to sleep anyway. By the way, did I mentioned that I was unarmed??? So throughout the night every time, after a few minutes of silence, just when I was drifting off into lala-land: "ROOOOAAAAR" and "rooooaaaar"... Thump!!!! Ok now... Time to die...



It finally got to be 6:30am... I was shivering. Guess I was not dead yet! So, sticking just my head out the tent I was checking the territory. Any sounds? Just birds chirping and the wind gently flowing through the trees... Safe!! I took a deep breath and was trying not to think about the terrors of last night. I guess I got about 2 hours of sleep in 10 min intervals. THUMP!!!!!!! I swirled around to where the sound came from. And there it was: the bathroom! And a guy with a relieved look on his face stumping across the lawn to his RV. "ROOOOAAAAR" Ò right behind me! I swung around again: Nothing! Well, looks like there is some elk or dear farm behind the trees and that was what I heard!



Needless to say I felt like quite an idiot!! Bathroom doors as tree trunks, elks as bears... Oh boy... This wasn't the first time I camped out in the woods, but the first time in bear territory. And with the beef jerky and all... Paranoia city!



So while laughing at myself I started to get my campsite packed up. The setting wasn't so bad:





Sunday! Scenic day! Skipping breakfast I got an early start on my first target:





It is about 20 miles from the entrance to the lodge where the ranger at the gate told me they had a breakfast bar. Like the sound of that!! The road in the park is awesome!!! Started off nicely indeed:





At the lodge I got me some anti-freeze:





That felt good! Time to suck up the area! The view was a good promise of things to come (click on panoramas for full view!):

(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/96634257-O.jpg)



(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/96754641-O.jpg)



And here they are:







To think that this structure alone is part of an 80-room setup is incredible:





But Mesa Verde is not just one little set of buildings. The whole area has these things clinging to the walls like bee-houses:







Well, I couldn't stay forever, so i had to get on those nice roads again and head on:





Mesa Verde is the most fascinating park I have been to so far. It's because it is  not just nature at its best, but it also has a human element to it. Highly recommended!!!!



And off it goes to the next target... Scenery: lots; roads: well...





Harley territory...



And here we are Ò four corners:





Aaaaaaaaaaand: flashback to my 1989 trip in the area:





I figured the StrikingViking salute would be more appropriate than the FYYFF one:





Hey wait! Why is that hand behind my back?? Guess they "re-surfaced" the area since my last visit...



And off I was to the next target...

[GatorTiger]

Only a skip and a jump from Four Corners the drive is very intense! Scenic, vistas, goosebumps! Just having the cat in front of this is nice IMHO:





But when you open up the curtain to the whole view around it reaches another level Ò click on picture for larger version:

(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/96634330-O.jpg)



The colors along the way are just incredible! The blue of the sky and reds of the rock with the green of the, err, greens paints a magnificent scenery:





Guess they tried to get the hat going somewhere else and it didn't work right:





Here is one tossed in for MikeO ( hope you feel better Mike!!!):





And finally I got to the hat... In 1989 I had visited this place already for the first time:





Not much has changed since then...





But I guess Dr. Zeuss would have like that "Cat'n a hat" !!!!





And now it's time to see how the cat can climb walls!!!! Namely this:





To be continueth...

[BULLman]

Great pics :!:



Thanks for sharing :D

[wonko the sane]

Another good story and pics!



P.S. :  Thanks for the heads-up on MikeO.   I didn't know he was back in the States; much less about the deer.

[GatorTiger]

Thanks y'all! I was gone over the weekend in Yellowstone and stuff. All my rooms didn't have www connection. I still have some pics to upload, link them into the stories, and some more to post... Stay with me... ;-)

[GatorTiger]

...the wall:





For those who don't know where and what it is: It's a switchback gravel road located about 15 miles north of Mexican Hat on Utah-261 and covers about 1100 ft of height over 3 miles of road. Looks something like this:





Can you make out the cars at the switchback left of the center of the picture?

A friend of mine and I went over the dugway in 1992. Got to the top plateau just before sunset. Quite an experience! And of course I didn't take any pictures back then! Why? "I don't recall, sir!  Kirk, James T... Service Number..."



