Day 13 Jackson, WY to Salt Lake City, UT

July 4th (Independance Day)

Distance 320 miles


View Day 13 Jackson, WY to Salt Lake City in a larger map

Jackson, WY is in a valley between mountains but is still at an elevation of 6200 feet at the bottom of the valley. Leaving Jackson I drove south on US Route 89, which follows the Snake River for quite a while. Most of the rivers out here are so blue and I noticed a lot of white water rafting happening on the snake river. Route 89 winds along side the mountains. At times the land between the mountains flattens out and ranches and farms dot the landscape. Most of the roads in mountainous areas tend to run through the valleys between the mountains & today was no exception.

Leaving Jackson, WY on US-89 South through the mountains and along side
the Snake River (notice the bus in the background, which was carrying white water
rafters)

As I rode almost out of Wyoming into Idaho I noticed the strom clouds building and could see where rain was coming down. I eventually got sprinkled/rained on for a couple of minutes but I missed most of the storm. It was on this leg of the trip that I met probably the most interesting people of my entire journey. I had just crossed into what I would later know as Lap Land Idaho (the area of Idaho where US-89 laps into Idaho and then back into Wyoming). I saw home made signs on the road that said things like "Got Elk Jerky" ... "Need Elk Jerky"... "Stop Ahead" etc... So I wanted to try something new and decided I might as well stop. Thankfully I did! I met the Most Interesting Men in the world and it's not the Dos Equis man. It is Rentfro and his buddy ( I forgot his name). I cant talk about everything about these gentlemen because much is not appropriate but they did remind me of how vastly different this country is!!! I ended up staying for a couple of hours and they did offer me a place to stay and wanted me to go out to town with them, I politely declined but it would have been quite an experience if I had.

US-89 South in Idaho (notice the rain coming down to the west (right))

Said goodbye and headed back out on the road... Eventually I had hit the Utah border and eventually US Interstate 80 East and headed through the mountains and down into the Salt Lake City area, which sits in a valley between mountains. I-80 was probably the most fun Interstate highway I have ever been on. It went up and down mountain sides and wound back and forth. By the time I reached Salt Lake City and settled in at a hotel it was getting dark. I talked to the lovely lady at the front desk and found out where I could get food and watch the fireworks! I ended up talking to the lady, who needs to remain nameless,  for a while and talked about my trip. She ended up offering to help me on my return trip with hotel costs by getting me family discount! This was so amazing of her and even more amazing if you new all the horrible things she was dealing with in her own life. It would have been so easy for her to come to work every day and just do her job and be absorbed by the awful things happening in her life... but instead she was still able to be an absolutely amazing person! I can only hope that all of us ( me included) try to not let all the crap that can happen in life prevent us from being great, genuine, caring people!!! Time to fly to fireworks!

Day 12 Cody, Wy to Jackson Hole, WY

July 3rd

The most amazing and out of this world day!!!

The Road To Yellowtone National Park:

Left Cody, WY and headed towards the West Entrance to Yellowstone National Park

View Cody, WY to Jackson, WY in a larger map

The road to Yellowstone was beautiful but it was no match for the most out of this world scenery within the park...

Road to Yellowstone... 

Road to Yellowstone.

Fire Fighters Memorial

Throughout my drive in Wyoming it is obvious that forest fires are a defenite threat and prevelant. Even here in Tahoe you can see burnt mountain sides where just trees with no limbs are left stading even 10 years later. The same has been true in Wyoming

Notice all of the trees have been burnt..
 and notice the first things to grow back are low lying plants and grasses

Entering Yellowstone

On of the first things I encountered when enteringYellowstone was a traffic jam... 

There was a bison meandering down the middle of the road

This was not the one causing a traffic backup... This Bison was resting
next to a bubbling mud pit

Yellowstone Lake in the background...
Burnt trees in the foreground

Bubbling Mud Pit 

"Dragons Breath" this was continously letting off some steam.
All of the characteristics of Yellowstone are caused by the Voclanic
activity in this area. Yellowstone erupted three times but I believe the last was over
640,000 years ago and prior to that it hadn't erupted for over 3,500,000
years ago

Lower Falls- Waterfall on the Yellowstone River
Notice the yellow colors of the rocks due to sulfur

Zoomed out view a small geyser. Notice all of the colors.
Some are caused by bacteria that can live
in the high temperatures and other colors are caused by certain minerals
and elements

Zoomed in on geyser
These areas smelled like rotten eggs (Sulfur Dioxide)

Water flowing from the hot spring and geyser

Zoomed in view of the water flowing. The different colors
are due to different types of bacteria that can live in different temperature ranges. Notice here that they are living together which is because at this point the temperature of the water is where both "colored" bacteria can live

Zoomed out- notice the 2 geysers in the background

Zoomed in on the geyser

I'll be adding more details to this but wanted to atleast give you an idea as to how amazing, inspiring and thought provoking this area is....

