Day 15 - The Boys Are Back In Town!!!

Left out a funny from yesterday....I had a Dr. Pepper in the drink holder in the truck.  I finished it, but left the paper towels lining the cup holder.  We stopped to watch buffalo and left Chrissy in the truck.  BIG MISTAKE!  She had a Chrissy Hissy!  I seriously thought we'd left the window down far enough for the snow to drift in!  The entire front seat was white!  It was shredded paper towel!  It was everywhere including her teeth and her tongue and she couldn't get rid of it!  I laughed so hard and forgot to take a photo.  She was very contrite afterwards!

Today....a wow day!  Lots of animals and lots of fun!  We chose to drive from West Yellowstone to Madison Junction to Norris Junction to Gardner, MT.  We left early and came back mid-afternoon.  This trip took us out through the Roosevelt Arch.

Photos and explanations below:

Entrance to the Park!

Roosevelt Arch.

Top of Arch.

One of four "mysterious" doors in the arch!  I have been unable to locate information on the purpose of the doors!  They have no lock or knob, and appear to be wood placed in front of other wood.  You can see some sunlight inside.  There are two on the front and two of the back.  We stopped at the Yellowstone Foundation in Gardner, MT where a delightful young woman helped us.  She looked through two reference books she had, but could not find the answer.  She offered to email the author of the reference works and find an answer.  Can't wait on that answer!  Thanks for the help!

Stephanie's grandmother had long ago told us about this place in Gardner.  HUGE hamburgers!  Great lunch!

Liberty Cap - a formation in the North Entrance area.

There are always a large number of Elk roaming the town area.  There must have been hundreds of these signs around town.  I know someone must have done exactly what they weren't supposed to!

Just so you know where we are:

On the road back, David took a photo of this great buffalo!  Look at the beautiful color!

And he wasn't alone.....now you'll see the reason for the title of today's blog!

Just strolling up the road.  Oblivious to the traffic.  Someone had an air horn and started to blow it.  Didn't bother them, but made me really nervous after our almost buffalo stampede from two years ago!  There were here first and I'll share the road!

And the best sighting of the day:  A trumpeter swan.  Difficult to find them.


Back to the campground where a roast, potatoes, and carrots await in the crock pot.  Yeah, I cooked!  Amazing, isn't it?

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)

Day 14 - Yellowstone!

It is cold this morning!  Some snow yesterday, but just flurries.

We got up early so we could attend church in the Amphitheater at Colter Bay.  We got there about 7:50 a.m. and the service was to begin and 8:00 a.m.   By 8:15 a.m., we left as no one showed up....including the worship team!  It was the first day for outdoor services so I guess they missed it!  LOL

Four loads of laundry to do, so we headed to the laundry/shower building.  I think they recycle the used wash water to the laundry so you can get a soapy pre-wash!  Showers were $3.75 a person.  No soap, shampoo, towel, etc.  All extra.  Glad I have my own shower in the RV.  Maybe I've hit on a new business!  Sell showers our of the RV!  What do you think?

As we were leaving Grand Tetons (sniff, sniff), we saw a "jam" on the side of the road.....BEAR!!!!

Grizzly?  Brown?  No clue! Shot the pictures through David's window!  Ranger was trying to control traffic and we're in a rig!

Random notes:
Cross the Continental Divide - 7,988'
Cross the Continental Divide (again)  - 8,391'
Chains required to visit Cody, WY (Chains? What are chains?  LOL)
22 miles from the entrance of Yellowstone to the entrance gate.

$20 to enter Rocky Mountain National Park
$25 to enter Grand Teton/Yellowstone National Parks (we bought the National Park Pass for $80, so we'll doing good so far!)
Snow!  Snow!  Snow!  on the ground and in the air
Frozen Lake Lewis

Just so you remember that the elk and buffalo are migrating in the Park, there is a flashing, light buffalo sign.  Not sure if the buffalo are supposed to cross when it's flashing or not.

 It's an eagle's nest!  There is a half mile stretch on the road from Madison Junction to West Yellowstone that's a protected eagle habitat.  We have seen the eagle on the nest!

