Miles: 461.0
Start: 7:30 AM MDT
Stop: 8:30 PM MDT
Temps: 60 degrees to 86 degrees
Hotel: Yodeler Motel, Red Lodge, MT - $77.00
Day 4 of our journey started after a great night's rest. Not wanting to wait around for a breakfast we nonetheless got started about half an hour late. You know how it is, sometimes you just can't seem to get yourself moving fast enough. At any rate, we packed up the bikes and were on the roll again by 7:30 AM.
The section of I-15 that we took from Great Falls to Helena was surprisingly scenic and even somewhat technical. Carole and I talked on the CB about the curves and practiced some techniques that were common to every curvy road. By the time we hit the straight away's just before Helena Carole was rolling out of the curves like a champion racer. I also managed to get a few pictures of some of the more scenic spots while rolling along.
We left the freeway at Helena and took Hwy 287 toward Yellowstone National Park. Ironically, this section of road was much more boring than the freeway. And of course, it had construction. Again we found ourselves riding through 15 miles or so of gravel and dirt. Carole was becoming an old hat with dirt biking by this time, but I still hated every bump as I wondered what kind of damage it might be doing to some parts of my heavily loaded Gold Wing. Of course it wasn't doing any damage, but I still hated all the rattling, slipping and sliding.
We used I-90 to cut over to US 191 and had a much more scenic ride through the Gallatin National Forest north of Yellowstone. Traffic seemed to get lighter and lighter as we approached Yellowstone. This seemed odd to me since I've heard horror stories of the slow moving gawkers in their vehicles at Yosemite, slamming on their brakes every time there was a bird in a meadow to see. We were to find that traffic later, but our approach to Yellowstone was extremely light in traffic and very, very pleasant.
We saw a sign that said "Entering Yellowstone National Park" so we stopped to take a picture before continuing on through the meadows. We were amazed at the acres and acres of meadows with a meandering stream that was perfect for fly fishing. In fact there were several fly fishermen in different sections of the stream practicing their casting skills in the late morning sun. Chatting back and forth on our CB's Carole and I made a mental note to add this to our "gotta take the time to do this" list.
After 30 miles we came into the town of West Yellowstone and stopped long enough the top off our tanks before heading into the fee based area of Yellowstone through the west entrance. Again we stopped long enough to get a picture of the bikes at the National Park entrance and then proceeded onto The Grand Loop Road. Immediately we were stunned by the evidence of a large forest fire with most of the greenery being low and new, the large trees were all gone with just a few charred remains of some trunks left behind. Was this the remains of the huge fire in 1988? Had there been a more recent fire? It certainly looked more recent than 1988.
Suddenly traffic was coming to a stop all around us. I've heard in the past that this was a common occurrence in Yellowstone but I had forgotten about it. I thought something terrible was going on the way cars were slamming on their brakes and people were piling out. It turned out that there was a herd of Cow Elk that was grazing along side of the stream to our right. I have to admit, it did look kinda cool to see these wild animals up close and personal. I quickly grabbed my camera out of the glove box and snapped a couple of pictures, not bothering to dismount from the bike. We then moved on, eager to separate ourselves from this little traffic jam.
Around another bend we all of a sudden saw little geysers going off everywhere! We'd never seen anything like this. It was like a moonscape with a strong stench of sulphur in the air, and geysers were spouting all over the place. At one point we passed by a turn out and when I looked over it I saw a geyser going off. I decided this was a photo opportunity so we rode ahead about a quarter of a mile, made a U-turn and headed back. Of course as soon as we got back to the turn out the geyser was no longer erupting. Oh well, we took a couple of pictures of the area and watched some geysers going off in the distance.
We summed up how the game went pretty quick: you see a geyser going off somewhere in the distance, you charge over there to take pictures only to find the eruption is over but the geyser where you came from is now erupting. In other words, you aren't going to see a geyser erupting unless you hang out in one spot long enough. We didn't have time so we mounted back up and headed to Old Faithful.
As luck would have it we arrived at Old Faithful 10 minutes after it had erupted. We sat around for a few minutes and chatted with some of the folks that were hanging out for the next eruption. Finally someone mentioned that it wouldn't be erupting for another hour. We weren't that interested in seeing mother nature blow hot steam so we decided to continue on and add that little feature to our "We're coming back here and spend a week doing stuff" list. We met a couple of people of note while we were at Old Faithful. We met one lady that was about our age. She saw us in our motorcycle gear and told us she wished she hadn't gotten rid of her motorcycle several years ago. She longed to visit places like Yellowstone on a motorcycle and envied every motorcyclist she saw riding around. The other person was a guy in his thirties that was riding a 2003 Suzuki Boulevard, the model before the C50T came out. He had a dog cage strapped to the back of his bike and was carry a small dog in it. He mentioned that he had just bought the bike and was learning to ride again while exploring Wyoming and Montana. He jumped on his bike in shorts and a tee shirt, no helmet, and duck walked his way out of the parking lot. I said a silent prayer for his dog as we set out on our own.
