More miles under the tires

As amazing as it was that I survived a 3 hour firecracker war this 4th with my roomies, it was an even harder time last year. Just by blind chance, we were in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks over the 4th. Tourist hell.....especially when you're on a bike. I saw way too many families with fat little kids playing their game boys while on nature hikes...no joke. We did luck out however, because all of the campsites were full in entire park....we were thinking, great...we're screwed. We were sitting in a long line of motor homes at the entrance of a campsite when one of the rangers came up and told us to come up to the front of the line....turns out they reserve a few sites for hikers/bikers so they always have a place to stay. It only cost us $5 to camp for the night too.....turns out that's the only time we paid for camping the whole trip...not too bad!!

The next day we fought some more crowds and went and saw old faithful and some of the geysers. We spent the day after that in Grand Teton Park and rode through the park enjoying the view. We ended up getting rained out at the base of the Grand (biggest mountain there) at a cabin. So we spend the afternoon drinking some coffee from the visitor center and doing some reading as fog drifted in and out of the valley....good times. Finally it cleared up and we rode into Jackson Hole. We got caught in some more rain just as we got into town...oh well, we got some pizza and turned in for the night.

Panorama with Stephen and The Grand across the lake

Checkin out some of the hot springs

Cruising twards the Grand

My view

Camp in Yellowstone...first class the whole way. While there, I even saw a guy driving a big diesel truck with Texas plates lighting a box of wood he just bought (we're in a forest with no limit on wood collection....and people still BUY wood??). The best part....he just dumped the wood in a pile and was holding a blow torch to it??? I love tourists!!

The first of I think 8 or so times we went over the divide. We followed it most of the way through Wyoming....lots 'O climbing!

Entrance to the park. About 100 meters up the road we ran into a young guy who was solo touring but going the other way...which means he was getting close to being done. Turns out he was from Iowa too. We chatted for a few minutes and went our separate ways.

Now it's time to finish packing, get some food and drive up to Blue Mounds State Park for this weekends dose of fun and pain!