Grand Teton and Yellowstone

Wednesday 5/29 & Thursday 5/30

Spent a couple of days visiting with family and enjoying the kids, they have grown enough now that we can really interact with them. New water pump from Walmart arrived Thursday afternoon as promised.

Friday 5/30

Mid-forties here the last couple of mornings, but warming up into the high sixties, low seventies every day.

On the road about 9:30 and immediately hit a traffic jam going onto I-225 South toward I-25. Fortunately the lane closure was not too far ahead and we were through after about 15 minutes. North on I-25 through Denver the traffic was quite heavy and really did not thin out until we were well North of the city. 

Stopped at the Flying J in Cheyenne to top off our tanks and have a very good lunch in the Denny’s there. This will be the cheapest fuel we will see until late July.

Arrived at Casper KOA in Bar Nuun, WY mid-afternoon. Pretty basic RV park for a KOA, mostly gravel, but very nice and helpful staff. Had time to install the new water pump before walking across the street for dinner at The Hanger. Nancy’s dinner was good, my pizza was undercooked and marginal. They offered to credit the cost, but I declined since I had eaten half of it anyway and was taking the other half home to cook the rest of the way - which worked out fine.

Saturday 6/1

41 degrees this morning, starting to get colder. We were seeing snow on the Mountains to the West all the way along yesterday.

Spoke with the man next door to us that we had talked with yesterday afternoon, They had a water leak during the night and the coach has two inches of water on the floor, as well as in the storage compartments! Serious bummer!

On the road 9:30 headed west towards Grand Teton. Off the interstates now, but good road all the way, two lane, but with passing lanes periodically. Very light traffic. Saw a lot of antelope, including newborns along the road, Stopped in Shoshone and ate lunch but the side of the road. Arrived at Fireside Buffalo Valley RV Park about 2:30. Pretty basic park for the price ($78 per night), but close to National Park.

West of Shoshone we could see snow-capped mountains in front of us and on both sides!

After we got set up, got the TV and satellite working so we could catch the hockey game tonight, we drove over to the park to check things out. Moran, WY appears to be not much more than a post office.

Leaving the RV park and heading into Grand Teton National Park we had a really good view of the snow covered peaks. Same view we have from our back window, although that is through some small trees.

Stopped for a minute near where folks were looking at a buffalo herd, then went to Jackson Lake Lodge. Very pretty spot with a wonderful view of the Tetons from 60 for high windows. Had dinner in the bar, where we had a magnificent view across the lake to the snow covered mountains while we ate. Excellent sandwiches as well.

Sunday 6/2

36 degrees this morning!!! Glad we had our wool blankets last night. Headed over to the park around 9 AM, drove south on the east side of the park stopped at Moose Junction visitor center and checked things out, then we stopped at the Menor’s Ferry Historic District where Nancy caught the 10 AM service in the Chapel of the Transfiguration while I sat and admired the mountains. Everywhere you go in the park there is one stunning view of the mountains after another. Walked around the Menor’s district, but the exhibit buildings were both closed.

On up Teton Park road on the West side of the valley, stopping at several overlook points. Stopped at the String Lake parking area and took a 1.5 mile walk along String Lake and Leigh Lake. Very pretty area, crowds really dropped off as soon as you walked a couple hundred yards from the parking areas.

By then it was after noon, so we went on up to Jackson Lake Lodge where we had a beer and an excellent lunch in the Blue Heron Lounge, same place where we ate dinner last night.

After a leisurely lunch we drove on north in the park to the Jackson Lake overlook, then back home and relaxed.

Turned into a beautiful day, sunny with temps in the high 70’s. Clouded over a bit with some scattered thunder late in the afternoon, but it blew over with no impact where we were.

Monday 6/3

Headed out about 9:45. 36 degrees again this morning! Light traffic in Yellowstone. Our America The Beautiful gezzer pass saves us $35 every time we use it to enter one of the parks!

