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  1. #51
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    Good morning from the Bighorn Mountains!


    One of the little streams we crossed to get to our campground- hard to see but it's full of small trout-


    We woke up pretty early and went for a short morning hike part way around the lake-


    When we arrived at this campground the day before my son had spotted a bunch of kids camping up on top of the hill overlooking the lake. They were super nice kids from nearby Cody, WY who were out with their dads for a long weekend of camping. Their spot:


    The oldest, who couldn't have been much more than 7 or 8 years old followed us down to the tent-only area by the lake and even helped carry some of our gear to our campsite (it was a walk-in site). #17


    The kids (along with one of the dads) invited Kristhawee to go on a short geochaching hike and they took really good care of him. It's rare to meet such polite, friendly, mature kids- my hat off to their parents who are obviously raising them right!

    I'd heard of geocaching but didn't really know what it's all about- pretty darn cool! This is the Meadowlark Lake Geocache-

    The Meadowlark Lake Cache

    http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache...3-1ada77ef7446


    You might have noticed that Kristhawee has a collection of dinosaurs on this trip? Well, one of the little ones (a T-rex I believe) now resides in the Meadowlark Lake Cache. It's no little thing for a 5 year old to leave a toy, so if you do happen to see Kristhawee's dinosaur I'm sure he'd be really excited to see a picture.


    We climbed up on a boulder and enjoyed the silence, solitude and beauty of Meadowlark Lake-

  2. #52
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    No rush today as it's only 80 miles to our next destination- Thermopolis, Wyoming!

    Kristhawee said good bye to all of his new friends and I stopped to thank Don and Barb again for the food and we roll out of the Lake View camp heading west on US 16 towards Hot Springs County, WY.


    Seems half the mountain came down- some serious roadworks and, much to Kristhawee's delight, some HUGE dump trucks.




    It made me all the more grateful for the food that Don and Barb gave us yesterday- it would have been miserable and possibly dangerous to ride through these road works after dark and in the rain.

    Lots of bikes coming up the mountain headed east-


    Amazing views!


    Most folks blow right by the Bighorn Mountains on their way to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. I'm really glad we spent a night here and realize that there is a lot to see and do in this National Forest. Bighorn National Forest consists of over 1.1 million acres. Created as a US Forest Reserve in 1897, it is one of the oldest government-protected forest lands in the U.S.

    The Cloud Peak Skyway that we rode yesterday took us past the Cloud Peak Wilderness and is worthy of further mention (from http://www.fs.usda.gov/bighorn):

    Cloud Peak Wilderness

    On September 3, 1964, the United States did something that no other nation had ever done before. They created "The Wilderness Act".
    The Act states :"In order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization, does not occupy and modify all areas within the United States... leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the Congress to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness."
    Introduction

    The United States Congress designated the Cloud Peak Wilderness in 1984 with the Wyoming Wilderness Act and it now has a total of 189,039 acres. All of the wilderness is in the state of Wyoming.
    About the Cloud Peak Wilderness

    Long recognized as having some of the most majestic alpine scenery in America, this region was managed as the Cloud Peak Primitive Area as far back as 1932. For 27 miles along the spine of the Bighorn Mountain Range, Cloud Peak Wilderness preserves many sharp summits and towering sheer rock faces standing above glacier-carved U-shaped valleys. Named for the tallest mountain in Bighorn National Forest--Cloud Peak at 13,167 feet--the Wilderness is blanketed in snow for a large part of the year. Most of the higher ground doesn't show bare ground until July. On the east side of Cloud Peak itself, a deeply inset cirque holds the last remaining glacier in this range. Several hundred beautiful lakes cover the landscape and drain into miles of streams. The forest is an attractive mix of pine and spruce opened by meadows and wetlands.


    Riding west on US 16-


    Amazing road, incredible views!






    I had no idea the Bighorn Mountains are this cool!


