Day 125 Thursday September 1, 2022 Time to move on down the road so we pulled out at 7:30AM and headed to Bearmouth RV Park in Clinton Montana 346 miles away. This is a little more than we normally drive per day but we should be on mostly good roads today and the RV Park we wanted to stay at didn't have a site for us and there is not much to choose from in this area.
Just as we were leaving the park I noticed the GPS was locked up AGAIN. So I had to pull off the road and do a reset on it to get it working. We climbed up a mountain for about 17 miles reaching an altitude of 5,575 feet before cresting and heading down the other side of about 17 miles that we mostly coasted down with breaks of course. Our motorhome has what is called a two stage engine break which kicks in if I touch the breaks. This uses the engine and transmission to slow the motorhome down rather than using the wheel brakes which can get too hot it not used properly. But part the way up the mountain the GPS locked up AGAIN so I had to pull over and do another reset.
When we were coming up on Spokane Washington heading to Interstate 90, the GPS wanted me to stay left at a split in the highway. Well the signs on the right was showing I90 South to the right side of the split so I went right. This time the GPS was correct and I was wrong but it has lead us wrong about three times on this trip at locations like this so I was thinking it was doing it again. So we had to travel through 8 miles of city streets to get on I90 EAST. All even numbered Interstate roads have EAST and WEST directions and all odd numbered Interstates have North and South directions. So I will blame the people that put that sign up for my wrong turn. That my excuse and I am sticking to it.
We drove out of Washington, across Idaho and into Montana before stopping for fuel in Missoula Montana where we got the least expensive fuel on this trip. ONLY $4.64 a gallon. I say that only because in December 2020 I paid $2.399 a gallon. And we have paid over $6 a gallon on this trip but fuel is always higher in Canada and Alaska and that is where a lot of the oil comes from, go figure.
We saw lots of nice ranches today, several wheat fields that had been harvested, some fields with acres of sunflowers and of course we are surrounded by beautiful views of mountains. We passed through Wallace Montana again. We traveled West on I90 on our trip through this area so we are backtracking on the same Interstate for a few hundred miles. We got to the RV Park about 4:30PM and set up in site 48. We are normally off the road by 3PM but with the mountain climb this morning, the GPS issues, the wrong turn and the extra miles we were later than normal getting setup but we got here safe so that is what counts. The park is right on the banks of Clark Fork River which must be a long river since we have crossed over it several times today.
I talked to our neighbor to our left and discovered he is originally from South Carolina but has been working as a traveling nurse for 7 years. He lives in a 5th wheel RV and has been working in Missoula for a month and a half.
It is hotter here than any place we have been since late June. Lower 90's in the afternoon but about 50 at 7AM.
Day 126 Friday September 2, 2022 We got a breakfast of sausage and gravy biscuit with scramble eggs and cantaloupe from a food wagon that is here on the grounds of the park. There is also a Java Wagon so Lena got a Latte. Not sure how they make enough to stay in operation here in this remote area. The RV Park has probably 30RVs in it and there are not many people living in this area. The nearest town is 16 miles away and it is a tiny little town. It would be a long drive for almost anybody to get food/coffee here except people in the RV Park.
After eating we drove South on the Drummond Frontage road and turned off onto a small road that was supposed to take us to Garnet Ghost Town. A Gold Mining town that at one time had a 1,000 residents but when the mines closed down the town dried up. The town was 10 miles down this road. The first few miles was a narrow paved road, then it became even more narrow gravel road and then it became really narrow deeply rutted gravel road. It got so bad at 8 miles we turned around at a curve where the road was going up a really steep hill and the road didn't appear to be getting any better. We didn't need any damage to the Jeep or blow a tire when we were a long way for civilization. After getting back to the Drummond Frontage road we drove to the really small town of Drummond. It had one fuel station, two saloon/cafes' and one Grill that boasts of having 133 different type of hamburgers meals. And two churches. The one grocery store was closed down so the nearest town for groceries is about 60 miles away.