David went to check us in the RV Park and I had to do a double take at the rig next to us.  If you look closely at the side mirror, there is a dog driving!

Got to the campground and had lunch.  Taco Soup!  It was good and hot.  Good thing as it started sleeting heavily!  Several minutes later the sun was out again.  Windy here, too.

We're in Montana.  We're staying just outside the West Entrance.  We normally stay at Fishing Bridge within the park, but this year the Park Service is updating the campground and they have no electricity.  I'm partial to it!  No roughing it in the wilderness for me!

Look closely for Chrissy in this picture.  Can you find her?  She was absolutely tired when we got in!

Buffalo update tomorrow!

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)

Day 13 - More of the Tetons

Cold and clear this morning!  Heat pump and electric heater going.  David and I headed out early!

We decided to take a drive through the Jenny Lake Loop.  It was getting stormy, but we stopped at the overlook there.  

We kept driving on in the hopes of seeing more animals today.   I spotted a MOOSE just off the road!

We've seen her several times on our drives through the park.  Lots of others have "found" her, also.

In the distance are a herd of female elk.  Some of them have begun dropping their calves, but we haven't seen any of them yet.  Several others have seen the new babies!

Tomorrow is church in the park, laundry, and leave for Yellowstone!

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)

Day 12 - Part Two

Evening was approaching and we decided to call it an afternoon and read and relax.  Since it was cool outside, I grabbed my favorite blankie, Kindle, and little dog and stretched out on the couch.  David was back in the bedroom minus blanket and minus dog. 

I glanced at the clock and realized it was after 7:00 p.m.!  The four-legged child with us never misses a meal and will usually try "guilting" you into feeding her an hour earlier than usual.  We usually feed her at 5:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.  We're an hour behind our normal time zone, so she's now missed dinner by 3 hours!  I asked her in ASL if she'd like to eat.  She came alive at that point!!!

We decided it was a PFC (pick, fix, and clean for yourself) or a YOYO (your own your own) meal.  Pretty non-memorable meal!

I finished my book and headed to bed!

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)

Day 12 - Posting while I can

David got me up very early this morning!  I wanted to catch the sunrise at Colter Bay Marina.  I was there just as the sun hit the mountains.

I thought we were going back to the campground, but he surprised me.  Back to my favorite place!

First beaver pond.

Right now we have Internet access as we are at Jackson Lake Lodge.  Only place in the park I know we have it.  We're taking the spotting scope to Oxbow Bend tonight to watch the wildlife.  May be a few days before I can update again.  We're here until Monday and then on to Yellowstone!  One of our favorite drives here is Jenny Lake, but we haven't had a chance to do it yet.  I did fix Taco Soup in the crock pot before we left today, so at least no one has to cook tonight!

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)

Day 11 - Moving to Colter Bay

Warmer and a little cloudy this morning.

We got up early and headed out to Antelope Flats.  BEFORE BREAKFAST!

The little "dots" to the left of the barn aren't little!  BUFFALO!

We drove all the way out the road to Gros Ventre.  It's a muddy road with HUGE mud holes in them.  The truck is no longer white, but we made it out!

Elk herd along Antelope Flats.

David pulled the RV over at the Snake River Outlook.  The light was good!  We're on our way to the Colter Bay RV Village.  It opens today!  We have a campsite close to the mountains and the marina.

We get to the campground and have to wait in line at bit.  David is inside and Chrissy and I are with the rig.  The guy is waving me to move the RV!  I can't drive the thing!  Guess I'll try!  I DID IT!  I know I drove it 500 yards with no trouble, but David says it's about 100 yards.  I might try driving this thing yet!

Back to my favorite place!  Notice the reflection?  No wind today!

Quiet evening.  No TV here, no Internet, but we do have cell phone coverage!  Good books to read and plenty of dominoes to play.

Up early to catch the sunrise!

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)

Day 10 - The best place on earth - Grand Teton National Park

Weather:  30's and partly cloudy.

Leftovers:  Saw a sign:  "Watch for pedestrians and horses."

