Leftover pizza for breakfast, cold, no microwave in the room. But the room did include a piece of plywood to put under the kickstand so as not to scuff their new asphalt driveway.
Headed out to Yellowstone. Not a lot of traffic, which was one of my worst fears. Nothing ruins a day like sitting on top of a bike in bumper to bumper traffic. In fact, at the East Gate we rolled right up, no wait.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. The 50 or so miles between Cody and Yellowstone were spectacular. Huge cliffs and rivers always work well together. Very little traffic helps a lot too. I think I only had to pass a couple of land yachts along the way.
Once at Yellowstone we encountered a lot of dead burnt trees. I recall they had a fire here several years ago, give or take, and I guess this is some of the aftermath.
We ask ourselves, why do all the coffee cups, magnets, aprons, and sweatshirts have moose on them....? Must be a licensing thing with the moose. They probably get rich with the government using their likeness.
After the interrogation we decided to go to Artist's Point, I think. It's a beautiful waterfall and an awesome canyon. Ansel Adams shot from here as well as other famous photographers such as Kathy Thompson. Quite a few people were gathered here taking pictures or posing for pictures or just standing helplessly in the way. We met a nice couple that offered to take our pictures so we wouldn't have to do the selfies that we love doing.... Kathy gave up her camera to the man that offered his photographic skills and we smiled accordingly...much thanks and small talk about the adventures of riding and off they go. We checked the pictures to see how he had done and .....wait for it....he hadn't succeeded in taking a single picture...
Back on the bike we circumnavigate Yellowstone counter-clockwise. Stopping to take pictures like the rest of the tourist, elk, geysers, mud pots, and steam vents. The wonderful smell of sulphur permeating the air.
Finally we get to the star attraction...Old Faithful. As we pull into the parking lot, people are leaving.....It had just erupted....so, checking the scheduled next appearance we find we must wait 90 minutes for another performance....6:30 PM.
.
Wait we did...in the halls of Old Faithful's gift shop...perusing fine merchandise from all over the world, namely, China.
Speaking of China I nearly forgot. As we were leaving one of the geysers a gentleman was examining my bike. Kat and I started stowing our cameras and I asked him if he liked my bike. In broken English he replied yes he did. Soon we were talking about motorcycles and his tour guide was talking about leaving. In a rush I found out his name was Lee and was from China. He showed me pictures of his Yamaha 650 he had back home in China and I told him how Kathy didn't like to pop wheelies. Kathy took a couple of pictures with his cell phone and he was gone like that. An instant friend from a far away country. I wish I could have exchanged email or Facebook addresses.
Back to Old Faithful...We sit in a large semi-circular arena and waited for the star to appear. It gave a couple of teasing eruptions and Kathy told the very nice Chinese girls setting next to us that....that was it. So one minute before the main eruption they got up to leave...Whoa, no, wait, comeback. There is more...
Whew, that was close...
Old Faithful finally erupted and the crowd roared,,,but maybe not so loud. Maybe we're all a bit jaded now with the make believe we see on the big screen to be wowed by the real thing.
After the eruption we headed west for Montana. West Yellowstone to be exact. This is where all the tour buses come and drop off their Chinese clients. Seriously. I looked for Lee in the throngs and didn't see him, but I bet he was there or had been there. All the hotels were expensive and we wound up staying in a 50's style cabin with 50's style plumbing.
I slept like a log and dreamed of buffalo...
They kept in their lane.
Link to Facebook pics Day 7 - Cody WY, to West Yellowstone, MT
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