Yellowstone
and Grand Teton Cycle Tour, September 2014. Day 5
Wednesday 10 September
– Old Faithful Inn to Canyon Village – 45.4
miles
I can’t remember why we planned such an early start, with
breakfast at 7.00: maybe it was the fact
that we had a lot of geysers to see, perhaps it was because someone had told us
there’d be a big queue for breakfast;
but for whatever reason that’s when we got up. Then I saw on the board in the lobby that Old
Faithful’s next eruption was due at 0730 ± 10 minutes so I decided to postpone
my breakfast and wander to the viewing area, all of 100 yards away. Others went for a hurried breakfast so as to
be out by 0720.
Old Faithful erupts
At 0710 up she went!
Not the most spectacular eruption the old geyser is capable of, but
nevertheless a moment my old kettle would be proud of. I managed to get a couple of photos and a
video, then wandered back to the hotel in time to give the others the
disappointing news as they were leaving the dining room. Most decided to wait another 90 minutes.
Castle Geyser
Then I did a tour of lots of other geysers in the so-called
Upper Geyser Basin – Castle Geyser, Grotto Geyser, and Riverside Geyser to name
but a few. It was a cold morning and the
atmospheric conditions meant that the view was of steam rising from the ground
all over the place. Once on the main
road we headed north past Biscuit Basin (more geysers) and then ran alongside
the Firehole River until we reached Excelsior Pool. Here you can see a gushing stream which
delivers 4,000 gallons of boiling water to the river every minute. I really wanted to see the adjacent Grand
Prismatic Spring, one of the most spectacular sights in the Park, but sadly the
conditions meant that all the amazing colours were obscured by the mist and
steam. However, you could see the mats
of thermophilic (heat-loving) bacteria which manage to survive in conditions
which would kill us in seconds.
4,000 gallons of boiling water a minute from...
Grand Prismatic Spring on a better day
Mats of thermophilic bacteria
A detour around Firehole Lake with more geysers followed and
then, after we rejoined the main road, we (Jeff and I) met a couple from
Tennessee who were also on bikes, Ben and Anne Cowan. They
are frequent cycle-tourers and were keen to know where we’d cycled and what we
were doing this time. They showed us the
entrance to Firehole Canyon Drive, which was a spectacular two- or three mile
detour, and rode along with us. The way
we were headed was against the one-way system there, but signs clearly indicate
that bicycles are allowed to travel in either direction. At Mammoth Junction (yes! a junction!) they turned
left to West Yellowstone while we went right to Norris, and Ben’s parting
words, in his southern drawl, were “Enjoy your ride, I’ve gotta catch my bride!”
Firehole Canyon
Gibbon Falls
Next up, with the river on our right, was the gushing,
gurgling and sulphurous Beryl Spring, right next to the road; soon after, an
Osprey was perched at the very top of an Aspen tree and was happy to pose for a
photo. The road levelled out at the
rather nice Gibbon Meadows, then dropped to Norris, where for some reason (lack
of research or general doziness) we failed to visit the spectacular geyser
basin there – but don’t worry, we visited it later in the tour, so I’ll tell
you about it then.
Osprey
Another slight detour along Virginia Cascade Drive, with
spectacular drops on the right hand side, where I stopped to eat the other half
of the turkey sandwich and gaze at the cascade.
Soon afterwards the road kicks up very steeply, just before rejoining
the main road, and here Jeff’s chain jammed at less than 1 mph and he crashed
to the ground. The malfunction occurred
when he shifted down to the ‘granny ring’ at the front – the chain jammed every
time, so he had no choice but to stick to mainly (or manly?) high gears, not
easy with a long climb coming up. He
wasn’t hurt by the fall, by the way, or at least he said he wasn’t.
Well I guess most of them are!
In fact it was a very long climb, which took us to over
2,500 m above sea level, with the temperature dropping and the odd snow flurry
in the air. I was quite happy to get to
Canyon Village, where we would stay the next two nights in a cabin, and they
also had a Volcano Visitor Centre, all facilities and a General Store, where I
bought my favourite post-ride tipple – a pint of full-fat milk! It’s the best rehydration drink there is,
believe me.
All the motels and in fact just about everywhere else
outside the Park has free wifi on offer.
Inside the Park, everything is run by Xanterra, who charge $4.95 an hour
for wifi that is so slow you spend most of the time wondering if you really are
connected or just watching the egg-timer.
That’s what happened when we returned to the bar/restaurant in the
evening. I also learnt that unless you
stand between a certain two chrome rails at the bar, you are invisible to the
bar staff. I asked some fellow customers
if this was the American way and they confirmed that it was. Which made it doubly confusing the following
day, as I will reveal later.
Tonight's cabins
We were also about to get a change in the weather. I was glad I’d packed those thermals!
Total mileage now 158.2
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