Spyder camping trip to Yellowstone NP

[UtahPete]

Last Thursday, Jane and I hooked up the Leisure Lite and headed north from our home in Oakley, Utah. We spent the first night with friends in Star Valley, Wyoming. Skies clear and temps in the 80s and Spyder was getting 35mpg, towing a trailer, two up and luggage; probably 1850 lbs.

The next morning we rode up through Jackson and in the Tetons took the scenic loop to Jenny Lake. Continued on to south entrance of Yellowstone and on to our campsite at Bridge Bay. While waiting to register, a couple passed on a red RT; they said they were from Wisconsin.

Yellowstone is over 7000' throughout the park. Weather was nice but an occasional rain cloud reminded us we were back in mountain weather.

 

[ARtraveler]

Enjoy your trip. Been there a few times and liked it a lot.

 

[pegasus1300]

Looking forward to sharing your trip here Pete. Hope you can post some.

 

[UtahPete]

Internet has been spotty. I'll be posting more.

Here's a link to the park's website, which has gobs of info https://www.nps.gov/yell/index.htm

Good maps;

https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/maps.htm

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=...it/upload/YELL-GRTE-Tear-Off-Map-2022_508.pdf

 

[Bangorbob]

Pete, that is on my bucket list of things to do. Let us live thru you what we can't see in person.
Bob

 

[UtahPete]

Pete, that is on my bucket list of things to do. Let us live thru you what we can't see in person.
Bob

You bet

 

[UtahPete]

Saturday morning we went to the nearby General Store for fuel. There was a group of riders on 20 rented H-D bikes. They are on a 3 week trip. The Indonesian Harley Davidson Club.





There were many motorcycles in Yellowstone, mostly of the V-twin variety, many solo and also quite a few groups.

The first day, as mentioned elsewhere, I met a couple from Wisconsin on a red RT. The next day, I saw another couple on a Circuit yellow Rt and a solo rider with white hair and beard on a S-T-S RT. On our way home, after Cody, there were 4 dark-colored Spyders, mostly RTs, riding together heading north. If you're one of the above, please respond with your info.

 

[Scotts8826]

Yellowstone NP is amazing and worth the trip. Has Yellowstone and some surrounding areas recovered from last month's flooding?

 

[UtahPete]

Yellowstone NP is amazing and worth the trip. Has Yellowstone and some surrounding areas recovered from last month's flooding?

The roads for the north and northeast entrances are still closed, primarily because of severe flooding damage to those roads inside and outside the park. So, unfortunately we were unable to ride the Beartooth Highway this time.

The rest of the roads in Yellowstone are open, but the southwest portion of the Grand Loop have many places where the road has temporary repairs to washouts that can be rough. They're well marked but full of potholes, so approach has to be sloooow. I was riding that at night in a downpour for an hour and hit some of those sections faster than I should have. The bike handled it well with no damage or affect on wheel balance or alignment.

The east side of the park roads were fine, but it was slow going because of frequent bison herds on or near the road. One such traffic jam caused a 90 minute wait!

https://www.google.com/maps/@44.6890976,-110.4188088,148513m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en

 

[cptjam]

Enjoy the trip! We are summering in MT, north of Billings. Beautiful area. Enjoy!

 

[UtahPete]

Bison sightings

Every day we rode in the park, we encountered herds of bison (and a few 'lonely bulls'). Mostly they were alongside the road, either side of the road and off aways. Occasionally, they would cross the road and traffic would be delayed a few minutes. Sometimes, they would just hang out on the road itself, stopping traffic in both directions; one such delay was over 90 minutes!

 

[UtahPete]

The first full day in Yellowstone, we decided to revisit the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, which is on the eastern side. There is a north rim and a south rim drive and this time we took the south rim drive. https://www.google.com/maps/place/I...2150071!8m2!3d44.7249841!4d-110.4696871?hl=en







Sometimes it's hard to get into my head the fact that Yellowstone, while a very large bowl, is at about 7500' and the landscape outside that bowl is much lower elevation. Yellowstone Lake, at 7000', is fed by the surrounding watershed and Yellowstone River runs east out of the park toward Cody, Wyoming. The Continental Divide bisects Yellowstone and other rivers in the park run westward.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Y...8m2!3d44.4279684!4d-110.5884542!5m1!1e4?hl=en

 

[UtahPete]

Campground & Elk

We camped for 3 nights at Bridge Bay, which is at the NE part of Yellowstone Lake, near the East Entrance to the park. There are 8 loops of campsites, some in meadows and some in the trees. It was a great experience; the campgrounds are well managed and well-maintained and visitors are from all over the US and the world, actually. There was a good vibe going on. Very few big rigs; mostly vans, tents, rooftop tents, small to medium sized trailers and quite a few of the rented RVs.

