Day 14

Wednesday, 09/23/15
West Yellowstone, M
Grizzly RV Park


Seth and Lisa joined us at the trailer about 11. I fixed them breakfast and made sandwiches to take with us on our excursion for the day. We headed for the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  We were going to try to see the upper and lower falls of the Yellowstone River.  We took in a few thermal features and got in a hike lead by a ranger to Uncle Toms Point where you look down on the top of the lower (bigger )  falls.  Then we drove out to Artist Point for a view of the falls and river valley. That is the iconic picture you often see.  Unfortunatley the sun was right in our camera lens so we did not get the best pic. 

Then we decided to drive to Hayden Valley where the ranger said there was a lot of bear activity and a wolf pack. We took in a mud volcano and a sulphur caldron on the way.  We did not see or hear a wolf pack, but did see a group of people waiting for them to show up.  We did see a good size elk herd and think a grizzly bear.  We had forgotten to get our binoculars from the truck so not positive. A mistake we will not make again. 

Lee played with his new toy, a Go Pro camera that Seth brought from Oregon. We were cold and hungry and it would soon be dark so we headed the 50+ miles back to West Yellowstone and took in a bar b que place. 

Tap to see the lower falls of the Yellowstone below

Day 13

Tuesday, 09/22/15
West Yellowstone
Grizzly RV Park

Boy it got cold last night. It warmed up to 75 by mid afternoon. Think we will be breaking out the sleeping bags soon. The morning was spent messing with the tv cable and cleaning the trailer. While changing sheets we discovered not only are both closet areas wet so is the front wall and the mattress was wet on the end. We can not figure where the wetness is coming from. Good thing the sleeping bags were in plastic. 

We took off around 2 and drove to Norris Geyser Basin.  We took several hikes seeing various thermal features, walking a little over 2 miles. We listened to a ranger talk. Saw a lovely 85 ft water fall. On our way back to the campground I saw a herd of over a dozen elk.  We pulled off the road and got out our binoculars.The elk were across a river from us in a big meadow.  The bull elk who ruled this herd was a magnificent specimen. He has a huge rack and looked absolutely regal.  He was awesome. We watched him and his herd for 45 minutes.  He seemed particularly interested in one cow and kept following her and trying to lick her tail end.  She kept walking off when he did that, refusing his advances. He never got close enough for a good pic but a couple of young elk walked across the river and Lee got a pic of them with reflection in the water. 

We got back to West Yellowstone around 6 and got a pizza before going back to the RV. Seth texted and he and Lisa had safely landed in Billings and were renting a car to drive to West Yellowstone. (arriving about 11pm)  We will see them in the morning. 

Day 11 & 12

Sunday 09/20/15
West Yellowstone,MT
Grizzly RV Park

It was cold last night 27 degrees.  We had a breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast instead of our standard camping fare of pop tarts. Today we did some reading about the park and planning. Then we visited the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. They had bears and wolves and other animals that would have been destroyed if they did not take them. They attempt to duplicate the life they would have in the wild. Then we went to an I MAX movie about the history of Yellowstone. It warmed up nicely by mid afternoon and was a sunny mid 60s. Pretty dull day but necessary and the physical down time was actually nice. 

Tap on the 2 blank squares for pics

Monday  09/21/15
West Yellowstone, MT
Grizzly RV Park

The Park exploration started in earnest today. After a quick trip to the hardware store we headed into the park. We checked out one of the more upscale campgrounds inside the park, Madison Junction. We kept a sharp eye out for critters and were rewarded with many buffalo, a few elk, and a lone wolf, but no bears. We explored Fire Hole Canyon and Falls, Fountain Flat, the Lower Geyser Basin, Fountain Paint Pots, Midway Geyser Basin and the obligatory Old Faithful. We saw it and an other lesser known cone geyser erupt. We took a couple of side roads hoping to find less traffic. Often it was a slow to stopped parade.  Can not imagine what June, July and August are like. 
All in all we covered a lot, Lee saw bubbling mud pots, steam vents, hot springs, and geysers for the first time.  But we are pooped tonight.  We are old! 

Tap on 2 blank squares to see 2 pics

Day 10

Saturday 09/19/15
West Yellowstone, MT
Grizzly RV Park

We left Cody WY about 9:45 to 50 degrees temps and sunshine. We took the scenic route through Yellowstone Park to the small town of West Yellowstone, MT.  We saw buffalo, elk, and antelope as we drove but no bears. I recall from my childhood always seeing many bears when we visited Yellowstone which was almost yearly. Once we got to West Yellowstone we checked out a few of the 4 or 5 campgrounds in town.  We picked a nice but expensive one (Grizzly RV campground) which is only a few blocks from where son Seth and his wife Lisa will be staying come Tuesday.  We headed to a hardware store for a few things after we got all settled in our site. 

