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| Water break on the Nez Perce Creek bridge during our first ride of the day. |
We were much better prepared for last night’s cold. In fact, we managed to sleep in until
7:30. Once we got up, we put the bikes
on the car and headed to our first trail.
Despite having hundreds of miles of roads and hiking trails, Yellowstone
has a relatively small amount of biking trails.
While biking on roads is allowed, there is no shoulder and people in
cars lose their minds every time they see another bison. So instead of going out on one long ride, we
decided to try a few of the shorter bike trails.
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| Geysers along our first bike trail |
Both of the rides we did today were in the “Old Faithful”
section of the park, which is in the southwestern part of the park. Our first ride was by the fountain
flats. It was four miles each way and
began by travelling through a burned out forest with significant new
growth. Once we made it through this
part, we followed the path of Nez Perce Creek as it wound through the Fountain
Flats, which are a series of geysers and hot springs. The ride was tough due to the sandy/rocky
nature of the trail, but the views were nice.
I’m not sure if it will show up in pictures, but the colors in these
flats with all of the geothermal activity are pretty incredible.
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| Our second trail of the day. |
After this, we moved a bit further south, back towards our
camp site. Our next ride was a two mile
each way trail that also followed the Nez Perce Creek as it made its way
towards Lone Star Geyser. This trail was
incredibly beautiful, as it followed the path of the creek through the
forest. Unlike the previous trail, this
forest was fully developed, lush, and green.
We made it to the Lone Star Geyser just in time to see it erupt. Not as impressive as Old Faithful, but still
neat to see. One they way back, Amy blew
the first tire of the trip going over a rocky patch, although it was luckily
with less than half mile left on the ride, so the walk/slow ride back wasn’t
terrible.
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| The Lonestar Geyser at the end of our second trail. |
We headed back to camp, showered up, and hopped in the car
for our trek to Cody. The trip through
Shoshone National Forest on Yellowstone’s eastern border was nice, but nothing
compared to the trip we had into Yellowstone yesterday a bit further
north. I am so glad we didn’t listen to
the Aussie Lady and took the 212 instead.
When we got to Cody, we had a few housekeeping items that
needed to be dealt with before the fun.
Luckily, Cody, Wyoming is home to one of the finest Mega WalMarts I have
ever laid eyes on. In one fell swoop, we
were able to get an oil change, stock up on some groceries, and buy bear pepper
spray. What Cody (or its WalMart Mecca)
does not have is a place to wash your car.
Oh well, I guess it will have to be dirty for a while.
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| The bar at Irma's, built by "Buffalo Bill" Cody. |
We decided to go grab some dinner and a place called
“Irma’s” jumped out at us both. The Irma
Hotel was built by Buffalo Bill Cody in 1902 as part of his plan for having a
series of hotels (all owned by him, of course) leading up to the entrance of
Yellowstone. The restaurant is in this
hotel and has many original features including an incredible wood bar and
bar-back. Dinner was fantastic. It was all comfort food and you got a lot of
it. Sweet tea came by the jug, and
refills were free. A perfect pre-rodeo
dinner.
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| The world famous Cody Nite Rodeo. |
After dinner we made our way over to the main attraction and
our reason for being in Cody, Wyoming.
The Buffalo Bill Cody Nite Rodeo is held every night from Memorial Day
to Labor Day. It is definitely something
to behold. Events included bareback
bronc riding (a guy trying to not get thrown off an angry horse without a
saddle), saddled bronc riding (a guy trying to not get thrown off an angry
horse with a saddle), solo tie ( a guy roping a calf around the neck, jerking
it to the ground, then tying its legs), team tie (two cowboys, one ropes the
head, the other the hind legs – I think.
No one was actually able to get this one right), barrel races (girls
racing horses around three barrerls), junior steer riding (kids trying to stay
on a small, bucking cow), and bull riding (speaks for itself).
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| This is the guy who forgot to let go. It didn't turn out well. Annoying clown in background |
The different events were fun to watch, although slightly
disturbing as well. For the first event,
bareback bronc riding, the second rider got tossed but couldn’t get his hand
free. So he was dragged around the ring,
stepped on by the horse, and slammed into the metal wall before finally
dropping. He laid there for a while
before hobbling off to the dugout below us where he collapsed moaning in
pain. No one really seemed to pay any
attention to him except to bring him his hat.
This despite the fact that he appeared to have a broken leg/ankle and a
sore chest. Eventually two people (his
parents?) came and got him, making him walk out of the stadium. Gotta be a tough cowboy I guess. We also saw this with the junior steer
riding. A little guy got bounced on the
saddle in a way that will make any guy cringe before being awkwardly thrown to
the ground. He popped up and walked off,
but as soon as he got in the dugout and took his helmet off, the tears began to
flow. He laid down on the gorund, but
dad was having none of that. He picked
him up, put him on his feet, and told him to brush it off. Dad went back to the fence to watch more
rodeo.
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| Winner of the solo tie contest. Loser is the calf. |
We still enjoyed the show, although we could have done
without the annoying rodeo clown. There
is definitely dead time that needs to be filled and he did have a few good
one-liners, but he was more annoying than funny. Amy and I both said we’d like to see a bigger
rodeo some time with better cowboys (not one of the ones we saw actually stayed
on the bull for 8 seconds – or even close to it) and a less annoying clown.
The show ended at 10 and we still had a two hour drive back
to camp. Driving on the very dark, very
curvy roads was a little nerve-racking, but we each took a turn and made it
back without any problems. Big hike tomorrow
so hopefully we won’t be too tired.
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