Yellowstone National Park and beyond (21st May to 5th June)

Yellowstone National Park and beyond (21st May to 5th June)

On Thursday, May 21^st we spent a nice day in Idaho Falls. Our plan for a bike tour through the city was interfered by a little incident. Robert took the bikes off (we have them on a bike holder on a ladder in the rear of the camper). He then realized that the paddle on his bike was bent. What had happened? We had a closer look at the ladder and the ladder was bended as well? After a while we remembered that Robert had “touched” a Light pole in Reno a couple of days before… Even though we did not see a damage on the pole … seems that the pole was stronger then the ladder and our bikes. So he spent the afternoon trying to fix the paddle and in the end he jumped on my bike and got a spare paddle in town. At least we enjoyed a relaxing Hot tub in the evening …. to compensate for the troubles that day.

Idaho Falls:

On Friday, May 22^nd we took off looking for a spot during the Memorial Day weekend. We were recommended a spot on the Caribou Targhee Forest http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/ctnf/recreation/recarea/?recid=54401&actid=50 , near Indian Creek for dispersed camping along the creek. But it was supposed to fill up quick. We arrived there around noon, and there were already some Campers out there. We went for a hike up the canyon, until we reached the Montana border … this is where the trail ended or had no clear route where to go… seemed that we had to cross the creek but due to the heavy rainfall the previous days we could not cross the creek. We enjoyed a nice big campfire but it had a quick end when it started to rain (if not to say pour) again around 8pm

Indian Creek:

On Saturday May 23^rd we decided to go to the next town as the weather did not improve and the road into the creek was pretty soaked already from all the rain. I will not even mention how our Rig looked like when we got off the dirt road. So we spent 2 days in Victor, ID at a nice campground http://www.tetonvalleycampground.com/ We had laundry done, played some ping pong, and went for happy hour to the local brewery/pizza restaurant ( 4 slices pizza and 4 tasty beers for 20 bucks ).

On Monday, May 25^th we continued our trip north towards Yellowstone, and spend a nice day at a campground at a 18 hole golf course. http://www.passport-america.com/campgrounds/CampgroundDetails.aspx?campgroundid=3287. It was really nice and the weather improved so we finally could spend some time outside….

Teton Valley:

On Tuesday, May 26^th we visited the Mesa Falls, some impressive waterfalls in Ashton, ID. We had a nice hike to see the lower falls and it was warm (including mosquito!!) Afterwards we continued to our dispersed campsite just 20 miles out of the Yellowstone entrance. It was a flat area in the woods where we could see lots of boondockers. http://freecampsites.net/#!2916&query=sitedetails but of course it started to rain again and it was cold and windy which we will experience every day for the next week.

Mesa Falls:

On Wednesday, May 27^th we got up early to enter Yellowstone National Park. Finally we made it and from now on we are going south. Did I mention it’s cold, windy and rainy here J. We made our way to the famous Geyser, Old Faithful. We came to find out that there are much more Geysers, even bigger and more spectacular, but less predictable. Instead of a 1 hour walk along the geysers we spent 5 hours checking out the geysers. We have to say it is somehow addictive. We met a lot of people while waiting the geysers to go off who came only to see the geysers go off.  One old lady comes here with her husband and they stay at the lodge close by, only looking at geysers for 1 week. Even though in her late 80s (we estimated) she had all the apps on the cell phone with the latest updates when which geysers goes off, what was the interval in the last days, which height and length it had erupted. That is addiction! The waiting was worthwhile to see the Grand Geyser go off https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRxraznQvv8 . We saw 3 big geysers erupt, Grand geyser, Beehive geyser, and 3 times Old Faithful. Afterwards it started to rain and we cut the other trails short just having a quick rainy walk through the Biscuit Basin and Midway geyser area. Once we checked in on our campground in Madison we thought we would spend the night again in the camper while raining outside. But after dinner all of the sudden it stopped raining and we decided to go for a walk around the campground. We were surprised that we found a nice river walk, the sun came out and we had a pure wildlife watch right in front of us. Buffalo feeding, elk with their cubs, a really nice atmosphere. So we went back to the camper to get our camera and a drink and enjoyed this beautiful atmosphere for the rest of the evening.