I checked on the alternate route to the Garnet Ghost Town and it would have been a trip of over 280 miles round trip so we returned to the RV Park for the day. The lady in the camper in front of us came over and chatted for awhile and told us about her mishaps with her new camper. She said she normally boondocks (camps with no hookups) but decided to come here and learn how to use the hookups, well she made a few mistakes but who hasn't with a new RV. She wanted to see our motorhome so Lena gave her a tour.
Day 127 Saturday September 3, 2022 About all we did today was I washed the bugs off the windshield, read, took a walk around the RV Park and relax.
Day 128 Sunday September 4, 2022 Well Happy Birthday to my Wife, Friend, Partner, Co-pilot and Windshield Photographer.
We had a fairly easy 247 mile drive to West Yellowstone Montana, a small town just outside the West entrance to Yellowstone National Park. We had mostly good roads, about half was on I90 and then the rest was pretty good two lane roads through beautiful country in a valley between two mountain ranges off in a distance. Everywhere we looked there were ranches that looked like thousands of acres each of mostly hay fields, cow and horses. Don't know where all the hay goes because we didn't see that many cows and horses to eat all the hay they were harvesting.
A river ran along highway 287 where lots of people were fly fishing. We saw a few fly fishing lodges along the river. I guess fishermen stay in the lodges and then guides take them out on the river fishing. We also passed a huge lake name Lake Hebgen. It had a dam on it and the overflow water was feeding the river.
West Yellowstone is a fairly small tourist town. We checked into Grizzly RV Park and set up in site 264 about 12:30PM. This is the most expensive RV Park we have ever stayed at but the others in town did not have good reviews and their prices weren't that much cheaper. After riding by some of them I am glad we booked this place even with the additional cost.
Grizzly RV Park is a big park and have paved streets, a concrete patio big enough for a picnic table and room to set our chairs on. This is the first RV Park we have been in since early June that has paved streets.
After we set up and got showers we drove the short distance into town where the restaurants are for a birthday meal to celebrate the birthday girl's birthday. The lady that checked us in suggested a restaurant but when I checked it didn't open until 5PM and we were ready to eat now so we chose Bullwinkles Restaurant.
Lena got BBQ ribs and roasted chicken and I got Elk Ravioli and huckleberry lemonade, then we had huckleberry cheesecake and huckleberry ice cream for desert. The ravioli was the best I have ever had.
We noticed on the 2015 Alaska trip and on this trip through Montana that they use huckleberries in a lot of food items so I asked Amber (our waitress) did a lot of huckleberries grow in Montana and she said they did and now was picking time. The other waitress was from Maysville NC.
Then we stopped at a car wash where I sprayed some the road dust off the Jeep. Maybe we will not be on many more gravel roads.
Day 129 Monday September 5, 2022 We got up early and made a quick stop at MCDonald's for breakfast and was in Yellowstone NP by 7:15AM. Our friends, Gregg and Judi, that lived in Colorado for many years and had visited Yellowstone many times. They suggested we get to the park early and we would avoid some of the crowds. We hoped that by coming this late that there would be fewer crowds. Gregg had also marked up a park map and wrote a two page itinerary for our first three days that would save us time and also get to see the most important parts of the park. Gregg was a Park Superintendent in Colorado. We also bought a small paperback book written by a Yellowstone Park Interpretive Ranger that give good details about the must see things in the park.
We went to see Old Faithful Geyser first. Oh by the way it was 40 degrees when we got up this morning but will be in the 80's by mid afternoon. Our little book suggested we take the boardwalk behind the Geyser for a better view when it erupts. It got it's name because it erupts about ever 90 minutes so it is “faithful”. The other geysers in the park aren't that predictable. We had just got behind the geyser when it erupted with steam and water shooting up about 150' or so.
