Start Location: Cooke City, MT
Ending Location: Missoula, MT
Miles Today: 354
Trip Miles: 2693
States Visited: 6
National Parks Visited: 3
National Monuments Visited: 1
Low Temp: 56.6° F
High Temp: 93.7° F
Min Elevation: 3203'
Max Elevation: 8858'
Route Map:
2019 Trip - Day 11
Today was sort of a tale of two halves. This morning we entered
Yellowstone at the Northeast entrance and within the first hour saw as
many as 1000 bison. They were all over including this guy who was
standing in the middle of my lane and didn't seem interested in getting
out of the way for me. I waited a little bit to see if he would move
and then proceeded very slowly and respectfully around him. Fortunately
he decided to let us pass. We decided we have been through Yellowstone
7 or 8 times in the past 40 years and we never cease to be amazed at
the beauty all around. We were in Yellowstone for 90 miles and,
although the traffic was light early on by the time we were exiting
there were solid streams of vehicles coming and going.
After
eating lunch in a nice park in West Yellowstone, we headed north and
west to eventually end up in Missoula. About half of the trip was on
secondary roads with very light traffic and the other half on I-90 with
moderate traffic. The main problem was the wind. It was very windy with
gusts that literally blew the bike sideways several feet. It was a
struggle all afternoon just staying on the road. We finally made it in
around 6:00.
Tomorrow
we head for Moses Lake all the while
trying to stay off I-90 as much as possible. Our Google map shows
Montana Secondary Highway 471 through the Coeur d'Alene National Forest
that looks like it has great potential. We find out tomorrow.
