Yellowstone, Beartooth Highway & Grand Teton

There are several annual Volusia Rider rallies held each year at established locations, but the Western Rally is sort of a floating rally. Each year ideas and locations get thrown around in discussion until something sticks. The site for this year's Western Rally was Yellowstone National Park.

The "official" dates for the rally were August 8-10th (Fri-Sun), but I had a few extra days off so I left on Wednesday. Jim (vol210) was passing through, coming from Seattle, so we rode over together. We spent Wednesday night in Dillon, MT which left us with an easy ride into Yellowstone on Thursday.

[Click on photos to enlarge -- be sure to use "back" key or open in new window]

In the planning stages of the rally, folks were divided on camping or staying at a motel. Eventually some decided to camp while others made reservations for motels at West Yellowstone. Jim and I met up with Ronnie, Polovision and Boulvdozer Thursday afternoon at the Grant Village campground. We had a brief period of "panic" when we showed up and it turned out my reservation had been cancelled and the campground was full. Initially I had made a reservation for the entire week (starting Monday) because there were a few groups who were planning on attending and possibly being there all week prior to the rally. I made the reservation months in advance just in case I went earlier. As the rally drew near, and plans firmed up, it appeared some people were going to be unable to attend. I called and changed my reservation to Thursday, but apparently it didn't get changed. When I didn't show on Monday they gave my spot away. After speaking with a supervisor, who disappeared for about 10 minutes, they were able to find me a spot which turned out to be adjacent to Ronnie & Polo’s spot. Boulvdozer and I shared a spot and Jim moved in with Ronnie & Polo.

Friday: Beartooth Highway

I woke up early Friday morning and walked down to the lake and watched the sun come up.

A nice way to start the day.

Most of us had been to the park before so, on Jim's suggestion, Friday's ride was the Beartooth Highway near Cooke City, outside the NE corner of the park. The motel crowd was going to meet us at Canyon Village for breakfast. As it turned out, they got delayed in traffic and decided to just tour the park and meet up later. Because cell phone service is limited in the park we didn’t get the message until we arrived at Canyon Village. We were running late as well and we could have met up without a problem if we had connected but at that point they had headed another direction. CndWrangler was camping as well and joined up with us for the ride. Condolini had done Beartooth on the way into the park so she went off to explore on her own.

Lots of wildlife in the park, particularly bison. Since I had been here before didn't take too many pictures of the park.

We stopped in Canyon Village and opted for a cheap breakfast at the counter in the general store.

CndWrangler, Boulvdozer, Ronnie, Polovision, Vol210, jmax99.

Outside Cooke City we stopped for a break before we turned onto Beartooth. I kind of missed the conversation, but we split into two groups. Jim wanted to ride it hard so he was going ahead and the plan was to meet down the road. When he started off, Wrangler and I took off with him. Polo, Ronnie and Boulvdozer followed at a more leisurely pace.

We were riding hard, passing cars and scraping metal so we didn't stop for any pictures...but Polo took a few.

I took this picture on another day, but we all got a laugh out of this sign! Except for a couple stretches across meadows, not sure we could even hit 70 on this highway with a Vol...and live to tell, anyway.

After lunch in Red Lodge we completed a scenic loop along Chief Joseph Highway and back to Yellowstone. On one stretch, I was following Polo as we descended a stretch of highway with a lot of switchbacks. I was taking the curves hard and scraping a lot of metal, but I kept running up on Polo. Polo rides an ST1300 so I knew he could easily handle the curves but he kept letting up. I decided he was messing with his new camera mount and trying to get some pictures so I let up and backed off. Turned out every time he went into the curve he heard the grinding but thought something was wrong with his bike and was slowing to locate the noise. Eventually he realized it was me behind him and not his bike.

As we neared Cooke City we were greeted with a summer thunderstorm. We pulled over and suited up just in time for a good 30 minute drenching.

After a chilly ride back to the campsite it was time for dinner and a little time around the campfire. As we were deciding on dinner plans a family in an RV next door invited us over for spaghetti so we joined them for dinner and some chat. A little later Czar of Katmandu and Condolini showed up at our campsite to join us at the campfire.

Condolini, jmax99, Czar of Katmandu, Boulvdozer

Saturday: Grand Teton National Park

The campsite became the hangout Friday night and Saturday morning. We had a couple Ronnie Rally t-shirts that had been bouncing around the west to be signed. Alberta Rider (Edmonton) and Highway Thunder (AZ) were each battling cancer and unable to attend the rallies so we were getting some t-shirts signed and then delivering the shirts to each of them. Ronnie & Polo traveled to Arizona to visit Norm in Arizona on the way home from Yellowstone and give him his t-shirt. I joined up with another group the following week up in Calgary to give Warren his shirt.

After a trip over to the village for breakfast we headed out on a ride down into Grand Teton NP and then into Jackson for lunch.

Stopping to take in the view and take a little break...and of course snap a few pictures.

We stopped at the dam at the other end of the lake for another break and some more sightseeing. I "photostiched" a few shots together for the whole panorama.

Condolini and Wood Welder sharing a laugh.

Voodoo & Voodoo Doll, Librarian & Rank

Boulvdozer

Yours truly...hot and sunny, so enjoying a little time without the helmet and jacket. Save it for later when the rain hits.

