Yellowstone National Park

Firehole River on the way to Lone Star Geyser

Kepler Cascades

Well, we've completed our third trip to YNP and our second since retirement.  Our first trip in 2009 took us to West Yellowstone, MT while our second trip in 2011 took us to Gardiner, MT.  As you read last week, we went back to West Yellowstone just to check out the Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park.  The RV park lived up to its reputation as it was nice and provided plenty of overflow parking for those of us who couldn't fit our tow vehicles on our sites with our trailers.  Utilities were excellent and the restrooms kept clean even though the park had numerous vacationing families with tons of kids.  Only issue I had with the RV park was the challenge to find an overflow spot that didn't get your vehicle washed each night by the lawn sprinklers.

While there's plenty to do in West Yellowstone, you'll blow it if you don't visit the nat'l park.  Donna and I are beginning

Wild flowers along the Cascade Lake trail 

to believe the west entrance along the Madison River is probably our most favorite route in and out of the park.  And we're beginning to lean toward the south route past the Old Faithful area to Yellowstone Lake as our most favorite route inside the park.

We continue to try to accomplish hikes that we haven't walked in the past.  This year we got to Lone Star Geyser, but just missed the eruption.  Our second hike was our first every  

Cascade Lake

hike in true bear habitat as we walked to Cascade Lake.

On our third day out in the park, and despite my best efforts to outrun the only thunderstorm within a couple of hundred miles of West Yellowstone, we got to see YNP's Grand Canyon area and the drive along the Yellowstone River to Yellowstone Lake under dramatic thunder and lightning effects.  It made for a scenic trip to our intended destination - Storm Point trail.  In 2011 this trail was closed due to grizzly activity. This year the trail was just too muddy.  Yes, that may make me a wimp but remember: I'm retired & I don't have to do mud.

A young elk gets lunch.  

On the upside of our rainy drive: the area along the Yellowstone River above Fishing Bridge was the bison hangout.  So that made the rainy drive very enjoyable.  And I got to wash the truck (second time in two days) when we got back.

Anyway, our backup hike was to go to West Thumb Basin and walk the circuit trail to the West Thumb Basin Overlook.  In my opinion this was our prettiest walk of this visit.  It didn't hurt that we almost physically ran into elk, which for me got pretty tense for a few moments when one of the elk began making a high pitched call which I was concerned was announcing us as intruders.  Turns out it was a young elk that was hungry.  The small herd meandered off the trail and the young elk had lunch while we just stood there in amazement.  Then we got the views of Duck & Yellowstone lakes.  The panorama, bottom, is our attempt to give you a feel for the view.  Unfortunately, pictures just don't do it justice.  It's a hike we'll do again.

Since I'm able to see the statistics that indicate some search engines will send people to this blog when I type in popular names such as "West Yellowstone, MT", let me end with a few comments on the town of West Yellowstone.  First and foremost it's a resort town and should be treated as such.  Second, Montana DOT apparently continues to believe that people want a rustic trip to YNP.  This year they decided to throw dirt on a nicely pave road (US 191) and then put water on it (and I'm sure that's due to a EPA requirement to cut down on dust.)  Your guessed it, a muddy, paved road.  And to add to everyone's experience, the route between Tower and Canyon was under construction (and legitimately so) so that you traveled on a dirt road while in that area.  Almost every vehicle & RV that arrived at the campground while we were there had mud on it.

Furthermore, Verizon Wireless indicates West Yellowstone is a 3G area and both our MiFi 5510L and our Google Android Version 4.0.4 smartphone indicated 3G with easy 3-4 bar signal strength, but it really didn't exist.  Phone calls are fine, but don't plan on data transfer being available while you're here.  We found periods that allowed us to send emails, update this blog, and post pictures to Facebook.  But the times were inconsistent and unpredictable.  From our arrival on July 24th until we left, the MiFi refused to transfer data while we were in West Yellowstone.

Lastly, let me suggest you bring an iPhone when you come to West Yellowstone. The Verizon Wireless signal in West Yellowstone apparently activated every bug in Google's Android Version 4.0.4 software on our smartphone.  (The generic name "smartphone" is the industry's name for it.  I, however, have a more "appropriate" name for it that's inappropriate for a family blog.) The phone, while doing a great job as a hotspot where the MiFi 5510L failed, was constantly in screenshot mode (meaning we took a lot of pictures of the phones's screen by forgetting & hitting the "Home" button or the volume bar while in West Yellowstone.)  And pushing (or pushing & hold) on the on/off button became a game worthy of the one-armed bandits in a casino.  It would work just often enough to keep you trying, but pushing that button never produced consistent results.  At one point we removed the battery just to turn the phone off.  The next day we took several pictures on the smartphone, but couldn't find the photos in order to copy them over to our laptop.  After an hour's search we found them.  It seems the hard reset we did by removing the battery the previous day now has the pictures being saved to an old folder left over from the previous Android Version 3.0+ software that came on the phone and renaming those new pictures beginning with IMAG_0001.  And, by-the-way, we're now in Billings, MT and the Android smartphone & the MiFi are working great.  And we're no longer in screen shot mode on the phone.  However, my new nickname for the "smartphone" has stuck.

