It was a lot warmer sleeping at night at Grant Village than it was in Colter Bay Campground the night before. We had a long day of hilly riding planned to get from Grant Village to West Yellowstone, we knew there would be many stops along the way, and we wanted to get an early start as a group, so we set the alarm for 5 AM. It was sooooo cold though, getting up and breaking camp, even though the night had been warmer than the night before for some reason. With freezing fingers, we tore down tents and scrounged up some basic breakfast from the food we bought the night before at the general store. Ultimately, it was taking Vanesa, me, and Jesse longer to get ready to go, so Greg first took off on his own, and then Bill took off shortly after him to meet him at the convenience store for a cup of coffee. Jesse was the next one ready so he took off so with plans to stop to get a convenience store hot coffee as well, and we agreed that I would meet him there shortly afterward while Vanesa walked Maui from the campground to the convenience store. When I got to the convenient store though, Jesse was already gone so I got a big cup of coffee and waited a few minutes for Vanesa and then we shared our coffee and hit the road together, behind everyone else. It’s a relatively immediate climb after leaving Grant Village and heading toward Old Faithful, and for the first 30 minutes or so we felt like we had the park to ourselves. We didn’t see any wildlife, but it was really beautiful getting a view from higher up of Yellowstone Lake far below, and then riding up through the trees. The traffic started to pick up when we ran into some construction zones that, although the torn up roadway sections were short, still resulted in flaggers backing up long lines of cars. In a very short period of time we were being passed by a constant barrage of cars, RVs, and semi’s used in all the road construction. It wasn’t really a big deal, though, and everybody was very courteous and gave us plenty of space for which we were grateful. There was far more traffic around when I was there in 2010. We stopped at various places that were beautiful, and when we crossed the Continental Divide several times, and we ultimately rolled down into the Old Faithful area not too long after the famous geyser had last erected. Both of us have seen it in the past though and we didn’t want to wait around an hour for it to erupt again, so we texted the guys and found out that they were having a snack at the Old Faithful general store so we joined them for a short time before we all hit the road together. I shouldn’t say that we were all together, because Greg who left the camp earlier in the morning than the rest of us, had failed to meet Billy at the convenience store and Billy never caught him so he was not with us for any portion of the day. So Vanesa, Jesse, Billy, and I rolled out of Old Faithful together and we all stayed together for the rest of the afternoon. We went through the geyser basin, where we stopped and took a lot of pictures, and then we stopped again at the Grand Prismatic Spring which is just SPECTACULAR with all the different colors that you see. Then the road descended into some flat grasslands and we saw a bunch of bison off in the distance, so we turned down a side road and snapped pictures of the herd as it was wandering in and around some cars on that road…but we didn’t get too close because we had no protection on bikes. Satisfied that we’d seen enough bison, we turned around and continued on the road toward Madison, and then five minutes later we suddenly were stopped in a traffic jam because of even more bison, all on the road this time rather than just a few crossing, and they were walking towards us in between all the cars and there was nowhere for us to go but backwards. There was a ranger there trying to direct vehicle traffic as well as trying to make noises over his loudspeaker that would encourage the bison to move along and get out of the road. At one point he addressed US directly over the loudspeaker and said we were too close and we all had to go to the back of the line of cars. It was exciting, and slightly nerve-wracking, being that close to a big herd of bison on bicycles. Those things are big, fast, and suddenly mean if you get too close for their comfort. (Just two days ago a tourist was gored by a bison to which he’d gotten too close!) After that, we pretty much flew down the flat and declining road toward Madison, passing a huge line of cars that had backed up for probably 2 miles because of the bison traffic jam. When we got to Madison we hung a left for the 14-mile exit through the Madison River Canyon out to the Wyoming/Montana state line, and exited the park at the town of West Yellowstone, Montana. It was a really lovely afternoon ride though there was a little bit of headwind, and the four of us stopped as a group a couple of times in really beautiful places - one time walking down to the river to get our hats and bandannas wet and just soak in the grandeur while Mauigot to roam around, and another time taking a glorious, little-traveled road which runs directly along the river for about a mile and got us off the highway. In West Yellowstone, Jesse stopped off at the bike shop to get his Di2 electronic shifter charged while Billy and I found Greg and went to the motel where he had already booked a room for him and Billy. Vanesa and I got our own room and invited Jesse to come and roll out his sleeping pad inside so that he didn’t have to camp. He wanted to pay us $40, 1/3 of the room cost, but we said no way because he didn’t get a bed and we compromised on $20. All of us except Jesse walked down the street looking for a place to have dinner and we ended up in the Serenity Bistro which, despite the nice name, turned out to have pretty mediocre food, pretty high prices for that mediocre food, and a server who was terrible and didn’t know what she was doing. I swear it seems like lately that’s the theme of the trip…bad service. And this was a very small restaurant where there was only one other table with patrons eating and they had three servers and a manager present. It just made no sense why it took forever to get any service and none of them seems to give a shit. I left a mediocre tip and I was further irritated when we walked back to the hotel and I saw a burrito truck where I could’ve gotten some food that I would have liked better, which would’ve been cheaper, and which would not have required I leave a tip for poor service because it would’ve been takeout. But, the company at dinner was good, our bellies were full, and West Yellowstone is a cute town and the weather was nice that day so there is really not anything to complain about. Vanesa and I stopped at the grocery store on our walk back to the hotel and got a few food supplies for the ride the next day as well as a fudgsicle to quench our desire for a sweet dessert. By the time we got back to the motel it was pretty much just pack the bike, wash ourselves and the chamoises again, and get ready for bed. I was really tired and passed out pretty quickly, while Vanessa and Jesse continue getting their things ready after I was sleeping. All in all this was an awesome day! Yellowstone was beautiful, the traffic was pretty good, we saw lots of amazing geological features, we saw a lot of bison up close, and we were in good company throughout. And finally we had a nice roof over our head with a comfortable bed to sleep in. What more can you ask for? Well, we’d have liked to see some bear and moose in Yellowstone or the Tetons, but hey, you don’t get everything you want! It’s monotonous out here at times because all we’re doing is riding a bike, trying to find food, trying to find water, trying to find shelter, and trying to recuperate so we can do it all over again…but we’re having a great time overall and meeting nice people and seeing nice places. That said, we miss home!