The end of our journey

When we went through Yellowstone last week, the boys asked if we could come home through there again. They really enjoyed the geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and all the wildlife we saw on our quick tour of the park earlier in our trip. I enjoyed it too, and thought maybe the week after July 4th, it would be less crowded and we might also be able to find availability in a campground in Grand Teton National Park.

We drove back down the hill outside Gardiner on Wednesday morning and right into Yellowstone National Park. Since we had the motor home this time, I knew we would be able to leave Hanna in there with the AC running if necessary and that way we all could enjoy the visitor's centers and some of the boardwalk tours of the geyser basins. We stopped at Midway Geyser Basin (since we had toured Norris Basin the week before) and left Hanna in Minnie and took the boardwalk around the pools.

We journeyed on to Old Faithful and found a full parking lot again. I have a small rant here. I got really steamed because there are very few long spaces marked Buses or RV, and yet a lot of cars pull in and use them as end to end parking spaces. They could drive around or wait 15 minutes and find a single spot, but if I have to find a double car space, I might drive around all day and never find one. I lucked out in discovering a few open Bus/RV spots near the Ranger Station and pulled into one of them. By the time we came out an hour and a half later, cars had filled up the remaining available ones there, too. That's when I'd like to be a cop and have a ticket book. Rant over.

Anyway, we were there just 20 minutes before Old Faithful went off again, this time beating the estimated time. We watched in awe again, enjoying the cooler day than we had the previous week. We perused the Visitor's Education Center, and stopped in the Gift Shop so Steven could buy his mom a gift. Then we headed south toward Teton.

We pulled into Colter Bay Campground around 3:00 and were tickled to find they had plenty of availability. They assign spaces at the entrance based on your size and whether you want generator or non-generator loop. We selected non-generator. This spot was not as nice as the one I got last year, which was on the end of a loop, and quite private. This one was the first space off the main road, so we did get some road noise, but it was a pretty spot and the boys got to build their fire. (That was always a priority every night. They got really expert at roasting marshmallows and making delicious gooey S'mores.)

Thursday was a long driving day, with Pioneer Campground outside Fairfield, ID as our destination. It was just a half mile past a ski area, and we drove up there. The ski area was just a big dirt parking lot with a couple buildings (all closed for the season) and the ski lift. As we drove past, we noticed several trailers and motorhomes camped in the parking lot. I slowed down and asked a man standing near one if he knew if there was space in the campground up the road. He responded it was closed due to flooding. I asked if that was why so many were parked there at the ski area, and he said no, they were part of an archery club and had a meet this weekend. I said I thought we would pull in and camp there for the night and since we were leaving in the morning, probably wouldn't be in anyone's way. He said, help yourself. There's plenty of space! So we did just that. The biggest drawback was the boys couldn't make a fire on their last night camping, and we didn't have cell signal, but we entertained ourselves with games and DVDs and before we knew it, it was bedtime.

Our final journey to Boise was without incident and we pulled up in front of the Holsinger's house before noon. Steven's dog Lucy was a very happy girl to see her favorite boy. Nathan's flight took off for Phoenix the next day.

Photo by Robin

Photo by Brian

It was a wonderful journey! I thoroughly enjoyed having the boys and showing them such wonderful places in our big beautiful country. I think they were the perfect age to do this trip. They were extremely good travelers, and very good friends. They never fought once with each other. They were a big help to me ... most of the time. Toward the end, I did lose my patience one evening, and then they scrambled around cleaning up everything inside and out. 😁 I'll miss my traveling buddies, but I won't miss their stinky feet and other stinky things. 😉

I'm in Boise for a couple days recouping, and then will head north toward Glacier National Park and northern Idaho until the solar eclipse on August 21. By that time, I may be ready to turn my rig toward home.

Homeward Bound

We checked out of Echo Valley RV Campground on Monday morning and started making our way west toward Boise. I wanted to avoid the high mountain pass through eastern Wyoming we had come over earlier in the week (dropping my MPG to 5.6), so decided to take I-90 north through Billings and Livingston, where we would turn south to cut through Yellowstone again. But first, where to camp in between?

