Geysers Galore! Yellowstone National Park

We departed our Gros Ventre CG camp at the crack of noon. Check out time was actually 11:00, but we were talking to some neighbors who share our interests and activities and time slipped by. Besides, we had hoped to miss the mad rush at the sewer dump. We had been parked here for nine nights and needed to dump the foul fluids and take on some fresh fluids. When we pulled into the dump there was not another RV in sight, however, before we left there were about four rigs behind us.

We headed north towards Yellowstone, taking our time and enjoying the scenery. We had a 4-night reservation at Grant Village CG only 70 miles away, so we knew we had a short drive and did not need to be in a hurry. We stopped for a short while at Jackson Lake Lodge where we knew they had some shops. We had not previously bought any Grand Teton logo souvenirs, so Dorcas bought a t-shirt and some purple socks, and I bought a t-shirt and a hat. We spent some time looking out onto the large meadow between the lodge and Jackson Lake, but did not see any interesting critters. We lunched at a river access on the Snake River just before entering Yellowstone National Park at the South Entrance.

We checked in at Grant Village in record time. They had three windows manned at the ranger station, and there was only a very short wait. We observed later that it was quite a zoo checking in later in the day. There are 450 campsites here and about ¾ of the sites turn over each day. It seems that most campers are packing up and leaving each morning and checking into another campground each evening. It is actually very quiet and almost deserted here after 9:00 AM, even though the campground fills every night about dark.

Warning!  The following paragraph is very graphic and terrifying!  Proceed at your own risk!

Getting parked into Site H-239 was the most exciting part of the day and certainly our most difficult parking experience ever. Site H-239 is a pull-through that claims to accommodate a 40' motorhome. We're 34' so no problem, right? Au contraire! The site is on a one-way loop, and the first thing I observed was that if we pulled straight in, our entry door would be on the road side, while our picnic table and fire ring would be on the diagonal corner on the driver's side. The path around either end of the coach would be obstructed by brush and low tree limbs. Obviously I needed to approach the site from the other direction so all the parts would line up, and the universe would be in harmony. To Dorcas' dismay (who was following in the car) I zoomed on by H-239 and pulled into H-244 to turn around. Not my brightest moment. H-244 contained a sharper turn that I envisioned, and I ended up on top of some of the infrastructure, that stuff that usually marks the boundaries of a campsite, where one shouldn't drive. I tried to back out, but that seemed to only make it worse. You know those fiberglass signposts the park service uses to mark trails and campsites? Imagine one bent over double to the ground under the coach. Then imagine backing up over it again, against the grain. It's not a pleasant sound. By now Dorcas had arrived and was screaming words I won't repeat here; suffice it to say she was not pleased. I asked for some more constructive criticism and direction so I could get back out onto the road before I subjected the campsite or the coach to any more damage or abuse. Thankfully the campground was nearly empty (see paragraph 3 above) and there was no one to ridicule us or call the park police. Dorcas uses standardized and accepted hand signals when I'm backing the coach into a spot. Such hand gestures include come straight back, come back left, come back right and stop. I knew things were dire when she put both hands against the side of her head, closed her eyes and her mouth opened in a silent scream. This was not a conventional parking gesture, but I interpreted it to mean “stop now dammit.” At that point Dorcas could see no way out of the dilemma and suggested (ordered) a bit of role reversal, that she should drive while I did the directing. I got out and wondered how the hell I had gotten into that fix in just one swoop; I had the 34' coach wedged between two trees 36' apart. It would take multiple short forward/backward events to get out. So, between standing at the drivers window and running back to the rear of the coach, I advised Dorcas to cut the wheels all the way to the left and back up 3”. Then cut the wheels all the way to the right and pull forward 3”. After repeating 6 times we were finally out into the open, and apparently no one else even noticed the episode. But remember site H-239? We're not yet parked, and H-239 still awaits! I was still convinced that it made sense to enter site H-239 from the wrong way (we later concluded there was no right way), so I continued around the loop in the proper direction, went out onto the main road and through a different loop, all so I could re-enter Loop H going in the wrong direction. Dorcas ran ahead to warn oncoming traffic, but we didn't encounter any (deserted, remember?) Then I entered H-239 from the wrong end. Another problem soon became evident. Site H-239 might hold a 40' rig, but only if it could bend 90 degrees in the middle. It was shaped like a thin banana with trees closely lining the edge. I tried several approaches, going backward and forward just inches from trees on either side, until Dorcas expressed her new-found parking gesture again. Then we gave up and traded places, went forwards, backwards, forwards backwards, until we were back out into the road. Our last resort was Plan A, meaning exit the loop again, turn around again and attempt to park on H-239 from the natural direction. I was not optimistic, but the park was full (even though it looked empty) and they would not likely assign us another site. We were finally successful at getting parked, more or less. It turns out that by pulling straight in and not trying to follow the curve of the site, we were able to get in far enough that the back end of the coach did not stick out into the road (well not much). With a little finagling (hard right 3” forward, hard left 3” back) we found a position where we could get the slides out (no window shades) and open all the bay doors. I think when we leave we will be able to back more or less straight back into the road. So much for a 40' pull through! All in all it took us about an hour and a half to get parked on the site. It took most of another hour to cut enough limbs so we could negotiate a path from our entry door to our picnic table. Cutting flora in a national park is a federal offense subject to all kinds of ugly penalties, but thankfully the loop was deserted, remember?  It turns out that we have good cellular service at the site, but our solar exposure is nil and I have not even tried to put up a TV antenna; I would have to climb onto the roof and perform more major pruning to get it up.  We probably wouldn't get a signal anyway.

