Yellowstone National Park Part II

I have been in Yellowstone National Park perhaps 6-8 times, but never in the summer. Every time I have been here in the past was before Memorial Day or after Labor Day, which has always been a great time to be here. I had heard horror stories about the traffic jams and the crowds in the summer, so I was apprehensive about going to Yellowstone at all during the month of July. Of course, we came anyway.

Tourists!  Taking up all our camping sites!

Well, our impression so far is, it ain't so bad. Sure, when a chipmunk crosses the road, traffic grinds to a halt and the camera flashes drive the poor critter into an epileptic seizure. And there can be parking issues (fist fights) at some of the pull-outs, particularly at the more popular features. But it wasn't as bad as we expected. In fact, shortly into our stay at Grant Village, I started trying to get more nights in the park. Most of the major campgrounds are by-reservation only (Madison CG being an exception). It is a risk to depend on getting a spot at the smaller first come campgrounds. First, you need to get there early in the morning, and second, most of those have smaller sites and only a very limited number of sites big enough for our rig. If you miss, you're screwed and have to drive a hundred miles to find a place outside the park. So I got on-line looking for a reservation for some days after our stay ended at Grant Village. No luck. Finally I called the reservation phone number, and a guy found us three nights at Bridge Bay CG, only 19 miles north of our current site at the other end of Yellowstone Lake. Sweet! I did tell a minor fib however. I gave the operator the correct length of our coach but, when asked, I told him we were not towing a car. How could that matter? I think this helped us get the site, but it did cause minor a problem later.

 


So, on Tuesday we packed up and moved a whopping 19 miles to Bridge Bay CG. We checked in and were assigned site A-9. At first glance A-9 seemed to be a huge pull through site,just adjacent to the pavement on the loop road. But wait a minute. What's that white line painted across the pavement half way along the length of our site? And why does it say A-10 just beyond that line? Crap, they did it to us again. That mile-long pull-through was actually two separate sites. I pulled all the way up so my bumper was even with the white line, and my front mirrors actually intruded about a foot into A-10. There was nobody currently parked in A-10, but there was some gear on the picnic table. Obviously a small van-type camper would be coming back, and it wouldn't matter that we were slightly trespassing. The reason we needed as much space as we did was because there was no place to park the car. Park rules say all wheels must be on the pavement, but not in the roadway. Well, we only had about 6' behind us to park the car. I finally did manage to get the car in diagonally between the coach, a boulder and the fiberglass site marker, with Dorcas using her new parking gestures again. It was not nearly as dramatic as our parking nightmare at Grant Village, but it was stressful all the same. About this time a 40' Tiffin arrives to park in A-10. Because we are there, he must pull forward and do a parallel parking maneuver to wiggle around a tree at the front end of his site. When he's finished there is barely enough room to walk between our two coaches. Whoever designed the site layouts at Grant Village and Bay Bridge should be fed to the bears.

Bridge Bay had no cellular service, but we did have open sky for the solar array. Unfortunately, it was overcast for most of our stay here. We spent the next few days exploring the northern Lake region, Hayden Valley and the Canyon region.

This guy was in our site just a few seconds before

Lake Hotel

Lake Hotel dining room.  A bit rich for us.

Bison in Hayden Valley

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone.  I say eddy right then go for it!

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Black bear munching the clover

What do you see?  Is it a bear?

Evidence of the fires of 1988

 

Yellowstone Rules

I don't mean “Yellowstone Rules” like “Yellowstone Rocks!” (although it does), but "Yellowstone Rules", like Yellowstone Regulations". Yellowstone National Park, as do all other national parks, has a number of rules that visitors must follow. Most are designed to protect the visitor from park hazards, or to protect the wildlife and natural features from park visitors. Most rules are pretty sensible. Like, stay on the boardwalks in the geyser basins, don't feed the bears, stay 75' from bison, and don't spit on the ground squirrels. But the list of rules is far from complete. Therefore I have produced my own addendum to the Yellowstone National Park Rules.

Myron's Rules for Enjoying Yellowstone National Park

1.  Expect the idiot driving the other vehicle to do something idiotic. When he does, blow the horn and make a rude gesture.

