Kiki Bikes Across America

Friday, July 24th – Flaming Gorge, Wyoming to Lewis Lake in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Woke up about 7am or so, and then I packed up my tent and did my whole organizing routine and then showered and got all clean! It was the best shower of the trip probably – well, aside from being in a real house with a shower. But I could shower for as long as I wanted and didn’t have to feed it quarters – it was great. I must have been in there forever…scrubbing off layers of grit and grime (not really), but enjoying some hot water for a change and a shower!

We all had breakfast – an assortment of cereal was amazing. It was like being a kid but never having had that kid cereal when I was little. I had trix and then apple jacks (kid cereals!) and they were both tasty, probably because of the sugar content, haha! We hit the road around 11am and continued the 300+ mile trek to Yellowstone. We stopped at a few small rinky dink towns along the way and got groceries and then Jack bought some buffalo jerky from a roadside stand and we stopped before Jackson and got ice cream. Then we stopped at Jackson’s visitor center to pick up some state maps and Montana and Idaho maps as well, which is nice. Now we can start to plan our potential route to the coast from Yellowstone. We’re on a bit of a time crunch with Chase needing/wanting to be back home in time for his sister’s graduation from Texas A&M.

Grand Teton National Park

So we drove through the Teton National Park and then entered Yellowstone – both of which cost $25 car, but luckily I had my National Park pass, so it was free for us! We came to the first campground to find that it was full, but we noticed a campsite that didn’t have a tent on the pad, so I went and talked to the people who were staying there and asked if we could set up a tent on the pad if they weren’s using it. They weren’t and said it was fine, so we camped there on their spot for free which was awesome, especially since all the campgrounds in Yellowstone were booked and full! They did however have a special biker/hiker campsite that wasn’t occupied, so we could have camped there if all else failed. But this way, we were all able to camp together and Jack just set up the big 4-person tent he had just bought.

Welcome to Yellowstone National Park!

Jack fixed us dinner again – hot dogs, roasted peppers, corn, and of course smores by the campfire for dessert. Cindy and Paul (the two who let us camp on their campsite) joined us by the fire and roasted marshmallows as well. They’re from Cedar City, Utah and Paul commutes once a week to Las Vegas where he’s a firefighter. They were pretty fun people to hang out with and after a while, around 10:30 or so I think we all hit the sack.