    Held up by another tractor


    To all you HD fellas, I'm just teasin'. I think a big Harley tour bike would be a fantastic way to tour the country at a leisurely pace. Every Harley rider we met was nicer than nice and no one ever gave us any shit about our pretentious German Land Yacht. Some day when I'm older and grayer I'd like to try touring on a Hog


    Out of the mountains and in to the desert-


    Getting hot again, but thankfully we don't have far to go.


    World's Largest Mineral Hot Springs!


    Welcome to Thermopolis, Wyoming!

  3. #53
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    Thermopolis is Greek for "Hot City" but we were headed some place nice and cool- Our first stop in Thermopolis was the Wyoming Dinosaur Center!

    In case you hadn't noticed, my son loves dinosaurs- he was in for a treat!


    He can tell you the name of just about every dinosaur in the place. Here's Dimetrodon-


    The Dinosaur Family Tree- I was just as fascinated by this as he was-




    Tuojiangosaurus, a close relative of Stegosaurus, which has always been one of my personal favorites-


    Some huge and fierce looking aquatic dinosaurs-


    Tyrannosaurus Rex trying to sneak up on a Triceratops-


    Momma Parasaurolophus with her babies-


    Kristhawee took my camera and photographed pretty much every dinosaur in the place


    We hammed it up a bit too


    Eeek! Allosaurus is gonna get me!


    Once again I'm pretty impressed at how steady my son's hands are- he really understands the whole "squeeze" the shutter button concept.


    One of the dinosaurs for which the Wyoming Dinosaur Center is most famous is the Supersaurus nicknamed "Jimbo"

    Jimbo is the most complete Supersaurus in the world. But he's so damn big that it's pretty much impossible to take a picture of him! He stretches from one end of the building to the other!

    The Wyoming Dinosaur Center was a big hit with Kristhawee and I really enjoyed it too!

  4. #54
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    How does one top a visit to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center? With an afternoon at Thermopolis' Star Plunge Hot Springs Water Park of course!


    He can't swim remember. No way he'll jump!

    Yo Kristhawee- you can't swim, remember??


    That's pretty high little dude- aren't you scared?!


    Apparently not!




    Vid-


    Man this kid is fearless! He must have jumped off that high dive 20 or 30 times over the course of the afternoon, and of course I had to fish him out every time. I was flippin exhausted and he just wanted more!


    I was a bit surprised that the lifeguards were cool with having a kid who obviously can't swim jump off the high dive...

  5. #55
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    The high dive wasn't the only attraction at the Thermopolis Star Plunge Hot Springs Park

    Plenty of water slides! Little ones-


    Big ones-




    Hot spring pools of various temperature and depth




    Hot springs on your head

    (photo by Kristhawee)



    The Vapor Cave


    Inside the vapor cave, hot and stinky!


    Back to the high dive- my kid is just like the energizer bunny- he keeps going and going and going!






    Banzai!!!


    I need a nap!!! Kristhawee is doing laps on the little slide just to my right, where I can keep an eye on him-




    I find a beach chair and am planning to chill for a bit-


    No sooner have a sat down to CHILL, we have a bit of a disaster...

    My son has been doing laps on the small water slide that drops into the out door pool and somehow has managed to tear off half of his big toe nail

    Good god it looked painful and he was in a LOT of pain! His big toe nail on his left foot was torn right up the middle and one half was GONE

    As the pain really kicked in my poor son was SCREAMING and I felt terrible that there was nothing I could do to take away his pain. They had a pretty decent first aid kit and we cleaned up his mangled toe and made sure there wasn't any paint under what was left of his toenail. It looked like a clean wound- they had some numbing / anti-bacterial spray and bandaged him up as best they could, but he was still in a lot of pain.

    The shocker was when the staff mentioned that this happens a lot

    They said that the hot water breaks down the paint in the slides and causes it to crack and that kids get toe nails and finger nails caught in these cracks. What the hell?! They know there's a problem but they don't actually do anything about it?!