The Geysers area at Yellowstone NP:

On Thursday, May 28^th we got up while it was pouring rain on our camper... We really got a bit depressed and Robert started to get a cold. We had no reservation for the next night at Mammoth Spring, but on the way there we stopped at Norris Geyser basin to see some more thermal formations. We took a walk but we really got soaked with water within 20 minute walk. So we decided to head to make sure we get a space on the campground.  We had to wait 30 minutes as the geyser activities had damaged the road north towards Mammoth Springs and our truck got soaked in dirt again. I don’t think it’s worth washing it for the next days. We checked in at http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisimammothhscg.htm around 1.30pm and the sun came out after a while, but not for long. We went for a hike down to the river. Just as we got back it started to rain again, so we had dinner inside. We met some interesting camping neighbors, a German couple, a Canadian interior decoration consultant, who just decided to move back from New York to a cabin in backcountry British Columbia, and a retired guy from Montana who comes to Yellowstone every year, even though he had some health issues.

Norris and Mammoth Springs:                                                                                                                                   

On Friday, May 29^th Robert woke up sick so doing some extensive hikes were out of the question. We decided to take it easy and do a Wild life watching tour around Tower area and Llamar valley. In Yellowstone people just stop their car (some just in the middle of the street) wherever they see some wildlife. That creates real traffic jams along the way especially if a bear decides to hang around. That’s why they tell you to plan plenty of time for the trip. They stop whenever they see Buffalo, Elk, Bears, Eagles, etc. Some of them do nothing else then watching animals. Usually bears and birds are so far away from the road that you need binoculars to really see them. Often we had to stop and ask people what they are looking at because we could not see anything. In comparison to our small binoculars people bring cameras with huge telescope zoom lens and telescopes to watch stars using for bear watching….that’s probably why a lot of people were smiling/laughing at us and offered to have a look through their equipment to see the animals. We believe they have a competition who has the longest telescope J At least this way we got to see a Grizzly bear, black bears with their cubs, etc. Buffalo and Elk you see everywhere, they cross the roads in front of you or are just hanging out eating.  It was the first day it got sunny and we enjoyed an ice-cream watching the Tower Falls. Afterwards we drove to our campground at the Canyon area, where Robert could have a nap to recuperate from his cold http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/canyoncg.htm. The evening was nice and we shared the campfire with a nice young couple who had moved from Florida to Idaho. Something if you had asked us about 3 months ago we would shake our heads in disbelieve, but we have experienced Idaho as a really relaxed state with much more to offer than Idaho potatoes, with a variety of landscape… just a bit too cold for us in winter. I mean these people put on their bathing suites when the temperatures reach 10 degrees Celsius.

Llamar valley and Tower-Roosevelt area:

On Saturday, May 30^th we continued our trip exploring the Canyon area with its spectacular views and waterfalls. Robert still felt bad so instead of a longer hike we did the sightseeing tour. Maybe it was the weather which got colder again, or the masses of tourists (mainly Asian) who were everywhere taking pictures. It was nice but we couldn’t enjoy it as we wanted to. We had some stops along the way and checked in early at our campground hoping to have there a nice sunny afternoon http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/bridgebaycg.htm. After Robert had his siesta (still with the cold) we got a nice fire going … just when we put the potatoes and sausages on the fire it started to pour again….. Seems that Yellowstone did not like us and the same clouds were following us since we got to Nevada 3 weeks ago.

Yellowstone Canyon:

On Sunday, May 31^st we got up early to see the Yellowstone Lake area. The weather was nice for ones but the mosquitos at the Yellowstone Lake Lodge were a pain. We enjoyed strolling around the lake and the Geysers at the West thumb area. We walked up a hill and had a beautiful view of the lake and the snowed Rocky Mountains in the back. You could really feel summer coming and the sun was warming us up (including the plants and animals). We continued our trip out Yellowstone on the South side towards Great Teton National Park. We had a nice walk along the Jackson lake, watched people enjoying the weekend with their toys (boats, water skis, kayak, etc) and decided to spend a night there. We found a nice spot close to the Jackson lake in Signal Mountain campground   http://www.signalmountainlodge.com/signal-mountain-camping and had a nice sunset at the lake. Later we made a fire and heard people singing so we walked over there to see who they were. They were young people, volunteers who did the religious services in the National Parks on Sundays (thing we did not know that they do that there) who gathered together on Sunday to see how things were going during the week. We joined them to sing some songs, well Steffi was singing and I was just moving my lips, and pray saying thank you for everything we had seen. It was a really special moment!!

