The objective today was simple: climb ~3000 feet up and over Togwotee Pass and descend the other side to Dubois.
The Tetons were behind me and ~17.5 miles of climbing from Hatchet to the summit with the majority of this in the first half. I got into low gear and slowly went up the hill. At 9 miles was Togwotee Lodge, an upscale place.
I stopped in to buy a candy bar and take a short rest. After this the road was slightly flatter for a few miles and then some shorter steep climbs. While it wasn’t fast, I was happy to get to the summit and see the sign. Hooray!
A slight tailwind had picked up which was also welcome. From here, the first nine miles had more of the descent and then more gradual after that.
Above is a photo of some of the rock formations near the summit. As I descended I came past some burned areas. The Lava Mountain lodge had sign “tx firefighters” so assume the two were related.
These three cyclists started July 17th from east coast and were following the Transamerica Trail to Oregon.
This monument was to “tie hacks”, in particular those whose particular skills were in hacking trees to create well-formed railroad ties. This eventually died off both as demand for railroad ties lessened and as sawmills were used instead.
This cyclist had started in Vermont and was on his way to the west coast.
Tailwinds and a slight descent made for good travels. As I got nearer to Dubois (locals pronounce it as “dew-boys”) the rocks and landscapes also changed. Looks a fair amount dryer than on the west side of the pass.
Nice to reach Dubois and find place to stay. I did investigate this jackalope exhibit, but nothing particularly fancy here.
Category Archives: USA
Moran, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks
Two days of pretty cycling to catch a slice of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.
Day One
West Yellowstone is definitely a gateway community focused on guests to the National Parks. At 6:30am, a tour bus was busy filling up outside the motel. I walked over to the McDonalds for a breakfast and then packed to go. At 34F (1C), it was at least above freezing. Withing 0.5 miles I reached the entrance station and showed my pass.
At 2.5 miles I crossed into Wyoming. The first 14 miles were flat as the route followed the Madison River.
I saw a bison grazing over by side of the road.
Otherwise some nice views. The shoulder was reasonable and while there was a fair amount of traffic, speeds were slow and gave me plenty of room. At 14 miles, I took the small side road up Firehole Canyon.
There is a harder layer of basalt on top of softer layers. Where the canyon has eroded down the soft layers is Firehole Falls. Once got on top of the hard layer it was relatively flat from there all the way to Old Faithful area.
At 23 miles I walked around the Fountain Paint Pot area. There were deep colored pools such as above.
Also the namesake mud pots.
A few miles later was the Midway Geyser Basin with these colored pools. Shortly before lunch I made it to the Old Faithful complex area. It was surprisingly large area with parking lots, lodges, stores, etc. Almost a mile of cycling to finally reach the Old Faithful geyser itself.
I was there at 11:45am and next eruption not expected for another 40 minutes.
So myself and a lot of other people waited.
Obligatory shot of the eruption that we waited for. After this some lunch and then back on the road. This next stretch climbed more than 1000ft to cross the Continental Divide twice.
First crossing.
Second crossing. In this area I saw ~15 cyclists coming the other way without any gear. Looked like some sort of organized ride. From the second crossing, a descent and then down to Yellowstone Lake.
The Grant Village area was another large complex with campground, visitor center, restaurant and shops. I had a nice dinner before coming back to retire early. Unfortunately, I was awoken a little past 11pm. My spot was #172 and people arrived late for neighboring spot #174. However someone else had decided to take that spot since it appeared vacant and my spot didn’t have a car in the campsite, so they parked in my spot and started to noisily set things up. I awoke and at least pointed them at the next spot to sort things out.
Day Two
It wasn’t as cold as I expected overnight and again above freezing. I packed up and then cycled for a buffet breakfast before setting off.
Started the day with another Continental Divide crossing. This one had fairly little climbing. After this somewhat level along Lewis Lake.
Past Lewis Falls at the other side. After this the canyon again appeared as the Lewis River cut through softer layers. However, the road stayed high until last few miles before the South Entrance where there was a good descent of almost 1000ft.
I was now out of Yellowstone and in small gap before reaching Grand Teton. The Berry Fire had recently shut this road for 10 days and there was information here about the fire.
We crossed right through some burnt out areas. The information sign on the lookout is shown below.
It described the effects of the 1988 fires in this area as well as regrowth. Interestingly enough almost exactly 28 years ago (weekend after Labor Day 1988) I also made a (non-cycling) trip to Yellowstone and passed through this recently burned area. I wonder how they will update the signs this time.