I used my Allstays app to again look for campgrounds about 275 miles from our starting point. It looked like there was a Forest Service campground near Ft. Smith, on a river. I turned at Lodge Grass toward the spot indicated on my app, and found a very bumpy road. After about 20 miles of that, I missed the turn for the campground, but fortunately it was a loop road and there was another one just a half mile down the road. We took that turn, and traveled over an even bumpier road down to the river and the campground. There were 3 trucks with boats there, but no campers and no real designated spaces. It was not very appealing, and Steven was getting nervous, so we beat a hasty retreat, and headed on up the road to Hardin. A storm rolled in during the last few miles, and we took refuge at a truck stop until it passed. As soon as it cleared, we drove on down the interstate to Billings, where we found a welcoming Cracker Barrel. We had dinner in the restaurant, and slept soundly in our little RV in the back lot next to a park full of grass and trees. It was quiet and lovely, and there were two other rigs there with us.

On Tuesday, we drove on to Livingston, turned south toward Gardiner, and then 2 miles NE to Eagle Creek Campground. It was a nice little campground, and by arriving early, we had our choice of about 8 open spots. They all filled by evening, so I was glad we had gotten there when we did.

The camp host came around to give us the "Bear Aware" speech, and also to tell us there was a buffalo who regularly wandered through the campground. She reminded us to give him space because he is a wild animal. Sure enough, by the time we finished our dinner, he was making his way into the campground. We watched him for quite a while, then he wandered up the road, and we went about our evening activities.

The next morning, while I was making breakfast, I looked out the screen door to find him eating our front yard. We stayed inside, and watched him from the safety of our rig, but another camper came over with his camera and tried to get a little too close. "Buford" lowered his head and charged the guy. The camper scrambled out of the way and back to his own space, and the buffalo went back to eating. Eventually, he wandered away and we got things packed up to move on south.

Jewel Cave

In researching the Black Hills area before my trip, one of the places I wanted to take the boys was to Wind Cave. I checked online and found they did several different tours, and they took reservations. It was still a bit far out from the schedule, so I decided to wait. Guess what? I waited too long and by the time I called for reservations, they were full with a waiting list. I checked Jewel Cave, and they do not do reservations, but rather sell tour tickets on the morning of on a first come first served basis. We decided to get up early and try to get to the site by 9:00 and try to get on one of the cave tours.

We arrived on Sunday just after 9:00 and were able to buy tickets for the 11:20 Scenic Tour. (Steven was voting for the Historic Lantern Tour, which was termed strenuous and included over 600 steep steps up and several crawl spaces, but I thought the Scenic tour with ~700 stair steps up and down, all standing upright, was better for this old gal.)

We perused the visitor's center, and had a nice protein and fruit snack before our tour time, then joined the Ranger for the descent into the cave. He explained that Jewel Cave is a water carved cave of mostly sedimentary limestone. It is currently the third longest cave in the world, and second longest in the US (after Mammoth Cave in KY). They believe it may join Wind Cave, but they haven't discovered that spot yet.

The boys got to help the Ranger demonstrate Boxwork, a layer process that makes up much of the cave formations.

We saw stalactites, draperies, popcorn, flowstone and many other formations. 

This one below is called cave bacon, and it did look just like a large slice of bacon running up the wall.

 

When we were done, we came back to our campsite, where I took a nap and the boys gathered wood for their evening fire and S'mores. We thought about driving up to Crazy Horse and watching the laser show, but since it didn't start until 10:00 p.m., we all decided to pass. Our last evening at Echo Valley was drawing to a close, and we would head west back toward Boise the next morning.

Badlands, Minutemen and Wall Drug

We had a full day on Saturday, putting 175 miles on the Fit. We started out from our campsite before 9:00 and headed toward Rapid City and I-90, which took us east to the Minutemen Missile National Historic Site. This was the thing Steven was most looking forward to after Mt. Rushmore, so we had to make it a priority. We spent about an hour at the Visitor's Center, and the boys even attended a movie called "The Greatest Weapon Ever Used". I slipped out early to attend to Hanna, who was waiting in the car.

This site tells about the nuclear ballistic missile system and its role in the Cold War. Most people didn't even know the missiles existed right along the highway. After we left the main site, we drove into the Badlands National Park.

We made a couple of stops at viewing overlooks and took short hikes to capture some awesome photos and listen to several rattlesnakes in the bushes, and then went on to the Visitor's Center. On the way, we were stopped by two bighorn sheep strolling down the shoulder of the road.

photo by Nathan

The Visitor's Center was not one of the most interesting NPS sites for any of us, and we felt like we had seen enough of what the landscape was going to look like, and we made the decision not to drive any farther through the park, but to turn around and go back to I-90, so Steven could visit two more missile sites. These photos were taken at the missile silo.

