Day 40 Mammoth Hot Springs to Canyon 63km

The wake up call this morning was much more pleasant than the usual alarm. Unfamiliar noises at dawn roused us from sleep, the source of this noise was discovered when the dawn light hit the tent and a perfect silhouette of the head of a deer could be seen! The upside of our lower elevation meant the morning was comfortably cool, the downside of course was the need to ride back up to the high plateau the Yellowstone sits upon. These last 40 days have had their effect, as the climb, anticipated to be terrible, was really not so bad, which was a very pleasant and self satisfying surprise. Once we had backtracked the 21 miles to Norris we had the joy of a new and unknown road to take us to Canyon, this joy lasted about 1 mile until we passed the sign saying steep upward gradient next 5 miles. But we huffed and puffed slowly up the steepest grade we have yet ascended, all the way up and over the lip of the caldera, for a sweet long descent onto the plateau, spinning past oceans of green grass and some very relaxed bison. Canyon village gave us some really amazing educational opportunities regarding the volcanic nature of Yellowstone, I won't bore you with all the details but essentially we are riding across the biggest and most unpredictable active volcano in the world, the last eruption, 640,000 years ago was 250 times the size of the Mt St Helens eruption. Once educated, fed, and recovered we mount our steel horses once more for a short jaunt to see the Yellowstone Grand Canyon and the waterfalls that run through it's centre, just spectacular! The huge scale of the canyon and deafening roar of the water were well worth these last 40 days.


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