Here was another area of very recent burn.
A little later I came to Grand Teton Park entrance itself. The road had a nice shoulder in this area and throughout the park.
I encountered these cyclists at Colter Bay. Self described bicycle journalists had started in Breckenridge and were roughly following the Great Divide northbound and interviewing people they met.
Had a good lunch in Colter Bay before cycling the last miles for the day.
View of the Tetons.
Road leaving the park and heading east. I had a hostel room at resort ~8 miles east of Moran Junction.
West Yellowstone
Two days cycling brought me to West Yellowstone. Both days with cooler temperatures, but weather forecasts look good from here.
Day One
Fishermen were getting ready early as I prepared for a cold day of cycling following my rest/rain day.
Sunday had been cold and wet in Ennis. Good time to drop by laundromat and otherwise take it easy in Ennis. Wet weather was forecast to continue Monday morning, but other than periodic showers, Monday was definitely better than Sunday.
Photo above gave a nice overview of the day. Water in the rumble strip divots and snow up on the higher peaks. The distance was only 38 miles but included 1100 ft of net climb and some headwinds on the second half of the ride.
At 11 miles was Cameron store which was closed for Labor Day. However, it was still a good spot to shelter from the wind and eat a snack. After that, continued to follow the road as it slowly followed the Madison River.
There were several boat ramps with access to the river. I saw a number of boats like these. Seemed like one person was guiding the boat with oars while others might stand in the boat with their fishing rods. Stopped briefly at a rest area at 34 miles and then cycled the last bits to a placed named “Driftwater Resort”. It was still overcast and cool (7C or 45F) when I arrived but later in the afternoon the sun came out again and it warmed a few degrees.
Overall Driftwater Resort was a nice overnight. In the evening, the bar and grill opened and I had a large enough pizza that I ate two thirds for dinner and left the rest for breakfast.
Day Two
Overnight frost but bright sunshine had me hopeful it would quickly warm up. Some recent snow on the higher peaks.
At 2.5 miles the road junction split, though both routes were just about the same distance. This was the other road leading south over Raynolds Pass and briefly through Idaho.
The road I took followed the river and then went via Earthquake Lake and Hebgen Lake. There were multiple signs along the way about the August 17th, 1959 magnitude 7.3 earthquake that hit the area (wikipedia description). Rock slides killed 28 people and blocked the Madison River to create Earthquake Lake. It was interesting understanding more about the story as I cycled past the signs.
Here is Earthquake Lake. Notice that it had become cloudy and quite a bit cooler, so back to ~2C (35F) for most of this stretch.
Here was a sign that described Refuge Point. The road had been blocked and survivors made their way here. The mural also shows smokejumper firefighters who parachuted in to help.
After Earthquake Lake, came past the dam for Hebgen Lake (which fortunately held during the earthquake).
Met a touring cyclist on her way riding from Canon City, CO to Corvallis, OR.
Here was another view of Hebgen Lake as the worst overcast had cleared and it finally started warming up. Still interesting to see in parts the lake was still steaming earlier as if the water temperature was warmer than the air.
After Hebgen Lake, joined US 191 and cycled the last eight miles into West Yellowstone.
West Yellowstone is a touristy and somewhat expensive little town. I got a chance to walk around some of the shops including the local bike shop. Also stopped in the Visitor Center where I could look over the maps as next few days are planned out.
Good topographic view of the area. General plan is numbered on map above (1) West Yellowstone (2) cross into Yellowstone and camp at Yellowstone Lake (3) go south via Teton National Park and Moran, WY (4) cross Togwotee Pass and then over via Dubois, WY. In addition to being a bit hilly, this is somewhat higher elevation so glad I waited just a bit for the worst of the wet to pass through the area.
By the also passed two milestones in the ride to West Yellowstone: (1) passed 5,000km of cycling for this trip and (2) passed south of the 45th meridian – half way from North Pole to equator and also half way from Arctic Circle to the Tropic of Cancer (pretty close to southern tip of Baja).
Ennis, fly fishing town
Today a nice ride from Whitehall to Ennis. The cold front had come through last night with some gusty winds and rain drops, but overall not much cooler this morning. Whitehall is known for its murals of the Lewis and Clark expedition and I saw a few as I passed through town.
First eight miles were on secondary roads parallel to I-90. After that I turned south and started to see more signs pointed for Yellowstone.
