July 30- Aug 1st Yellowstone National Park

Home of the Bizarre, the Odd, the Awe Inspiring, the Strange and the Amazing!

As you follow the road from Jackson Hole towards Yellowstone Park, you pass the Grand Tetons. They are a fantastically jagged mountain range.

My sister Tabea met up with us in Jackson Hole so we had a vehicle to tour the park in for a few days....what a treat!

Since we had no bike rack for the car we had to stow all our camping gear, our panniers, three days worth of food for three people, two bikes and all three of us into Tabea's car. 

Hmm.....will it all fit???????

We DID IT!

I sat in the back most of the time so the picture below was basically my view of Yellowstone Park. Well, no it was not quite so bad. Haha. I cannot believe we got everything in! Tabea's car is just incredible and so is she for letting us do this to her four wheeled "Mountain Goat".

Look, I can still type on a keyboard because I did not feed the bears in Yellowstone!

This is a dead hot spring in Yellowstone Lake next to several still active ones. 

A huge, steamy hot spring. As far as I remember, this one did not smell too bad of rotten eggs like some others. Isn't it gorgeous!? Just a deep hole in the earth out of which clear blue, hot water gets forced to the surface and runs down towards the lake in colourful rivulets.

Old Faithful Geyser!!! It erupts about every 90 minutes and each eruption lasts about 1-2 minutes. When you first get there all you see is a tiny bit of steam being released from a shallow cone (below). Not very exciting at all! 

 Suddenly the cone starts to sputter and spit!!!.....

 ....hot water and steam shoot up in the air.....

 ....and within a few seconds you find yourself sitting in front of a 30m high water fountain. What amazed me is how quiet the whole show was. All you heard was the gentle sound of spraying water...and a minute or so later the fountain dies and is reduced to the insignificant plume of steam you saw in the first picture. WOW!

Another huge hot spring. It is actually a geyser which erupts every who knows how many years.

If you have ever dreamed of hiking in a sauna, Yellowstone is the place for you!!!

Amazing photo ops everywhere! This is one of the rivulets running off from one of the hot springs. The orange colours are due to extremophile bacteria colonies which feel quite at home in Yellowstone's various harsh, sulfurous environments.

Interesting crystal formation around the edge of a smaller hot spring. 

Later in the evening we spotted a small herd of bison in a meadow. They are so huge!!! and the bulls look so impressively grumpy. Don't wanna mess with them. 

More amazing natural bizonders (my newly coined word for a wonderful bizarre "thing") 

Frothing mud. So tempting to stick my toe in it. 

This cave was one of my favourite sites in the park. It was called Dragons Mouth or something like that. You could hear it roaring and hissing from quite a distance. Water pours out in gushes accompanied with lots of steam and throaty gurgling, growling and sputtering sounds from inside the cave. Supposedly those sounds are generated by the steam forcing its way through the water from deep down inside the earth. (I hate to say it but mother earth has terrible breath)

An acidic, churning pool of smelliness.

The famous Lower Falls of Yellowstone Park. 

The "Grand Canyon" of Yellowstone. Quite spectacular. 

At one point we were driving along the road when traffic suddenly slowed down and eventually stopped moving.....in the middle of nowhere. What the heck is going on? After a while Mr. Bison came strolling up the opposite lane. He clearly knows this is his park and any vehicle has to yield to his whims. It looked like he had no intentions of leaving this nicely paved path, also known as a highway, any time soon. Funny. 

July 27-29 Jackson Hole, Wyoming

We hit the Farmer's Market in Jackson Hole to sell more photos. Wow, what a touristy place! We spend most of the day in the town square where most of the action was happening. In the evening we were in to view the annual Jackson Hole Shoot Out. Several actors put on an entertaining show of first class wild west conflict resolution. The costumes were great and about three people "died" after some hefty gunfire from both directions. 

