We headed up to West Yellowstone for a 60 mile road bike tour to Old Faithful and back.
The best part of touring Yellowstone by bicycle in the spring? All the babies are on display, predominantly the bison.
And the worst part of touring Yellowstone by bicycle in the spring? The bison use the roadways to travel because after the park service plows them, it is the most efficient route between where they are and... wherever they want to go. The bison are clearly in charge.
We had to wait numerous times for a vehicle to meet up with us from behind and ask the driver to give us a "rolling block" between us and the 1200 lb wild beast walking down the road.
We thankfully did not have any negative animal encounters. We may have seen a snowflake or two. And we also had the opportunity to prove a park ranger wrong* (which was definitely the highlight for Liz).
*For the record, after being welcomed through the West Yellowstone gate by the park ranger working there, we were approached by a ranger at Old Faithful who told us the roads were currently closed to cyclists due to grizzly bear activity and essentially reprimanded us for riding there on our bikes. Despite the throngs of people walking a half mile or more off the roadway on the interpretive geyser basin pathways (the pathways were completely open), this guy seemed to think cyclists on the roads had been temporarily banned. Liz countered. And won.
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