Canadian Rockies '18: Day 5

START LOCATION: Yellowstone
END LOCATION: Cody, WY
MILES TRAVELED: 231.7
TOTAL MILES TO DATE: 2997.7
WEATHER SUMMARY: Cold... but  much better than the last couple of days!

The entire day on Tuesday was devoted to visiting some of the most well-known and popular sites in Yellowstone National Park. Uncertain about the weather after our experiences with wind and rain the last couple of days. we decided to set out early -  at 6:30 AM.

It was COLD. Temperatures hovered around 37 degrees for a while, and we were peppered with drizzling rain at times, but all in all the weather on this day was much improved and appreciated.

It's late, so I'm going to let the pictures tell the tale of the day. Two experiences will prove to be particularly memorable, though, and I'll share those. Both took place before lunch.

We've seen much more wildlife than we encountered in 2014, and spotting animals has been fun. We've seen elk, moose, antelope (we think), bears - and some bison. So we weren't really surprised when we discovered a herd of buffalo grazing and watering near the road. We stopped, took a lot of pictures, and prepared to leave, only to discover the herd had decided to cross the road. We set out to continue our exploration of the park, following behind the herd at a safe distance. But the herd decided to stay on the road just in front of us. We were entertained by this for a while, until we realized more of the herd had come out on the road behind us. Soon, we had buffalo young and old literally surrounding us. We were in this unnerving buffalo encounter for an hour. An HOUR! Oh, my!! [I have a lot of video of this. I can't edit video while traveling. I must sleep! I'll post when we're home.]

And then, on our way to Mammoth Hot Springs, we started seeing signs that were disconcerting, to say the least. Signs included warning like "Construction Ahead", "Muddy Road Next 5 Miles", and "Motorcyles Exercise Extreme Caution". Oh, my AGAIN! We do paved roads. We DON'T ride on mud under any circumstances - except there was no option. The lyrics to Paul Simon's song Slip Sliding Away ran through my head as we navigated a nasty stretch of mud and bumps. Thankfully, we all managed to get through with the bikes dirty but upright. Whew! By the way... there are no photos or video of this part of the day, as I had a death grip on the handlebars until we found our way back to the pavement.

While we experienced brief showers and temperatures lower than we might have preferred, we had a GREAT day and are all thankful for all we saw and experienced. We made memories, for sure! Here are some pics from the day:

The day started with animal sightings.

This innocent-looking herd soon moved to the road.

Up close and personal. TOO close!

My bike at Roaring Mountain

Mammoth Hot Springs.

Lunch at the Grill at Mammoth Hot Springs

Tower Falls 

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

The Falls at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone 

Friends

A tunnel in Shoshone National Forest, on the way back to Cody