Through the Rockies in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana

We started today in Pinedale, Wyoming and headed north on US 191 toward Jackson, riding on gorgeous sweeping mountain roads.

The Hogback River criss-crossed the highway and then we rode through the narrow canyon and steep cliffs carved out by the river.

We then turned onto WY 22 which twists and winds over Teton Pass that tops out at 8431'. There were a lot of vehicles traveling both directions on the highway which meant riding more slowly and giving us more time to look at the scenery.

We then rode straight throgh Teton Valley on ID 32, marveling at the bright gold fields of grain as far as we could see.

We've had clear skies since we left Colorado three days ago but today the effects from the numerous wildfires in Oregon made everything a bit hazy, especially the usually clear long views to the mountains.

The landscape changed agaiin as we rode through Island Park on US 20N, passing fields of pine trees, dirt roads that snaked off the highway toward camping areas, and distant views of mountains.

We then turned onto US 287 North, riding along the Madison River and then stopped for a few minutes to walk around downtown Ennis MT and sit at a shady picnic table before riding the last few miles to Three Forks.

Merriweather Lewis named the Madison in 1805 after then US Secretary of State Madison, who succeeded Thomas Jefferson as President.

We're staying at the Sacajawea Hotel in Three Forks. Built in 1910 and recently refurbished, it's a grand old 3-story hotel with a large, inviting covered front porch. After riding 290 miles today, we're ready for an easy evening before meeting up with our kids tomorrow at Flathead Lake.

Snowy mountains and lush farmland

 I put on all of my warm liners plus raingear before we left Kemmerer, WY this morning due to cool weather (temperature in the low 50's) and high chance of rain/thunderstorms. We started off under clear blue skies, riding west on US 30.

We passed herds of sheep and cattle as we rode straight west, then turned north on US 89.

We watched the snow-capped mountains get closer, and then the wide-open valley narrowed as we climbed up the Salt River Pass, one of the routes used by the California, Oregon, and Mormon wagon trains.

We continued on 89 north through Star Valley, bordered by the Salt River mountain range in western Wyoming, and the Webster range in eastern Idaho. The 2-lane road sweeps and turns along the Snake River, which eventually dumps into the Columbia River. Due to the high amounts of snow this past winter and rainier than usual Spring, the Snake was churning brown water and often over its banks as we rode past.

We picked up US 191 north into Jackson, WY. The traffic increased as we rode north through several small towns and outlying ranches. One of our favorites is Afton, home to the largest elk antler bridge in the world.

Much of this route goes through the Bridger-Teton National Forest, 3.4 million acres of protected land.

We stopped for lunch in Jackson, and then turned west onto WY 22 over the Teton Pass. Even with 10% grades, it was one of the lower and tamer passes of our trip and definitely had a lot more traffic than we've seen so far on this trip.

The west side of the pass is in Idaho, the 4th state on this trip. We continued on ID 33 north, riding through rollercoaster hills in the lush farmland with views of the Grand Tetons to the east.

We had been watching dark rain clouds, and had a few miles of light rain before we rode out of the clouds and back into the sunshine. We turned north onto US 20 into Island Park, our stop for the night. There are less than 400 people who live in Island Park, which is one of the gateways into Yellowstone National Park.

We rode 269 miles today and were wowed by the landscape each mile: snowy mountains, green pastures, brown tilled fields, rolling hills, and overflowing rivers and streams. Tomorrow we have a shorter ride into Bozeman, MT where we'll stop for the Memorial Day weekend to visit our youngest son and his girlfriend before we continue on our trip back into Colorado.