Yellowstone National Park – TooBusyForWork

Antelope Island views then north

I forgot to post any pictures from Antelope Island, so here you go! The bison herd on Antelope Island is famous. The bulls were looking pretty beat up since mating season was just finishing.

And no set of pictures for Antelope Island is complete without a gorgeous sunset view. The sunset was just orange/red from the smoke haze. Beautiful, but it makes it tough to breathe.

We did get to Island Park, ID and found a great boondocking site on Sunday, 21 July. We stayed there through Thursday night. We obviously took some RZR rides, but we also enjoyed meeting some friends who were work camping in the area, one in West Yellowstone and one at Henry’s Lake State Park. We discovered the osprey nest on a dead end trail we took by accident. Nice accident! There were two young birds. When I snapped this picture (from a long way away!), one adult bird had just flown off to get more food for the hungry teens.

There was quite a bit of water, and we saw lots of lilies.

We also took one day into Yellowstone. We got into the park by 7:00 am. It was cool enough some of the animals like these elk were still close to the road. The other advantage of early, cool mornings is the steam rising from the thermal features is much more visible.

These three elk were just as we got into the park

We saw a number of the primary animals – bison, bald eagle, osprey, elk, deer, and a fat, happy black bear.

We spent Friday, 26 July, at the Y Knot Winery campground, Glenn’s Ferry, ID. It was still smoky, something that had been increasing since the last couple of days at Island Park. The next day was a killer. We had reservations in Burns, OR, but the AQI was over 600! A lot of eastern Oregon seems to be on fire, and there was a big one just outside Burns. The haze was thick, and the air smelled of smoke. We just kept going until we got to Bend, OR where we stopped at an Elks Lodge again. The drive was mostly 2 lane roads with lots of curves. I was tired when we got set up!

The next day wasn’t any better, but we wanted to keep heading west to get out of the smoke. We drove from Bend to Springfield, OR, just outside Eugene, OR. I had a UPS delivery sent there, and I needed to pick it up before our chapter rally. The road from 5 miles south of Sisters pretty much all the way to Springfield was the slowest I have driven the motorhome. It was only 120 miles, but it took over 4 hours. The traffic was very heavy, there was lots of construction, and the mountain roads very winding. Ugh. We hadn’t started until 10:30, because we thought it wouldn’t take long. I was awfully tired when we finally got to the Elks Lodge where we stopped for the night. We have definitely gotten a lot out of our Elk’s Lodge membership! It is nice to have a safe spot to pull into while traveling. Many are dry camping for $5-$10 which is just fine for us. Some have electricity which is nice on hot days, and those are $20-$30 a night, still worthwhile.

I was so tired of the bad air quality, so we headed for the coast instead of staying in Springfield a few days like we had intended. We are currently at the Elk’s Lodge campground in Florence, OR 1 mile off Hwy 101. Beautiful place for $35 a night with electricity and water. We could only get 2 nights here, but they also have dry camping where we hope to spend the next nights before our FMCA rally in Coos Bay. I intend on hitting the local fabric shop for some more fat quarters and interfacing for class samples. I am teaching a class on collapsable fabric storage containers, and it is easier to show students some of the steps than describe them. I have the kits cut for the students, but I will partially make some more as examples.

Now to clean up!

Cody, National Byways, and Yellowstone -good stuff!

We are in Cody at the Ponderosa Campground. The sites are tight, but that is to be expected in a town where the emphasis is on tourist activities away from the RV. Fun town, but too many people here on this holiday weekend for us. We are enjoying our time with the Diesel RV Club, but we had yesterday off to do sightseeing. We decided to drive the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, the Beartooth Scenic Byway, and take a detour into Yellowstone since we were nearby.

I am first going to show you some pictures of lovely tundra flowers since they were out in full bloom. These are found more abound 9,000-10,000’ this time of year. They are all incredibly small, the tallest poking their heads up 4”, but most 1-2”.

Around 8000’ the meadows were awash with larger flowers due to their milder conditions. White, shades of purple, pinks, yellows – a riot of color.

The meadows around 8000’ were awash with flowers

Oh, and the roads themselves? Marvelous as usual! I never get tired of the views.

Looking down on the Beartooth Scenic Byway

Near Dead Indian Summit on the Chief Joseph National Byway

The Yellowstone detour didn’t get us a lot. We did see only the second moose we have ever seen in the park itself only a few miles from the northeast gate. We have seen a number of moose outside the park, but they stay pretty hidden inside.

Only the second moose we have seen in Yellowstone NP proper

And of course we had a bison jam. It was a small group with a bunch of cows, yearlings, and a few calves.

Red dogs (aka bison calves) have a nickname that is descriptive

The bison slowed us down for about 20-25 minutes, and just as it cleared we were stopped by tow trucks removing three wrecked cars just a few miles down the road. That took 45 minutes, so we just took a bit more sightseeing and turned around. We finished our drive back to the campground from Red Lodge on the flat roads, and the entire trip took about 8 1/2 hours.

