Wyoming 2008

To get the most out of our day, we get up at 6am and are on the bike before 8am. The road into the park is still very quiet. From the free station, we start to climb slowly for a couple of kilometers through the pines forest. Then we get a view into a deep canyon created by the Lewis River, where massive amounts of water (due to snow melts) are making its way down the canyon.

Once you hit the top of the plateau, the road levels out and we pick up speed again. In the mean time the sun has warmed up and we can peel off some layers and add some sunscreen.

The Lewis River seems to be a great spot for moose to hangout, but we are not lucky in spotting one.

On our way to Grant Village, we cross the Continental Divide once. And then we cross it two more times in between West Thumb and Old Faithful. The two last ones are a bit of a climb, but not steep and not too long either.

Just around lunch time, we check into our hotel room at the Snow Lodge at Old Faithful. We pick up a sandwich from a store and make our way over to the Old Faithful geyser as it is supposed to erupt 10 minutes before or after 1:10pm. We are certainly not the only ones waiting for this event!

Pretty much on schedule Old Faithful starts to spit water, and then it takes a couple of more minutes before it comes to its full explosion. Length and height do differ - and this one seems short (about 1 minute) and not as high as we had expected. But it was still a magnificant sight to see.

There are several bike trails that run through the geyser basins in and around Old Faithful. Bicycle rentals are available too, but we have our own. We ride the trails and walk the board walks to see the most of it.

A gravel bike trail runs from the Old Faithful geyser basin as a short cut to the road where you can visit Biscuit Basin.

Towards the Lower Geyser Basin is a one-way Firehole Lake Drive. When we enter, the side of the road is covered with several old carcasses and many bones - proof that grizzly bears do inhabit this area.

There is a bike trail (gravel) that runs all the way from Fountain Flat Drive through the Lower Geyser Basin back to the Midway Geyser Basin. As cyclists, we almost felt obliged to ride the trail until we saw large herds of bison in the fields and warning signs for bears inhabiting this area. We quickly changed plans and stayed on the main road. Felt much safer!

Flyfishing is very popular in this area - but the two man along the river certainly looked up when this big bison bull moved into the field behind them.

When we wanted to take the short-cut bike trail back to Old Faithful, we were stopped in our tracks by a herd of bison. One decided the graze right along the bike trail and didn't have plans to move away. We waited awhile but decided to turn around and take the road back to the hotel.