Site H-239.  The trees were just as close on the the other side.  Note sharp turn in front of coach.

Site H-239  No window awnings out tonight!

During our stay at Grant Village we have been exploring, very leisurely, the west side of the lower portion of the Grand loop. This means basically the road from Grant Village to Madison Junction, a very small portion of the park. However, it does contain the majority of the geothermal features in the park, those along the Firehole River. Yellowstone has the largest concentration of such features in the world, approximately 80%. We walked our butts off in the Upper Geyser Basin, which is the area that includes Old Faithful (which is neither the largest nor most predictable geyser in the park). It is unfortunate that perhaps 90% of park visitors never get more than ¼ mile from Old Faithful. The Upper Geyser Basin is several miles long and contains a wide variety of geysers, hot springs and fumaroles, all different and beautiful. We were able to stroll and spend time at all that seemed most interesting. We spent quite a while at Grand Geyser, which was predicted to erupt soon. We sat on a bench next to a young fellow from Utah who visits the park about twice a year and was very knowledgeable about the geysers. Someone there described him as the “storm chaser of geysers”. He told us what signs to look for before Grand erupted. First the pool at the base of the geyser would begin to fill, then Turban, a geyser about 10 yards away on the left would spurt about 5 feet high. But if the Grand pool started to drain, it wasn't going to happen, and we would need to wait another 20 minutes for the cycle to repeat. There was also another small geyser about 20 yards to the right of Grand, and if that geyser spurted, Grand would have to erupt within 30 minutes or it wasn't happening. Wait 20 more minutes for the next cycle. I guess it just wasn't our day. We waited about 2 hours, through about 6 cycles, and Grand never did erupt. Maybe next time. But it did illustrate how the plumbing system for the geothermal features are all interrelated, and why it is so hard to predict the eruptions.

Tourists awaiting the eruption of Old Faithful

Thar she blows!

We toured Black Sand Basin, Biscuit Basin and others. We drove some side roads including Firehole Canyon Drive where about a thousand people were swimming in the river. We saw a smattering of elk and bison, but no moose or bears. At a ranger program we learned that the moose population had dropped from about 350 at the time of the 1988 fires to about 100 currently. After the fire the lodgepole pine thrived, but the spruce and fir were diminished. The moose apparently like the cover provided by the spruce/fir habitat better and left the area, probably for the Tetons. The best part of the Old Faithful area is the Old Faithful Inn. We joined a guided tour of the Inn and learned its history. It was built in 1904 and financed by the railroads, as were most of the old historic park inns. It was designed to complement the outdoors; its lobby is 70' high, the height of a mature lodgepole pine, and it has numerous unusual branched columns and stays, all mimicking being in a forest. All materials were harvested within 8 miles of the site, which could never happen today. The Inn closes in the winter and is unoccupied and unheated. All furnishings, which were designed by the original architect, and built before the inn opened, are removed and stored in a climate-controlled warehouse. On one night in January the inn is opened for the employees who bring sleeping bags and whatever else they can bring to stay warm and “The Shining” is shown in the lobby.

On our last full day at Grant Village we stayed close to home and took it easy. Dorcas had bought some blueberries before we left Jackson, and they were ready to be eaten. So we had a late breakfast of blueberry pancakes and bacon. The remainder of the day we lounged around camp and did internet chores, for me, mainly this blog; I don't know if we will have internet at our next site.. Tomorrow we will move about 20 miles to another campground at Bridge Bay for three nights. After that we might see if we can find some more nights in the park before we head into Montana.

THE END