The northeast entrance to Yellowstone is one of the quietest of the park's five gates, a small station on a road that runs west along Soda Butte Creek into the Lamar Valley. Here you leave the high, bare country of the Beartooths and enter a land of rolling sagebrush, cottonwood and wide meadows, with mountains rising on every side. It feels very different from the crowded geyser basins to the south, and many visitors say it is the best part of the park.
The Lamar Valley is known as the American Serengeti, a name earned by the huge numbers of animals that live there. Bison graze in herds of hundreds, pronghorn bound over the sage, elk and bighorn sheep move through the hills, and wolves, reintroduced to the park in 1995, hunt across the valley floor. Dawn and dusk are the best times to see them, and you will often notice groups of wildlife watchers with spotting scopes lined up at the roadside. Grizzlies and black bears also roam here, and a sighting can cause a lengthy queue.
Riding in Yellowstone is a pleasure, if you accept the pace. The speed limit is low, usually forty-five miles an hour or less, and enforced, and the roads are often interrupted by wildlife, so you cannot hurry. The surface is generally good, with occasional patches of frost damage, and the bends are gentle. A bison herd crossing the road can stop traffic for half an hour, and it is unwise to challenge a bison for the right of way. Keep at least twenty-five yards from large animals and a hundred yards from bears and wolves.
There is a park entry fee, payable at the gate, and the entrance stations can have queues in summer. Fuel is limited: Cooke City, just before the entrance, is the last stop on this side, and the next fuel inside the park is some distance away, around Tower-Roosevelt or Mammoth, so fill up before you go in. There are basic facilities at Tower Junction, including a rustic lodge, but check their seasons.
Weather in the park can change quickly, with summer thunderstorms and snow in the shoulder seasons. The best time to ride is early morning, when animals are active and the light is gold on the hills, and the smell of sage and wet grass hangs in the air.