Day 5 – Madison Campsite, Yellowstone to Colter Bay Village, Grand Teton National Park

Day 5 – Madison Campsite, Yellowstone to Colter Bay Village, Grand Teton National Park

Well, today was a low point on the trip so far. Perhaps we were all tired. Perhaps it was sleeping at over 8000 feet in lower than 40 F temperatures, but we were all grumpy today. And, our RV started to show its age. Alle and I slept in, which seemed great until the boys started melting down once we woke up. Ted peed into our bed in the back of the RV. We crunched the bracket for the RV's awning, pulling into the sewer and water station once we set-off. We stopped to see the Fountain Paint Pots, which “blopped and spitted”.

The geysers and craters were very interesting, but both boys got overheated in their long pants, fell walking on the boardwalk paths, and we were all on edge about navigating our RV in crowded parking lots. Peter melted down about having to put on shorts, although he was hot from the walk and we set-off again. Both boys eventually napped and their spirits lifted a bit. The rest of us ate salt water taffy.

We left Yellowstone at the South Entrance and continued to the Grand Teton National Park, which is almost contiguous to Yellowstone. On the way, we saw two pairs of mother elk with baby elks in a Yellowstone meadow.

 The views around Jackson Lake were spectacular. We all had ice cream cones to celebrate, except for Ted who was still sleeping. Alle, Peter and I slid down a sandy slope to stick our toes in the water of the lake.  It was not much further to our campsite for the next two nights, Colver Bay Village. Here we have a full hook up with electrical and sewer, which is a first, but we can’t make a fire and the spaces are narrow slots.  We also have an energetic family of volleyball-playing neighbors.

 

Our RV has been well used prior to our rental. Today, we put duct tape on the bottom of the screen door so that its base frame would stop falling out whenever we opened it. We put a bungee cord on the broken awning bracket. When I pulled out the pot drawer to make dinner, the entire front wood face pulled off. The drawer track has been fixed before and I have to carefully pull it in and out so that the drawer doesn’t drop off its track. Luckily, our toilet works, the water pumping and electrical items seem to work, and the engine and brakes seem ok mechanically. All of the “mod cons” seem to be running out of steam. I just hope they hold together for another two weeks.

Tomorrow we will explore the Grand Teton National Park.  Photos to come.

Day 4 - Bridge Bay Campsite to Madison Campsite, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Day 4: Bridge Bay Campsite to Madison Campsite, Yellowstone National Park, WY

July 30, 2013

I have lost track of what day of the week it is, so we must be on holiday! Today we got up late and got our breakfast together. As I and the boys were getting breakfast, Alle and Ricardo went outside to pack up our tent. The boys and Ricardo were going to sleep in it last night before it started raining. It had collapsed in the night. As they finished and we were getting ready to eat, another thunderstorm started. To our surprise, it was hailing! We had hail hitting the RV and all around our campsite it formed a white layer. What fun! The boys wanted to try eating it. Luckily, we had all of our stuff inside by then.  Our neighbors were not as lucky as they ran around throwing stuff into their pop-up in a mad dash to get it collapsed. I felt sorry for the folks in tents.

Luckily, the sky cleared and most of the rest of the day was sunny and clear. We drove past Yellowstone Lake

to the geyser areas and had lunch at the Old Faithful Inn while we waited for the next eruption. We all preferred the stark beauty of the Grand Prism Spring a bit further down the road, which we visited later in the afternoon. By then, another storm was brewing and the whole area was brooding and fantastic. The colors and the warm steam were beautiful and surprising. Alle announced it was her favorite place so far.

We made our way to the Madison campsite and got setup earlier than our previous nights. The Yellowstone campsites have been fabulous so far; filled with trees, more space, and fire pits. We grilled pork chops over the fire and had fresh beans and zucchini from Blue Gate Farms in Iowa. It was fun to have fresh Iowa produce in the middle of Yellowstone Park. While munching strawberries for dessert, I decided to try grilling some bananas which were getting brown. We ate grilled bananas with butter and honey. They were a bit like Bananas Flambé without any alcohol. Hopefully they won’t attract any bears in the night. We bought the boys souvenir “bear bells” just in case. Everyone is very tired tonight and as I write this, all family members are fast asleep. Tomorrow we head south to the Grand Teton National Park and some time in Jackson, WY.

 

Day 3 - Thermopolis, Wyoming to Bridge Bay Campgroup, East Yellowstone Park

Day 3: Thermopolis, Wyoming to Bridge Bay Campgroup, East Yellowstone Park

July 29, 2013

Last night at around 12M, an enormous camper van pulled by an equally enormous pick-up decided to try to fit into the very small RV camper site next door to us. It was never clear whether they were authorized and paying visitors, but they attempted to pull into a too-small spot three times, shining their lights into everyone’s campsites and shouting instructions to each other. It was some of the rudest camping etiquette ever. Unfortunately, it was the night Ricardo had decided to try out our small tent, so he was attempting to sleep next to the racket. Ricardo tried to talk to the driver of the rig the next morning, but he looked to be about 102. We packed up and left as early as we could.

Today was a big driving day. We started in Thermopolis, WY. We made our way to the hot springs near town. The Hot Spring State Park was nearly empty, so we were able to drive around, see the sites and try a few of the hot springs. The park was formed around the hot springs to be a free resource for Indians and “white men” alike, but it had very little signage. Here are two of the only signs we saw.

 

We drove around and only saw a few buffalo before we found the springs. The water was coming out of the earth into craters at a temperature of around 130 F. It was too hot to dip more than a toe into.

