Day 27: Bay Bridge to Canyon City, WY


Looking East over Jackson Lake

20 miles, 1014 ft ascent, 1:49 saddle time, min elevation 7690, max 7970 ft

We broke camp today at 0630 with the temperatures in the 30’s.  As usual, my fingers were frozen, which made it difficult to pack up my bike.  We rode to the Lake Hotel (2 miles) for breakfast.  This is a very fancy hotel ($500/night), we kind of stood out in our biking clothes as we plugged in all our devices and proceeded to eat a massive amount of food at an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet.  Yellowstone is not particularly biker friendly with narrow or no shoulders, so we planned to go around the east side of the lower loop (of the figure-8) and across the middle to the West entrance and out of the park (about 60 miles).  The east side of the lower loop travels through Hayden Valley, which is an area that is full of Bison, Elk and Wolves.  

Bison in Hayden Valley

I took this photo in an area where cars could not pull over :).  The valley is immense and the Yellowstone river runs through it.

Hayden Valley

The east side of the lower loop then travels along the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  The river drops over 400 ft as it travels Northwest.  We visited the upper and lower falls.

Upper Falls

The Upper Falls drops 109 ft and the Lower Falls drops 308 ft.  The canyon was formed by erosion of volcanic rock and there are geysers along the walls of the canyon.

Lower Falls



Canyon below the Lower Falls

We were tired from yesterday, and energized by the beauty of the canyon, so we decided to cut our day short after only 20-miles and stay at the Canyon City campground, which is much more biker friendly.  This will allow us to travel at a more leisurely pace tomorrow.
After setting up camp, I met a couple from Ukraine that was camping next to us, Svetlana and Armet.  They have been living in Chicago for 1 year, and before that were in Alaska.  It was very interesting to hear their story and share with them information about the USA.  Although they have not had what we could call “good jobs”, the money they made (through hard work) is considered very good by Ukranian standards. They have taken the opportunity to travel around the USA on vacations.  I suspect they have seen more of the USA than many USA citizens.  Although they miss home, they are amazed by the wonderful parks, open spaces and tremendous natural areas of the USA.



  

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