Steven is listening to the audio tour on his phone.

photo by Nathan 

On our way back toward Rapid City, we drove through Wall, SD. We had counted over 60 signs along the freeway for Wall Drug and decided to stop and see it. We read the story of the pharmacist and his wife who had started the store back in 1931, and by using signs along the road advertising "Free Ice Water", built their little drug store into a multi-million dollar business that now includes a small village of shops and attractions, but still offers Free Ice Water and a five cent cup of coffee. Plus they are dog friendly! Hanna enjoyed walking around the stores and got lots of attention from everyone. We had lunch and a treat before getting back on the road home.

photo by Nathan

photo by Nathan

As we neared our campground, we pulled into Crazy Horse entrance to see what the cost would be. We decided we might go up there on our final evening in the Black Hills and see the museum and laser show.

Mt. Rushmore!

We've been calling this our Mt. Rushmore RV trip, and we made it to our destination on Friday! It was as awesome as I remembered, and the boys were as impressed as I hoped they would be. 

photo by Steven

We spent time in the Visitor's Center, and watched a movie on the carving of the mountain, then took the trail to the viewing areas and the Sculptor's Studio.

Taken from inside a small crevasse near the trail, you can just see Washington's head.

This 1/12 size scale model was sculpted before work on the mountain began.
You can see the ranger in the foreground as a size comparison.
You will notice the original plan was to carve full busts of the 4 men,
but the sculptor Gutzon Borglum died before it was finished, and his son
Lincoln, wrapped up the project.

Sample Face Masks

We spent about half a day there, then went back to Minnie for lunch before we drove down to Custer State Park. They wanted $20 just to drive through, and we decided we had seen enough bison and deer (the main attraction) without paying to see more. There is also a museum, but instead, we went back to the town of Custer and walked around. There are lots of shops and also a great Visitor's Center run by the Chamber of Commerce. The docent there was extremely friendly and informative, and we picked up several brochures and suggestions from her.

There are model buffalo all up and down Main Street, each painted with a unique design.
This one had Bighorn sheep climbing on it.

Devil's Tower

I'm a little behind on my blog posts. We have been so busy and I've been so tired every evening, I haven't gotten around to it before falling into bed.

The day after our Yellowstone tour was a driving day. We traveled from the State Park just past Cody, WY over a steep pass from Ten Sleep to Buffalo. We crested a 9666' summit just before Minnie (and ME!) gave out. That was quite a haul, but she didn't complain, other than slowing down in several spots to around 35mph. But we still kept up with most of the big semi trucks and even passed a few. However, I will find another route home, because I don't want to put that much strain on the engine and brakes -- and that much gas into the tank - again. I am looking at a northern route that would mostly stick to interstates.

Anyway, that evening, we found a beautiful forest service campground just outside Sundance, WY. There were a couple pull through sites, but the back-in sites were much nicer, so I unhitched the Fit and we slid into a really nice space. The boys are getting quite adept at helping me level, set up and also break camp in the mornings. (I forgot to take a picture of this campground.)

According to the map, we were just 27 miles from Devil's Tower, which was on our list of places to see, so on Thursday morning, we headed that way with plans to circle on around to our RV park near Crazy Horse. It was quite impressive, and we took lots of pictures. We also parked the motor home, left the generator running with the AC (for Hanna) and took the 1.6 mile hike around the entire tower. It was a hot day (in the mid 90s), so we were pretty beat when we got done, but we saw all the angles of the tower, plus a climber up near the top. Unfortunately, he went into a crack before we got our cameras on and didn't come back out before we moved on up the trail.

photo by Steven

photo by Steven

That evening (Thursday), we arrived at our RV park just 1/4 mile from Crazy Horse. After studying glowing reviews online, I was pretty disappointed to find just a grassy bank to pull through, but we have full hookups, showers, laundry and it's filled with other families, so it's a decent place to home base while we journey to other sites in the area.