Lake Yellowstone, West Thumb and Lake Jackson:

On Monday, June 01^st we went to the next lake in the scenic Jenny Lake park. You really feel like in the Alps the area. We took a boat to cross the Jenny lake where we hiked to the Cascade Canyon and Inspiration Point. The weather started with clear sky and warm 70F (24C) as we walked up to the canyon. The trail along the creek was closed but once we had walked up we had beautiful views into the valley and nice cascades along the canyon. After our hike we drove to Jackson, a famous ski resort and Western movie town, got some groceries and continued our way to a spot we had found on internet where you could camp along a creek and they had hot springs (run by the National Forest) Granite Creek Hot Springs http://freecampsites.net/#!840&query=sitedetails. The road up there was a 10 mile dirt road and from all the rain in the last month it was a real dirt road.  The hot springs were a big pool, in the middle of nowhere which was built by the Corps of Engineers about 100 years ago. There was a young guy who lived there and was the cashier, mantainance guy all in one and we had the pool for our own. Later a young woman came and we had a nice talk about living in Wyoming… and lifestyles. She is a Marine biologist and lives in a camper in Jackson where she was born… now deciding what she wants to do with her live, like working abroad in winter and enjoying Wyoming in summer. Once again we had a thunderstorm just ahead of us and we had to wait a while outside the water before we could enjoy it a bit longer the nice warm soak. After a while we looked for a spot to spend the night along the creek. It ended as a nice evening with Mountain glooming / Alpengluehen and rainbow and a beautiful full moon. It was still cold and it was time to head south.

Lake Jackson/ Jenny Lake/ Cascade Canyon/ Granite creek:

On Tuesday, June 02^nd we had to use 4WD to leave that mud hole and continued our trip southeast to the Flaming Gorge National Recreation area http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/ashley/specialplaces/?cid=stelprdb5212203. We were really impressed by the size of the lake! After dumping and filling up water and groceries we found a nice place to camp just in front of a marine and overlooking a bay of the lake near Buckboard crossing on the eastside of the lake. Finally we reached decent temperatures again and enjoyed a nice evening outside.

On Wednesday, June 03^rd we continued our trip around the Lake and it was amazing to see the canyon in the south! A real gem for a vacation if you like hiking, biking, or any kind of water activity and not as crowed as the other national parks!! After driving up and down the mountains, being amazed about the beauty of the this place we found another dispersed campground next to the lake with lots of mosquitos and a beautiful view.

Flaming Gorges National Recreation area:  

On Thursday, June 04^th it was time for the big jump to Moab, UT. About 280 Miles of mountain roads and small towns. We stoped in a small town to have lunch and fill up on propane. It was unusually cheap but when I wanted to lift the tank back in the compartment the wind put the door in the way and I hit it which resulted in a damaged door that could not be closed… Bummer…. So I had to unload the tools and fix it temporarily. The drive took us all day long but the scenic drive was worth it until….. we decided we had enough Diesel to reach Green River. Well, the computer said we had enough for 135 miles and the distance remaining was 70 miles, but no gas station until we reach Green River….. now, let me tell you something about Trucks that carry a Camper. Fuel consumption is a matter of circumstance, in our case uphill and head wind so after about 30 miles I realized that all bets are off and we are running short on Diesel. On top of that we were on a one lane highway so decreasing our speed to conserve fuel was not an option if we don’t want to get shoot by following RV’s J.  I put the truck in haul mode and hoped to get 8 miles/gallon. We sweated for the next 40 mile and made it to the gas station with 2 gallons left in the tank. We were so happy that we didn’t even care about the fuel charge J. We continued for another 60 mile to Moab were we are going  to spend 3 days on a campground to recover, fix the camper and plan which parks in Utah we are going to visit before going to Las Vegas from where we fly to Europe for the summer. By the way, in Utah if you don’t go to a Liquor store you can only get beer with 3% Alcohol ……. Not very tasty J