Next 15 miles were on MT 369 which had a few climbs through the hills. It was an agricultural area and in a few spots, I could smell fresh cut hay. Also passed along a sign for a potato grower.
These three big tractors came past as I moved off the road to leave plenty of room.
At fifteen miles I noticed my rear tire being squishy soft again. Looks like one of the inner tire layers has a bit of a tear. Might still be ok in emergency, but decided to swap in my spare tire.
At 22 miles turned south on US 287. There was a 3-4 foot shoulder that also had a rumble strip. Most of the time, I could ride to right of the rumble strip and in any case traffic was fairly light.
Harrison had this nice little store and excuse to stop. Decided I would try for lunch in Norris, 11 miles further though. Unfortunately, reaching Norris, the bar only started serving food after 2pm. So back on the road.
Next 9 miles to McAlister had a fairly large hill. This is a view part way up the hill and looking back.
What goes up, must come down and nice to see this sign as I reached the top.
Part way down, I met this cyclist coming the other way. He had started in New Jersey and was getting closer to his end destination of Seattle. I’m far enough off the GDMBR, but now closer to the “Transamerica Trail”, so expect I might see some other East/West cycle tourists here.
At the bottom was McAlister and chance for a late lunch. After that only 6 more miles to Ennis to end a nice day of cycling.
Ennis has this statue of a fly fisherman on the main intersection and this theme seems play here.
Several shops where you can buy from a large assortment of flies.
A fly fishing festival being held over Labor Day weekend.
A number of large painted fish placed at different places around town.
I booked a room for two nights and plan to take a rest day here. Weather forecast now calls for ~60% chances of rain for both Sunday and Monday. This looks like a fairly arid region and is only 4900ft, so not sure it will be particularly severe here. However, still a nice spot to get a rest day before cycling closer to Yellowstone and higher elevations.
Whitehall, just over the hill
Today a shorter ride as I keep one eye out on the weather forecasts.
Pretty easy ride today. The paved route, MT 69 is 38 miles from Boulder to Whitehall, but there is a shortcut of 26 miles that goes over the hill rather than around. Only half the route is paved, the rest is gravel. However, there was also construction on MT 69.
Even though not a long distance, I left early to avoid a cold front that was expected to pass through in afternoon with gusty winds and thundershowers.
After two and a half miles the road turned to gravel. I was warned there was a dog here that liked to give chase, but fortunately didn’t see any signs here. Next several miles climbed on a dusty and washboard road. Most of the grade was gentle but there was a mile of ~6% grade as well.
A few cattle grates and a few cows as well. They all seemed quite curious. At the six mile mark, crested top of the hill a little over 5600ft. The road continued to be dusty and washboard here so had to carefully pick my path. Several miles later, left the trees and road became much more rocky and tougher to navigate.
A pickup slowed and asked if this was way to Boulder. In return, I found out where the gravel stopped (at 16 miles). A lot easier cycling after that.
More descent here and some irrigated agriculture. Last 10 miles were pretty easy on pavement and made it into Whitehall early.
This town was split a bit between businesses clustered near the interstate (I-90) and those on MT 69 where the railroad tracks. Found a place and relaxed for the afternoon.
I’ve been keeping an eye out on the weather forecasts. After the cold front comes through, a weather alert says, “The National Weather Service in Great Falls has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for elevations above 6000 feet for snow… which is in effect from noon Sunday to noon MDT Monday…” I’ve seen this in the forecasts for several days and hence taken slightly slower pace – in to see if I can cross into Yellowstone after the worst comes through.
Boulder, cute little town
Today’s ride was a half day to Boulder, MT. A little town with Main Street, flags and yellow ribbons adorning the lamp posts. The Great Divide Route has some notorious tough sections near Helena and Butte, but today I was on an alternative listed as “Boulder Alternative, 6.5 miles longer and includes 11.2 miles of interstate riding. This alternative avoids some of the most challenging terrain along the route” which is fine for me.
Left this morning and the first 16 miles were on a frontage road along I-15 similar to photo above. A gentle climb, temperatures around 50F (10C) made for a fairly easy ride, first to Clancey and then to Jefferson City. There were hints of a SW wind (headwind) starting to pick up.
At 16 miles an on-ramp to the interstate. Not a lot of traffic and slightly increased grades and winds, but still a reasonable ride. After five miles cycling on the shoulder, topped out around 5600ft and then descended ~700ft down into Boulder.
Photo above gives reasonable overview. Boulder is at the far end with a low ridge behind it. One road (MT 69) goes off to the left, and I-15 goes to the right. Over the low ridge is a paved+gravel road that heads further south.
