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Yellowstone National Park

Early morning north-east side on Grand Loop Road in Yellowstone National Parl

Today is day  6 of our national park motorcycle ride. Over the course of 16 days we will ride some of the best national parks, historic sites and national monuments in the U.S. and Canada (Pikes Peak National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Glacier National Park, Banff National Park, Little Bighorn National Historic Site, Devils Tower National Monument and Mount Rushmore National Memorial). Come follow along as we ride one of our dream rides on our bucket list.

Today we are spending the day riding Yellowstone National Park. There is much to see and do. The park roads form a figure 8 through the park. We rode the entire figure 8 and saw as much as possible.

Picnic area where we had lunch in Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park is America’s first national park.  The park’s name is derived from the Yellowstone River, which runs through the park. Yellowstone  has 60% of the world’s geysers as well as many hot springs and several mud pots.  The most famous feature of the park is the geyser Old Faithful. There is also mountains, rivers, lakes and  a diverse wildlife, including grizzly bears, wolves, bison, and elk.

Boiling hot spring fed pools in Yellowstone National Park

These are some of my favorite places in the park…

1. The Lower Falls: The Lower Falls is 308 ft. high and is  more than twice the height of Niagara Falls. The volume of water flowing over the falls can vary from 63,500 gal/sec at peak runoff to 5,000 gal/sec in the fall. To me it is the most spectacular sight in the park. We stopped at Artist Point to get a good view of the falls and Yellowstone Canyon. The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is a sight worth seeing also. The falls and canyon are very scenic and offer the artist and non-artist goodsubject matter. It’s hard not to take a good picture…
   

   Lower Falls Yellowstone National Park

2. Old Faithful: The most famous of the many geysers in Yellowstone, mainly because it is so predictable when it erupts. You know you will always see a good show when you visit Old Faithful… There are other geysers on walking trails at the old Faithful stop. They are short walks so you may want to visit Castle Geyser, Grand Geyser and Geyser Hill. 
3. Mammoth Hot Springs:  The features of these springs are quite different from thermal areas elsewhere in the park. Formations grow much more rapidly  due to the softer limestone. As hot water rises through limestone, large quantities of rockare dissolved by the hot water, and a white chalky mineralis deposited on the surface.The location of springs and the rate of flow changes daily. What you see todaymay be different tomorrow.
   

   Mammoth Hot Springs Yellowstone National Park

4. Yellowstone Lake: The lake is large and beautiful with the surrounding mountains. Today the lake was calm and like a blue mirror. Very little boat activity kept the waters calm. The lake is the largest body of water in Yellowstone National Park and is 7,732 feet (2,376 m) above sea level and covers 136 square miles (350 km²) with 110 miles (177 km) of shoreline. The average depth of the lake is 139 feet (42 m). Its deepest spot is at least 390 feet (118 m). Yellowstone Lake is the largest freshwater lake above 7,000 feet (2,133 m) in North America

Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone National Park

There are so many stops and pullouts with geysers, mud pots, rivers, lakes and if you keep an eye out there is wild life to be seen. These spots are beautiful and scenic in their own right and must be experienced to be appreciated. Words… my words can’t do them justice.

Yellowstone River flowing out from Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone National Park

We rode only 174 miles today… but we saw a lot of beautiful and interesting sites. I believe there is no better way to see Yellowstone than from the seat of a motorcycle. The low was 54 degrees when we left Gardiner and reached 87 degrees while riding the park making for a very nice ride. The maximum speed in Yellowstone is 45 mile per hour and slower in a few places. This made for a slow and leisurely ride. There was some construction on the north-east part on Grand Loop Road. It wasn’t too bad but it did get the bikes a bit dirtier. If you are riding Yellowstone I would suggest getting an early start and head to the more popular sights in the park. It seems a lot of late sleepers and traffic and tourist are much lighter in the morning than in the afternoons. This is a great park and a great ride… We will be back… hopefully soon.

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone National Park from Artist Pint.

It was another good ride back to Gardiner for our last night there. When walking to dinner we met a nice couple from Illinois. They were riding a Goldwing trike and I wanted to know how they liked it. They had some stories to tell. I didn’t write down their names and had forgotten them(I’m sorry) by the time I got to the motel. We enjoyed visiting with them very much. The woman mentioned she writes stories for their local news paper about their rides. I told her she needs to start a blog and share all their stories. I hope they read this and leave us a comment. I would like to know how the blog is going…

The sign says it all… Leaving Yellowstone National Park at Gardiner, Montana

For more pictures of our ride click here and don’t forget to like “The Texas Rambler” Facebook page. Look for the “Subscribe to Texas Rambler via Email” at the bottom right column to receive notifications of new post by email. Also please take some time and leave us a comment. We always love hearing from y’all…

Tomorrow we will be riding 407 miles to Kalispell, Montana. We don’t have any planned stops except when we see something interesting…  I hope we see you down the road somewhere. Ride safe…

Here is a slide show of the days ride…

This has been one amazing ride for Larry and me. Check out the other post from this ride using the links below…

National Park Motorcycle Ride – 5542 Miles in 16 Days 2013
Day 1 & 2 National Park Ride -Getting There
Day 3 National Park Ride – Dalhart, TX to Georgetown, CO
Day 4 National Park Motorcycle Ride – Georgetown, CO to Pinedale, WY
Day 5 National Park Motorcycle Ride: Grand Teton & Yellowstone
Day 7 National Park Motorcycle Ride – Gardiner to Kalispell
Day 8 National Park Motorcycle Ride – Glacier National Park
Day 9 National Park Motorcycle Ride – Troy, MT to Golden, AB Canada
Day 10 National Park Motorcycle Ride – Banff National Park Canada
Day 11 National Park Motorcycle Ride – Lethridge, AB to Billings, MT
Day 12 National Park Motorcycle Ride – Little Bighorn Battleground
Day 13 National Park Motorcycle Ride – Devils Tower National Monument
Day 14 National Park Motorcycle Ride – Mount Rushmore