2.  When you are driving and see wildlife along the road side and want to stop, GET OFF THE FRIGGIN' ROAD! When you observe a violation of this rule, blow the horn and make a rude gesture.

3.  Bison are not afraid of highways or automobiles, for good reason. Honda vs. bison, the bison wins.

4.  When you see a bear, take 300 photos. Even that will not be enough.

5.  When you see 300 bison, take one photo. That will be more than enough.

6.  Don't try to take a picture of every single geyser, pool, hot spring and fumarole (Dorcas!)

7.  Don't try to remember the names and characteristics of every single geyser, pool, hot spring and fumarole (Myron!)

8.  Don't buy groceries in the park: $3.99 for a bag of marshmallows! You gotta be kidding!

9.  Don't buy fuel in the park: $4.099 for gasoline? YIKES! $4.399 for diesel? DOUBLE YIKES!

10.  When you step out from the camper in the morning, watch your step. Bison are everywhere and leave a foul reminder of their passing.

11.  Every visitor should at least try to communicate using English. It will endear you to the natives. You are, after all, in the United States of America.

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

Heaven! Grand Teton National Park.

I had forgotten just how much I love the Tetons. It's probably been over 10 years since we have been there. That was back in our working days when we would fly into Jackson for a week long backpacking trip in the Tetons or the Wind River Range. We would explore the Tetons while we were there, but we didn't really have time to relax and enjoy ourselves or to fully explore the park. This time was different. We had nine nights to stay and play in the Tetons until our reservation in Yellowstone.

 


We were on the road early and left Dubois about 8:00 am with our bellies full of breakfast skillet from the Cowboy Cafe We wanted to get to the Grand Teton National Park and Gros Ventre Campground as early as possible. Gros Ventre CG does not take reservations, and this was the week of the Fourth of July. We wanted to make sure we secured a good camp site. Not to fear. We arrived about 9:30 and were assigned a site on “The Thoroughfare”, the road that connects all the camping loops. It was a nice sunny site. We prefer open sun when we are dry camping; solar panels seem to work better there. We initially signed up for 4 nights, but re-upped later for 5 more. Harry was parked in a nice site directly across the road. We had excellent views of Blacktail Butte and the Teton crest ridge beyond.

Mt. Moran and Oxbow Bend on the Snake River

The Tetons got their name from the French fur traders who came through the area. They came upon the magnificent peaks and called them “Le Trois Tetons” meaning “The Three Breasts”. I guess they had been away from civilization too long, and were missing the ladies. They are however the most impressive mountains I have ever seen.

When you just gotta go!

We pretty much did it all. We did three moderate day hikes. The first was to the top of Blacktail Butte, the most prominent hump near our camp. Just after we put on the trail a herd of bison came through between us and the car. They paid us no nevermind and continued on into the valley near our campground. The hike was about 5.5 miles, and we climbed about 1100 feet. At the peak we observed some storm clouds headed our way, so we beat it on down the mountain. Even so we enjoyed some lightening and a short hail storm about half way down.

 














Another hike we did was to Phelps Lake and into the mouth of Death Canyon. This day we hiked about 6.5 miles and climbed about 500 feet. We hiked up to an overlook of Phelps Lake and then a little further until we could glimpse into the mouth of Death Canyon. The hardest part of this hike was finding a parking spot at the trail head. It is apparently a very popular destination.

Phelps Lake overlook

Death Canyon

Shy moose

Our third major hike was around Jenny Lake. This was a 9.5 mile loop hike. The trail was pretty flat except for a 500 foot climb to Hidden Falls and Inspiration point.  Dorcas saw a black bear on the trail.

Hidden Falls

Marmot

Mule Deer

Harry has a Jeep Wrangler that he tows behind his Tiffin Breeze motor coach. One day he said he was going “four-wheeling” and asked if I wanted to go. I said sure; I'm always up for an adventure. We went across the Snake River and about 20 miles along the River Road, which basically runs along a plateau overlooking the Snake River on the west side. I guess I had never been “four-wheeling” before, but I now surmise the objective is to break the spine of your passenger.

