I woke up this morning to a 30-40 mph wind and initially wondered if a storm was moving in. I looked out the tent and the sky was clear and there was no sign of bad weather. About that time a guy came by we struck up a conversation about the bike and traveling in general and I mentioned the wind. He told me that it was that way every morning and that it blows down the river until about 10:00 and then stops. Weird.

I packed up everything and was on the road by 8:30. I headed north on 26 to Jackson, WY and looked for someplace to stop and get breakfast. Nothing really struck my fancy so I decided to skip it and head to the Grand Tetons. Once I got to the park I saw that the road was one long string of cars and RVs. They weren't bumber to bumber or anything like that and they seemed pretty spread out but the line went as far as the eye could see. Not a pretty sight in my eyes.

I was getting hungry so I stopped at a place that had an historical log cabin near a small stream for a quick snack. I took a couple of pictures of the mountains and met this really cute girl from Kansas City, MO. This was probably the start of the pissy mood I was in the rest of the day. Let me explain. It turns out that I actually ended up meeting this same girl later that evening so a lot of the morning's emotion was wasted but I didn't know this at the time. Unfortunately, meeting her just emphasized the fact that I had been alone for the last week and a half and I was in need of some human companionship. Loneliness set in and put a funk on the rest of the day. It doesn't happen to me often on these trips but it does happen occasionally. Reason one for so few pictures.

I got back on the road and headed north. Riding on a paved road with other traffic is not why I take motorcycle trips so when I saw a dirt road heading off the main road I quickly pointed the bike in that direction. The road finally ended at a creek about 3 miles off the main road. It started out as dirt and gravel but apparently either the road was once a creek bed or somebody moved in a lot of creek bed rocks to fill the road. The last mile or so was composed of baseball and softball size round stones. It is times like these that I love my bike. I had ridden it over 3000 comfortable miles to get to this road and then it carries me bouncing from rock to rock to get to who knows where. Once I got to the end of the road I did a little sight seeing and then headed back to Hwy 26.

After leaving Grand Teton NP I continued north towards Yellowstone. I got to the southern entrance and had to wait in line and while I did so I am immediately glad I had on all my gear. Apparently I arrived at the peak of the mosquito season for this immediate area. A black cloud engulfed my body so I shut the shield on my helmet and wondered if my lower jaw was going to have any blood in it by the time I could leave. It is the only bare patch of flesh exposed so I hunched my head down and hoped for the best. Afterwards it turns out that this strategy worked well and I didn't have any bites at all. Once I got through the entrance and started moving I had no more mosquito problem and they didn't seem to be present at the higher altitudes.

Yellowstone left me in a state of confusion. I had been warned so this did not come as a complete shock but I still felt somewhat sad after experiencing it for myself. First of all you have to understand that Yellowstone was our first official national park. See that word PARK in there. This is exactly what it is. It may be large and the animals may be termed "wild" but man has been influencing this area far too long. To me it felt entirely tame. The only moment that I had anything that could be construed as an adrenaline rush was when a confused buffalo walked down the opposite side of the road towards me. He was slowly meandering down the opposite lane with a line of cars backed up behind him. The cars in my lane all pulled over slightly and I pulled in closely behind the SUV I was following. The big guy walked by me at a distance of about 10 feet. Right before he was directly opposite me I had the realization that I was the only person out there not surrounded by 2 tons of steel. I decided then and there that if it was between me and the bike, the GS was getting sacrificed and the buffalo could do what he would to it while I made clean my escape. Some loyalty, huh?

So that was it for excitement. I didn't take any pictures because there was no place that there weren't other people taking pictures. I saw my buffalo and I saw my elk but so did every other person driving by in there air conditioned cars. I have the hope that if I had had some time to backpack into the backcountry my impression would change dramatically. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to happen this trip. I even skipped Old Faithful after seeing the stadium seating and the crowds. I didn't get close enough but I bet they even had popcorn vendors cruising the isles.

Don't get me wrong, the place is absolutely gorgeous. As someone pointed out to me, we need Yellowstone so that the masses have some place to go. Otherwise all the other beautiful places would be overrun with these people and their RVs as well. Amen.

I left Yellowstone traveling east on Hwy 20 and had dinner in Cody before backtracking a short ways to the Buffalo Bill SP where I set up the tent for the night.