Animals on yesterday's trip:
Deer - dozens
Horses - hundreds
Antelope - hundreds
Cows - hundreds
Moose - One!  And I missed getting the photo!  It was too quick.

David and Chrissy at the Snake River Overlook.  Tetons in the background.  Almost the same spot as the famous black and white shot of Ansel Adams.

Along Jackson Lake...we both have on our tshirts that read we'd rather be at Grand Teton.

Jackson Lake.

Mormon Row barn.  Built in the 1800's.

My favorite place on the whole earth.  Schwabacher's Landing on the Snake River.  The pond you see is one of several beaver ponds along the way.  There are several log benches here and I could stay here forever.  They have weddings here.  It's not a bad hike to this location.  The road in is the scary part!

I've taken hundreds of pictures and could never show them all.  I took many, many, many of this place!

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)

Day 9 - On the road again - headed to the Tetons!

Weather:  30's and sunny and we pulled out about 8:00 a.m.  The wind has calmed some.  It's been really wild!

Coming over the last pass into the Park area.  We've crossed the Continental Divide twice - once at 7174' and once again at 6720'.  Altitude not agreeing with me really well, but it's manageable.

Last pass before reaching Jackson!

We made it!  YEA!

We're camping in downtown Jackson because the Colter Bay Village RV Park in the Tetons won't open for two more days.  It's a nice park, but no wi-fi. 

Dinner at my favorite Jackson restaurant:  Teton Steakhouse.  They have signs hanging in the place:  We serve vegetarians (What do you think cows are?).  I love it!  Rib eye was WONDERFUL!

Off to the park tomorrow!

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)

Day 8 - Snow Storm?

Sunny and in the 30's.

Had some books to mail, so we went into town early.  David decided to refill the truck as we had a long drive.  We stopped at the same station that was $3.11 yesterday.  Now that the weekend was over, the price had been lowered to $2.99.  Ridiculous!

And we're off!   We took Highway 34 out of Estes Park.  Only problem was there had been a rock slide blocking part of the road.  Not a big problem at all.  Just waited our turn to go.

WYOMING!

Somewhere I lost the photo for the sign.

Looking ahead the sky was looking really nasty.  Listening to the weather radio in the truck, we knew there was severe weather ahead.

 Scary looking!  We decided to pull over at the next rest area...Highest point in the Lincoln Highway.

Huge Lincoln Memorial.   Very informative.  The highway runs from Times Square in New York all the way to California.

Looking toward Laramie, WY.

Next thing we know, it's SNOWING!

We're enjoying the pizza David made, but realize, the snow is piling up and it's difficult to see:

That's David's view of the road.  Snow plows were heading in the direction we just came from!

How'd you like to pull an RV in that stuff?  I was scared!  David did an excellent job driving at 45 mph and got us through it.  We stopped for the night in Rawlins, WY.

Long day, so early to bed.  Winds blowing about 40-50 mph and really rocking the trailer!

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)

Day 7 - More of Rocky Mountain National Park

Cold this morning!  In the 30's and there is ice on the windshield.

Dug out the coats and long sleeves for today's visit to the park!  We did 4 loads of laundry last night, so my favorite sweatshirt is clean!  YEA!

Stopped for fuel in town  $3.11 a gallon.  That's the most we've paid so far.   There aren't very many gas stations here in town.  We filled up so we'd have plenty of fuel in the park.

You'll enjoy my blond moment:  I noticed how rocky the fields and hills and mountains were...DUH!!!!  ROCKY MOUNTAIN National Park!

Most of the day was a photo opportunity.  So that's what you'll get.  Ate a picnic lunch next to a waterfall. We did go hiking around Sprague Lake

 It's spring time here, so we saw lots of pussy willows blooming out:

Female elk herd

Bear Lake Overlook

Got Skis?

Coat, sweatshirt, hat, and sunscreen!

Male elk with birds on back.

Chrissy was being her usual stubborn self...she was going one way around the fence and David was going the other.  He had to unwind her to get her back on the right side!

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)