Stopping again to take in the view, before going grizzly hunting. Came upon one a few miles up the road. A ranger was on the scene "shooing" it away.

A couple more photostich mergers.

The "Incident"

When we arrived in Jackson we pulled into a strip center to take a break. As we lined up to leave, Wrangler was going to lead the way. He pulled away and headed to the curb as a Saab convertible was leaving the parking lot. I was behind him, but hadn't pulled away yet when I heard a commotion. I looked back in time to see Wrangler shouting, honking and trying to back up as the Saab had suddenly decided to back up into the parking lot from the street and into Wrangler's bike. Turned out it was driven by a teenager who dropped his cell phone and decided to get out of traffic so he could retrieve his phone "safely." I immediately rushed over in case anyone needed to be refrained. Wood Welder was there quickly as well. Initially the kid wanted to "move" his car but the Canadians convinced him to leave it where it was and get out of the car. When the kid got out, he walked to the back of the car to check the damage, and said "dude, you scratched my car." I thought Jackson was about to lose one of it's teenager at that moment! Someone else did too, and one of the shop owner's quickly rushed over shouting he saw everything and it was the kid's fault. Things cooled after that and we sat around for quite some time while the police and the boy's parents sorted things out. Ultimately, Wrangler had to leave the bike at a rental place for a claims adjuster to check out on Monday. In the meantime he rented a BMW for one day, and had to return it the following day to exchange for a Harley.

Dude, you scratched my car!

Wrangler chills out after deciding there's too many people around to go killing someone. Most of the group waits in the shade while the cops take care of business.

After the delay we hit Jackson for a little Mexican food. By the time we finished eating it was late in the afternoon and the afternoon thunderstorm was rolling in so we decided to head back to camp. We hit the road and took our drenching...along with a side of hail.

Sunday: Beartooth Highway 2 or the road home

Sunday morning was time to head home for most of the group. Ronnie & Polo were heading to AZ, so along with Boulvdozer, they packed up early and hit the road with plans to get to Utah. Wrangler and Jim and I headed to West Yellowstone to meet up with the motel crowd for a little breakfast.

Seems they had a biker friendly motel...

After breakfast at the pancake house most of the folks were heading for home.

Vol210, loaded up and ready to go.

Voodoo and Condolini look over the map for some possible "alternate" routes to explore.

Cal tries on Wrangler's rental Beemer.

Back- Woold Welder, Vol210, CndWrangler, Condolini, Rank, Librarian, Jmax99

Front - Voodoo Doll, Voodoo, Cal

Wood Welder, Cal and I did not have to leave until Monday so we decided to stick around another day. They had missed the Beartooth Highway so we decided to make that our destination. A little mellower ride this time and a few stops to take some pictures. Wrangler was sticking around, but had to return to Jackson to swap bikes, and had done Beartooth so we parted ways.

A few miles of road construction outside Cooke City. Last time through was right after the thunderstorm...compared to a muddy road, I didn't mind it so much this time.

Cal's vintage ride.

The view at the west end of the Beartooth Highway.

A merged panorama of one of the meadows.

Cal getting some action shots.

A Canadian getting excited about snow...go figure. lol

Came across this lonely, abandoned chairlift near the summit. Got the scoop on this ride.

As we were taking a walk, a couple snowboarders appeared. Apparently the chairlift was built for Olympic ski team training years ago. Turned out the slope was too steep and impractical for training so the site was abandoned. The chairlift is now privately owned but seldom used. These guys were snowboarding and then hiking back up the hill. Bit of a steep hike, but according to them, well worth it for a little summer snowboarding.

When you're riding a highway with the twisties and switchbacks like this one, it's highly recommended you keep both hands on the handlebar...unless of course, you're taking pictures.

Funny, I stopped to snap a few shots of the hillside and the flowers at Cooke City and the thought crossed my mind that it looked like bear country.

Turned out he was just about a mile up the road.

On our way through Laurel Valley, back in Yellowstone, we got caught in a "buffalo jam." For me, it turned rather humorous, but we were stuck there for about 15-20 minutes.

You know the rule about keeping your distance from the wild animals?...yeah, right. When we pulled up there was just 2 cars between us and a herd of bison that was straddling the road. I pulled up, shut off my bike, and relaxed. Cal & Gary, along with just about everyone in the cars around us, decided to grab their cameras and head up for some up close and personal pictures. Suddenly some of the males, got a bit rambunctous and charged across the road. It was just some preseason rough-housing amongst boys, but animals were huffing & charging, and dirt was flying...and it sent the entire group of people screaming and running for their lives. Could have been a serious situation of course, but I was laughing so hard I cried.

Of course, with bison randomly charging back and forth across the road we played it cautious and were stuck there for a while until they calmed down and moved on.

Just a few miles up the road we ran into a small black bear exploring the side of the road and drawing quite the crowd. It was too dark to get good pictures, but people jumped out of their cars and lined the side of the road trying to get pictures, many of them probably just 15-20 feet away from the bear at times.

By the time we got out of Laurel Valley it was nearly dark, and we had a rather chilly 2 hour ride back to West Yellowstone to the motel. The next morning we headed home. I had an "easy" 500 mile (or so) ride home, and then off to work that night.