And yes I know this is terse, but the data service here is dreadful! I can’t get anything more than 1-3 mbps down and 0.5 mbps up even sitting right outside the campground store. Our phones and hot spot are only picking up LTE signal, and everything is painfully slow. Maybe we can find better service soon.

Beartooth Scenic Byway

On Thursday we decided to drive the Beartooth Highway. It was, as usual, incredible. This road from Cooke City to Red Lodge is considered the most scenic in the U.S. by many people. I think the only way to describe it is through the pictures.

That hole actually has a marmot living in it! See the dirt they threw out? It wasn’t there when we drove past it the first time

As I said, this is one of the most beautiful roads I have ever been on. We had lunch in Red Lodge, then drove back, so the pictures were from both up and down.

On Thursday we drove to the KOA in Butte. Nice enough spot for an overnight, but it had some road noise like many highway campgrounds. The site was nice and long though. We drove into Jim and Mary’s Campground in Missoula tonight, and it is a lovely place. Amazingly it is both lovely and quiet! Our site is long and level, and there are flowers everywhere.

I guess the picture isn’t very good since you can’t see the flowers growing in profusion by the picket fence panel.

We did get by a quilt store today to get some material for my next project, an appliqué of birch trees on a background of blue sky and stars. Oh, and I even got my new shingles shot when we went grocery shopping! Tomorrow will be sightseeing.

Yellowstone, Day 2

On Monday we moved from our fancy RV park to a private dry camping site about 10 miles north of Gardiner. It is called “Yellowstone Destinations.” I like it a lot better than the less expensive BLM and FS sites nearby. They are dreadfully crowded! This one is almost empty, and we look at the Yellowstone River through our big motorhome windshield – nice view. We have room to put out the grill and tables, plus there is a nice fire ring.

We decided to stay on the east side of the park today. We generally stay west and north, so this is a part we aren’t as familiar with. It was a nice change of pace. Obviously there were bison.

This guy owned the road. Vehicles were backed up a long way.

After all, when the bison decide it is time to get a drink, they just go to the valley and get one. Who cares about the silly tourists anyway?

The views were as expected – spectacular.

I love this (very zoomed) view of the Grand Tetons from the northeast side of Jackson Lake.

We also drove to the top of Mount Washington. It was too crowded to park, but I got these pictures of the surroundings.

We traveled along the Yellowstone for the most part.

The water is so clear in the Yellowstone.

We did stop by one thermal area. I know I can’t embed videos very well, but I will try this one.

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Today we took it easy. We went into Livingston and Bozeman to do some shopping. We also treated ourselves to lunch at Sweet Chili Asian Bistro in Bozeman. One of my sons lived in Bozeman for quite a few years, and this was one of our favorite places. The Basil Chicken lunch was lovely.

Tomorrow we get up early to drive through the Lamar Valley and then off to the Beartooth Highway.

Day 1 in Yellowstone

We spent last night in a Cabela’s in Billings, MT. It would have been fine if two truckers hadn’t started a f-word festival at 11:00 at night! There was some altercation about parking, but it finally resolved itself.

Today we arrived in Gardiner, MT. We had intended to stay at a riverside free campground, but it was crowded. We decided to stay at Rocky Mountain campground in town. Beautiful site overlooking the town and then into the park, but it was expensive. Oh well, it is Yellowstone in the summer, and we were actually lucky to get this site.

After we arrived we drove into the park of course. It is the birthday of the National Park Service, so entry was free and it was crowded! Mammoth Hot Springs was tremendous as usual.

However we did see quite a few animals. Bison by the hundreds were roaming around. This guy decided to go for a silhouette.

Elk were found in the Mammoth Springs area as usual.

This elk was found crossing the road just outside Gardiner. She was in no rush to cross the road to the rest of her band.

I also saw pronghorn but too far for a picture.

A serious incident took place as we were driving back to Gardiner from the Lamar Valley. As we came around a corner, we saw a big motorcycle down and people just pulling off the road to help. Turns out a bison had run across the road right in front of the rider, and he had to lay the cycle down to keep from hitting it! The rider said he was fine, spoke quite calmly, and was with friends, so we left after asking if there was anything we could do. Luckily someone was thinking clearly and went to the Roosevelt Ranger station and told them; there was no cell service. We saw two Ranger vehicles heading that way with lights and sirens, and I knew the guy would be in good hands. Pretty scary though.

We did eat in the Mammoth Dining Room. I love NPS dining facilities. They are almost always filled with locally sourced, innovative ingredients, and this was no exception. Not inexpensive, but worth it.

We have found a camping site for the next 3 or 4 nights. It is on the Yellowstone about 10 miles north of Gardiner. It is a private dry camping facility for $25 a night, but it will be quiet and fairly roomy so worth it, especially compared to the $71 we are spending tonight! I have my own water, good solar, and tanks quite capable of dealing with dry camping for a few days.