Snowing in Yellowstone

Leaving Jackson Hole on Saturday the temperature plummeted rapidly as we went north to Yellowstone, just about 10degC for most of the day. The heated seats and grips came in handy. Animal spotter on the pillion seat saw a large animal in the woods so U turn and a bit of boy scout stalking and we came upon this female elk in a clearing, she saw us but wasn't bothered! By the time we got back to the bike there was a road block where people had seen the bike parked, and just stopped in the road and got out to see what we were photographing!
Arrived at Old Faithful just in time to see the rare eruption of the less well known but more impressive Beehive Geyser. The whole area is covered with steaming bubbling pools, odd coloured mineral deposits and spouting geysers, just incredible.
Weather is unusually cold but should warm up again by Monday. Had a few snow flurries and more is likely tonight but lets hope not enough to cover the roads and bike. Hoping to see some bears and moose tomorrow but they can be elusive so just hope to get lucky.

Critters

Staying in Jackson, which is a bit busier and has lots of shops selling all sorts of things related to elk, bears, deer and all sorts of other critters! Some quite nice things others just plain odd as the photo shows. The town square has arches made from antlers, so here we are doing the tourist thing. We spotted the buffalo and mouse while travelling round The Grand Teton National Park today. The landscape is amazing.

Cowboy Country

After 50 more miles of oilfields and antelope the scenery became greener as we reached the Wyoming ranch lands and went on to the Grand Tetons National Park. As we rounded a bend a cowboy raced towards us lassoing a stray calf! On reaching Jackson Hole a shootout was being staged on the street corner. Also in a layby en-route we saw this sign shot through with gun shots, maybe they liked to drop litter!

Travelling Northwards

Spent last night at Vernal in a pleasant b&b style hotel. Vernal itself wasn't exactly a tourist attraction more a busy town serving the local oilfields. Had some good big steaks at what they called a mom and pop restaurant. This morning we went to the dinosaur national park in an area where they have found many complete dinosaur fossils. They had a fantastic cliff with the fossils still there part buried as the paleantologists found them. Then we continued northwards to Green River Wyoming to a really nice modern hotel. The ride here was fantastic over hilly, bendy roads with remarkable landscapes and weird geological formations. We continued on past Flaming George which had spectacular red and orange cliffs by the river. Followed a pick-up truck for miles as he was nearly into 3 figure speeds and we could watch him and get advanced warning of bad road surfaces and deer on the road. Temperature yesterday was in the 90s F, today is a much less sticky high 70s.

Leaving Colorado

Yesterday we rode through great mountains, forests and lakes to Colorado National Monument, a 23 mile drive along the rim of a red rock canyon, weathered into amazing spires and columns. Lots of hopping on and off the bike to peer over the edge. A great finale to our stay in Colorado.

Then came the Utah badlands, 100 miles across bare rocks and sand in 36 deg. heat with a fierce wind sending us all over the road and whipping up dust storms. Nothing to see but oilfields and the occasional tanker depot. Just had to be done in order to get to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.

The Black Canyon

Continuing Northwards, to ride along the South rim of The Black Canyon of the Gunnison river. Half a mile deep and very narrow at times the cliffs are black and near vertical.

Overnight in a motel at Cedaredge which we were expecting to be a little unusual from the website and phone conversations with the couple who ran it. We were not disappointed, the whole set up was totally whacky from Gary( oh yes, bosom buddies after 5 minutes) to the bizarre decor in the room - under bed lighting?? Meal was great and good conversation round the fire pit. Where the beer flowed freely. Met two "good ole boys" on a Harley road trip who gave us lots of info about Yellowstone etc. and two guys from Oz who were travelling round distillers learning how to make whiskey so they could set up an oz brand. Can't believe they'll get much help when they go to Scotland next!

Million Dollar Highway

Rumoured to be built with low grade gold ore but I had a good look and it just looked like Tarmac to me!
It does have some good sweeping bends and high passes making it an excellent biking road.

The picture is of Mesa Verde a high altitude, green plateau of 50,000 acres home to the Pueblo people from 1100 to 1200. The area is crossed with deep, dry canyons where they built rock cities into the sides under rock overhangs. We descended 100 ft via uneven stone steps to view the ruins before climbing back up pueblan style via a series of ricketty ladders, well preserved by very dry atmosphere and also by clambering up narrow fissures in the rock. Hard work in 30 deg C and coping with altitude problems.

Deer outside lodge door in the evening and wild horses roadside but missed the bear with cub seen by waiter.

Heading back northwards on the San Juan Scenic Highway to Telluride where Butch Cassidy held up his first bank (see picture). Wyatt Earp's saloon is in a town we went through on the other side of the mountain.

Had free cable car rides over mountain top to swanky new ski, golf and mountain biking resort.

Waylaid by another biker on an Aprilia who turned out to be BMW dealer from Seattle. Did ask if I'd like to call in for service and new tyres on the way to Canada!

Finished today with fish and chips at an Irish bar, not very American but the new black over here.