Headed to Idaho errr I mean Yellowstone National Park

I packed up and headed out of Deadwood headed for the southern part of Wyoming, south of Yellowsone and planned to swing west through Idaho on my way to Glacier National Park. That wa the plan until I checked the weather forecast and saw 60-80% chance of thunderstorms every day for the next six days in that direction. When i checked the north end of Yellowstone the chance was only 30% so even though I had no interest in riding with the crowds of tourists in Yellowstone, that's the way I headed. I was told to check out Devil's Tower so I headed that way first and it was so surreal to drive along and suddenly it springs up in the middle of nowhere. Did I mention that Doug climbed this thing? That's also a little surreal.

 

 Along the way I met Eli who is traveling for Oregon to Montauk, NY and is getting paid to do it as a research grant on various perceptions of the wilderness experience. I hope he's not staying in the same campgrounds that I am because that is about as far from wilderness as you can get. I was further from my neighbors in NYC. Eli seemed like a great guy and after tightening his handlebars, filling his water, turning him on to electrolytes and cleaning and lubing his chain, I sent him on his way. Ride Eli Ride!

 This one is for Kimberly!

 It was getting late so Kimberly came through yet again with the Marriott rewards point and I scored a nice room in Billing MT. After a good nights sleep and a bit of planning I headed to the park. The idea was to use the northeast entrance and use a site I reserved in a corporate run campground that had 430 reserveable sites. It wasn't ideal but the first come first serve sites fill early in the morning. I figured I'd get up early the next morning and move to a better site elsewhere in the park but once again, good fortune shined it's light right through my plan and cme up with something better. The road to the northeast entrance had road construction and being impatient and late, I headed for the north entrance at Gardiner MT. When I got there I stopped at the first campground just in case and was told it was full and handed a list of nearby places to camp outside the park. I found a real gem. High up on the mountain above Gardiner was a national forest campground where the sites were 150' apart and the view was great and there was cellular service so I could call home, Score!