Traveled pretty much at the speed limit all the way up to Lake Village where we stopped at the General Store and picked up snacks for lunch. Light rain started there. We missed the turn at Fishing Bridge because road construction crews at the intersection had removed the signs! Had to go two miles north before we found a turn-out wide enough to turn around.

The road construction from there east meant 10 miles an hour for 5 miles of muddy, potholed dirt road! Got ourselves pretty dirty.

Easy going from then on, ended up traveling at the speed limit most of the way through Yellowstone and on into Cody where we arrived at Parkway RV Park
around 2:30. Truck is really fun to drive in the mountains between the ability to climb and the effective engine brake on the down hill. 

Warm and sunny in Cody, mid-seventies, but there was lots of snow along the roadsides in Yellowstone and a couple of the lakes were still ice covered.

Good pizza for dinner at Millstone Pizza and Brewery here in Cody. Very windy this evening. After dinner we stopped at the Sierra Traders store and Nancy found a couple of things as well as a nice shirt and a hoody for me.

Tuesday 6/4 

44 degrees this morning, wind blew much of the night. According to Wikipedia Cody is often very windy. Beautiful morning though and it turned out to be a beautiful day, high around 80 with a nice breeze today.

First thing in the AM Nancy started to do some outside cleaning on the trailer and a little later I joined her and we got the shady side pretty well cleaned up.

Headed in to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Stopped at Tractor Supply down the street to see if we could find a new indoor/outdoor thermometer, which we found. I had forgotten to remove the old outdoor unit from it’s velcro mount on the trailer hitch and it fell off during the day yesterday, so we needed a new one. In the parking lot we met another couple who were traveling in their HTD. He had quite a few questions about loading the smart.

Stopped back a Sierra Traders as Nancy wanted to look at a few other things, then we finally made it to the Museum.

Buffalo Bill Center of the West is huge place with five separate museums. Very nice displays and we spent a god four hours there looking at the Buffalo Bill Museum, the Plains Indian Museum and a little bit of the Draper Natural History Museum. Will stop back tomorrow (tickets are good for two days) and check out the new Cody Firearms Museum which just had a soft opening this past weekend.

On the way home we stopped at a self-service car wash and spent a whole bunch of quarters washing all the mud off of the truck! Then a quick stop at Walmart to stock up for the next week in Gardiner 

Wednesday 6/5

Had what could have been some problematic news with the Trump administrations new restriction on travel to Cuba. We have committed to another Prairie Home Companion cruise next March, this one making two stops in Cuba. Then today we saw confirmation that “people-to-people” visits, the classification of our trip, were prohibited unless a purchase had been made before June 6th. We put in the deposit on our reservation on May 22nd! So we should be golden!

Another beautiful sunny day, high around 80. Oddly Cody is known for it’s low humidity, so very comfortable. Mid-morning we went back to the Cody museum to see the firearms museum. Interesting exhibits, but pretty sterile without much context. Just displays of guns with data plates. Later I visited the Lost Guns Museum in town and found it positively fascinating! Obviously it was all damaged, broken, rusted guns and knives, but each one had a small descriptive tag with information on when and where it was found, possible uses, etc. Example: a small late 19th century revolver with hammer filed down to make it easy to pull out of a pocket; another revolver with the grips gone, revealing three pieces of hacksaw blade used to increase hammer resistance; the remains of a Henry rifle - valuable when it was new - found buried along the Snake River in Oregon. One wonders about the stories behind these finds. Much more interesting than the Cody firearms exhibit for someone who is not a gun collector.

Took a walk through town checking out the stores. Prosperous looking town. Stopped in Love's Gifts where Nancy found a Cuisanart expresso machine that looked like it might fit in our cabinets. The one she has was a last minute pick-up from Macy’s several years ago when the old one conked out. Had lunch at Peter’s Cafe, small local place with good hamburgers.

Back home we measured cabinets and shuffled a few things around to confirm that we had room for the expresso machine. So we went back into town - only about two miles - picked up the new  machine and dropped the old one off at an Episcopal thrift shop.

