Thursday 9/16 (Gardiner, MT to West Yellowstone, MT.

Looming over the open landscape like the last relic of a city wall, Roosevelt Arch was erected from volcanic basalt in 1903, creating the North entrance to America's first national park.... Yellowstone. After adding to Uncle Sam's coffers to enter the park we pay for with our tax dollars, we headed to Mammoth Hot Springs and then East on the Beartooth Senic Highway. Initial plans called for us to traverse the Beartooth Pass to Red Lodge Montana and come back to the park through Cody Wyoming. We decided instead to climb to the summit and retrace our steps back Cooke City and then down around the grand loop that would take us past Fishing Bridge, Yellowstone Lake and Old Faithful and then to the west gate of Yellowstone where we fortunately had reservations. This would shorten our mileage some plus keep Gerry from being 20 miles short on the range he can travel between fuel stops. An added benefit was that all of our travel could be in daylight. Yellowstone with its prolific wildlife is no place to be driving after dark. Much of our travels in the park were at slow speeds with frequent stops to view sights and wildlife. Bison were in abundant supply and we enjoyed one such mammoth animal walking calmly along the road. We also viewed a large bull elk on the banks of Yellowstone Lake. He wanted to climb the small hill to cross the road, but I was in his way. For a short time he gave me the "get out of my way look" and then just decided to continue eating the tasty shrubs he had been dining on. Never the less, I never turned my motor off and was ready to shread some tire rubber to get out of Dodge had he moved in my direction one more step.

The highlight of the day was definitely the trip up Beartooth pass. We climbed to 11,000 feet and I actually took a picture of my GPS pegged on that altitude. To say this road is spectacular does not do it justice. The turns for the last several miles above the tree line are like anything you will see in travel books for the Alps in Europe. 180 degree switchbacks with a 30+ MPH crosswind and steep climbs in between were enough to keep our attention focused on the road. Gerry said he was having some trouble negotiating them and felt like a rookie on his bike in spite of nearly 50,000 miles together. Rich and I contribute it to the fact that the surface of the earth in Yellowstone subsides or bulges by several inches annually due to the migration of molten rock below the surface. At least that is the story we told Gerry to go with, and we would swear to it. :-)
All in all, it was a very tiring day. We all think riding at slow speeds and stopping often is more fatiguing than cranking off the miles at high speeds on straight roads. You use more muscles to guide the bike through the turns and balance it than when the wheels are producing more gyroscopic stability at higher speeds. At least that is what we surmise. What do we know? We are bankers not engineers. Well maybe except for Mac..
We ended the day with our traditional dip in the pool and hot tub and none us had enough energy to go out for dinner, so we inhaled two pizzas that Joe had delivered. I hope you enjoy the pictures... a camera simply can not capture all the beauty we saw today.