Going to Yellowstone, My New Ride

I was looking at the weather the other day and noticed that in Yellowstone National Park the weather was suppose to clear up in a few days and stay sunny for a while. Since I didn't make the fall trip I had planned I thought “Why Not”. Besides, Yellowstone would be a good spot to try out my new motorcycle. It's a Yamaha 650 Classic. While I really like the old bike, a Yamaha 250, it is pretty uncomfortable on longer rides, which seems to be my riding style. The new bike is a dream on highways and freeways. I feel much safer.

I left on Friday. Hey, It's late in the year right? Camping shouldn't be a problem. WRONG!.. I arrived at Mammoth around 6pm to discover that all the campgrounds were full or shutdown for the season, unless I wanted to drive for an additional hour.

So I turned around and stayed at this nice little Forest Service campground about 15 mile back up the highway. The campsites there were tucked in around these huge, truck size rocks. As soon as I parked the guy camped next to me came over and showed me the rattle snake he had killed that day IN MY CAMPSITE! I didn't really care since I was tired and planned to get up early to go back to Yellowstone, but it still made me a little nervous.

I should mention that the Mammoth Visitor Center and Lodge was a zoo! A herd of elk decided to spent some time eating the lawns. What a mess! Cars and people everywhere. The elk were much easier to get around than the people. At least with the elk, you had a good idea of what they were going to do next. There were a couple of rangers trying to keep the folks in line, without much success.