Anyway, that's it for this week. We're headed east to Michigan.   David

Yellowstone Lake as seen from the West Thumb Basin Overlook

West Yellowstone, MT

The decorations of West Yellowstone, MT

We've arrived at West Yellowstone, MT (got here yesterday) and unlike last time, all the hydraulics on our trailer worked.  When we were here in 2009 we were visiting with friends and acquaintances of the NUWA Owners forum.  This time we're stalling for time awaiting for the masses to travel on to Sturgis, SD for bike week.  Once they arrive at Sturgis, we'll move on east past Sturgis.

We took the scenic route (as if there's a non-scenic route to Yellowstone) from I-90 via Hwy 2 to Hwy 287 to Hwy 191 to West Yellowstone.  This route followed the Madison River and is well worth your consideration if you're coming from the west.  

Whether you're broken down or not, West Yellowstone is a great place to visit.  Today was "truck service" day.  Bozeman Ford always treats us well, so we take it there.  We got back late afternoon from Bozeman, and later in the evening we took a walk about town 

and did some shopping.  Painted buffaloes were the popular item the last time we were here.  This time it's painted (or pictures?) trash and recycle cans.

This trip we're staying at the Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park so that we can walk to most things in town.  It reminds us a little bit of Fort Wilderness at Disney World.  It's big rig friendly and priced as a prime location.  And while Montana doesn't have a sales tax, I found it interesting that 10% of our bill was due to various West Yellowstone Resort Taxes.  And it appears it's added to everything sold in West Yellowstone (though not always 10%.)  Diesel is $0.26/gal cheaper in Bozeman.  If you come this way, plan accordingly.

Tomorrow we plan to test the crowds and venture into Yellowstone NP.  Donna's pick her trails to hike, and I've yet to visit the Park Ranger Museum.  So if we're lucky, maybe we can check a couple of those off our 

"to-do" list tomorrow.  And there's still things in town we'd like to visit (Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center for example).

So that's it from us.  Until next week, David

Priest Lake, ID

Priest Lake as seen from Hill's Resort

Another update from us.  We're currently near Priest Lake, Idaho visiting Donna's cousin and his family. Still a gorgeous area up here. This is a no cell phone signal area, so most of our time is spent visiting and site seeing.  I know - that's a little old fashioned!  We're having a great time & continue to eat too much.   Other than missing Donna's aunt Dorothy, we've managed to see everyone and they all look fine & healthy (as far as I can tell).

The trailer is parked at the Nordman Store in Nordman, ID.  Other than a little dusty, it's a great spot for a big rig if you can't get into to the campground at the Inn at Priest Lake near Coolin, ID.  Most people would go to Coolin, but we're closer to family at Nordman.  We're parked this year where we can get satellite TV, so we stay a little more entertained when at the trailer.  Good 50 amp power with a somewhat low water pressure.  Last year we boosted water pressure using the freshwater tank & water pump for some tasks, but this year we're OK.  It may be that there's fewer people in the campground this week than was here last year.

We'll be here through the weekend.  If all goes well, we'll be in West Yellowstone, MT next week.  At least that's the plan - until it changes.  Later, David

Spokane, Washington

Just a quick check-in as we're in traveling mode & headed east.  We're currently set up at Fairchild AFB as we visit Donna's cousins and Uncle & Aunt near here.  Plus we hit a lucky streak as Ila (one of Donna's co-workers back in Virginia) & her husband were able to make it to Spokane yesterday while on their way west along I-90.  So we got in a good afternoon visit with them, too.  We've managed to go out to eat dinner for three nights in a row (one night with a view of the falls at Spokane) plus got a guided tour of the Columbia River up toward the Canadian border today.  Beautiful country in this area.  I can see why people move here to live.

If all goes well, we move on up to Priest Lake, Idaho Sunday to continue visiting cousins in this area.  As always, that's the plan - until it changes.  Later David

Happy 4th!

Castle Rock (tree covered mound to the right)

Looking downstream of the Cowlitz River

Happy 4th of July!  We're spending the week at Castle Rock, WA.  Why?  Seemed popular in the "Big Rigs Best Bets" RV park directory back when we got to seriously planning our move up the west coast.  Plus it was close to Mount St Helens which I wanted to see.

It's actually turned out to be a good place to sit for the holiday weekend.  Toutle River RV Resort isn't overly crowded.

Mount St Helens as seen from the Johnston Ridge Observatory

It's about an hour to Mount St Helens, about two hours to the coast at Long Beach, WA, and about 20 minutes to most services and shopping.   The town of Castle Rock is small, but quaint & clean. There's a nice 1.7 mile bike & walk trail along the levy by the Cowlitz River.

The devastation from the 1980 Mount St Helens eruption is still evident.  While the streams that flow through

Weyerhaeuser's forest Learning Center

the Weyerhaeuser tree orchards appear clear, most rivers are grey in color and under a clear blue sky, appear green. It's easy to pick out Weyerhaeuser treed areas vs. the national monument areas.  Weyerhaeuser = trees; national monument = brush & volcanic ash, etc.  And it doesn't hurt that Weyerhaeuser plants pretty trees, either.

For the hot days, the coast was cooler so we headed out to Long Beach to walk part of its bike & walk trail, eat at the Lost Roo (again), and drove along the peninsula there.  We also visited Osterville where they try to maintain everything as it was in the late 1800s.

Otherwise, we've hung out at Castle Rock while taking advantage of the local movie theaters to see some of the new movies and eat some good food.  If all goes well, we'll begin our trip east Monday.  We expect to be in Spokane Tuesday before moving up to Priest Lake, ID the following week.  Later, David