I was into Boulder close to noon. Now a choice of whether to ride over that hill to continue to Whitehall or find a spot in town. It was a cute town, and some more headwinds helped make my choice.
Here is part of the Thursday Farmer’s Market.
Here is city hall.
In the afternoon a quick gusty rain shower came through. Tomorrow we expect a front to come through with cooler temperatures as well as increased chances of rain on Sunday and Monday and cool most of next week. Also one of the reasons for shorter day as figure I’d rather have that weather instability here at lower elevations before going across Yellowstone after that.
Helena, two easy days
Two easy days riding to Helena.
I was slow getting started from Lincoln. I hadn’t taken a rest day since Banff and thought of taking a day in Lincoln, but in end decided on two easy days instead. The agenda for the first day was to ride over Flesher Pass. Turned out not too difficult as it was only 1600ft higher than Lincoln.
Eleven miles on the main road before turning to road 279. There was quite a bit of construction traffic, but fortunately the trucks were only going one mile down the road. After that it was a slow steady climb for 9 miles to the summit. My cycle computer rarely said over 6% so it was a case of shifting into low gear and slowly riding up.
Getting close to the top, here was the view looking back on the road.
Official summit sign here.
After that a reasonable descent that brought me down into Canyon Creek. The creek was a bit narrow and the road closely followed the creek. Some national forest but also a fair number of vacation cabins here. A little past 30 miles, the canyon opened up and it was more dry landscapes with irrigation. My map had indicated “Canyon Creek Store”
I was there in time for a late lunch. Inside of the store was cute with a lot of antiques but also food and other items. They also had small RV park/campground. Decided to stop there for the afternoon. It was hazy out, apparently several different fires in the area.
Two pickups. This scene was along the way the next morning. As best I could tell, they were radio-ing down to some riders on horseback down below who were herding cattle. From here into Helena was a good road that climbed over low ridge and then descended into the Helena Valley. After 13 miles, turned north to more suburban/rural roads on outskirts of Helena.
Not much later was the city limits itself.
Overall, two fairly easy days that brought me to Helena. Chance to relax as well as pick a more precise route using the maps I have. I was thinking of US 287, but that has bad reviews so most likely take some of the alternate route on GDMBR.
Lincoln
Today a nice ride all on pavement. First fifteen miles finished MT 83 and passed picturesque Salmon Lake. Must be fish as I saw several boats out in the water. The last few miles went to junction with MT 200, also known as Clearwater Junction.
Clerk at the Kwik Stop store told me the bull above was ~50 years old and recently had been listed in an article of the “five most recognized images of Montana.” The clerk also explained a sign for me from yesterday. One of these Adopt a Highway signs had listed “The Boman Family, five griz and one cat”. “griz” refers to University of Montana Grizzlies in Missoula and “cat” refers to Montana State University Bobcats in Bozeman.
The next 24 miles I had also done on my first trip across America on May 30th 1992. I was riding a bit longer then and covered 125.9 miles with 5210 feet of climb that day from Missoula to Helena.
Photo above gives a good overview of agenda for rest of the day and also showed that the country was starting to open up some with larger views. MT 200 had good shoulders and initially looked like it might be a headwind, but fortunately subsided. After 13 miles I came to small town of Ovando. I had a touring cyclist pass me here. He was traveling from Portland, OR to Yellowstone but was stopping for the day in Ovando.
I had lunch at Trixi’s, actually an omelet breakfast since they served them until noon. After that more big sky country to ride eleven miles to junction with MT 141. Not much later, I noticed my rear tire was soft. Looks like a hole in the same place as I had in Whitefish again. Looks like a hole has gotten into the outer tire. Patched this up, but if continues again, perhaps swap in my spare tire.
How many Brahams symphonies do we need?
The last fifteen miles more closely followed the river and had very slight uphill. I was amused to see signs listing “downtown Lincoln”. Lincoln itself has one flashing traffic light – yellow on the main road and red for a cross street – so that must be downtown. Only other thing I’ve known about Lincoln is this is hometown for the Unabomber who had his cabin here. However, haven’t found any plaques or signs for this.
Not too much trouble to find myself a place to stay. The GDMBR also goes through downtown Lincoln, so will either take this route tomorrow or will go one pass further (Flesher Pass) on likely a two day ride to Helena.
