Monthly Archives: July 2018

Yellowstone

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We left our spot by the lake to meet the Chen’s for the beginning of our adventures.  They had actually driven right by our spot a day earlier but we had coordinated our first night near West Yellowstone.  As we were traveling to the meetup we stopped for lunch in Island Park ID and found out they were about 12 miles south of us.  From there we drove to our first spot, Lonesomehurst campground.  It was a very nice USFS campground with only about 1-2 miles of gravel to get to it after a paved road.  It was nice and cool and the forecast called for rain the next few days.  We decided to hit Yellowstone the next day.

The forecast was for rain most of the day but we headed out anyway.  Since there was no one vehicle that could handle 9 people and 1 dog, we took both vehicles.  We had heard that Yellowstone was very busy, very likely due to the time of the season we were there so we had a plan.  However, when we got to the gate and didn’t see a line waiting, and due to the inclement weather we changed the plan and headed for Old Faithful:

By the time we were at Old Faithful, it was POURING rain!  We couldn’t really get out to see anything so we drove the loop road.  We stopped for some lunch at Lake Lodge since we could not picnic anywhere and we were able to dry out a bit.  The rain had not let up for about 2 hours.

After lunch, we continued our drive and the weather cleared quite a bit where it was more time without rain that with.  We saw a lot of animals, we stopped at Yellowstone falls and even saw a bear with cub along the road on the way back, throwing in a coyote for good measure!

Day 2 we had to do some laundry so the Chen’s did their own thing.  We were able to head back into the park in the afternoon.  Since it was the middle of June and we were so far north, it didn’t get dark until 10 pm so we had a lot of time.

We went on a few different roads and stops as the first day.  This time we saw falls, hot pools, hot pots, other geothermal events and a mother dear with her baby.  We think the latter may have been only hours old.

The weather on the second day was wonderful.  But it was time to move on to the next destination.

Roxie’s choice

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Time to leave SLC for our meetup.  It was also time for Roxie to find and reserve some spots for us.  One of the issues when full timing, especially in the summer, is finding camping spots on short notice.  I gave her some tips, like using Allstays, Campendium, RVParkReviews, and maps.  She did very good with all of them except the maps.  Roxie does not like maps as much as I do.  I usually use the map to figure out how far we want to go and then figure out where to stay.  She found two locations, one was a state park and the other a county park.  The latter was close to Idaho Falls where we had some business to attend to.

Our first stop, for 2 nights, was at Massacre Rocks State Park.  I vaguely remember seeing the park last year as we drove by it.  We found a spot in their campground that had water and electric and reserved it.  When we got to a park, a fire had just started across the Snake River.  We determined that our site was level enough to use and changed to another.  By this time smoke was filling the air:

The fire kept burning, more up the river as that is the way the wind was blowing.  There was a cabin across the river and in the way of fire but on the slow fire line:

Here is our spot and what the fire looked like at night:

The next day the fire had burned quite a bit more, we will discuss that later.  We took a drive to Register Rock where many travelers inscribed their names on this specific rock.  There was also some artwork that one person created:

The people in Idaho that were managing the fire across the Snake River from the campsite really dropped the ball.  The aforementioned historical cabin was not protected in any way and succumbed to the very slow moving fire:

It would have only taken 2-3 firefighters to stop that advancing fireline.  The bulk of it was grass and it was burning into a very strong wind. It is disappointing to see the lack of concern for historical items.

We moved on to our next destination.  This site was the Jefferson County Lake Campground in Rigby ID.  It wasn’t too far from our current spot or from Idaho Falls.  Here was the view from our trailer:

On our way to the lake, we stopped at the Potato Museum in Blackfoot ID.  It was very interesting, we ate a couple of baked potatoes, and saw the world’s largest potato crisp:

We spent some time in Idaho Falls to shop, pick up packages and, most importantly, find a location to store our handgun.  We knew we were heading to Canada and they don’t particularly care for handguns, let alone Americans bringing in handguns!  We found a wonderful place to take care of our guns, Guns n Gear.  They were very helpful and reasonable in their fee.

We also did a small purchase in Idaho Falls.  We got a couple of kayaks.  We have been looking at them for a while but were waiting for the right time.  It was right:

Alas, we were unable to try them out at the lake right next to us as it was so windy.  I am sure we will find opportunities soon!

We had finally worked out our meeting time with the Chen’s.  It was the day we were leaving so we were right on schedule.