Tripadvisor Phuket - A Motorcycle Journey in Yellowstone National Park

We loaded up the 'extras' and saddled up to find our campsite, after getting some essentials for our campsite in Yellowstone National Park from the Visitors center.

There was also a picnic table toward the back of the site placed neatly between two trees. We had a fire ring near the center of our site and two perfect spots for the tents. And it was nearly perfect, we arrived at our site.

Just a small slope while my spot was relatively flat, it wasn't a hill exactly. Because his spot was on a small incline, though, i think I got the better deal. My brother in law took a spot on the right. So I took a smaller spot between two trees off to the left side of our camping area, i had the smaller of the two tents 'the coffin'. Deciding where to pitch a tent is a pretty important part of camping. And proceeded to pick out the spots for our tents, we started the unloading of gear.

So we added it to the fire once it was burning good, we happened upon a really big piece that looked like the folks there before us had tried to burn it. We gathered a little wood and soon the fire was born. It was time to start a campfire, once we had our tents pitched and the fire ring and picnic table surrounded.

This had been quite an adventure so far, and now Yellowstone, to the Grand Tetons, from the Rocky Mountain National Park. And we were kicked back at the picnic table reminiscing about our journey so far, and a couple of drinks later, a little chow.

We only had three days planned in Yellowstone and wanted to make them the best we could. So we could plan where we were going to go in the morning, it was lights out (so to speak), soon.

We put all of our food items in the nearby Bear Box as to avoid an uninvited visitor into our site. Just one of those annoying rains, not unbearable - no typhoon. The rain began to fall even faster and harder, then as it grew closer to sleepy time, a light sprinkle, fist. The signs of rain began to appear, as darkness approached us on our first night at Yellowstone National Park.

But thought we should pick up a small tarp and some rope at the Store by the visitor center on our way out to explore the following morning, it was late enough that we decided not to deal with it the first night.

And off to sleepytown, into the tents we went.

I thought to myself, it is going to be a great day. And that we were greeted by sunshine this morning, i was glad that the rain had stopped sometime in the night. I woke with anticipation of what wonderful things we might experience this day. And the sun peeked into our tents to awake us, morning arrived.

We decided to ride the south 'loop' of Yellowstone National Park. And picked a route for our day, we consulted our maps. And gathered what little bit we thought we would need for our ride this wonderful day, managed to get ourselves woke up, we conjured up some breakfast.

Or how much beauty we would be greeted with that day, but really didn't know what to expect at the time, we were sure we would enjoy other sights. The famous Geyser, one of the things that we knew that we wanted to see along the south route was Old Faithful. Then the north loop the second day, we decided to ride the south loop the first day. The park is basically two loops that join into a figure eight of sorts.

And we could tell that the sun would be shining and it was going to be a beautiful day, it was warm that morning. We stopped at a station not far from our campsite to gas up for the days travel. Gas, first stop. Off we were on our trusty steeds.

This is where we began our adventure of Yellowstone National Park. There was short trail to 'Inspiration point' which overlooks the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. . ! The view here was unbelievable! Oh my! And it was time to park, so our motorcycles didn't even really get the chance to warm up good, it was only about a 6 to 8 mile ride. Which just happened to be very close to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, we were in the Canyon Campground. The first place we decided to go to was the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

So we decided to go down, the sign said it was only a 3/8 mile hike down to the falls. There was a trailhead that said it would take us to the mouth of the falls. ! It WAS below us, and indeed, we saw a glimpse of it, as we approached the sound! But it sounded as if it was below us, we could hear and in some places see a waterfall not too far away.

We headed on down the trail, with that to look forward to. But it seems like about two miles back up', it may only be 3/8 of a mile down, his reply was 'Yes. We asked him if it was tough climb back up the trail. And he was breathing pretty hard, we passed a guy with his family shortly after getting on the trail headed down.

It was time for the climb back up the trail, and a moment of catching our breath, after a few pictures. Standing directly over the brink of the falls allows you to really experience the power of these awesome forces. There was a walkway with a rail that led us out to the brink itself, at the base of the trail. Except we had to lean backwards to keep our feet from outrunning us, the climb down itself was not hard. We approached the mouth of the falls, after a short time.

. The guy we passed on the way down was right about it seeming like two miles back up! We must have stopped to take a short rest about five of six times before reaching the top. And the incline was pretty steep, it was all switchbacks going up. The hike back up the 3/8 mile trail was a challenge.

We took a short break before hopping back on our motorcycles, once at the top.

It was just different, i didn't really bother me. The air was full of that smell. It smelled like burnt matches - sulfur, to me. It was undeniable. The first thing that hit me was the smell. We approached one of the areas where we could get up close and personal with a few of the Geysers. Headed southbound to the southern 'loop' of Yellowstone National Park, we took off again.

Though, i sure wouldn't want to wade in one of those things! It is really interesting the things that nature brings us. Just seeing the intensity of the heat boiling up from these things is awesome. The pools were bizarre.

We were able to get pretty close to these beautiful animals and take a couple of pictures. We also were greeted by some Elk who didn't seem to mind that we were there. These things were huge! We saw some buffalo. We passed some wild animals, along the way. It's a must see if you're in Yellowstone National Park. We wanted to see the famous Geyser. We were headed in the general direction of Old Faithful.

. Because the journey was fantastic, but we were not in a big hurry, our next destination was Old Faithful, yes!

) the water. But we couldn't resist stopping at some more of the open pools with that amazing thermal energy pent up inside (below, we were headed toward Old Faithful?

I sure wouldn't want to fall off the walkway! They had placed a walkway around the Geysers so that we could walk around them to get a closer view. So we just had to stop, there was collection of them on our route.

Grazing on some of the lush grasses that are in Yellowstone National Park, he was just hanging out. He didn't seem to mind that we were there either. One of them was so close to use that we could almost touch him. These guys are amazing! We also saw some Elk along the way.

I guessed, i didn't really understand the reasons - the shifting of the earth. The sign explained, but the timing has begun to be a little off over the years, there was a sign there that estimated the time of the next eruption. We wandered around a bit and picked up a couple of souvenirs. And parked beside the little welcome center, we rode on up. The sign pointing us in the direction of Old Faithful, then we saw it.

It spit out a steady steam continuously - something I didn't know it did. The steam was already fizzing out of the mouth of the Old Faithful Geyser. A perfect day for an explosion! We headed back outside and were greeted with bright sunshine.

And what it is capable of is truly amazing, the utter power of this thing. ! Unbelievable! It seemed like only a few minutes later and Old Faithful was spewing in full force. The steam begun to get taller and more pronounced, it started - slowly at first, and time approached the preset prediction that was marked on the sign, sure enough.

I sure hope I am a long way away from it when it happens, if there really is a Great Volcano under Yellowstone waiting to happen.