Four-wheelin'

 


We made several excursions into Jackson. We attended their 4^th of July parade and the fireworks display. The parade was fantastic. Folks in the parade were throwing out trinkets, such as candy and beads, to the crowds. Our favorite trinkets were whole ears of corn chucked out from the float sponsored by the local farmers market. We snagged six ears, enough for two meals, and cooked them on the grill. YUM! We ate lunch one day at the Snake River Brewing Company and enjoyed a pitcher of their brew. Harry bought a growler and we worked on that later that evening.

 


 

This guy brought up the rear, as Santa does during Christmas parades back home.

 







Finally, we did a paddle on the Snake River. I've always wanted to paddle on the Snake, but have never been here with a boat before. Harry carries a kayak, but Dorcas was not terribly interested in going so Harry paddled in the bow of our canoe while Dorcas ran shuttle. We put in just below the Jackson Lake dam and paddled about 15 miles to Deadman's Bar landing. It was a very easy paddle and the current was ripping; much of the time we were going 6-7 mph. We had great views of the Teton peaks from the water. We finished so early I was tempted to paddle the next section from Deadman's Bar to Moose landing. However, that section is fairly braided, and there are multiple channels, sometimes with very swift water, flowing into log jams. The literature strongly suggested not going unless you knew the river. Several rafts had put on just before us, and I knew we could follow them down through the proper channels, but I could not get takers. Maybe another day.

Pronghorn on the Snake River

One aspect of traveling for many months at a time is that sooner or later you have to collect your mail. Our friend Ann at home picks up the mail at our house then sends it to us when we are parked in one spot long enough. This usually happens once every 3-4 weeks or so. We have very good luck using “General Delivery” at local post offices.  Generally the smaller the post office the better. Well this time I think we went too far to the extreme. We had Ann send our mail to the post office in Kelly WY, which is a small community (one store and a post office) just a few miles from camp. We figured it would be a great choice. How could they lose our mail in a post office that consists of a 10' x 12' log cabin? What we hadn't anticipated was their limited operating hours, 10:00 to noon.  And it seemed to take them 1 ½ hours to sort the days incoming mail. That left us a window of just about ½ hour to pick up our mail. Not a long time when you want to be out playing in the park. After about 3 attempts we did finally collect our mail.

Our camp at Gros Ventre

Life is still good!

Dubois WY

After 3 nights we left Hart Ranch and headed west across Wyoming (once again!!!) with our ultimate destination being Jackson WY and Grand Teton National Park. The obvious route would have been north back through Rapid City and west on I-90 into Wyoming, but we had already been that route twice this month, so we chose a more southerly cross-country route. We passed through Custer SD and traversed the southern portion of the Black Hills National Forest and the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands before entering east central Wyoming. We eventually got on I-25, before landing in Casper WY for the night. We parked at the Super Walmart, which was also within walking distance to Sam's Club, and filled our larder with groceries.

East central Wyoming is kinda flat and straight

The city of Casper was named after Fort Caspar and Lt. Caspar Collins. Note the different spellings. A typographical error was made when the name of the town was registered, and it was never corrected. Casper is nick-named the “Oil City” because it is a regional center for oil production. At least one oil refinery has been operating in Casper since 1895. In fact, we filled up both the coach and the car with some of the cheapest fuel we had seen in some time: $3.199 for unleaded and $3.719 for diesel.

The next morning we continued across central Wyoming, through the Wind River Indian Reservation and stopped for the night at the Longhorn Ranch RV Resort, on the banks of the Wind River in Dubois WY. There we met our friend Harry, who we have been traveling with since Rally #2.

During the Sturgis rally sometimes bikers have to stay a bit out of town

Dubois (rhymes with “ two voice”) is a favorite stop. We rolled into Dubois the first time about 15 years ago while backpacking in the Wind River Range and discovered the Cowboy Cafe. Since then we go back anytime we are in the area and eat the skillet breakfast at the Cowboy Cafe. It's legendary.

Dubois was originally named “Never Sweat” due to the low humidity and warm breezes, but the Postal Service rejected that name as inappropriate. They settled on Dubois, but rejected the french pronunciation for a more Americanized version. Butch Cassidy owned and managed a ranch on the outskirts of Dubois in 1890. He was a frequent customer at Welty's General Store which is still in operation.

Harry's first Cowboy Cafe skillet

World Famous Cowboy Cafe breakfast skillet