The Dichotomy of Good and Bad (part two)

I continued west for a ways until I saw a sign that said Medicine Wheel 3 miles. I figured why not so I took that side road. The road quickly turned into a gravel trail barely wide enough for one care. It wound around a couple hills before stopping at a little parking lot with a hut at one end. By the hut was a park ranger. When I asked her where the medicine wheel was she pointed up a small trail and said "It's 1.5 miles that way. But it's kind hilly so it ends up being uphill both ways". Great. But I figured I'm already here, I might as well. Besides it would be nice to get off the bike for a while and walk around. I quickly learned that my riding boots are riding boots and not walking boots. I also discovered quickly that I was at 10,000 feet and that they air at that altitude is a bit thin. Literally 10,000 feet. I'm pretty sure that outside of a plane, I've never been up that high before.






When I got to the top there was another park ranger there to help explain to people what the medicine wheel is. He told me that no one really knows who built the thing or how long ago it was built. The estimated time frame for it's construction is somewhere between 1200 and 1700 AD. Obviously a pretty broad estimate. Before I got there I was thinking back to the Black Hills. I could really see why the Lakota consider that area sacred. Sacred probably isn't the word I would choose; maybe serene or something. I had that same feeling about this medicine wheel. To be on top of the world practically and in the presence of something so mysterious was both exhilarating and calming all at the same time. It was quite an experience.

So after I hoofed it back to my bike (I was passed by a van coming the other direction carrying a bunch of old and infirm people to the medicine wheel. Very disheartening.) I continued west on highway 14 (alt). I left Bighorn, passed through Cody, WY, where I had originally wanted to spend the night last night, at about 4 in the afternoon. Thinking I'd better haul ass if I wanted to make it through Yellowstone before dark, I pressed on. I could see that it was raining ahead of me somewhere, which was a bit worrying. I thought the rain was a ways off when, just outside of Cody I was hit by a wall of wind and hail. Fearing that I would be knocked over, I pulled over to the side of the road and got off my bike. I was just wearing a tee shirt at the time and I could feel every bit of hail hitting me. I pulled my leather jacket out of the saddle bag and hunkered down under it on the side of the road to wait out storm. I was worried that the wind would knock over my bike but fortunately it was pointed into the wind. I think if it had been a side wind I would have been in trouble. Lucky for me the wind and hail only lasted for two or three minutes. It was a crazy two or three minutes though.

After the storm passed, I continued into Yellowstone. By this time is was raining and I was soaked and miserable. It was also getting pretty cold. Yellowstone itself was pretty cool I have to admit. The only problem is that I was cold and wet and tired and just wanted to get through it and find some place to sleep. I did see some more buffalo which was pretty cool. There was one big bastard that was walking down the middle of the street. There were cars back up behind him and cars passing him going the other direction. He didn't care one way or the other. I approached him head on and went right around him. He didn't even blink an eye when I went past. I didn't get a picture because I was riding. It really made me wish I had a helmut mounted camera or something so I could share stuff like that with you.

I did stop at some mud pits. One was called the Dragon's Mouth (or something like that, I'm can't remember exactly.) That was really cool.

Look at how green that stream is. What causes that? Algae maybe? I don't know.




I didn't see Old Faithful. It was a ways out of my way and there was no guarantee that it would have been erupting when I got there. You can't win them all. I'll have to hit it up next time I do a trip like this (whenever that is).

As I left Yellowstone it started to rain again. There had been a little break for a while but I stopped at a place for some hot coffee and while I was warming myself up the rain caught up too me. I left Yellowstone and went into Gardiner, MT right outside the north gate to the park. There were several hotels in town but they all seemed to be full. Apparently a bunch of the people that were camping in the park decided to get a hotel for the night because of the rain. I managed to get one of the last rooms in the last hotel in town (the furthest one from the park entrance). I was just glad that I didn't have to go to the next town up as it was already pretty dark by this point. I collapsed into bed and dreamt of a rain free tomorrow. My wish was granted but you'll have to read the next post to find out about it.


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