    I'm not the litigating type, but seems to me this place is just asking to be sued... What a terribly way to end such a fun day...

  6. #56
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    It took a while but finally my son settled down, but he was still pretty rattled and I'm sure his toe still hurt from where the nail was torn off

    I got him some ice cream- that always helps

    Then I asked him what he wanted to do- go back to the motel and chill, or ride on my back and go see the famous "Swinging Bridge".

    He said we wanted to see the bridge. Good on ya Kristhawee- most kids would have called it a day; you are a seriously tough 5 year old!

    It's a nice little hike through hot spring rainbow terraces to the bridge-




    The Thermopolis Swinging Bridge-


    A bit of history-


    It does swing a bit, but it's a pretty solid bridge-


    Kristhawee must have been feeling better because he got down off my back and started walking on his own-


    Views from the Swinging Bridge-




    We walked around the park-




    Really cool Bison "sculpture" in the playground-


    Kristhawee took a picture of me on the Bison; he wasn't keen to climb up with his injured foot.




    Another full day! After the Star Plunge, Swinging Bridge and Rainbow Terraces it was time to find some dinner.

    First I picked up some first aid supplies for Kristhawee's foot. I worried about infection and hoped that as long as we kept it clean he would be ok. I also wasn't sure if he'd be able to get his hiking boots on the next day...

    We hit a burger / ice cream shack for dinner-


    It was yet another LONG day, full of excitement, discovery and a bit of drama too! Kristhawee looks exhausted, as well he should-


    Back to our motel, cleaned up and dressed his injured foot, and he got to watch some cartoons on TV but was soon sound asleep.


    Sweet dreams my little prince!

  7. #57
    Thailand Expat terry57's Avatar
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    Fantastic road trip Tony.

    You bypassed Mount Rushmore and the Crazy horse Monument.

    The boy would of loved that.

  8. #58
    Thailand Expat terry57's Avatar
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    ^
    How much was the Motel Tony whats the average price for a night in those hotel Chains. ?

  9. #59
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    Quote Originally Posted by terry57 View Post
    Fantastic road trip Tony.

    You bypassed Mount Rushmore and the Crazy horse Monument.

    The boy would of loved that.
    Mount Rushmore was chock-a-block packed full of tour buses every time we rode past. Honestly I hate big crowds so decided to skip it this time. I reckon the best time to visit would be outside the summer months, once all the kids are back in school.

    Anyway, this summer we'll be headed back that way and my son has made me PROMISE we'd visit the Black Hills again, so if it's not so darn crowded we may hit Mount Rushmore this time

  10. #60
    Thailand Expat terry57's Avatar
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    ^

    Thank fuk for that,

    Mount Rushmore would have to be one of Americas amazing sights, to be so close and not see it would be a friggin tragedy.

    Same as the Crazy horse Monument, Just awesome world beating stuff.

  11. #61
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    Quote Originally Posted by terry57 View Post
    ^
    How much was the Motel Tony whats the average price for a night in those hotel Chains. ?

    If I remember right it was around $50 or $60 bucks. A bit pricey for what you get imo, but it was just too hot to camp in or around Thermopolis.

    As it turned out, with my son's injury, it was quite fortunate that we could retreat to a nice clean air conditioned motel room so he could relax and get a good nights sleep.

  12. #62
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    After a week of camping it was nice to sleep in a big comfy bed

    We stayed at the Hot Springs Inn which is a cheap no frills motel in the center of Thermopolis. It's got really mixed reviews and for just $59.99 + tax (Thank you Priceline!) I wasn't expecting too much, but seems it's under new management and the staff were super friendly, fridge in the room, WiFi and we got one of the newer remodeled rooms which was small but quite clean. Here's what our room looked like (not my pics):




    We rolled in there on Sunday July 15th and it was really quiet. (In fact all of Thermopolis seemed really quiet; isn't this supposed to be the high season?)

