Tetons & Yellowstone

  After spending the winter in storage, we took the RV in for a checkup before leaving on our long awaited trip to Wyoming, Idaho, Montana & Colorado. We also did some interior upgrades after our last trip. We realized how uncomfortable that U-shaped dinette was so Joe took it out & we replaced it with 2 comfortable recliners with foot stools & a side table with storage. We had MCD day/night shades installed plus exterior window awnings.

Finally the RV was ready for pick up on

May11th; we packed up & left the following morning. Our plan was to spend the night in Flagstaff at Fort Tuthill, but it was graduation time & they, along with every other RV park in the area, were booked full. We ended up staying at the local Walmart along with 50 plus other rigs (I have never seen so many RV's in a Walmart parking lot.) This is when we found out our generator wasn't working. We made an appointment in Pocatello, Idaho to have the generator checked out. We made it as far as Beaver, Utah before settling in for the night at Camperland RV Park - Wi-Fi was excellent! The following morning we drove through Salt Lake City and settled in at Pocatello, KOA, again, amazing Wi-Fi. Got up early to get the generator serviced; needed a new carburetor...Done. Good to go!

The Grand Tetons:

On our way to the Grand Teton National Park, "Garmina" (name for our GPS) took us through the winding, steep (10% grade) 2-lane road; up & down with sharp turns and no guard rails. OMG!In my mind, I thought that that pushing my feet against the floor and bracing my hands against the dashboard would somehow control the motorcoach & dingy. We made it in one piece to the Grand Teton campground. That night we slept like bears in hibernation. When we woke up it was snowing. I got dressed & took Tazzy for a long walk; she loves the snow.

 

  At noon the temperature was up to 28 degrees and we had about 5 inches of snow.

That afternoon, we did some exploring around the area & drove to Jackson, WY (a very touristy, but quaint town in the Jackson Hole Valley). There are 4 iconic Elk Antler Arches, one at each corner of the town square. Each arch contains about 2,000 antlers & weighs 10-12 thousand pounds.

The Teton Range is the youngest range in the Rocky Mountains. They were covered with snow, but you could still see how jagged the mountain tops are. While we were heading back to the park we saw some bison near the side of the road. I told Joe to stop the car and I jumped out with camera in hand,. As I was taking pictures, a Park Ranger pulled up and yelled to me "Ma'am! Ma'am! Get back in your car-Now! You are dangerously close to the bison! They will charge you! I immediately got back in the car & thought to myself, "What the heck was I thinking." Well, that was my problem, I obviously wasn't thinking. Lesson learned.

After two cold, but peaceful nights, we headed up to West Yellowstone. We pulled into Buffalo Run RV Park - A man came out of the office I told him our Garmin brought us to the wrong place; have you heard of Buffalo Crossing RV Park? He said to go about 30 miles north to Canyon Street, but I don't know if you turn right or left. I said "I'll put the address in my Garmin." He told us he doesn't use one of them. "My wife tells me when to turn right or left, slow down or watch out. I call her my "NAGigator".
Very funny!

Yellowstone National Park:

We found Buffalo Crossing RV Park. It is located, literally, just a few blocks from the west entrance to Yellowstone.

 Thought we would get an early start today, but traffic in the park was already horrendous and schools aren't even closed yet for the summer. There was a line of cars in front of us & behind us as far as the eye could see. We had no idea what was going on so I decided to do what some others were doing...walk to Gibbon's Waterfall, I took pictures and met up with Joe who was still moving at a snails pace. A Park Ranger with lights flashing drove past us; hope he can get traffic moving again. Finally we found out why it took us 2-1/2 hours to travel 2.4 miles, a herd of bison were crossing the road. Why? To get to the other side. LOL!

Now that things are moving along, we walked the boardwalks of Norris Geyser Basin, the oldest & hottest geothermal area in Yellowstone. The hottest recorded temperature is at Norris is 450 degrees. Grand Prismatic Hot Springs is the 3rd largest spring in the world featuring a rainbow of color. The deep blue spring is surrounded by rings of yellow &

orange.

The Chinese visitors take the prize for National Park selfies.  

Our second day at Yellowstone, we headed up to the Upper Geyser Basin area to view Old Faithful, stopping by Cascade River, Tower Falls & a few bubbling hot springs on the way.

                                                                                  

Old Faithful

Old Faithful is not the tallest geyser in the park, but it was the first to receive a name in 1870. It erupts every 45 minutes to an hour and a half for about 5 minutes. Its maximum height range is 90 to 184 feet. More than one million eruptions have been recorded.

We waited on the benches for at least 1-hour before the show began; our faces were wind and sun burned. Finally it started to tease us with a few small eruptions. About the 4th time the water shot up really high; we got sprayed with a fine mist...Ahh! Felt good, like a getting a facial. We stopped by the National Park Ranger Museum; it it's closed until Memorial Day. We chatted with a ranger about the amount of visitors in the park before the holiday weekend. He told us this is the busiest he has seen it at this time of year in the 19 years!  

 As we worked our way back to the west gate,
scout dog Tazzy spotted some wildlife.  we saw some deer, more bison, elk and a mama grisly bear & her cub.

                                                                                   

Later that evening we went to the IMAX Theatre and watched "The History of Yellowstone" Had to close my eyes at times so I wouldn't get dizzy from the sweeping motion. The ticket taker was Kathy from VDO's activity office. Small world! She and her husband are workampers for the summer. All & all it was a great adventure. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see everything - 4 roads were still closed due to snow.