Tour Details

The Plan:

The Start: To spend three weeks bicycling by myself unsupported through some of the most awesome landscapes the US of A has to offer! My journey begins in good-ol Chicago Union Station where I board an Amtrak train heading to East Glactier Park MT. The ride will be long (30ish hours) but hopefully the scenery along the way will make it more enjoyable! Getting sleep on these trains is tricky business so this time I will be sure to bring my eye patch to keep those annoying isle lights at bay! Now if I can only figure out how to contort my body so the seat is more comfortable... Should have taken those Yoga classes with my Shonu... :D	City of big shoulders!
Glacier National Park	Glacier National Park: On day one I immediately ascend into Glacier from the east via the "Going-to-the-sun" road. They call it that for a reason so I will likely be exhausted once I complete the climb into camp. With all of this "global warming" (my sweating my arse off getting there doesn't help!) I am hoping that there is still glacial ice left for me to see! I am spending two nights at Avalanche Campground and hope to spend some time trekking to Avalanche Lake, seeing some cool nature and avoiding Mr. Grizzly Bear. I have a large can of bear spray so hopefully that will keep the ornery ones at bay! :)
Yellowstone National Park: I continue to snake my way south until I enter West Yellowstone. Yellowstone is quite a huge place to explore and I will really only be scratching the surface due to time constraints. I will be spending 2 nights at 2 different locations within the park. I will be entering from the west and exiting at the southern end. I am looking forward to seeing Old Faithful spit out with all her fury! Hopefully TV hasn't over sensationalized it too much. (Nah... it'll be cool!) ;)	Old Faithful
Signal Mountain	Grand Teton National Park: After a short-ish ride from Yellowstone I arrive at my last National Park "Grand Teton"! Here I will spend 2 nights and will hopefully try my luck kayaking! I have tried to work that into my East Coast Tour but it did't quite work out. Since this is a lodge I may actually splurge a bit and enjoy a fine meal at The Peaks Restaurant as well as a scrumptious breakfast at the Tapper Grill. No better way to enjoy the view than with a fine meal and large icy cold beverage! Yum!
Salt Lake City: Now that all the big parks are done the next four days of the trip will be schlepping my butt to Salt Lake City so I can get home! NOT! Well sort of. The scenery will still be pretty sweet heading south so hopefully it will keep me entertained! If not I can always do a mental slideshow of memories from parks past.... :)	Salt Lake City

The Itinerary:

I have created a pretty swank Google spreadsheet (shocking I know!) which details all my stops along the way.

Rocky Mountain Tour Itinerary

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I also have a fancy map showing the route I plan to take. Things can and do change along the way but for the most part I will try to stick with the original route. Note, the map points in the spreadsheet should match those in the maps below (How fancy!).

Rocky Mountain Tour Route

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