We continued to walk down the wood walkways to other smaller geysers and steam ponds. Many were putting off steam and very hot bubbling water with high sulfur smell. Signs are all over the place warning you to stay on the boardwalks because the water is boiling hot, the surface is thin and the water and ground is acidic. People have not headed the warnings and have died or got seriously burned. The boardwalks in this area do not have any railings, just a flat wooden boardwalk about 5' wide.
Then we went to the Yellowstone Inn and discovered there would be a tour in a few minutes. There was a huge four sided stone fireplace. The tour guide said she had worked in the park for over 30 years. The Inn was built beginning in 1903 and was ready for guest the following year. All the logs and support braces were harvested just a few miles from the building. Most of the trees in the park are Lodge Pole Pine and that is what they used. The rocks for the massive fireplace also came from the park and the total weight is 500,000 pounds. Each one of the four fireplaces are massive. I believe a full grown hog could be BBQ'd in any one of them. The guide told us the architect was a 29 year old man that had never had formal schooling in design. He started working as an apprentice at the age of 13. The man responsible for having the Inn built had seen some of his designs and liked his work. The 50 carpenters on the job nickname him ”The Kid”.
She took us to the second floor to see one of the 300+ rooms that are for rent. This room was much smaller than any hotel/motel room we have ever seen. It had a double bed, some hooks to hang clothes on and a sink. The bathroom was a shared bathroom with others on the floor and it was down the hall. The room cost $225 per night. I can only imagine what the cost of the rooms are that have three queen size beds and a private bath. The Inn is open only 5 months of the year. Usually the first of May to first of October. It takes
the maintenance crew a month to prepare the Inn for Winter. All the first floor windows have to be boarded up to protect them from the approximately 50” inches of snow. All the water lines are cleared of water. The building is totally shutdown. No electrical items or heat is left on in the Winter.
The book we have stated that when the 1988 forest fire that burned about a third of the park was blazing the firemen literally stood with their backs to the building and kept the fire away. The centerline of the roof is 75' from the lobby floor and the lobby is open all the way to the roof. Someone has to climb inside stairs twice a day to the roof and put up and take down flags.
Some of the geysers in this area were a 3 mile round round trip hike so we passed on them. We had already walked about 3 miles so we left the Old Faithful area and stopped at the Black Sand Geyser area and walked the boardwalks there and viewed the different colored surfaces of the geysers. We had planned to stop at several other places that we passed this morning headed to Old Faithful but the parking lots were full and people were parking on the shoulders of the road. As stated most of the boardwalks don't have railing and are only about 5' wide so with the crowd of people on them it would be easy to get bumped off and that could be very bad.
We did see one bison this morning a long distance out in a field. We decided to return to West Yellowstone and get some takeout Mexican food and return to the motorhome and plan our day for tomorrow.
Day 130 Tuesday September 6, 2022 Again we got up early, had breakfast and was heading through the park gate by 7AM. Our National Parks Seniors Pass (Old Farts Pass) gets us in free otherwise it would cost $35 for a 7 day pass.
Today we headed to a different area of the park, Mammoth Hot Springs, which is about 5 miles from the North Gate at Gardiner Montana. Several weeks ago the road between Gardiner and Mammoth Hot Springs was partially destroyed by heavy rains and flooding. So that entrance and the East entrance is closed for the same reasons. Going to take some serious road repair to fix them. Mammoth Hot Springs is the location of the park headquarters. And also Fort Yellowstone that was used when the park was first established. The Army had partial responsibility for the park for several years before it was totally turned over to the National Park Service.
On the way to Mammoth Hot Springs, we stopped at Gibbons Falls. While I was taking photos the people that parked beside us asked us if we were from North Carolina (they had seen our licenses plates). They were from Apex and the lady's sister is married to Dr. Pate from Beulaville NC. Small world.
We came up on a huge bull Bison just ambling down the left lane paying no attention to the traffic. I think he was the biggest one we have ever seen. There was a saying while we were on the Alaska Tour......Where does a bison walk?.....anywhere it wants to.
