Day 28: Canyon City to West Yellowstone MT

Norris Geyser Basin

40.8 miles, 1282 ft ascent/ 2573 ft descent, 3:24 saddle time, elevations, min 6675 / max 8260.

I am no longer going to include max grade because I have come to realize that RideWithGPS values are vary inaccurate.  Suffice it to say that on some of the uphills I am in my lowest gears and barely moving 5 mph.  

It was cold again this morning, so we went across the street from the campground for breakfast and to warm up before breaking camp.  Out objective today was to ride across the middle of the figure-8 and out of the park to West Yellowstone, which is a town just outside the park boundary.  We had to ride up and over the rim of the huge caldera that sits within the park(30 x 45 mile oval).  It is the remains of a volcanic eruption many, many years ago.  After getting up and over that, it was mostly downhill from there, which would have been great except for a strong wind from the west :(. On the other side of the rim we stoppped at the Norris Geyser Basin, which is an otherworldly sight.  It is not like Old Faithful with one main geyser shooting high into the air (about every 45 minutes).  It is a wide basin that is full of smaller geysers, hot springs, Sulphur pots and other volcanic hydrothermal features.  It really looks like another planet.

The route out of the park follows along the Gibbon River with lots of rapids as it drops in elevation.  We stopped at this falls.

Gibbon Falls

The park crosses over the boundary between Wyoming and Montana, so today we left Wyoming.

A rather understated state line crossing

…and we left Yellowstone.


OK, now that is more like it……

Eighth state on my cross country journey

West Yellowstone is a fairly large town that is full of restaurants, gift shops, T-shirt shops, and other tourist attractions.  It was quite a contrast from the wilderness we had just come out of.  On the bright side, it was the first time we had cell service since we entered Grand Teton NP, and the first internet access in 3 days (hence these late postings).  In hindsight, seeing Yellowstone by bicycle is not the way to go.  It is too big,  services and anttractions  are too far apart, and there is too much traffic.  Grand Teton is has less traffic, it is  bicycle friendly, and the attractions are closer together.   I also prefer the stunning Teton mountains and beautiful valley.

For my grandchildren, Dylan, Olivia, Jackson and Liam, here is where Grandpa is….



Mostly downhill today






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