At the entrance of the park, there was a free soaking pool and so we all enjoyed the hot tub like water there.  Peter announced that it was his favorite spot.

From Thermopolis, we drove to Cody, WY and onto the eastern entrance to Yellowstone. The views were dramatic and beautiful. The driving was slower in the park and it took us most of the day to get here and to our campsite. All of the campsite signs in Yellowstone read “Full”, so we have been glad we made reservations in March and April!  We loved the Bridge Bay campsite. We had time to set up camp, make a lovely fire, and grill ribs for dinner. I forgot we didn’t have an oven, so I grilled our cornbread in a skillet over the fire, also. We had brought Adel sweet corn from home, so we had a wonderful dinner before it started pouring with rain.  Just as we were finishing our s’mores and lots of marshmallows (for Alle), a thunderstorm started and we all made it inside. It rained all night and was our coldest night so far.  I think it was around 40. We used ALL of the blankets and sleeping bags we brought.

We look forward to a few days in the park, without as much driving as it took to get to Yellowstone.

Day 2: Nebraska to Thermopolis, WY

Day 2: Lake McConaughy, Nebraska to Thermopolis, Wyoming via US-25 and US-20

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Today, after an early breakfast in our RV, we left the interstate behind and took quieter, smaller highways through western Nebraska, into Wyoming, and north to Thermopolis. As Alle said, she didn’t set foot outside our RV the whole time we were parked at the RV Lodge at Lake McConaughy. It was not an inspiring location. Once on the road, the boys were most taken with the long and frequent coal carrying freight trains we saw. Along the US highway 26 heading out of Nebraska, we followed a number of old trails: The Pony Express and the Oregon and Mormon Trails. It was also the track of the Union Pacific Railroad carrying coal to help provide the two coasts’ need for power. We saw a 150 car coal train heading east about every 10 minutes in the early part of our journey.

Western Nebraska and Eastern Wyoming were barren, rocky, stark, mostly flat and harsh. We didn’t see much other traffic or signs of life. We rode past farms of some corn, some sugar beet and cattle. The land is big and open and looks best for ranching and grazing herds.

I mostly kept the boys entertained, which on day 2 of our long driving days was not as easy to do. We played games, drew some pictures, attempted naps (I did; the boys did not) and ate snacks. In the end, we all watched the movie Cars for the last two hours of the ride, while Ricardo drove. The boys have not seen that or any full length movie before, so it was novel. Peter’s bump is better today and both boys continue to be excited about our trip.

Our last hour of driving was the most interesting. We passed through the Windy River Canyon in Wyoming starting near Shoshoni on our way north to Thermopolis. It is a very deep canyon, carved by the Windy River, exposing layers of stone about 500 million years old. We are visiting Thermopolis to see and hopefully feel the largest natural hot springs in the world. The park here has at least five, which we hope to see and perhaps dip into tomorrow, before we make our way to our first National Park on this trip, Yellowstone.

 

Day 1: Leaving Iowa for Lake McConaughy, NE

Day 1: Des Moines, Iowa to Lake McConaughy, Nebraska via North Platte

Saturday, July 27, 2013

We are off! Day 1. When the RV arrived yesterday afternoon, it was clear that no one has really cleaned it in a while… We spent our first few hours with it washing the insides and spraying disinfectant. With boys dragging their blankets around and going barefoot, we wanted them to at least not catch anything. We finished packing the RV last night around 1 am and there was more clean-up and last minute items to organize inside until about 2 am. When Peter was the first one up at 6 am, it made for a short sleep! Luckily, there was not much work to do this morning other than for Ricardo, who still needed to pack; we were able to leave by 9:30 am. We managed to back out of our driveway without scraping anything and we were on our way.

Sunny, clear, breezy and about 80 F, the weather was perfect. We drove on I-80 west in Iowa, passing the windmills, Lake Anita and Council Bluffs.  The boys were kept entertained by the novelty of riding in an RV and by drawing many pictures of RVs. We identified every interesting truck on the road and Alle started to track license plates. We stopped for a corned beef hash style brunch at a Sapp Bros. Café outside of Omaha, NE and visited the largest railroad train “classification and connection” yard in the world in North Platte, NE on our way to Lake McConaughy, Nebraska.

Our only mishap so far is that Peter crashed while running on the concrete near the railway yard on our way back to our camper. We were focused on his knees when I noticed a huge goose-egg bump on his forehead. Ricardo ran off to get ice (which almost required an “incident report” from the gift shop) and I tried to hold frozen pasta from our little freezer on board, to help the swelling bump. Peter is a trooper and after about 30 minutes of icing and some kids’ Tylenol, he announced it didn’t hurt anymore although it is still a very large bruised bump.

Our other surprise came when we arrived at our camping area near the North Lake Lodge after about eight hours of driving. This is our once in a trip opportunity- hopefully - to experience a very crowded area of trailers and campers filled with rowdy families. Our site was filled with the overflow from a large beer drinking family in the three sites next to ours. Hmmm, we are planning to leave early tomorrow for Thermopolis, Wyoming. We are hoping the camping areas get better from here!

Day 0: Packing up

Day 0: Packing up

 

One Mission. Three weeks. Five people.  

We are surrounded by packing lists and packing piles… This is our first blog entry for our three week venture to try to see most of the National Parks between Iowa and Sun Valley, Idaho. We set off tomorrow. The boys are playing happily and the rest of us are frantically packing a small household worth of stuff to fit into an even smaller RV. I hope to upload a photo of our rental RV when it arrives.