Hot day today. Most of the day I'll be riding in 95-98 degrees F. Today I left Arco and headed towards Idaho Falls, then to Jackson Hole, and up north through the Grand Teton NP and into Yellowstone NP.
For the whole morning today, I will mostly be driving in flat plains of the Snake River Plains
. Roads were just like at home, except it was much dryer. Of course, I couldn't go a day without running into more road construction. But it wasn't too bad today.
I stopped in Idaho Falls to buy a quart of motor oil, because when I did my bike servicing that morning, it appeared to be down to the add line. This is totally acceptable since I have turned over 2500 miles so far on the trip. So I stopped at the local auto parts store and bought a quart of full synthetic motor oil. I checked it again just before I was going to add some, and now it looked like it was right on the full mark. Hmmmm. I could have been from oil expansion when it got warm, but I can't believe it would be that much. Anyways, I decided to check it again later, but now at least I have a quart handy with me.
Stopped in Victor, ID for lunch. At at the Cheeseburger Factory - name sounded interesting. The burger was spectacular, but the fries were rubbish. I guess they skimped on the fries so they could provide a great burger
. That's fine.
After lunch (I want to keep calling it dinner, because that is what it is to me - but I am calling it lunch here just for you cityslickers!), I headed across the Grand Teton pass into Jackson. At the top of the pass is the state border between Idaho and Wyoming. This would mark the last time I am in Idaho on this trip.
I decided to see what all the hype is about this place called Jackson Hole, so I was going to stop there and find out. As soon as I entered town, I knew exactly what it was all about. TOURIST TRAP ALLEY!!! Wow! It was like a 10 block by 10 block outdoor mall. I found a shaded spot to park the bike and I decided I would suck it up and walk around for a bit, even though this type of "entertainment" is not my cup of tea - especially on a motorcycle trip. So I walked around and took pictures mostly. Very fancy place I must say. Of course, about every 9 out of 10 stores was a overpriced clothing store, selling T-shirts to fur jackets
. Oh, did I mention it was a hot 96+ degrees here? After walking for about 45 minutes I was ready to go. Everything was way overpriced - a small ice cream cone was $6, and a shake or malt was over $7. But they were selling like hot cakes today. Eh, I have better places to throw my money at - like my bike! :)
So got out of Jackson as fast as I could, and drove up the 80 miles or so to Yellowstone, running through the Grand Teton NP. The mountains were spectacular, but the road was horrible - it was smack dab in the middle of a desert. They could of at least put the road closer up to the mountains, but it was like 2 or 3 miles away. I watched the thermometer on this road and it was jumping between 98 and 99 degrees the whole way. My leathers were no longer able to keep me cool at all. I was disappointed in this road, I thought it would be grander.
I got to Yellowstone around 5:00pm. I was in a bit of a rush to grab a campsite because they were filling up fast - only 2 of the 12 or so still had some vacancies
. So after passing the entrance, I had to drive another 10 miles to get to one of the campgrounds that had some openings. I think I made it by only minutes, because there were two other big RVs that pulled in when I did, and I was able to grab a registration card and quickly circle around til I found a site. I did find one way in the back, but all others around it were taken. So I set up camp as fast as I could to secure my spot. A few minutes later I saw the two RVs drive by and around the circle trying to find a spot, without luck (at least here, anyways). Ugh, this isn't really my idea of having fun - having to rush to find a spot and deal with all the traffic also. But at least now I know where I am going to sleep, so I can relax a bit now. After I got everything secured and set, I decided to head up the 25 miles to see Old Faithful. I wasn't originally planning on seeing it because I was going to just run through the park and right onto the Beartooth Pass, but since I am staying the night, I thought I might as well.
It was a nice jog over to the geysers and they really have it all built up around there, from organized parking lots to a nice, long sitting/standing deck to watch the event
. I did notice, however, that on the way here, there was a large dark cloud brewing just to the west of Old Faithful. I thought it might be missing me, but that quickly changed. As I parked the bike, and just hung my helmet in the helmet lock and I was going to leave it like that. But I walked about 100 feet away and I decided that I better not take a chance with this storm and make room in my trunk for my helmet in case it rained. Also, I grabbed my leather jacket. As it turned out, this really paid off...
My timing was right also as Old Faithful was scheduled to go off only about 5 minutes after I got there. Cool! So I found a nice spot to stand and got my camera ready. The storm was coming closer and closer - and quickly. The park ranger said the scheduled eruption time was like 6:42. Well, 6:42 came and gone, and still no eruption. "Come on!", some people were yelling, as they knew we were about to get soaked by the storm coming in. "Come on! Push the button!" I heard one guy yell
. Well, so much for the "faithful" part. About 8 minutes after 6:42 went by, but still no eruption. The sky finally let loose and it started to pour buckets. People were running fiercely towards shelter, as the rain was very cold. But since this was my one and only chance to see this, I decided to hang out with the group of hard-cores. The dang geyser kept teasing us with little short shots of water, and then would just sit there and steam. It did this 3 or 4 times, and every time there would be a cheer from the crowd, and then a bunch of angry shouts. It was quite funny to stand there and experience this. Finally, after about 12-15 minutes, Old Faithful finally went. Most people were just soaked by this time, but I just had my left leg soaked since that was the leading edge of the wind. My leather jacket kept me dry quite well, better than I thought it would.
I did take some video recordings of this whole event, and I will post them up on Vimeo for those with high speed internet to see - it is worth it to watch! Unfortunately, my internet connection at the moment is really slow, so I will try to post it when I get the next good connection, so check back here for the link!
After Old Faithful event, I strolled through the gift shop, picked up something for my honey, and decided to eat there as well, as there is no food anywhere near my campground.
After that, I drove back to the campsite, and went to sleep. It sprinkled a little bit on and off throughout the night, and woke me up a couple times. Man, it gets DARK in these woods. I couldn't see anything at all, unless I turned on my flashlight.
Miles Today: 226
Day 7 - Friday
Friday, July 16, 2010
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, United States
Other Entries
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1Prelog - The Start
Jul 097 days priorHarwood, United Statesphoto_camera0videocam 0comment 3 -
2Day 1 - Saturday
Jul 106 days priorWilliston, United Statesphoto_camera3videocam 0comment 0 -
3Day 2 - Sunday
Jul 115 days priorKalispell, United Statesphoto_camera130videocam 1comment 11 -
4Day 3 - Monday
Jul 124 days priorLibby, United Statesphoto_camera33videocam 0comment 3 -
5Day 4 - Tuesday
Jul 133 days priorLolo Hot Springs, United Statesphoto_camera33videocam 0comment 11 -
6Day 5 - Wednesday
Jul 142 days priorBoise, United Statesphoto_camera12videocam 2comment 2 -
7Day 6 - Thursday
Jul 151 day priorArco, United Statesphoto_camera42videocam 1comment 0 -
8Day 7 - Friday
Jul 16Yellowstone National Park, United Statesphoto_camera45videocam 0comment 1 -
9Day 8 - Saturday
Jul 171 day laterCody, United Statesphoto_camera49videocam 1comment 1 -
10Day 9 - Sunday
Jul 182 days laterLead, United Statesphoto_camera30videocam 1comment 0 -
11Day 10 - Monday
Jul 193 days laterHarwood, United Statesphoto_camera8videocam 0comment 0 -
12Postblog - The End
Jul 204 days laterHarwood, United Statesphoto_camera0videocam 0comment 0
Comments

2025-02-07
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Linda Steffen
2010-07-19
Old Faithful has sure slowed down..... Years ago it would faithfully go off every hour!