We spent the next couple of hours riding around the loop of Yellowstone, making our way out the northeastern exit. A lot of folks choose to exit via the southeastern exit and make there way to Cody to catch the Chief Joseph Highway to Beartooth Pass. However, there is a lot to be seen heading out the northeast exit. We encountered lots of buffalo herds and another herd of Cow Elk. There are also beautiful lakes and waterfalls near Dunraven pass that I would have been disappointed to miss. And ultimately the road winding down from Dunraven pass gave us an incredible view of the valley between Yellowstone and Beartooth. The Chief Joseph Scenic Highway would wait for another day.
After exiting Yellowstone we rode into Cooke City to begin our ascent of Coulter Pass to the Beartooth Highway. We saw lots of motorcycles and their riders sitting at the outdoor cafes and bars enjoying the late afternoon sun. And of course, we encountered serious road construction. The climb up the steep pass was all gravel and dirt for about 15 miles. The gravel was deep so we took it easy in second gear. I felt my rear end slipping and sliding all over the place but my frequent checks of my rearview mirrors showed that Carole was having no problem at all on her ST. By this time I was seriously admiring the ST capabilities in all terrain.
Finally we crested the summit and hit fresh solid pavement. Unknown to me, Carole had removed her sunglasses while we were waiting to climb the construction area since ewe were being shaded from the sun by a mountain and she didn't bother to stop and put them back on once we were riding on the ridge again in bright sunlight. I saw a couple of places I wanted to pull over and take pictures so I told her on the CB to go on ahead and I would catch up. It was getting late and she was feeling a little tired. Soon we were entering the technical turns and narrow road on the switchback portion of Beartooth Pass. A BMW with two people on it passed me and then Carole in an unsafe area, nearly running into her as they throttled ahead. I was doing my trick of taking pictures with one hand while handling the throttle and brake with the other when Carole suddenly said on the CB, "I want you to take the lead NOW!" Okay.
I put the camera away and passed Carole to take the lead. We came around a bend just as a pickup truck pulled out onto the road in front of us, not bothering to see if anyone was coming. No big deal, we slowed down quick enough and followed him through the winding curves. Another motorcyclist on a VTX1800 caught up to us and took the tailgunner position for quite a while. Finally we reached an area where I could safely pass the truck, so I did. I watched in the rearview mirror and noticed that Carole was not interested in passing the truck. So I decided I would pull off in an area to let the truck pass and then continue to ride tight with Carole. Unfortunately I had to let the truck, Carole, and the other motorcycle pass before I could pull back out on the road.
Carole was again in the lead behind the truck and now I was taking up the tailgunner position. I thought it odd when the VTX rider started waving me forward, wanting me to pass him. I did, and took the position right behind Carole. She seemed to be comfortable letting the pickup maintain a slow pace for us as we crested the summit and started down the other side. Soon we came to a rest area where Carole pulled into the parking lot. I pulled in with her and saw the VTX pull in behind us. I was pulling off my helmet and noticed that the VTX rider was standing next to his bike staring at Carole. I was confused and ready for confrontation. But eventually he walked over to me while Carole was still dismounting and asked, "Does she like that bike?" It turned out he was looking for a bike for his wife and had been considering an ST for quite some time.
Finally Carole came over and got engaged in the conversation. The normal, "Love the bike... great balance... loses its weight as soon as it starts moving.... seat height..." discussion was had and then the guy stated, "You did a great job with it over the pass!" Carole looked at me and said, "I was blind the whole way!" It turned out that she was staring right into the sun without her sunglasses every time the switchbacks had us pointed west. She had not enjoyed that portion of the ride at all. To this day she still feels that Beartooth Pass was intimidating, forgetting that the sun was the problem and not the rode.
After a few more minutes to re-gather ourselves we mounted back on our bikes, bid farewell to the VTX rider and headed on down the east side of the pass to make our way to Red Lodge where we were finishing our day at the Yodeler motel. The rest of the ride was uneventful as we found the Yodeler and checked in. The lady at the desk gave us towels to clean our bikes and a couple of blocks for the kickstands, bragging about how they were a motorcycle friendly motel. Indeed, as we walked out into the parking lot I saw that there were about a dozen Harley's and a BMW parked for the night.
We wiped down our bikes, took a shower and then decided to walk the three or four blocks into town for dinner. We couldn't find any restaurants serving anything remotely vegetarian so we decided to drink our dinner at one of the local hangouts. There were lots of bars concentrated in a small block and we found one that wasn't overly noisy and overly crowded. We each celebrated our ride with a boilermaker (a shot of whiskey with a beer back) and staggered back to our motel room to call it a night.
All in all it was quite a day of riding. In fact, Beartooth Pass is one of my fondest memory of the entire trip. I now understand that Beartooth Pass is almost a required rite of passage for anyone to call themselves a touring motorcyclist. It's distance from everywhere else, the technical roads, the pure natural scenery and the light traffic make it a road like no other on the planet. My mind felt like it was in overload, remembering the sites of Yellowstone and the sensations of Beartooth pass as I fell into a restless sleep.