7.04.2012 Yellowstone National Park

Today is the shortest moving day of the trip.  40 miles from Colter Bay in Grant Teton to Grant Village in Yellowstone.  Since we supposedly couldn’t check in until 11 a.m. we had some time to burn.

rvsue had mentioned on her blog that she used bounce dryer sheets and a bowl of water to clean the bugs off of the front of her trailer.  The front of our trailer was a mess so I had to give it a try.  Great tip!  The sheets have just enough texture to them to take the bugs off pretty easily and a paper towel to dry it left the trailer looking much better.  You can see in the picture the before (left side of picture) and after.

We had a reservation at Grant Village which assures you’ll have a place but not a specific place.  Once again we ended up on the “wrong” side of the drive, but there were enough empty sites this morning that we were able to leverage sites on each side of the road and were just barely able to do a u-turn to get our door facing the table, etc.

We headed out to Old Faithful, hoping that we'd see animals - no such luck.  We’ll be here until Sunday morning.

7.03.2012 Last Day in GTNP

After enjoying a nice breakfast, we decided to go out for a walk.  (A walk is differentiated from a hike by the shoes we decided to wear.)  We wandered by the Jackson Lake Marina first where crowds were lined up to rent canoes, kayaks, and 10 hp motor boats. I noticed the crowds on the dock first, but the lines were even worse inside where people were lined up to fill out the paperwork. While I was noticing the people, BJ was noticing the sign!

We walked out to Heron Pond where we didn’t see any heron, but we did meet up with group of people on horseback on the way.  We stepped off to the side of the trail to wait for one of the wranglers to finish their speech and then move past us.  As one of the wranglers was getting back on her horse, it had other ideas, and took off for the barn, dumping her in the process.

After a few minutes of milling around where it was evident the other wranglers had things under control, we skirted the group and continued on to our destination.  When we returned we understood why the horse group stopped where it did – a nice view of Mt. Moran through the trees.

Near the end of the walk, we caught up to the wrangler and a couple park personnel who were helping her walk out with her ankle wrapped in ice.

Part of the afternoon was spend at the shower / laundromat where they had a reasonable wi-fi connection, raising (unreasonable) hopes for a similar service in Yellowstone.

7.01.2012 Grand Teton National Park

We hit the road earlier than normal today to the sound of hammered dulcimer and fiddle hymns from a CD I picked up in the Great Smokies.  The destination was Grand Teton where reservations aren’t available except in their $65 full hookup RV sites.  With that in mind, we wanted to get in reasonably early but didn’t push.  From Green River, Wyoming north to Boulder we traveled rolling hills with petroleum activity on one side, and occasional signs of the Big Sandy river on the other side.  After Pinedale we followed the Hoback river to the west.

We arrived at the Colter Bay Campground check-in in Grand Teton NP at 1 p.m. where we were assigned a site based on our size.  Looks like most of the sites are parallel parking style with a handful of pull-throughs that give an extra 5 or 6 feet from the road.  Roads in the campground are one way, and our site is on the wrong side of the road so the door opens towards the road.  I wanted to do a u-turn but didn’t have enough space.  At $10.25 per night with the "pretty card" (as the gal at check-in called it!) we can’t complain.  Our loop is a “no generator” loop and the quiet is nice!

We spotted lots of antelope (but no deer) playing on the way here, and have seen bison, antelope, and grizzly as we drove through the park as well as a buck in velvet just across the road from our trailer. 

Getting a permit for the canoe was interesting.  I knew from research that they should be $10 for 7 days and usable in both Grand Teton and Yellowstone.  We inquired at the visitor center at Colter Bay where we were told we would also need a $15 Wyoming permit for invasive species – something that hadn’t been mentioned anywhere.  Since we were driving to Jenny Lake, I inquired again at the visitor center where it was $10 for the permit and I needed to sign a free document to put on the dashboard of the truck stating that I certified the boat was free of invasive species.  Given the amount of time it’s been hanging in the garage, that wasn’t a difficult thing to do!

Driving Around in Circles

Google Maps

A pretty big circle, it seems.  Google says it's 3550 miles from where we are to where we're going and back again.  As to where we're going, that's influenced by all sorts of things.  We're going to do the route counter-clockwise so that it works out with our niece's wedding which is in some ways the biggest (but not the initial) influence.  If all goes well, it will be the first time in years that Mom and all my siblings have been in the same place at the same time.

I'm looking forward to meeting the parents of the groom.  Ellen & Pat recently moved to Ellensburg, Washington and are in the midst of fixing up an old farmhouse and the farm that goes with it. Ellen writes a wonderful blog about her transition from "city girl to country girl ... and God's great sense of humor..." Highly recommended!

Before we get there, we hope to enjoy the mountain vistas in Grand Teton and the wonders and wildlife in Yellowstone.  We'll pick up our grandson and spend a few days in Glacier and a day in Idaho before the wedding, followed by visits to Mom's place, BJ's hiking friend's place in Oregon, and ghost towns in California.

Twenty-four nights with the longest travel days being just over 300 miles.  It's a mixture of boondocking, National and State parks, Forest Service campgrounds, and commercial RV resorts.  We're looking forward to power for the air conditioner at the lower elevations.  Some of the places are going to be much more crowded than I'd like, but that's what you get when you visit popular National Parks in peak season.  Because of the schedule, we're leveraging reservations as much as possible.

We'll be moving faster than I'd like, but we need to save a week of vacation for our almost annual Green River float trip in late September.

We're all hooked up and ready to go, other than a shorter than normal day at the office tomorrow before we head out of town.  We'll try to do updates regularly assuming we can find wi-fi.