Leaving Yellowstone... 

Next stop Grand Teton Mountains and Jackson, WY

Bear on the side of the road

Beautiful Sunset leaving the Tetons... & yes I'll be driving in the dark again.
Saw 6 more deer ( 3 of which almost crossed the road right in front of me)

 I made it to Jackson, WY about 10PM and settled and ate some food....

Next stop Salt Lake City for Independance Day

Day 11 Sheridan, WY to Cody, WY

July 2nd

On the road again by 1PM.... I had to check out of my hotel at 11AM so I walked (with all of my gear) back to Valley Motor Honda... What a work out.. I had to wear my riding jacket and pants cause my hands were full and my bags are always stuffed to capacity. I was sweating bullets!

I hung out while I waited and was out their by 1PM. I thanked everyone that I had gotten to know down there. I even drove back to the Hi-Lites Salon to say ggod-bye..Thanks everyone!!!


View Day 11 Sheridan, WY to Cody, WY in a larger map

Now time to cross the Bighorn Mountains... 

One thing that has been interesting is that almost every town I've been through in Wyoming is sitting at about 4000 ft to 6000 ft above sea-level. For example Buffalo, Wy is roughly 4700 feet above sea level whereas Lowell, MA is only about 110 feet above sea level.

Being this high makes the air thinner and there is less oxygen to breathe... I have found myself getting winded and tired more than being back east.

Entering Bighorn National Forest

See that reddish colored windy road... Yes thats what I drove up!

9,430 feet above sea-level

I stopped a bunch along my trip up and down the Bighorns to take pictures and to visit a sacred Native American ceremonial site called the Medicine Wheel

Medicine Wheel 

Wyoming Wildflowers

Some things I've realized.....

- On all of these steep roads (going down) there are Run-away truck ramps, in case the brakes stop working on a big tractor trailer truck.

- When a turn says 15 MPH speed limit they usually aren't kidding! Where as back east a turn says 25 MPH you can physically go much faster (not saying you should though).. Here if I go faster I would be off the road many times.

-When a sign says falling rocks...You actually see rocks on the side of the road that have fallen...

- Many roads don't have guard rails even on the steep and dangerous ones!

- Most people drive trucks or have a truck and many have a metal bumber attached in front of the vehicle to protect the original bumber for when they hit an animal.

-Throughout the mid-west and west you can see all of the stains on the road from where animals have been struck and killed. These stains are everywhere on the roads in Wyoming

-East of all the mountain ranges you typically have minimal vegetation (plants) due to the "Rain Shadow" effect...  All of the moisture in the air is released as the air moves up the mountains leaving little moisture/rain for the areas directly east of the mountains... (Just look at maps and notice the brownish colors east of mountain ranges) Much of the vegetation that is present is Sage Brush & other plants that have adapted to this climate and elevation.

Coming Down the Western Side of the Bighorn Mountains

Coming Down the western side of the Bighorns I had the
choice of staying on Route 14 or taking Route 14A (which is closed
during the winter) 14A hear I come!

I reaize I said that typically on the eastern side of the mountains you will have a "Rain Shadow" effect but the reason the western side is so barren and lacking vegetation (plant life) is that further to the west is another mountain range which prevents much moisture from getting to this area. 

After getting down the Bighorns into the flatter and "browner" terrain that you see in the distance it got much hotter.. The next hundred miles or so were relatively flat & sparsely populated. Many towns had less than 100 people. and any cities I went through had just barely more people than the elevation they were at. For the most part the elevation of this "flat" land was always over 4000 feet above sea-level

Because I  got a late start leaving Sheridan and spent so much time in the Bighorn Mountains I was forced to ride in the dark again.... I hate driving in the dark.. I am always looking for animals and since I am concentrated so hard on it you start to see stuff that you think is animals and it turns out not to be... Nerve racking!!!  Needless to say I made it safely to Cody, WY

Cody, WY  is famous for being home to Buffalo Bill Cody and is the gateway to the western entrance to Yellowstone National Park

Next stop...

Yellowstone and then find a reasonably priced hotel ouside of the Grand Teton Mountains in Jackson Hole, WY