And of course something did (again) not go as planned this time... This is the first picture of another panorama I wanted to get. Took it and the the camera didn't want to take any more...





What? Come to find all my panoramas with all their pics had filled up the memory card. And of course I didn't have any spare with me. And of course I wanted to keep on taking pictures of the dugway. So, step into my makeshift office!





By finding a pullout in the next switchback I got my laptop out and transferred all the pics to it. Took a few minutes, but what a spot to take a break:





Click on this for the big picture (guess you guys know that by now... ):

(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/96634433-O.jpg)



(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/96634546-O.jpg)



When I parked my cat here





to take the pics above I was just getting ready to shoot when I heard this female voice next to me say "Datt isseene schoene Strahsse, Werner!" A male voice answered "Escht jeil, datt" (And for those not fluent in Ruhrpott slang here is the translation: "Very fine road indeed, isn't it, Stuart?" "Indeed very much so, my dear honeyblossom"...



I went over and started talking to them. Two couples from Germany touring the area: Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, San Francisco... They came across the dugway by accident on their way to the Natural Bridges National Park. They didn't know anything about it and were absolutely thrilled to have found it. And again the past flashed back at me. When I did my trip back in 1989 I also wanted to see these things: Well known, touristy things. Typical things. The only 'exploring' I did is to go from place to place on side roads only, no interstates. And meeting these couples got me thinking: What drives us to go to all the 'typical' places? Why do we need to go and see all these things that everybody has seen? There is so much to see left and right off the beaten path. Who would go to Paris and NOT see the Eiffel Tower? Who would go to Rome and NOT see the Colosseum? Is it because we want to 'keep up' with all the other people we know that have been 'there'? We sure are all adventurous enough to go places nobody else goes to. So why is it that we either get off the beaten path by a great distance, or staying on it. Why not wonder off left and right a bit? We can't go and see what EVERYBODY else has seen. Why not set the standard and go see what nobody else has seen yet? I find that more appealing! Glenn, this one's for your trips:



But back to the ride report... and that will bring me here:







To be continueth...

[GatorTiger]

This park has a round course with the three main bridges being visible from pull-outs from the road. Here is the first one:





Why does the rock in front stir nasty thought?





Number two (I took the eye cap off for the picture):

(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/96633283-O.jpg)



And number three:

(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/96676600-O.jpg)



I'm curious: Why is this, err, park a National Monument and not a National Park? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?



Anyway... When I visited the area in 1992 my buddy and I ate at the Burr Trail Cafe. My plan was to eventually get to the same spot on this trip. The planned way led through the Glen Canyon, Lake Powell, to Boulder, UT. I wanted to get there today, do breakfast at the cafe, then do the slabbin' to Helena for my work assignment.



The sun was slowly setting, making for wonderful lighting, which brought out the colors and the structures of the area:







(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/96633687-O.jpg)







Anybody know what is wrong with this picture?





Nothing!!!! The speed limit is missing!!!!!!!!!



I didn't take many pictures in the area. One reason was that I wanted to get to Boulder before dark, and the other reason was: These roads are too great to stop all the time!!!! They are magnificent! Fast, scenic, open, no LEOs... Beautiful!!!



One time I did stop, though, to take care of yet another flashback. And that was at the Hite Village overlook. My buddy and I went there in 1992, when it looked like this:





and this is what it looks now:





Prrrettty scary!!! How many years do you guys think Lake Powell has before its gone??



All nice roads come to an end after a while. This one ended here (Hanksville):





This time there is something wrong with this picture:





All the way up from GA I had paid at most $2.60 for premium... Geez...



Sooooo.... Next I wanted to take UT-12 south to Boulder. In order to get there I needed to go through the Capitol Reef NP:





As the sun was setting the whole scenery became more and more surreal. Reds were turning into grays, the whole place started to look more and more like some moon... Hey, there was the sign for UT-12! Left turn... Up the hill, left and right, sweet!!! It's getting darker and darker... Why are there no other signs on this road? Like Boulder 30 miles or what not... Oh well... What now? Gravel? What is this? It took while, but I finally turned around and went back to the road that I came from. Sure enough: the sign said "to UT-12", not UT-12... Oh well, one more hour lost By now it's dark. Like in night dark. I continue on UT-24 towards Torrey. There is the NP campground! It's still early enough to pitch a tent. But the sign says "Full". Oh well, continue on... Damn, it's cold... I'm starting to realize how tired I am. After 2000 miles I felt the strain. I'm shivering. I'm starting to fade off... Time to stop for the night. And just as I was thinking that I saw a sign for a Best Western... Screw any camping plans, I turning in... Fortunately they had some vacancies!