The TV in our trailer never has worked right so Lee fooled around with it and it seems obvious now that the problem is in the trailer not our exterior cable or the campgrounds cable.  When we get home perhaps we can permanently fix the problem. Our make shift fix for the cabinet and frig opening during travel seemed to work.  We made it the 135 miles today with everything shut when we arrived.

It is supposed to freeze at night and we were asked to disconnect the fresh water supply hose at night to prevent the spigot from freezing. Predictions are for highs in the 50s all week. 

We ate out at a little pizza place that had pasta and sandwiches and at least on Sat night live music.  They were very crowded so we left before they performed so we would not tie a table up after we finished eating. Stuff is expensive gas $2.75 gallon. 2 sandwiches $28 before tip. Not sure what is on the agenda for Sunday. 
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Day 9

Friday 09/18/15
Cody, WY
Ponderosa Camp Ground

Last night was cold and sleety and breaking camp a bit nasty but as soon as we got on the road it was sunny and temps got up to high 60s and comfortable most of the day.  Weather is supposed to dip to freezing tonight. The early part of the day was plains driving and the wind was pushing us around. We saw lots of antelope and that was about it for wild life.  Then the big mountains came into view with patches of what must have been last nights snow on them. As we drove over them getting 4 or 5 miles to the gallon we could see it was not deep but fresh.

Our refrigerator door and the cabinet that has drawers in it both came open during transit today.  That is 2 days in a row. As soon as we got set up in the campground we hunted a hardware store and looked for some solutions.  The drawer slides had been damaged so we had to buy new and install them. We got an extra latch for the cabinet door and a bungee cord we hope we can jerry rig to the frig door to keep it shut. We will see if any of that helps tomorrow.

We went to a restaurant  for dinner a local recommended.  We had steaks to die for, topped off with a sinful brownie a la mode. A BIG one we shared.  Yum

I drove the new truck for the first time today.  We took a back road to Cody and there was little traffic. I probably drove 80 of the 259 miles we went today. It was also the first time I have ever pulled the trailer. Nothing awful happened and I hardly knew it was there. Lee even seemed to relax after I was at the wheel a while.

Tomorrow we will drive into Yellowstone and look for a good place to spend the week that is close to where Seth and Lisa are staying. They are staying in a lodge type motel. The low tonight is supposed to be in the low 30s.  We may be digging out the sleeping bags.

Day 8

Thursday, 09/16/15
Gillette, WY
High Plains RV Campground

We started the day by using the very nice laundromat the KOA campground had.  We met a full time RVer who used to work summers at this campground so knew the area well.  She over heard us planning our route for today and offered a few suggestions she thought might help us avoid traffic in Rapid City.

We pulled out at 5 til 11 and headed to Devils Tower.  The site of the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  I is something to see.  Without scale it is hard to really show it in a picture.  The local Indians have a legend about how it formed but the scientific explanation is the vent of a volcano had magma which solidified and over time the volcano eroded and the vent was all that was left. 

Went about 190 miles and ended the day in Gillette WY. It is a small town in the high plains.  Lots of grass, cattle and some oil wells. The wind shook the trailer and we heard  half rain half sleet a lot of the night.  It was calling for snow but did not make it.  

Thursday, 09/16/15
Gillette, WY

Day 7

Wednesday 09/16/15

KOA Mt Rushmore

Keystone, SD

Sorry this was posted late but we had no cell or internet access.

It got cold last night but warmed right up this morning.  We headed south to Needles Highway which is narrow winding road through huge rocks of granite and laced with mica which acts like a mirror.  Many of the rocks are thin tall spears thus the needles name but the mica looks like the rocks are seeded with diamonds when the sun shines on them.  They should have called it Needles and Diamonds highway.  There were several narrow one lane tunnels cut through rock that were in the way of the road builders.  They were pretty cool too. 

After that drive we were almost out of gas and detoured to Custer, SD.  Quaint little town that happens to be the home of the National Woodcarvers Museum.  Lee spent considerable time in there looking at carvings.  Then after a quick lunch and grocery stop we went to Custer State Park.  Needles highway is part of it but this time we went to the wildlife loop drive.  We saw deer, prong horn antelope, big horn sheep, buffalo and more prairie dog towns.  I fed a prairie dog a corn nut, he sat up and begged for more.

We took the Iron Mountain Rd back to Mt Rushmore and took pictures.  We didn’t have a camera last night.  This time we did and toured the museum that documented the building of Mt Rushmore.  But back to Mt Rd.  It was a flatlanders nightmare.  More tunnels and more kiss your ass turns than you can count. Having lived in the mountainous area of WV we were fine but bet a few travelers were white knuckled. We traveled 95 miles today.

We have made 2 recent donations to the lost and gone forever (formerly called overboard).  The hitch lock and my one and only glasses.  We really have to break this habit of losing stuff when we travel. Tomorrow we hook up the trailer and head on.