Just across the road was the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. If you are ever in Jackson Hole, definitely stop there. Instead of bar stools they have western saddles for the customers to sit on. Super cool. Luckily the effects of the Howling Wolf beer I had wore off quickly because I doubt James would have appreciated his cycling partner howling her way down the highway :-)

We spent a second day at the village square to sell more cards. In the picture below you can see the square entrance gate made of elk antlers. This is also where we met Martin and Christine from Switzerland. I wish I had taken a picture of their little daughter who was so determined to finish her melting chocolate ice cream that she ended up smearing it all over her little face and pouring it down her dress. So cute! (if you are not the parent)

Hello Everybody,

Greetings from Lethbridge Alberta! I dont have time to give a detailed update of the last several weeks so I will just do it in a few words for now.

Since we had our amazing ice cream treat in Farson, Wyoming, we spent two days in Jackson Hole, WY, where my sister Tabea met us. We then drove to Yellowstone Park with her and toured the sights such as Old Faithful Geyser, the mud holes and numerous hot springs etc.

From there we went on to Salmon, Idaho, to Lou and Ama's place where we were earlier on our way down to Colorado. They took us on an amazing hike up to some local hot springs for an early morning bath.

From there we rode north to Flathead Lake where we visited Ken again at his lake house.

After that we rode on through Glacier National Park and then Waterton Park, where my parents met us for a few days. Now we are in Lethbridge, Alberta, and in a few minutes will continue our trip east. We hope to make it to Winnipeg before the end of the month so updates will be scarce until then unless we get a bad weather day. Since winter is not so far away anymore we would like to make use of the warmer weather to ride as far as possible towards the east coast.

All the above will be updated with pictures and a more detailed account later.

thanks for your patience!

Love ya all,

Linda

July 18 - 26th Estes Park, Loveland, Fort Collins, COLORADO; Laramie, Rock Springs, Farson, WYOMING

Hello Blog, I am back! Yes we are still alive and very well! Sorry, we had some bad luck with libraries and trying to find libraries along the way so my blog is now REALLY behind. Hahaha! the joys of travelling. Don't worry, I will get everything updated as soon as possible, as always, which may be several weeks. Thanks for your patience :-)

This will be a speedy account of 9 speedy days. From Estes Park we rode north towards Loveland, CO, where a friendly couple  let us camp on their porch. From there we headed up to Fort Collins and then further up into Wyoming.

This photo was taken just outside of Laramine, WY. Southern Wyoming is a very flat, arid landscape which be both admired and hated, for the lack of shade during the sweltering mid-day heat.

We met Tom at the library in Laramie. He and his wife Sue are touring cyclists as well and we promptly got invited to stay at their house that night. We really appreciated it because a big thunderstorm was approaching. They fed us amazing food and even cycled a little ways with us the next morning. THANKS TOM AND SUE. WE HOPE YOUR TRIP OVER EAST WAS FANTASTIC!!

This was along the Interstate just outside of Rawlins on the way to Rock Springs, southern Wyoming. In this area, there is a constant westerly wind which made west-bound riding very difficult and frustrating.

Antelopes beside the highway

We only made it half way to Rock Springs that day, because of the strong head wind and scorching heat. We found an interstate underpass that was closed to traffic but it made a wonderful cool and shady place to sit out the heat, evening rainstorm and later on sleep. A few coyotes howled in the distance but other than that we had no disturbance that night. Earlier that day, the underpass made for a wonderful dance hall (thanks to James' battery powered speakers).

Sunset in the Wyoming desert. These "fences" are windbreaks and are a common sight in this area.

Rock Springs, FINALLY! At a free outdoor concert in a park, we met Chris and his wife Amanda. They invited us to stay at their house that night. THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR HOSPITALITY. BEST WISHES TO YOUR FAMILY!!!!!!!

