Biking with Bison

This morning, I rose early and walked to the geyser area, intending to just take in the scene at that early hour. I ended up having a conversation with a fellow traveler that was one of those encounters some might call “weird” and “serendipitous” and others might call “a total God thing” and yet others – me being in that company – would call, well, maybe a weird God thing?

Thankful and somewhat inspired, I simply returned to the hotel lobby – the only source of wi-fi – and did the Saturday report, then to the room where I awakened the young man, and then it was on to rent some bikes.

(Photos will be sparse – bad wi-fi – more photos  – and videos – at Instagram Stories)

The bike paths in this part of Yellowstone are not super extensive, but it was enough for a healthy 3.5 hour ride – and that includes stops for geyser-gawking. You can, of course, bike more in Yellowstone, since you can bike on all the roads, but for us folks stuck with renting and mediocre biking skills – especially with hills – this was enough.

Travels took us to the far geysers in the Old Faithful area – and we were glad we could see them without walking too much – and then up to the “Biscuit Basin” and one other area.

With one bison sighting along the way.

YMMV with geothermal features at Yellowstone. Some get “geysered out” pretty early, but both of us find these steaming holes in the ground endlessly fascinating. He keeps muttering, “It’s not real. It’s a movie set.” I guess this is sort of what Iceland is like? Except with ice and snow and more volcanic rock? I don’t know, haven’t been.

If I had better wi-fi, I’d be more comprehensive and share more photos, but that will have to wait for our return. At that point, I’ll probably do a few wrap-up posts, my goal being to be helpful to others who might be considering this trip.

Anyway, bikes safely returned, we grabbed some lunch – fairly decent flatbread/pizza things – rested a bit, then got in the car.

First stop was what was supposed to be a swimming break – in the Firehouse River about 13 miles north of Old Faithful. It’s a GORGEOUS spot – the river running in a canyon formed by a jam-up between two ancient lava flows. But..of course….swimming area closed.  Ah well. It wasn’t as if we’d driven an hour to get there, and it was certainly worth seeing.

Then, working our way back down the Grand Loop road towards Old Faithful, we stopped first at the Paintpots site – the paintpots (gloppy bubbling mud) being only one of the sights on the about .5 mile-walk. Lots of pools and geysers and such.

Then to the …..a pleasant drive to several features, one of which – the Fountain had, I think, just really exploded right before we came, but was still putting out a lot of water and steam. And then, while we were watching that, we could see, at just a bit of distance, the ……… shooting out huge streams.

One of the interesting human sights of Yellowstone are the Geyser Gazers – women and men, mostly elderly, who park themselves in front of geysers expected to blow, sitting in camp chairs with coolers and notebooks at hand, chatting aimiably, cheerfully answering questions, studying the bubbles and steam with serious intent.  The obsessed dedicated amateur specialist is one of my favorite types of person in the world. Where would we be without them?

We then returned to the spot where you hike up a hill for a bit to get the overhead view of the Grand Prismatic Spring. After 3.5 hours of biking, a mile or two of walking already by 7 pm, this 60-year old was aching (literally) to sit down, but I knew it would be worth it, so let’s go – and yes, it was worth it.

So, although I am loathe to give advice to anyone except my own flesh and blood, here’s some advice: If you go to Yellowstone – take that walk  and view the Grand Prismatic Spring from above. It’s worth every step and heaving breath.

Back to Old Faithful, grab some barbecue chicken at the Cafeteria for dinner, and eat it, sitting on a log while waiting for Old Faithful to go up.

Pretty nice.

Travel observation of the day:

Sunday was definitely lighter than Saturday. There are fires to the south of us, so I don’t know if that is having an impact. Someone said that the south entrance to the park (which we had taken) was closed for a bit. Or if it’s just Sunday-school-is-starting-sort-of related.

The usual wonderful diverse, representative mix of folks you see at national parks: loads of folks making their way back from Sturgis, Hispanics, young people, people with green hair and knit caps, professional RVers, lots and lots of families, children from babies to teens.

Large groups of Asians up here – both east Asian – Chinese, Japanese and Korean – as well as south Asian – Indian, I’m presuming.  This surprised me a bit, but I’m just assuming they are all in residence in the United States, as are those speaking in European languages – actually only one – Russian. Of course, no Brits or Germans – usually very much in evidence in the Western national parks – but we have heard lots of Russian spoken.

This is a really fascinating place. As per usual, I fully expect I will be obsessing about the history of this area for a couple of weeks, wondering what in the world human beings from the Aboriginal peoples to the Europeans  – thought when they first walked over the hill and saw this landscape of steam, bubbles and water shooting into the heavens – on schedule, no less.