Alaska Day 33 part 1

We left Helena and took some nice secondary roads down to Yellowstone National Park. When we reached Yellowstone we first went to the visitor center so John could get his National Park Passport book stamped. I had always heard that this was a busy Park and I could now see for myself that it was indeed. John and Don had previously toured the park and didn't wish to do it this time. So they took the direct route through the park to our destination of Cooke City, MT and Dave and I took the long way around the park. We had good luck with the traffic and enjoyed riding the loop through the park stopping to see the sights, including Old Faithfull of course. We reached the southern end of the park and decided to make a run down to the Grand Tetons National Park, which was only about 30 miles. Well those 30 miles took longer than expected due to road construction and more gravel road. Once there we got our pins and patches, took a few pictures then mounted up for the 130 mile ride to Cooke City. After the first 40 miles the sun had set and we very carefully traveled through the park in the dark watching for wildlife in the road. We can attest to the fact that buffalo are nearly invisible to headlights your lucky to catch a little light reflecting from there little eyes. As we neared the end of our ride the temperatures were getting low reaching 39 degrees. We were cold and very happy to get to the motel and crank up the heat. 430 miles of great riding today