here are some pictures and brief descriptions from my ride out to Teton national park/Yellowstone. the pics are limited to colorado, utah and wyoming as all the other states i went through are goddamn boring

day 1 - c/u to western mo. ~350 miles. i took 72 to us-36, then stayed at wallace state park for the night. MO actually has some decent roads if you ever venture out that way.

day 2 - western mo to eastern co. ~600 miles. i took us-36 across kansas (straight and fast, but hella boring), then hopped up on to us-34 (also ridiculously boring) and got to jackson lake state park in co. i set up camp there, sat through one rain storm and then took a few pictures. the clouds started looking progressively worse, the bugs became really, really annoying and the humidity was terrible... so i chickened out and found a hotel. pictures:

as the first storm approached.




as it was ending.


i got a picture of my helmet in the cool, dry hotel room. cleaning this up was fun...


day 3 - eastern co to northeastern ut. ~400 miles. i took us-40 across co to vernal, ut where i again stayed in a hotel thanks to the weather (yes, i'm a chicken). i wasn't sure if the roads through rocky mountain national forest were going to be paved, so i went through denver. there was a tunnel that was maybe 1/8 mile long, so i had loads of fun making noise through it. i don't think the other motorists appreciated it much, but f*ck them. hah. the mountain passes were incredibly fun... i went through winterpark, steamboat and a few other ski towns. around dinosaur national monument i had the pleasure of some extremely high cross winds and clipped a few thunderstorms. no pictures from this day as i was constantly dodging rain and had the camera packed away. as a side note, UT limits the alcohol content of beer to 4%. thank you, mormons...

day 4 - vernal ut to jackson, wy. ~300 miles. us-191 all day to the gros ventre campground in teton national park, my ultimate destination on the bike. this was a very easy pace day, and the weather cooperated the entire time. i took plenty of pictures, here are the ones i liked the most. finally got to have some real beer, too.

pictures in utah, all along us-191:


you can see bits of a mountain pass in this one. not sure why the flash was on.










pictures from wyoming:





i dunno what dam this was, but i decided to get a picture of it.


there were a couple somewhat flat bits...




this is getting closer to jackson, wy.








and these are in teton national park.






this was a kinda neat bit of geology. first a sign explaining it.


the part 'behind you'


and the remains of the slide.


lasty, the tetons... the mountain range for which the park is named.


day 5 - no pics from today, i was just sort of exploring the place on my own. i took the teton pass in to idaho, which was really fun. 10% grades aren't very fun in a car, but were a blast on the bike. after lunch we went hiking to some water fall which i can't remember the name of. in the evening i had more real beer and then watched july 4th fireworks in jackson, wy.

day 6 - in the morning we went to yellowstone, as any true american has to visit there at least once. the traffic was horrible, and the drivers were all utter retards. thankfully i wasn't riding or i'd probably be dead right now. in the afternoon we went white water rafting in the snake river. pictures, from the morning only...

this is called the behive geyser. that little mound is about 4' tall, and what you see coming from the ground isn't the actual geyser.


this is the actual geyser. about 200' high.


and of course, old faithful. kind of anti-climatic after seeing that first one.


that's pretty much it. days 7 and 8 were spent hauling *** back to c/u via i-80 and us-36/72. i mostly wanted to get home as fast as possible. no iron butt, however 2, 700 mile days after a trip of hiking and stuff is plenty difficult for me. i had a ton of fun and the trip was absolutely worth every second of it. the plain states were boring, but the roads in and around the rockies more than made up for it.

 

Awesome... in for later

 

lol'd at the helmet.

 

I live in Wyoming, glad you like it. So many bikes passing through this time of year. Watch out for the fuzz, they like to get tourists..

 

i thought about two things when i read this thread.

i wish i had my vfr still
i wish i was out in colorado still

lol

 

i actually had 2 run-ins with the wyoming state police... but rather than pull me over for speeding, they just flashed their lights and motioned for me to cool it down a bit. this was all further out in the less populated areas though.

 

-solo the whole way? wish i'd known....would've met up at berthoud pass (CO-40), from I-70 to Granby, CO is probably one of my favorite stretches of road. except during this time of year with thousands of camper trailers occupying every corner. glad you enjoyed yourself while visiting my local area.

-the police are pretty cool out here. lots of road miles and very few patrols, they know they're at a disadvantage to people on bikes. even a radio won't catch you when there is nobody around for miles to respond to it....not that i condone that kind of behavior. in eagle county, there are 15 state patrol officers for an area almost the size of RI. same goes for emergency personel, it could be a while before 911 shows after a mishap. that's if you can even make the call in the first place....

-sucks about the weather. it can change in minutes out here, i hate the rain and have been pondering making a thread in regards to my confidence in the wet, i haz none. :lol:

 

US-40 was definitely entertaining. I got pretty lucky and managed to get caught by caravaners near passing lanes, plus I wasn't really hauling *** through there. Mostly enjoying the scenery.

here's one more picture from my girlfriend's camera. even moose love VFRs.

 

roadtrip pictures FTW!

:subscribed:!

 

Great thread. That must've been quite a bit of slab riding.

 

holy epic. love it! thanks for sharing.

 

That's two things I want. A VFR and live in Colorado.

Awesome pics, those roads look amazing to ride on...

 

Where in IL did you start? My gf is from the Spring Valley/Peru area.
.

 

i'm in champaign-urbana.

edit - i don't know if i'm already waxing philosophical or what, but a lot of people (not necessarily in this thread) have been asking me how boring and hard it must have been. the truth is, parts of it were pretty damned boring... but i'd rather have a boring day where i can ride and think my own thoughts than be at work or in a car wishing i were able to ride.