After unloading the bike I walked across the street, got me a pizza, a beer, and a to-go box. I ate some of the pizza, left the rest for breakfast, downed the pizza, and hit the sack... La-La-Land got me again...



To be continueth...

[GatorTiger]

I woke up the next day around 7am. Good night's sleep indeed!! While nibbling on a piece of pizza I decided that I was not in the mood for pizza as breakfast food and to eat at the Burr Trail Cafe. In 1992 my friend and I had eaten there. Plan: breakfast!!! Then slabbin' to Helena. Good timing and should be in Helena by dinner time. Boy, was I off...



First I had to figure out where I was. I took the hotels card and put the address into MS Streets and trips. It showed me west of UT-12 between Torrey and the national park. So I must have passed it on the way when it was dark last night. Oh well, backtrack about 8 miles and I should be fine.



When I was done checking out I passed a few guys smoking just outside the lobby talking to o-so-familiar 'slang' I heard so much in early years. Come to find out they were a bunch of guys from the Sauerland (a kinda centrally located mountainous, well, hilly area... ). I asked them what they were up to and they said they were just touring the area: Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, San Francisco... Boy, did that sound familiar!! FLASH!!



So I fired up the cat and headed east. No sign for UT-12. But a sign stating that I was entering the park. Something was off... Probably my bearings. At the park's visitors center i got me a map of the park and started west again. Got to get to UT-12 eventually, right? Look! There is my hotel from last night again! I continued on and on, this time not relying on MS Sh*ts and Trips, but on my odometer. And sure enough: there was UT-12! Just about 2 miles after the hotel! So much for accurate address processing... Anyway... Left turn, south on UT-12...



Why am I shivering? I got a good night's sleep. Well, no real breakfast, but a slice of pizza and some water. Guess I need something more substantial. I should be at the cafe any minute now...



It was cold that morning:

(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/96633756-O.jpg)



But the sky was blue and the part from Torrey south on UT-12 is ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!! I didn't take any pics then since I figured I will be coming up that way in a little bit and mentally marked a few spots to stop on the return to take some pics: Dark brown and green pine mixed with light green and white birch with rays of sunshine lighting up the curves. Almost better then, well, you know...



In Boulder than I came across a Burr Trail Restaurant, Burr Trail Mesa, but I didn't see the cafe. In my memory the cafe sat all by itself on an inverse L-shaped street (stand in front of the cafe facing it a street would come in from your 9 o'clock and leave towards your 6 o'clock) in the middle of nowhere. I had tried the address for it in MS S&T and it showed it half between Boulder and Escalante. After my "Finding UT-12" episode there was no way that was right! So I figured it was on the Burr Trail itself and turned left into this small side road that had a sign for the Burr Trail showing.



I passed a few smalish farms, a road maintenance depot, and a campground. And before long I was greeted with this view:

(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/96633873-O.jpg)



Whoaw! I didn't remember from last time! Can you see the road snake off in the middle? My right hand got itchy and threw the cat in gear and blasted on! Nobody out here! Clear roads (a little of gravel once in a while and some sand from recent washouts), awesome scenery! Fanfriggentastic!!!!



When I got over the hill from the previous picture I looked into this:

(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/96633972-O.jpg)



Here is a detail of where the road was going:





This promised to be fun! So continued the few switchbacks down to the bottom and entered the canyon. And I was in total awe the entire time. Curvy roads, gold walls left and right, and me being the only one down here, giving a rats behind about the speed limit. What a rush!!! This has got to be one of the most BEAUTIFUL strips of road that I have been on EVER!!! Goosebumps all the way!!!

Here is a little appeteaser (watch the detail!!!)









(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/96634077-O.jpg)



It's hard to capture the light right with all that shadow and brightness. But I hope you get the {small pause}  picture  {small pause} baby!