Seeley Lake, one road
Cycling instructions were simple today: get on MT 83. Follow it 57 miles to Seeley Lake. Along the way, the first two thirds was a gradual ascent from ~3300ft to ~4300ft following the Swan River and the last third was a gradual descent from ~4300ft to ~4000ft.
Sunrise keeps getting later and breakfast at lodge was 8am so it was almost 9am by time I was on the road.
I stopped at the general store half a mile down the road since I wasn’t certain how many services I would find in Condon part way. Adventure Cycling maps indicated both a restaurant and a store, but folks at the B&B told me Condon was “mostly trees”.
The route did go through a narrow corridor along the trees. While it didn’t give much in terms of views, I was glad because it kept everything cooler and also didn’t need to worry about wind. I expect in WY, I will miss these trees. The route went through the Flathead National Forest and a short bit of Montana Swan Lake Forest. The official GDMBR was on other side of the valley following the gravel roads up and over some low hills, but I was just as happy with my flatter and paved route.
As I got closer to Condon, I didn’t see much in way of businesses but did notice at least three “we build your log house” businesses and also noticed many churches. Not sure where the houses are that people go to the churches but Condon had a Baptist, Lutheran, Catholic and Community Church. Also a post office and photo above was in front of the museum. Right about noon, I came to Swan Lake Cafe. There were no cars in front, but it was open. They explained to me once church service was over, it would get crowded. So had my burger just slightly ahead of the crowds.
After Condon there were one or two places the views opened up as the road gradually continued to climb. The GDMBR briefly came to 83 and for 1.6 miles as it crossed from right side of the valley to the left.
At 40 miles, I came to the Lolo National Forest sign which marked the top of the divide between Swan River and Clearwater River. By now it was 85F (30C). Also here was nice lookout over Summit Lake.
The last 17 miles slowly went along several lakes and then into resort community of Seeley Lake. Otherwise a reasonable and not too difficult day. I think this next photo is about gasoline and not about pizza.
Now sorting out exactly what direction I follow from here. Most likely staying on paved roads to Helena and I’m told GDMBR near Helena and Butte is some of the more difficult bits, so I’ll probably be on pavement there.
Swan Lake, cruising the Flathead Valley
Today a somewhat easier and flatter day mostly on pavement. While all but the last ~12 miles were part of the GDMBR, expect this to be part of several days mostly on pavement paralleling the route rather than riding all the gravel roads. Fixed my flat tire and otherwise set up for leisurely departure from Whitefish.
Last night I visited with Tim Travis. Starting in 2002, Tim spent over a decade bicycle touring and living on the road with his bicycle. His first two years were on year in Mexico and Central America followed by one year in South America. I was familiar with Tim from following his web site from early days and otherwise on the web – and also recently re-read his first two books – and also believe Tim used my Australia web site to help plan his travels there. It was fun catching up.
The first eleven miles today were on the GDMBR through back roads to Columbia Falls. I had made arrangements to meet my sister-in-law, Natalie, there for an early lunch. It was fun connecting there as well.
After lunch, I headed south and had intermittent south winds (headwinds) for rest of the day – though not as bad as I had feared when I heard of the 20-30mph SSW forecast. This area was a mix of agricultural as well as some forest with vacation homes (or perhaps permanent from people who live in resort-like setting). There was also some hay and some cattle.
These cows were friendly and curious and I didn’t even have to “moo” to get them to come over.
I met my group of Great Divide riders for the day on this segment as well. They initially came past me, but I was able to pass them later. They were doing a segment of the divide this year from Whitefish MT to Lima MT and had support drivers along and hence the light loads. Despite the lightly loaded bikes, I was just as fast on the flats and eventually left them behind when they stopped for lunch.
I took one stretch on “206” to avoid a few miles of gravel, but otherwise took the official route including a 2.3 mile section of gravel. It was reasonable cycling – through with my later start and lunch stop, I was a little later than normal. Stopped at 44 miles in Ferndale at gas station for bite to eat and then rode the last 12 miles to a nice B&B lodge on Swan Lake.
Photo above is of Swan Lake and here I had left the GDMBR as it goes on other side of the lake on gravel roads that go up and down some of the hills. Supposed to be reasonable riding, though I figured I’d make some progress following the paved roads on this side. Apparently, upcoming sections near Helena and Butte I’ve got some recommendations to consider skipping the roughest bits there.
There is photo of the lodge, where also had dinner and plan breakfast tomorrow before setting off. The lodge had some friendly cocker spaniels several of which had “don’t feed me” signs around their collars.