Yellowstone Tour

We got up at 7:00, ate a quick breakfast of cold cereal, and got on the road before 9:00.  We drove back into Grand Teton NP and turned north toward Yellowstone. We drove all the way up to Fishing Bridge Visitor's Center and parked the Minnie, unhooked the car, and got on the circle road to tour some highlights of this magnificent park. On the way to Fishing Bridge, we saw several bison, deer, a moose, and then a bear cub run across the road in front of us following his mother who was already in the trees on the other side. Of course, all this wildlife comes and goes so quickly as you drive along, that you can't get photos of any of it.

Our first stop was Mud Volcano, where the boys exclaimed about the smell before we were even out of the car. They walked up the hill to see several of the bubbling cauldrons, and discovered a buffalo was lounging by the pool. He was literally just a few feet from the trail rail.Nathan got a quick picture where you can see his head.

Canyon Village Educational Center was our next stop. We learned quite a lot about the volcanic activity under the park acreage, and also many exhibits regarding the bison. They are plentiful in the area we had just driven through.We had been wondering what the difference between bison and buffalo, and one of the exhibits answered our question; the terms are interchangeable.

We drove on to Norris Geyser Basin. The line to get a spot in the parking lot took us about 20 minutes, but we found a space for our tiny car and walked down to see several hot pools, mud pots, and spouts. The boys took a little hike around some of the pools while I stayed nearer the car and Hanna.

Our final stop before heading back toward the motor home was Old Faithful. Again, we found a packed parking lot and drove around for about 15-20 minutes looking for a space. We finally parked near the ranger station, and the boys jumped out and ran toward the Visitor's Center and the geyser while I gave Hanna a quick walk before locking her in the car for a short while. Nathan texted me to hurry, as Old Faithful was ready to blow at any minute. Sure enough, as soon as I walked up and found the boys, it started spouting. It's quite an impressive geyser, and certainly the biggest one we saw all day. As soon as it was done, I headed back to check on Hanna and they boys walked through the Visitor's Center.

Then we hurried back to Fishing Bridge to pick up Minnie and go find a campground for the night. On our way out of the park, we saw three grizzlies foraging about 10 feet from the road. There were at least a dozen cars pulled off and many people taking pictures, so the boys took a few pictures out the window and we drove on. We ended up at a state park for the night with a beautiful view and a shower house. What more could you want on your third night out?

Note: Steven brought a DSLR camera and took some great photos, too. We uploaded them to my laptop. Here are a couple shots:

Sun Bathing Buffalo

Grizzly Bear 

Mt. Rushmore or Bust!

I picked up a crew on Sunday morning to go adventuring with me.

I've been promising to take my grandsons Nathan (14) and Steven (12) to Mt Rushmore ever since I got my Minnie. I remember my one and only trip to that national park when I was a young teenager. I'll never forget how awe inspiring it was to drive up that road in the park, come around a corner and see those four huge faces carved in the side of the mountain. I'm sure over the years, I've exaggerated the whole thing in my mind's eye, but I'm still looking forward to showing this magnificent wonder to my boys.

We got on the road about 10:30 and drove to Pocatello. We decided to look at a couple of campgrounds just southeast of there, and as luck would have it, we found a beautiful space in the first one.

The boys had a good time building a campfire and roasting hot dogs for dinner, and then marshmallows for S'mores later that evening. I taught them how to patiently wait for the fire to burn down to red hot coals, and spin the marshmallow slowly over those coals until it was toasted golden brown, puffed up, and centerless. Neither had ever done that before (that they could remember) and they both loved them. It became a contest to see who could roast the best marshmallows before they slid off the end of the fork.

Our first night together in the Minnie was cozy, but very doable. The boys went right to bed when I declared it was my bedtime (about 9:30, because I was tired!) and both read for a while. I never heard them turn off the light, but before long, we were all sawing wood.

I woke them up about 7:00 on Monday by making my coffee. (There are no stealth activities in a 27 foot motor home.) They were happy to get up and get dressed when I told them I was making homemade sausage egg McMuffins and juice.

We got on the road toward Grand Teton National Park at exactly 9:00. We arrived at the park entrance at 2:00 and there were signs stating 4 campgrounds had open spaces. By the time we got to Colter Bay an hour later, it was full and the park host said the other campgrounds were filling quickly as well.

So we headed east out of the park to dry camp in the Bridger Teton forest. We lucked out by finding our choice of spaces in Hatchet Campground just a few miles outside GTNP.

The boys are currently attempting to get another fire going tonight, but the wood they found in the camp site was not completely dry, so they have got a real smoker out there. 😁 At least it's keeping the mosquitoes at bay.