    The staff (who I initially thought were customers) were just sort of lounging about in the shade, and they nicknamed my son "Teddybear" because when we rolled in they didn't think he was an actual kid but rather some kind of toy or doll strapped to the back of my bike. They were apparently really surprised when I took him off the bike and he turned out to be an actual living breathing kid

    We watched in amazement as a herd of deer wandered down Broadway, nibbling at trees and shrubs along the way. At least they stayed on the sidewalk and out of the street My camera was charging so regrettably no pics.

    We enjoyed breakfast in bed - I'd picked up some blueberries and other goodies at a local store the evening before and had also hit a laundromat as we were pretty much out of clean clothes. It was nice to be able to re-pack and re-organize in an air conditioned room. I realized we had slightly overpacked so took this opportunity to get rid of an old shirt of mine and a pair of shorts that were really too big for Kristhawee. It was around this time I decided I wouldn't shave till the end of the trip, so adios razor. I had the K1200LT Land Yacht packed to the gills so any little thing I could get rid of I did.

    I inspected my son's injured toe and it still looked very painful, but not terribly swollen. I'm no doctor, but the wound still looked clean so I applied more numbing / anti-bacterial spray and let my son pick out his favorite bandaids (I'd picked up Muppet and Cars bandaids, which he thought was pretty cool)



    I'd also bought some children's advil to try and dull the pain a bit, so after getting his toe bandaged up I found the thinnest pair of socks he had and loosened up his little hiking boots as much as I could. He gritted his teeth and managed to get his boot on over the injured toe. He was quite apprehensive about his injury but his boot offered good protection and soon enough he was walking around like he'd never been hurt.

    I was still worried about infection, but did my best to keep his toe clean and kept my fingers crossed that he would heal up quickly. Anyway, there would be no hiking today!

    The plan today was to ride to Red Lodge, Montana, and then over the Beartooth All American Highway to Yellowstone National Park.


    We stopped in Cody for lunch and Kristhawee blew off some steam in the hamster cage




    It was about this time that I noticed his face was starting to peel. Weird, since he'd been wearing SPF 50 sunscreen whenever he was on the bike and we'd been riding mostly mornings with the sun to out backs... It's finally occurred to me, as I write this trip report, that on the day of his accident he never showered after spending the whole afternoon in the hotsprings. I'm guessing perhaps the sulfur and other minerals in the water may have reacted somehow with his sunscreen giving him, in effect, what looks like a chemical peel.



    Seems I must have made a wrong turn in Cody, because shortly after leaving the town we rode past this sign-


    Oops... we're on the 20 west instead of the 120 north. Oh well, I ask Kristhawee what he thinks about going to Yellowstone instead of Red Lodge- he's cool with that


    Stunning scenery and a fantastic road as we ride through Buffalo Bill State Park on US20-


    Some cool tunnels too!




    And more tunnels!


    Riding past the Buffalo Bill Reservoir-




    I think I see some snow off in the distance!


    Beautiful country- my camera does not do this place justice-




    The colors and erosion in the sandstone foothills here reminds me of the Badlands-


    Little spots of snow in the mountains. It sure would be fun to follow some of these dirt roads into the hills on a proper bike.


    Anyone have any idea what this odd structure is on the hill above the Green Creek Inn in Wapiti, WY?


    Looked like something out of a scifi movie set- I'm totally clueless as to what it might be, but very curious to know-


    The road gets twistier the closer we get to Yellowstone-


    I'm not bummed at all that we missed the road to Red Lodge- The Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Highway was called "the most scenic 50 miles in the world" by President Teddy Roosevelt.


    Interesting and varied geology-




    It was in the 90's. Some scattered rain felt nice and helped cool us down-


    The highway follows a river up the Wapiti Valley-




    US West 14/16/20


    Getting closer!


    More trees and cooler as we climb in elevation-










    Approaching the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park!








