Written by Kyle
As Beulah mentioned in the last part we got pinned down for a couple days in Missoula. It was A big change of plans as originally we had planned on heading up to Glacier National Park and doing the ride to the sun road. I was very much looking forward to this as I’ve never been, but when it starts snowing and you’re on a motorcycle… That is not the type of road you want to ride! It wasn’t a total loss, we got to spend a couple days exploring Missoula, eating good food, and resting up, as well as seeing her kids longer.
Day 9
The weather mostly cleared up so we started heading our way south east towards Yellowstone National Park. We enjoyed riding through the beautiful countryside and took our time getting to Mammoth, Wyoming. We passed through the Roosevelt Arch in Gardiner, Montana, and crossed the border of Wyoming and headed right to the Mammoth Hot Springs.
I’ve been to the Mammoth Hot Springs before, and I can say that every time I’ve been there it’s different. Several of the springs were fairly dry this year, but others were more active than in past years. We took our time walking the entire area and enjoying all of the surreal sites!
After this, we backtracked to Gardiner, Montana where we were staying for the night. Considering this was full tour season the town was not overly packed and we were able to enjoy a great meal at The Yellowstone Mine restaurant.
Day 10
We started out on our bikes early in the morning and dropped back into Wyoming and into Yellowstone National Park. We beat the morning crowds and bypassed Mammoth Hot Springs since we’d already seen them the day before, and enjoyed the beautiful roads and riding through the national park. We made plenty of stops on the way, watched some buffalo roll in the dirt, stopped at waterfalls on the way, ultimately making our way into the thermal areas.
We stopped and hiked around many of the springs and geysers, and of course the Grand Prismatic Spring, spring overlook, one of the most beautiful places in the park in my opinion.
And what trip to Yellowstone is complete without seeing Old Faithful Geyser? The timing couldn’t have been more perfect, we walked up and it erupted minutes later. The photos unfortunately were not so perfect as Bee’s lens was unknowingly dirty! We took the time to go to the Old Faithful Snow Lodge to admire the architecture and grab lunch.
From here we headed to Yellowstone Lake and hung a right, heading south towards the Grand Tetons. This was never part of our original trip so all of these beautiful roads and scenery were just a huge bonus and helped to make up for the fact we had to Skip glacier. I can definitely say that the Grand Teton Mountains are some of the most impressive mountains in the country, riding along the Snake River and the base of these mountains is pretty amazing, especially on a motorcycle with nothing obstructing your view
We made our way southeast towards Dubois, Wyoming. This is a really cool little Western town which I’d always wanted to visit and had never been to before. We stayed at the Stagecoach Inn and walked down Main Street and decided to have dinner at the Lone Buffalo Steakhouse. An absolutely fantastic meal and a couple cocktails closed out the evening.
Day 11
We kicked off the morning with a huge breakfast at the Cowboy Cafe, and started heading south for home. A lot of the area is pretty open prairie, for several hours we skirted some storms and pushed our way through before hitting the Colorado border. Because of the weather, we just pushed hard through the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest and rolled into Leadville, Colorado just ahead of the storms.
We were both pretty exhausted, but went into town and grabbed a good Mexican meal, but didn’t take long to explore the town since it was late and we were both exhausted. We headed back to our hotel, got cleaned up, and called it a night.
Day 12
The next morning we hit the road fairly, it was just above freezing, the rain from the night before frosted over on our motorcycles. Luckily, leaving Leadville at 10,119 feet elevation, we dropped down the valley quickly, heading towards Buena Vista, and down into the San Luis Valley. At this point, we were more less than our backyard and we were excited to knock out the last few hours and get back to our own mountain home in Creede, Colorado!
Overall, this trip was really amazing, about 2500 miles in a little under two weeks, crossing multiple state lines, exploring areas we had seen before (but not together), as well as new areas for both of us. We got to spend time with family, and hit tons of attractions and national parks. We had to dodge a little weather, but overall it was just an amazing trip and a ton of great memories. Just laying this post out and looking through the pictures brings them back and gets me more excited for this summer‘s adventures!
Ramble Around 