In Memory of Warmer Summers

Grant Village, Yellowstone National Park (WY) to Hebgen Lake Dam, Montana

Rude horn honks: 3

Continental Divide crossings: 2

Total Divide crossings so far: 8

Miles: 76

Total so far: 3,463

Yellowstone Lake in the morning

We left Yellowstone National Park today and bid goodbye to Wyoming, entering Montana near the town of  West Yellowstone.  But before we left “the park” as it is referred to, we engaged in the tourist thing, like all the good folks that visit this wonderful national park, we saw buffalo, elk,  osprey, and whatever else was to see including a stop at Old Faithful Lodge for lunch and the noontime show of the geyser.  This delayed us considerably, but we sacrificed the time to get in what we could.

Old Faithful...it was a little bit late, actually

Oh, yea. I said it would be cold? My tent fly was sheathed in ice, the outside from dew, the inside from condensation. We made breakfast in camp at 20 some degrees.

Our transition out of Wyoming included a stop at West Yellowstone, Montana for groceries and a light snack.  We picked back up on the Madison River which we followed out of Wyoming, and circled around north of Hebgen Lake, and then arrived at our stop for the evening just below the dam.  The view so far of Montana is post-card perfect.  Sallie remarked that it looked like pictures of Switzerland.

We arrived in camp at 6:30, with showers, laundry, and dinner to get prepared and finished before retiring.  That makes for a long day, but the scenery was first class all day long.

Yellowstone Lake and remnants of the fires. The new growth is amazing, but young at only 23 years.

Wood carvings by fire - 1988

Firehole River; Jimmy from Cincinatti with a rainbow trout caught on his second cast with nymph

The Madison River (with buffalo in the background)

Buffalo with two young ones...no time for pictures, but I got this one as we were beyond them

...a little better

Best! (these are a little unnerving from a bicycle)

The Madison River with elk bedded down

Bojan Pucelj, from Croatia east bound, Oregon to Virginia.

Leaving Wyoming; leaving Yellowstone; hello Montana!

Hebgen Lake, Montana

Suddenly, the hillsides in Montana are covered with wildflowers. Do they plant this stuff?

Maybe landscape designers have been at work in Montana?

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Tomorrow’s ride will be dedicated to Katharine Mary Byrd

Katharine Mary Byrd

Katharine may Byrd, from Wolf Point, Montana was killed in a motor vehicle collision involving a drunk driver on October 2, 2003.  Katharine was 18 years old.