On the return trip we stopped to see Steamboat Geyser and the other steam pools/pots areas there. This is the strongest geyser in the Park but is very unpredictable. While we were there a ranger gave a talk on Steamboat Geyser and what actually a geyser is. In the parking lot were several signs to park at you own risk because when Steamboat Geyser erupts it's water plumb can be over 300' in the air and the water will damage the glass and paint on a car because of the acid in the water. Steamboat did not erupt at one point for 50 years but has been fairly active since 2018. The last eruption was in June 2022. The ranger said she had seen it erupt three times and when it erupts the ground shakes from the force of the eruption. It was “burping” today and releasing steam and water plumbs about 15-20' in the air. These geysers and steam pots and ponds are some of the most unusual sights we have ever seen.
Then we headed to Canyon Village to see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and also the biggest waterfall in the park. The Yellowstone River runs at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and is a long way from the parking lot and viewing areas. These kind of extremely deep drops gives us both a strange feeling in our stomach. I had to force myself to get close enough to the viewing edge to get some photos of the depth of the canyon and the river at the bottom. I get what I call the “Hebby-Jebbys”.
On the way back to West Yellowstone we saw one Elk grazing beside the road then we saw a lot of people in a parking lot with cameras pointing up the side of a mountain. We stopped and there was a bear about half way up munching on grass.
Day 131 Wednesday September 7, 2022 We were in the park again by just after 7AM. Today we plan to go to some of the places we missed Monday and complete the lower half of the figure 8 road loop inside the park that Gregg had suggested we do to see the highlights of the park. The first turn after getting into the park was Firehole Canyon Drive. This was a gorgeous drive through a pine forest with views down to the Firehole River and then a great photo op at Firehole Falls. A little past the falls there was a small parking area and stairs down to the river where there was a swimming area. It was 41 degrees this morning at 7AM and there were a man and women swimming in the river. BURR!!
Then the next stop was Fountain Flat Drive where we walked the boardwalk out to the geysers and steam pools. Just amazing sights.
Then onto Grand Prismatic Basin. By this time the tour buses were beginning to arrive. There were 4 in this parking lot. Lena passed up this boardwalk but I did the entire loop of about a mile. Again some amazing sights that are hard to describe. Our photos help but just can't capture all the nuisances.
We decided to stop again at the Yellowstone Inn for a coffee and see if Old Faithful was about to erupt. We got our coffee and walked out onto the second floor patio and just missed the eruption by a couple minutes or so. We enjoyed the views from the patio with our coffee and then decided to complete the lower part of the figure 8 road loop that we haven't done. There were several sections of the road that was torn up and the road crews were preparing it for repaving and it sure needed it.
We drove past Yellowstone Lake which is considered an Alpine Lake since it's elevation at the surface it 7,733 feet above sea level. It is a huge lake and to our surprise there is a boat dock where people can launch a boat and ride the lake.
We continued on around the loop and stopped at a picnic area to eat the snacks we had brought with us. Before we got to the picnic area we came up on several bison on the roadway, big bulls, large female bison and finally some young bison that are called Oranges due to their orange colored hair when they are young. Then for the next few miles we saw hundreds of bison out in the grass fields of Hayden Valley grazing. What an amazing sight.
We stopped to view the steam ponds, etc. at Sulphur Caldron. They named it right, the sulphur smell was the strongest of any place we have been here in the park. There was a cave that was steaming name Dragon Mouth Spring. It was also correctly name because there were growling sounds coming out of the cave along with the steam. Kind of spooky. The next stop was Mud Volcano. There was a low opening in the wall of the hill and slate colored was bubbling up out of the hole. Strange looking stuff.
This loop was about 140 miles around. The top half of the loop appears to be about the same number of miles.
We got back to the RV Park and picked up our package with our new GPS that we ordered to be delivered here. Now I need to learn how to use it.
No comments:
Post a Comment