Day 25 – Driftwaters Campground, Montana to West Yellowstone, Montana

On the Road to Yellowstone National Park

(This most likely will be the last post for the next four or five days as I’ll be in Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton NP without internet.)

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, the Driftwoods River Campground was a bit of a life saver last night. It’s far from any other town, but they had a great little restuarant where I had pizza and a specialty of theirs, huckleberry ice cream.  Huckleberry ice cream and shakes seem to be popular in both Idaho and Montana, and with good reason.

And speaking of pizza, the first thing I did this morning was eat two cold leftover pieces from last night in the tent. They were cold because the temperature continues to dip rather low. I was also able to get some laundry done before leaving. It’s always a good feeling knowing that you’ll have some clean clothes for the next few days.

I began a bit earlier than usual today, trying to beat the potentially high afternoon winds (as happened in yesterday’s not so fun ride). I knew today was going to be a short day (34 miles) because once you leave the town of West Yellowstone, the next camping option is 50 miles later, inside the national park. And that 50 miles includes the highest elvevtion yet of the trip, at 8,391 feet. (I found out the next day that there was a campground  inside the park much closer than 50 miles away.)

Along the way today I passed Earthquake Lake, also known as Quake Lake.  The lake was created in August of 1959 when an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale occurred. It was 11:17 pm and people were camping at a popular campground when it started.  That camping area became filled with debris from a massive landslide and now it’s part of the lake, along with many cars and some very unlucky people. The tops of trees stick out of the water and it’s said to be rather eerie in the morning with the mist, but I wasn’t there that early.

A little later I stopped at another campground for lunch, where I had pancakes. So it was cold pizza for breakfast and pancakes for lunch. An older man who worked there warned me about the “big hill” just up the road. You sort of look forward to seeing what their idea of a big hill is. This one wasn’t so bad.

The high winds never materialized today, although there were a few moments where it kicked up a bit.

So it was a fairly uneventful day.  I rolled into the town of West Yellowstone just after 3:00.  It’s kind of a strange place.  A total tourist town with motels everywhere and where everything is overpriced.  The Wagon Wheel Campground I’m at leaves a bit to be desired, but I have a nice deck with a picnic table and internet that works surprisingly well.

I’m looking forward to Yellowstone tomorrow, but one issue is forest fires that have been ongoing recently. The southern entrance to the park is closed for now and that’s the one I need to exit through.   There’s talk of it reopening on Tuesday.  Hopefully, that’s the case. If not it will take a massive detour to get out, especially on a bicycle.