When I "finally" got out of the canyon the road turned in to gravel a little down it, which I knew for sure my friend and I didn't do on in the rental last time. So do a 180 and go back. By this time I encounter more traffic. Guess folks had finished their breakfasts and were exploring the area. Saw a couple of bikes and a bunch of bikers (as in bicycle!!). Looked like I had to do that canyon one ore time! Darn!!



I finally got back to UT-12 without my photo and still without breakfast. What should I do? Go back up UT-12 and slab it to Helena now or continue on 12 going west with a chance to still find the cafe? So I pulled over, ate a couple of slices to feed the urgent urge to have something to eat and pressed on.



Back in 1992 I took this picture:





and just outside of Boulder I was able to take this one:





Notice the bikes on the road? They were coming towards me with a guy sitting on the other side of the road taping them while they were going by. The scenery was to great to pass on another panorama-op:

(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/96631096-O.jpg)



And on I go... By now I have already given up on the cafe. Later I realized that it was directly at that bend where UT-12 turns from going due south to going due west and where I had turned left into that road that would eventually lead me into the canyon. Only now there were more buildings and I didn't see the forest due to all the trees. Meaning I was looking for something I wanted to see and not seeing what was in my view... Oh well! Another time... But may be I should think this over while enjoying a coffee and a smoke?





By now it didn't make sense to go back and north. I was better of to press on via UT-12 to US-89 and then head to Salt Lake City, only to catch I-15 to Helena.



This would lead me right by Bryce Canyon. As I was approaching the area I had another flashback: Why does this area look so much like the badlands?



North:





South:





It seems to be a very common thing that there is little change in scenery going north-south, but very much so going east-west. Anyone else notice that?



Anyway... Just as I was getting to the Bryce Canyon entrance a couple of tour buses pulled in. Right then and there I lost all desire to maybe still go in (although it would be cutting it REALLY close getting to Helena at a decent time that night). Now I would even maybe possibly some time to spare.



Going though Red Canyon brought back some memories and helped not to regret NOT going into Bryce itself.











Did I have too much to drink?









(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/96634200-O.jpg)



It was nice desert for a wonderful morning. But now it was time to make some, err, time and distance. So gently I placed my hand on the stearing-head between the mirrors and whispered "Ri!" into the dash... And suddenly the wheelbase got longer, the revs higher, and the speed went through the roof... Salt Lake City, here I come! (I admit, if you don't know your Karl May you won't get that one...)



The ride was pretty uneventful, the scenery entertaining, but the miles dragged on. I got to SLC during rush hour. On top of total I-15 closure due to construction there was an accident. Traffic was nuts. Almost felt like home (Atlanta). Finally made it through and continued on. Sun was setting quickly and the temps went down as well. Still makes for nice contour shots, though:





After freezing my butte off pretty much the entire trip, and making far to many stops to warm up I finally got to Helena at 2:30am. Time to check in, settle down, and hit the sack so I could get up early the next day for work. Over 900 miles that day... Almost 2900 miles total in four days. Time to catch my breath a bit.



Next up: Yellowstone on the weekend...



To be continueth...

[wonko the sane]

Thanks for taking the time (away from sleep) to take the pics, write the narrative inserting the pics, and posting it to this site.  Hope you don't fall asleep on the road (or on the job) from doing all this.



And this thread keeps getting better and better. :D

[GatorTiger]

On popular request here is a small summary for the trip up to Helena so far: About 2900 miles in 3 days and 15 hours. And here are some details about my flightpath:



Overall:





Day 1:





Day 2:





Day 3:





Day 4:





Day 4 HD:





Last weekend I went through Yellowstone and Grand Teton Nps. Still have to write that up, but then I'm caught up. Why does work always interfere with fun? - Wait! My work is financing my fun right now!!!



To be continueth...

[GatorTiger]

Well, time to continue this report before you guys die of even more boredom than by reading my report...



Work had me in its grips all week. So although I wanted to do some exploring I didn't have time to do any. Shorter days and the accompanying shorter daylight hours put that whole exploring thing on the back bun burner unfortunately. {sigh}



So I had to save all the action for the weekend. When I was up in Montana last time I had originally thought about doing the Yellowstone loop on the day after I went to Glacier NP. Yeah, right... Fortunately, I stepped away from that plan and saved that trip for this one.



