We rolled up to Old Faithful lodge 4 minutes before the famous geyser shot off. Had we arrived by car, we would have missed it. Once you get to the Upper Geyser Basin, it’s so much better to have a bike than a car!
Before that… a car might have been better. The climbs are surprisingly steep. The shoulders narrow. The traffic thick. But overall, it’s not a bad way to travel through the park, and I’m really glad we did it.
I visited the park as a youngster, and have fond memories, but they are pretty distant. I have always wanted to go back. Didn’t think it would be on the CDT, but here we are!
It was a picture perfect day in the park. Couldn’t have planned it better if we had tried. And that’s it — we didn’t really know what we were doing, pretty much winging it and figuring it out as we went.
One thing we did plan and nail was the early start from Flagg Ranch. Little did we know we’d climb 1000+ feet in the 20 miles to the first lodge. There’s zero shoulder on that stretch, too. Oh, and there were miles of dense fog. At first we were rolling through mists from thermals in the park. Then we hit the real stuff and came out soaking wet! It was very cool to ride through fog, especially with low traffic.
The lodge had an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. Salvation from the oh-dark-thirty start was found. Re-energized, we skipped a mile or two on the highway by rolling through the campground, then merged onto the highway, hoping for safe passage.
Everyone was pretty good. Only one group of Hell’s Angels and a couple RVs buzzed us badly. There was some painfully slow climbing in there, though, and we were ever so happy to follow the CDT data into the Old Faithful area, free of traffic at last.
Our timing was impeccable for the Grand Geyser, which goes off only once or twice a day. It’s the tallest predictable geyser in the world, and was quite a sight — it garnered applause from the crowd of onlookers.
The tourists about were also quite a sight. We were so happy that they allow bikes through so many of the pools and geysers. It’s a very cool way to see a lot in the park, in a short amount of time. We have a little cable lock, so were able to park the bikes in many places to go investigate other pools and features on foot.
The world we live in is such an incredible place. Sights like these are well worth braving tourist traffic for. It was an absolutely incredible day on ‘the trail.’
After ice cream in the Old Faithful Lodge, which is impressively constructed almost entirely of wood, we rolled down the bike path for even more sight seeing. Amazingly, you can exit the Geyser Basin on bike paths, skipping the highway entirely.
Then, a 4 mile stretch of gravel is also open to bikes! The Park Service is slowly modernizing and giving people more opportunites to get out of their cars and actually see the park by human power. It was quite nice to see, and quite a nice break from all the traffic.
Actually, everything after Old Faithful was a total breeze on a bike. We were only briefly out with traffic, and it was pretty much downhill!
Our final stop was to hit the swimming area on the Fire Hole River. Eszter had scoped it out, and we only had to ride briefly the wrong way on a one way road to get there. The water is warm — good swimming temperature, and there were people everywhere enjoying the river — even jumping off the cliffs (despite signs prohibiting it). It was an idyllic summer day, dipping in the river and sitting in the sun. In Yellowstone! Perfect way to cool off and relax at the end of a day of touristing.
2 miles of downhill brought us to the Madison Campground, where we’d hoped to find some kind of site. Campground was full, but the friendly registration guy informed us they cannot turn away a hiker or biker. There’s plenty of room in the biker/hiker area, and a number of cyclists already here! Both Great Divide and TransAm riders are camped for the night. It’s fun to have other cyclists to talk to and camp with. No Yellowstone experience would be complete without staying in one of the campgrounds!
Tomorrow we head to West Yellowstone to get laptops and plan out the next sections of CDT. These are pieces I wasn’t sure we would be able to ride, but the Yellowstone route makes them tie in beautifully.
I’m not sure riding through Yellowstone is the best CDTbike route, but it sure worked out well for us!
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