Sissies.

The Yellowstone Park ride has been officially postponed. Forecasts called for up to four inches of snow and winds of 20-30 miles an hour from the southwest -- the direction we were planning on traveling Saturday. Sunday's high was supposed to get up to a balmy 23 degrees F. Auto traffic isn't supposed to open in the park until April 26, but long-term forecasts don't look like much fun.

So maybe we'll try something different this year. Sure, it's nice to have a very limited number of cars to deal with, but the only road open is the one between Mammoth and West Yellowstone. If we plan a trip after all the roads are open, we could do a loop instead of retracing our path. Car traffic is there, but it's pretty light in the early spring.

A trip from West Yellowstone through Madison and Canyon Junctions, with an overnight at a cabin at Lake Village, followed by a trip through Grant Village and Old Faithful, then back to West, might be a pretty cool outing.

It looks like the Lake Village accommodations open in mid-May, and hopefully the weather will be better by then. But certainly no guarantees with the weather there. It might even be a good idea to bring the fly rods to try our hands on some of the water we'll be riding by.

Looking at the map gives plenty of ideas for different itineraries. A trip from Red Lodge over the Beartooth Pass and into Cooke City, then through the north end of the park and up to Gardiner would bring us very close to Chico Hot Springs, the perfect place to end any bike ride. All I need, I suppose, is the time.

The kids can all ride bikes now, but certainly a ride through the park is too much at this point for them. A shorter trip on a very wide road with very light traffic might be fun for the whole crew. Any ideas?