    We're in! Welcome to Yellowstone National Park!!

  13. #63
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    Quote Originally Posted by TonyBKK View Post








    home is the states is just West of Hershey, Pa. Used to ride bicycles to Hershey when I was a kid and took a tour of the factory when they handed out Hershey bars at the end of the tour. Also was able to lean over into the area where the Hershey Kisses were going by on a conveyor belt and pick some of them up to eat.

    Great thread BTW. Green sent.
    "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff....and it is all small stuff"

  14. #64
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  15. #65
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    Great Thread Tony

  16. #66
    Thailand Expat terry57's Avatar
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    Hey Tony, I want to go outside high season. Can you tell me what is the best month to go where I can expect some fair weather and the least crowds. ?

    On ya.

  17. #67
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    Quote Originally Posted by English Noodles View Post
    The danger of using Photobucket and not the TD gallery.

    It takes a huge amount of time and effort to make threads like this. I for one am hugely appreciative Tony, and so are many others. Please don't ever get put off posting by the moronic cretins that will always try to drag you down because they are jealous of your fantastic life and happiness.

    This thread has just got better and better. Loved it.

  18. #68
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aberlour View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by English Noodles View Post
    The danger of using Photobucket and not the TD gallery.

    It takes a huge amount of time and effort to make threads like this. I for one am hugely appreciative Tony, and so are many others. Please don't ever get put off posting by the moronic cretins that will always try to drag you down because they are jealous of your fantastic life and happiness.

    This thread has just got better and better. Loved it.

    Yep, fekkin Photobucket got greedy and imposed bandwidth limits in hopes of forcing people to pay for photo hosting.

    So I've been slowly moving all my pictures to my own server, but going in and changing all the links in old threads is a tiresome endeavor.

  19. #69
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Fantastic thread. I'm in to it.

    More! More!


    Quote Originally Posted by terry57
    what is the best month to go where I can expect some fair weather and the least crowds.
    I reckon you would fair well in May or September, after the kids are back in school and the weather is still nice.

  20. #70
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    Quote Originally Posted by TonyBKK
    So I've been slowly moving all my pictures to my own server, but going in and changing all the links in old threads is a tiresome endeavor.
    Just do it a little bit at a time mate, whenever you get the chance. It would be a shame if they weren't there for people to see for many years to come.

  21. #71
    Thailand Expat terry57's Avatar
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    ^ ^ ^

    Learn how to use " Teak Door gallery."

    Its a pain in the arse I know but the pics are here forever until this forum goes tits up. Hope not.

    I have thousands of Photos on here and only ever use the Gallery.

    I'm in it to the end.

    Use an outside host and they can just delete all you pics and all your work is down the shitter.

    Consider.

  22. #72
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    Quote Originally Posted by terry57 View Post
    Hey Tony, I want to go outside high season. Can you tell me what is the best month to go where I can expect some fair weather and the least crowds. ?

    On ya.
    Like most places, Spring and Fall are a great time to travel. The weather is often more comfortable (last summer was the hottest on record in the US and we suffered a bit from the heat in some places).

    Kids usually get out of school in early June and go back to school at the end of August / beginning of September, so aim for the month of May or September as the weather is usually still comfortable but you won't have to deal with summer crowds.

    One problem you'll have if you go too early in the spring is that many of the best mountain roads will still be covered in snow...

  23. #73
    Thailand Expat terry57's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post

    I reckon you would fair well in May or September
    Thanks for that. Cheers

  24. #74
    Thailand Expat terry57's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TonyBKK View Post
    .

    One problem you'll have if you go too early in the spring is that many of the best mountain roads will still be covered in snow...

    Nope I wont have a problem at all as I Will rent a car and stay in a nice cosy Motel every night.


    I'm going to Japan in May so maybe can do A road trip to The States in September .

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    Our guide was a really cutie too, college student working at the cave over her summer holiday.

    So where's the proper pics of her?

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