I left Friday after work to get some of the transit miles taken care of. I wanted to get to Columbia to spend the night and then do Beartooth Pass the next day and Yellowstone after that. And right on cue this weather system came through west to east the second half of the week bringing snow to everything above 7000 feet. Friday the whole thing was tapering off, but it was still making the weather miserable. I left Helena between showers when a few spots of blue skies were drifting towards where I wanted to go.



Needless to say the blue spots just lured me away and disappeared as soon as I was on the road. By the time I got to Big Timber I was cold, semi-wet, tired, hungry, and in no mood to press on any more. So I called it the night early and planned to start earlier the next day to compensate. The motels next to the interstate were booked (are there ANY vacant rooms any more? Seems like all of the US is traveling all the time...) so I had to pull a bit further into unknown territory and came across a little mom&pop place: The "Lazy J Motel". The room was cozy and clean and most of all: warm! It set the mood for the night perfectly:





But before I got too comfy I got me a sub and a beer to fulfill those physical needs. Time to snooze...



The next day I woke up to more blue sky than the day before. The view back to the west revealed what I might be encountering during this weekend:





I started the day early and skipped breakfast for now to gain some ground. When I got to the small, laid back little town of Red Lodge



it was time for some coffee and something to dip in it. After a latte and some bread sticks from the local bakery I felt warmed up and ready to take on Beartooth.



Just after I left Red Lodge the road started to do that scenic stuff right away:





It got colder and whiter the more I went on. Was kinda scary in the corners that were still in the shade. Is it wet? Is it ice? Is it a road repair?





The MDT websites I found to research the condition of the pass always showed the condition as dry. Yeah right! Eventually I hit this:





Well, not literally. But it put a damper on the mood. I was looking forward to this pass. Oh well, one door closes and another opens... Consulting the map I found this small through-way MT-308 and then turned south on MT-72, essentially paralleling Beartooth Pass going south. I could see why the pass was closed after all:





A bit south of Beartooth Pass is Dead Indian Pass. Guess that would serve as a good alternative for the closed other one. Hopefully it would not be closed as well!



The road leading to it is open range through private farmland. So besides deer and such you have to dodge steaks on legs as well:





Darn it, the weather is not looking too promising here either:





But the roads did look it:





After more of that fun (dry, twisty road) I reached the top





of the





Here is some more info on the history of it:





When I was in front of closed doors at the Beartooth Pass I was a bit disappointed. I was looking forward to going there and see the scenery. And boy did I find some!

(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/97657621-O.jpg)

or this:

(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/97657480-O.jpg)



Not only was the view of the valley stunning, the prospect of this road



made the whole experience, well, whole! The right street signs added the necessary spice to the dish:





All roads lead somewhere. Well, most roads anyway. This one merged with US-212 to go to the North-East entrance of Yellowstone. But on the path to there travelers need to endure a hole called Cooke City. It is after all a very cozy place, laking a bit flourishing, though:





And I found proof that the economy is indeed driven (or not driven! ) by the price of oil:





I guess they pour all the money thay make off the oil into the housing market, because the roads turned pretty crappy as soon as I left, err, town. Yet that didn't stop me to get here:





To be continueth... (gotta do some work now... )

[GatorTiger]

Since animal stories seem to be a part of this trip, why should my first Yellowstone encounter be any different?

I had just passed the entrance when about a quarter mile down the road I see these:





Now the cagers have some protection around them. But what about me? And these things are known for their unpredictable behavior. And the only way was to go past them, or out the gate again (not an option!). Sooooo... First gear and let'er roll in low RPMs. "Hey guys, I'm not a target! Keep your grass! I don't smoke anyway! I just wanna get by..."

When I was about 15 feet away the bigger one turned towards me and started walking. My right hand did it all by itself, I swear! The cat jumped all of a sudden and past the beasts I went, heart pounding and all. In the rear view mirror I saw the bigger bison looking in my direction, surely being disappointed in having missed this opportunity! Time to chill:



Fall was definitely here...