From Rock Springs we headed north towards Farson. This is a tiny town at a junction in what seems the middle of nowhere. However, it has the BEST ice cream place we have come across so far. For only about $3 you get such a huge amount of ice cream that the cone has to be put upside down in a bowl otherwise all the ice cream would fall off the cone. I am a bit mad at myself for not having taken a picture of our ice creams but we had been looking forward to eating it since we first heard of this place in Laramie so I totally forgot about taking a picture until the ice cream was all gone. I can assure you that it was ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!

Gorgeous clouds and sun beams

That night we camped in the middle of the desert between Farson and Pinedale. Just great!

Okay that was short and sweet. 9 days blogged-up in one shot! Yay!

July 17th - Trail Ridge Road, U.S. Route 34

Highest Thru-Pass in North America,12,183 ft (3,713 m)!!!!!!!

We left Grand Lake, CO, early in the morning and enjoyed a beautiful ride through Rocky Mountain National Park. The air was crispy cool and the scent of pine needles filled the valley. 

About half way up the pass we took a break at a view point pullout beside the road. We started chatting to this couple from Kansas City, Mike and Lisa. They offered us cool water from their cooler and they also gave each of us a bottle gatorade. We had not finished thanking them when Mike offered to make us a snack with Ritz crackers (!!!! yum), cheese and deer sausage that he had made from deer he hunted. WOW DELICIOUS!!!!! As if that was not enough, Mike and Lisa told us they were staying at Colorado cottages in Estes Park on the other side of the pass and that we should come knock on their door when we get there. They said they would take us out for dinner!!!!! What generosity!!!! We could not help but accept such a tempting offer. So, we kept on climbing the pass while they went on a hike for the day. 

The view below is from the visitor center almost at the top of the pass. We were lucky to get there when we did because a thunder storm was approaching fast. Since food was not allowed inside the center (so dumb) we found a dry strip of ground outside under the awning where we had lunch. Once the rain passed we set up our photo card booth again to raise some funds for groceries. I cannot remember that day's total but people were very generous once again. Here I must emphasize that despite the poor reputation Americans receive around the world, we have experienced utmost kindness and generosity in this country.  THANKS TO Y'ALL YANKEES! YOU ROCK!!!

 MADE IT!!!! (+12,000ft)

We ran into Mike and Lisa again at the top of the pass as they were returning from their hike. They then  offered to not just take us out for dinner but told us they would find us a nice place to stay for the night. No, not a nice campsite. They were going to get us a cabin or a motel room!!!! Needless to say, we were baffled. They insisted on it so we thanked them and promised to come knock on their door once we got to Estes Park.

Great view from the top!

Some elk hanging out beside the road. The descent was fantastic. Mile after mile just downhill all the way to Estes Park (except for a little 1/4 mile uphill)

We found Mike and Lisa at Colorado Cottages where they had reserved the last cabin for us. It was a spacious room with a huge bed, a full kitchen, bathroom and a cute little porch. Once we got settled in and showered they drove us to one of their favourite restaurants. (I think it was called Nicky's or something like that) The ceiling was covered in grappa bottles signed by the drinkers. 

We had a great time and ate until we were about to burst. They then also ordered us a huge piece of Chocolate Mousse cake to-go. We nibbled at it before going to bed because it just looked too good (sorry no pic of it.) but we saved the rest for breakfast.

 

James, Me, Lisa and Mike

Colorado Cottages!!!! No, I am not getting paid to advertise for them but I cannot help but recommend them. It was such a lovely place and the owners were super kind.

Our cottage

The bikes loved it too!

This is where we had a most scrumptious breakfast...scrambled eggs, toast, fruit, CHOCOLATE MOUSSE CAKE!!! and while we were in the middle of munching on all this, Mike showed up with a bag of breakfast donuts from the local donut place down the road. I must say they were the best donuts I have had for a loooong time. 

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING, MIKE AND LISA. YOUR GENEROSITY IS TRULY INSPIRING!!!

I could not help but capture the ultimately patriotic bedspread. It has Barak Obama's inauguration speech printed all over it. I did not read it all but I sure slept well that night :-) Thanks Barak.