Had a nice dinner in a German restaurant Gasthaus Cardi, then home and relaxed. Headed for Gardiner, WY tomorrow.

Thursday 6/6

Headed out just about 9:00 AM, another beautiful morning. Went north out of Cody and picked up the Chief Joseph Highway. Beautiful drive, top speed of about 40, and a lot at 30-35. Very light traffic.

Turned west onto Beartooth Highway into Yellowstone. Traffic picked up and the road was really narrow, bit of  nail bitter all the way across to Mammoth Springs. We did see a bear on the roadside, of course the traffic was stopped dead while people looked and took pictures.

Arrived at Rocky Mountain RV in Gardiner, MT at 1 PM, better time than we expected. I had forecast 5 to 5 - 1/2 hours. Gary and Margo greeted us as we pulled in. Settled into a beautiful spot on the top of the hill, one host said this is their best site and I believe it. Wonderful view out across the Yellowstone River and the village of Gardiner into the park from our rear window. So far we have two elk in the meadow below our site and across the river, both from our back window!

Getting set up our BigFoot jacks would not auto level! Tried various things and finally leveled manually. All the jacks are working, no idea what the issue is. Will have to call BigFoot tomorrow.

Went with Karen and Gary to Yellowstone Pizza in town, good pizza and then ice cream while we browsed through a little gift shop - lots of those around here! Back home to watch hockey game. Rained around 7 PM and we could see a beautiful double rainbow from our window, with the end of the rainbow in the valley right below us!

Friday 6/7

A bit slow getting going this AM, a couple of tasks we wanted to do around the trailer. 

The first thing that slowed us down is we saw that the elk in meadow below us along the river has a fawn! The fawn was bouncing and running around between the female and nearby buck! Really neat.

The water pump I installed in Cheyenne was not cycling of properly, investigation showed that it is a bypass pump and the output and bypass pressures need to be properly balanced. After a search I found a god description of how to do the adjustments on the Lazydays forum of all places. Did the adjustments this morning, works like a charm. 

I also called BigFoot and left a message for tech support. Clinton returned my call just as we were returning to the trailer around noon - good timing! He said one thing needed for the auto level to work is the back jacks have to be fully retracted. While we were talking I walked around and looked at the back jacks and the landing pads are full of dried and cracked mud! Aha! Thinking back, the five miles in the mud on Monday, three days in Cody with the jacks down and the mud drying, bringing the jacks up in Cody, the contact switches stopped on the dried mud. During the trip to Gardiner the pads, which pivot on the jacks, rattled around and cracked the dried mud, which told the contact switches they had lost contact with the pads! Confirmed my diagnosis by cleaning off the pads and retracting the rear jacks, then the auto level worked perfectly!

Left home about 9 AM and drove into the park. Drove around the upper terrace of Mammoth Hot Springs as we plan on meeting a ranger here for a walk around the springs Monday morning and we wanted to know where we have to go. 

Then drove on South into the park, stopped at Sheepeater Cliff, then shortly after ran into the long tailback for a construction zone the had been signposted back at Mammoth Springs. Massive long line of cars coming north that had obviously been waiting below the one lane area, apparently 5 miles long.

We turned around and went back to the Mammoth Springs Hotel as Nancy wanted to stop at the gift shop there. Right across the street from the hotel on the grass in front of the cafe was an elk cow with a newborn fawn!

Back home around lunchtime, overcast and drizzly today, about 60 degrees, supposed to be cool days and cold nights for the next week. Nancy did some laundry this afternoon, I paid some bills on line and we relaxed.

Saturday 6/8

35 degrees and snowing this AM! Out our back there are low lying clouds and snow covered mountains. A telephone check of park road conditions showed a number of roads closed due to snow. We had planned on going down to the Old Faithful area early this morning, but the road to there is closed. Then we debated taking the Beartooth Highway to Red Cloud, but that road is closed as well! Bummer.

Relaxed in the AM, took a short walk around the park. Very nice park with a number of sites that have good views. Watched F1 practice and qualifying.