And my next animal encounter was not so exciting (in a good way!):





When I came to the first cross roads I turned southwest towards Tower Falls. After all this was one of THE sights to see, right? The views on the way getting there started out to be promising:





When I got the parking lot from where the foot path goes to Tower Falls a few tour buses had just unloaded. Masses of tourists. And with that my desire to go and see the falls went to zero! Why bother? It's just another waterfall, right? I've seen many in my days all over the world and was not going for a swim in the masses to see 'another one'. No spank you very much!



BTW: The more I think about it it's more the non-touristy stuff that draws me in (see mind games in previous posts...). No, we do not ride to merely see stuff, we ride to experience stuff. And what kind of an experience would that bath in the masses be? So on I pressed without stopping.



Higher and higher I got. The landscape turned into a winter wonderland. At least when there were no tourists around;





It was really nice! My cats first real encounter with the with the white stuff was during this trip:





At the next intersection was a gas station. Make no mistake: Yellowstone is HUGE! I started off with about half a tank of gas (which should last me at least 120 miles), but I wanted to play it safe and filled up on gas, snacks, and Ò you guessed it Ò Gator-aide!!



Should I go and see the Old and the Faithful? I visited some geysers in Iceland back in the 90s, so I opted against it. Daytime nightmares of more buses and more tourists haunted me into turning further south, heading towards the southern entrance. More bison were around the corner:







yet this time they paid no attention to me. As a matter of fact, they didn't pay any attention to anything that was going on around them. And you wanna know why? Here is the reason:





Tourist oversaturation! They had warned me about these "metal tourist snakes", but geez... Buses with a gazillion faces and cameras and noses pressed firmly against the windows to fill up those memory cards with pics of wild animals. Cars stopped and passengers posing in front of bison just missing the sign "dairy devil". What a spectacle! Yet, in itself also an experience!



Yellowstone Lake shows the predominant weather in the park for that day very nicely:

(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/97657017-O.jpg)



Gray and and somewhat dreary. Yet I enjoyed every mile of the trip! I could get used to that leisurely pace and do entire trips that way one day...



On my way I did get to see some geysers after all!





It's fascinating how Yellowstone is part of this humongous caldera, that Ò if it erupted Ò would blast the entire planet into a cold night. And to see evidence of this situation all over the place: that's an experience!





I always imagined Yellowstone as this place containing a lot of canyons, mountain peaks and stuff like that. Wrong! Compared to what's around it it's actually pretty flat. The peaks are in the south:





Namely here:





But that is another installment! To be continueth...

[GatorTiger]

Man, what a week... What do you do in an understaffed office with (fortunately) lots of work? Work your ass off! When I came home in the evenings i was too kaputt to write anything. So now it's the weekend and I want to wrap this up. But not before I got that cherry on the icing produced. That might take a bit longer, though.



Anyways, where were we??? Ah yes, Teton National Park!



The park itself is one of the few without an entrance fee. Maybe it's because it's just road to get to Yellowstone?! The vistas are incredible, however! While I expected Yellowstone to be a bit more mountainous and it was not, Teton made up for it:



(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/97657159-O.jpg)



Too bad that there is no "road" road going there... I guess there are paths and hiking trails and all. Yet with a bike it's not accessible. Anyone know different? I might go back then...some time...in the future...



The fall colors in the evening sun were amazing. I just love the light green of the birches with the dark green of the pines and the oranges and reds from the rest...





At the first intersection I got to I turned right to stay on my loop-route. The nice thing about the road that IS there, though, is that you have all the peaks in your view the whole time. Makes for nice views:

(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/97657285-O.jpg)



The final approach corridor for Jackson Hole airport goes right through the valley. When I saw the first plane I was not aware of it and thought that the pilot had lost it... The way that is... But when I saw a few more taking the same route that evening it dawned on me...

Can you make out the plane? The very first one was so close that I saw the white in the pilot's eye (kind of...) This one was bit further away:





But where do I turn in for the night? Maybe something to eat first? This sounds promising:







Weeeeell... then again... Better press on to Micheal Jackson's Hole... Which didn't look the least bit as I imagined it:





Hey, just realized (aka: remembered) that the Gators are playing tonight! So I turned into a quaint motel on the side of the road and made myself comfy in my cozy and warm cabin after a nice dinner and cold brew. Sweet slumber!!! And victory over Kentucky!!! Go Gators!!



To be continueth...