All The Places I've Been & Will Be

My time in South Lake Tahoe has come to an end!

My map Coast to Coast with the exact roads taken

View Cross Country Bike Trip in a larger map

Map of my route through San Francisco, to the Redwoods, through Humboldt County and back to Lake Tahoe

View Cross Country Bike Trip in a larger map View

My anticipated route back... I am really getting off of the beaten path. There is one leg of this trip on "ET" highway that is about 165 miles between gas stations... 

I won't tell you how far my bike can go on one tank of gas.....

View Return Trip Across the Country in a larger map

Day 10, 11, and 12 (Yellowstone) on the road are now up!!

Click on July 1st & July 2nd & 3rd to the right

Comments are now allowed!!

If anyone has comments or questions you can now write them... they will not appear immediately on the blog but I will see them and assuming they are appropriate I can make them visible to everyone.

I arrived at Lake Tahoe on July 5th

I have added some more stuff about the trip but I entered it under the days it actually occured so if you click the tabs on the right labeled Jun 26th and 27th you will see what those days were like....

Coming soon the good stuff!!! Western South Dakota (day 8 on the road) and then Yellowstone National park (day 10)... Day 9 I was stuck with a broken down bike

OH I'm So behind!!!

Well I believe I am about 8 days behind on the blog so to get you caught up quick......

-I have seen enough corn that I don't care if I ever see corn again!

-Eastern 1/2 of South Dakota boring Western 1/2 is AMAZING!!

-Yellowstone National Park is out of this world!!!

-Grand Tetons National Park spectacular

- Driving at night because you spent to much time at Yellowstone (SKETCHY)
               
 -At dawn dusk n night is when most of the collisions with animals occur and I had another
                   run in with dear.
-Salt Lake City not as spectacular aas I was hoping but I-80 coming into the city over the
                  mountains is unreal... its steep up the mountain and steep down and the road winds  
                  back and forth... So much fun.

NOW... Last leg (for now) 9 hour drive (plus stopping for gas n food) and 560 miles... I'm going to bed after... I haven't done 500+ miles since the first leg of my trip!!!!

I have so many pictures to still get up such as...
-crossing the Mississippi & Old Grandad's Bluff which over looks the river valley
- Badlands of South Dakota
-Black Hills of South Dakota
-Mount Rushmore, South Dakota
-Big Horn Mountains, WY
-Yellowstone, WY
-Grand Tetons, WY

Hope you'll all forgive me for being behind but what a journey it has been......

but my trip wouldn't have been nearly as good if I didn't smile & say hello because my most precious moments have been from the people I have met!!!!

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