Just before lunch we made a quick run into town to a very nice small grocery store, the only one in Gardiner - Gardiner Market.

Hunkered down again in the afternoon. By mid-day many of the roads were still closed in the park according the telephone updates, including the places where we wanted to go. This afternoon we had periods of sunshine, light rain, heavy rain, hail, and snow! Not to mention occasional high winds! That was mid-afternoon and was followed by sunshine again. Then again about 7:45 we had light hail again.

I filled up our fresh tank and took in our water hose as temps are supposed to drop into the twenties tonight. 

In other good news, Vice-president Pence is scheduled to visit Yellowstone on Thursday! That’s the day we are leaving and we are planning on going south in the park, through Mammoth Springs, the main gate area, and out the west entrance. The option about four times the distance to go north through Bozeman and back south into Idaho where we have reservations Thursday evening. Guess we will try to get going early Thursday morning and hope to avoid the sure-to-happen closing of roads to protect the VP.

Sunday 6/9

31 degrees this morning, but sun and blue sky. First thing we went with Karen and Gary for a drive up to Chico Hot Springs Hotel, about a half hour north of Gardiner, for brunch. Word of mouth said it was an excellent brunch and that was correct. Highlight was French toast with cream cheese topping! Plus the usual brunch standards. Whole thing was $20 a person!!

Back home by ten and we hopped into the car and headed into the park. Went straight south from Mammoth Springs, construction section was open with two lanes of traffic, three  miles of dirt though.

Several traffic jams along the way for clowns stopping in the road to look at animals. In the construction zone we passed a bull bison walking along the side of the road close enough for Nancy to reach out and touch him! (Which she did not do!)

Several possibly interesting spots were jammed with cars, so we skipped down to Artists Paint Pots and then to Old Faithful. Heard a brief ranger talk at Old Faithful, describing the physical configuration of the geyser underground - seriously it looks almost like a teapot! We then had time to cut through the visitor center and over to the Hotel before the next anticipated eruption. Quite an impressive place, obviously the inspiration for the Wilderness Lodge at Disney World! We headed over to the geyser about time for an eruption and found a bench a bit away with a good view and where we would be able to get to the car and out ahead of the crowd.

People drive like idiots here! Besides just stopping in the road whenever they see any kind of animal, they just pull out of parking areas or off the shoulder without looking. Twice I had to take evasive action to avoid one of those clowns hitting us! One fool was stopped on bridge with their four-way flashers going as traffic squeezed by them in gaps of on coming traffic. Then just as I was passing she started moving again with her four-ways still flashing  - then she was in a great big hurry and passed us and two other cars on double yellow lines in the mountains! Go figure!

Monday 6/10

Warmer this morning, low forties. We headed out early for a Ranger Guided Walk at Mammoth Springs. The young lady did an excellent job with a group of about 25 people. Learned a lot about the park and the springs. The views from the boardwalk around the springs were quite incredible.

As she was organizing the walk in the parking lot a car pulled off the road and a guy too her they had just seen a bear cross the road toward the springs. She moved off to radio the sighting in and a few minutes later someone said “There’s the bear!” and sure enough, a medium sized black bear was strolling back across the road about 50 yards away from us! Our second black bear sighting.

After the walk we went back to Mammoth Springs area and stopped at the visitor’s center which had some excellent displays and videos about the park inhabitants. I bought a book on the history of the park.

Lunch at Wonderland Cafe in town and then back home in the afternoon.

Tuesday 6/11

Drove into park and down to Canyon Village and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone - a little over an hour drive, this a really big place! Stopped at visitors center to get oriented then drove to the south rim drive, stopped at overlook above upper falls and then Artist's Point where there was a good view of the lower falls. Both waterfalls were impressive.

Drove along the north rim drive to Lookout Point (crowded) and Inspiration Point (not so crowded) then back north to Gardiner. Had a late lunch at Yellowstone Pizza, then home for the rest of the afternoon.