There is a small herd of elk at the campground (which is very large) and in the morning two bucks came into our campsite and stole a bag of peanuts off the camp table.









Each campsite had or shared a large 'bear box' to store all food, toiletries, etc. We had no bears in the campground (that we know of). In fact, we didn't see any bears or wolves at all in the park, but it's a very large park and they stay as far away as possible from humans these days.

 

[UtahPete]

Old Faithful

What is a trip to Yellowstone without a viewing of Old Faithful blowing its spout every hour or so? We've been to Yellowstone 5 times and Old Faithful twice before. Usually we avoid Old Faithful area because of the crowds and heavy commercialization of the spot and when we have visited didn't wait around long enough to see it blow.

This time was different because visits to the park are down 40% from normal, so crowds were not the issue of past visits. We did wait for it to blow and got almost front row seating. The Ranger presentation about the physics of the phenomenon was quite good and people were attentive and in a great mood. Now we can cross that one off our bucket list.







Jane enjoying the moment

Just one of several large parking lots around Old Faithful

https://www.google.com/maps/place/O...a6822a1!8m2!3d44.4604788!4d-110.8281377?hl=en

 

[UtahPete]

Mammoth Hot Springs

At the NW corner of the Grand Loop around the park is Mammoth Hot Springs, one million travertine countertops in the making. It's a very large area with extensive boardwalks throughout the steaming site, but this time we stayed at the bottom and just got a couple of pictures.





https://www.google.com/maps/place/M...8m2!3d44.9679394!4d-110.7044382!5m1!1e4?hl=en

 

[UtahPete]

Cody, Wyoming and the Wind River Gorge

All good things come to an end. We had hoped to leave by the NE entrance and take the Bear Tooth Highway but it was closed due to flood damage. So, we took the main East Entrance, which has some pretty nice views of its own, following the Yellowstone River as it drops a thousand feet or so and dumps into Buffalo Bill Reservoir west of Cody.

Cody is worth a short stay if you're into western lore. We had a great lunch at the Buffalo Bill's Irma's Hotel and Restaurant (definitely worth going there for the food and the ambience), then headed east to Greybull, then south to Thermopolis (another interesting place to spend a few hours).

We continued south through the Wind River Gorge to a campground at Boysen State Park for the night.

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.8345942,-108.9473145,216203m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en







Wind River Gorge









Boysen State Park



The lonely empty desert of SW Wyoming

 

[pegasus1300]

Thank you for all of the pictures. I really appreciated Yellowstone Falls. Also the pictures of Old Faithfull blowing off. Did you go over to Old Faithful Lodge and look around inside? I like the soler panel you put on top of your trailer. Nice to ride along with you and Jane.

 

[Scotts8826]

Thanks for sharing your trip. I agree that if you visit Yellowstone you need to see Old Faithful but it can be skipped on later visits due to the crowds.

 

[HagermanSpyder]

Question on camping in Yellowstone NP. Years ago we were only able to camp in the park with a hard sided unit, because of possible bear inner action. Has this requirement changed? Not sure I would camp in the park with a tent or soft sided anything.

 

[UtahPete]

Question on camping in Yellowstone NP. Years ago we were only able to camp in the park with a hard sided unit, because of possible bear inner action. Has this requirement changed? Not sure I would camp in the park with a tent or soft sided anything.

There were no such restrictions at Bridge Bay campground. In fact there were a couple of loops that were only 'tent sites' (i.e. not suitable for RVs). All sites had access to large 'bear boxes' and upon registration campers were advised to keep all foodstuffs (except refrigerated) in those at night and when away from the campsite for any length of time.

I don't know about other campgrounds in the park, but I didn't see any signs saying 'no tent camping' as I have in previous years. There were a lot of tent-camping motorcyclists in the park.