Cycle Greater Yellowstone – The First Great Ride in the Last Best Place – was created by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition as a way to inspire and educate people from around the country and world about the incomparable wonders of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. This fully supported cycling event saw nearly 700 cyclists pedal 460 miles through the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem last week – from West Yellowstone to Ennis, Livingston, Cooke City, Cody, and Red Lodge, with additional field trips into Yellowstone National Park. Cyclists hailed from 44 states and five countries. Many had never previously visited Greater Yellowstone.
At the summit of Dead Indian Pass in Wyoming, cyclists and another 80 volunteers gazed in wonder across Sunlight Basin into the wild Absaroka Range. One cyclist told us that he'd ridden 50,000 miles across the United State and Europe, and that our Day 5 leg from Cooke City, Mont., to Cody, Wyo. was the most spectacular he'd ever pedaled. We even witnessed what might've been the largest bicycle bear jam ever – dozens stopped to watch a grizzly bear dine not 40 yards from the road near the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone River on the Shoshone National Forest.
This leg dovetailed perfectly with our program the previous night at our campground at Pilot Creek, where we talked about the unique wild values of the Absaroka-Beartooth Front and how we're working on Shoshone National Forest and BLM management plans to ensure they remain this way. Our ability to protect this wildlife- and scenery-rich region has been significantly enhanced by funding from The Conservation Alliance. The Alliance has supported efforts to protect areas of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem for years. Funding from the Conservation Alliance helped GYC protect 1.2-million acres in the Wyoming Range during the last decade. Conservation Alliance funding is currently supporting GYC efforts to protect the Absaroka-Beartooth Front.
To learn more about GYC's work on the Absaroka-Beartooth Front go to www.greateryellowstone.org/abfront and https://www.conservationalliance.com/grantees/12. More information on Cycle Greater Yellowstone is at www.cyclegreateryellowstone.com.
Photos: Greater Yellowstone Coalition