May 15, 2010

Leaving Idaho Falls we traveled on Rt26 picking up Rt 26/89 in Alpine, Wyoming. We had a beautiful, sunny morning traveling to Jackson Hole, through the Swan Valley, along the Palisades Reservoir and the Snake River again looking at snow covered mountains.

Arriving in Jackson Hole we checked into the hotel early (11:30am) and rode up to Yellowstone National Park south entrance riding through Grand Teton National Park.
Views were phenomenal of the Teton Mountain Range. We had clear, unobstructed views with blue sky and small, white, puffy clouds as we rode along the Snake River. It was 103 miles up into Old Faithful. Not all the roads were open and all of Yellowstone was snow covered. The South entrance had just opened the day before and some roads are still under repair and we had to ride several miles on gravel. But the rest of the pavements were dry and there were banks of snow along the sides of the road. We stopped at West Thumb Geyser Basin and walked the walkways viewing the hot springs, boiling geysers, fumaroles and mudpots.
"Old Faithful" didn't disappoint she made her grand appearance after we had lunch and walked the walkways all around viewing several smaller geysers. It was getting late and we still had another 103 miles back to the hotel. The ride back was fantastic seeing herds of Bison (buffalo) and Elk just along the road. I don't think the bear are awake yet because of the late seasonal snow and cool weather.

We were exhausted having been on the go for 11 hours and covering about 356 miles on the motorcycle. We had dinner at the Teton Steakhouse which we could walk to across the street then fell into bed.