Grand Tetons to Home

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

The view kept changing as the sun came up on Grand Teton. We couldn’t see the lake from our campsite, but it appeared foggy clouds were lifting off the lake and shrouding the lower part of the mountain. It was very pretty.

After breakfast we broke camp about 9 am and set off for the Jenny Lake VC. After many photo op stops along the way, we did eventually get our stamps at Jenny Lake VC, then at the Moose VC. There were road restrictions on the road to the last place we wanted to go, so we had to leave it for another time.

Feeling like we had done everything we wanted to do in the park, except see wildlife, we went out the Moose entrance station and headed for Jackson, known to many as Jackson Hole. There we fueled up and decided to go over the mountain route toward Idaho Falls.

The mountain route was pretty, but was definitely a mountain. We didn’t have to get out and push because our pickups are plenty powerful, but the 10 percent grade for several miles was kind of extreme, and equally steep going down the other side.

In Idaho Falls we stopped for lunch, then found our way out of town on route 20, planning to stop for the night at Craters of the Moon. We arrived there and stopped in at the VC. They have a large map of the world where you can put a small headed push pin in to indicate where you are from. Our area was already thickly covered, but we saw lots of coverage all over. Europe was pretty much covered also, and lots from Australia, New Zealand, Guam, eastern Asia, and on and on – just about anywhere you could imagine. We asked how long that had been up to get so many different countries represented, and they said they remove all the pins every year and start fresh. That was totally amazing to us. We had no idea they would get that much traffic from all over the world.

We went on down to the campground and found a camper in distress so we stopped to help. He had tried to back a camper van into a spot without guidance, and hung up on a rock. Trying to get out, the tires just dug a hole in the loose lava sand, and he was trying to jack it up to put some boards under it for traction. We must have spent about an hour there before success. They were from North Carolina. It chewed up a portion of the fiberglass, and scratched up their bumper, but could have been worse.

Glad to help them get out, but by then we didn’t want to get our much heavier units off into the loose stuff, so headed for home, arriving about 9 pm. It was a long day.

We had a really great trip, and Wilma can knock Glacier National Park off her bucket list. We have much to do to get the rigs cleaned up, resupplied, and ready to go on our next adventure.  That might be in the next couple of weeks or so, so stay tuned!

Getting Yellowstone and Teton Stamps

Monday, August 26, 2013
Finishing off last night’s pizza along with some nectarines worked for our breakfast, and then we worked our way down to Old Faithful. The sign in the Visitor Center said it would erupt again about 11:15, so we had just missed one. Having plenty of time, we each did our own thing after getting the stamp we needed there.

Old Faithful

Old Faithful

After the drama of the eruption, we went south toward a stamp at West Thumb and another at Grant Village. It was looking kind of stormy, and as we drove to the south entrance of the park, we got into some recently wet roads, but never anything but a spit on us.

Moose falls

We stopped and walked out to view Moose falls, then continued down to the South entrance. There was a picnic area there, so we pulled in and got out sandwich fixings, fresh veggies and chips. We also ate the last of the savory pastries from Polebridge. It was still really good! We will marvel over that stop for a long time!
Fred got the ranger to open up and let us get our stamp there. He said he preferred that to manning the toll booth.
The Flagg Ranch Visitor Center on the JD Rockefeller, Jr Memorial Parkway is mostly closed this year because of budget cuts, so we went on down to check out Lizard Creed campground. It was still way early, so we continued on until we got to Colter Bay. There we checked into the campground, and then visited the VC. After getting our stamps, looking around, and getting sidetracked by several different people, we went in to watch their video. It was an overview of the park, and very nice.
Barney had been sidetracked by someone talking about ice fishing in Michigan or Minnesota, or somewhere, and Wilma sat down to put a stamp page in her book, and immediately a lady wanted to see our book and find out more about it. She had just purchased a small book mostly for her daughter. She said she didn’t think the people she was with would want to stop at all the places for stamps.
By that time it was raining and we decided to head back to the campground and curl up with a book and soup.
We’ll probably finish up in the Tetons and start heading for home tomorrow.

Yellowstone here we come

Sunday, August 25, 2013
We left our exciting fishing access spot beside the Missouri River and headed toward Helena, Montana.


There we turned southeast on 12 toward the Three Forks Missouri River Headwaters State Park. We had visited this park a number of years ago, before our stamping craze took over, so we had to go back and get the two stamps available.

That accomplished, we drove east on I 90 to Livingston and then south on 89 to the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park. Along 89 we stopped at a rest area and ate the deli chicken and salad lunch we had picked up in Livingston.

Snake skins in the VC

In all the touristy stuff in Gardiner we stopped for the North Entrance stamp. It was a new one for us. Then we entered the park and pretty much drove straight down the upper west side of the loop to the Madison Campground. We obtained sites there, then drove into West Yellowstone so Rubbles could fill a propane tank.
We noticed a big lack of wildlife. It must be too warm for them. The only thing we saw was a herd of elk hunkered down along side the river. We didn’t even see one bison.
Back in camp we settled in for a restful evening.

North Entrance Portal

Check back for a few pictures of today’s activities. We didn’t take very many, and I don’t have them available right now.  (I’m posting this from the Old Faithful parking lot Monday morning.)
More later.

Our Central Montana Adventures

Saturday, August 24, 2013

We were not in any hurry this morning, planning to make a lazy day of it, but we were up and at it fairly early for us.

Just out of Havre we turned southwest on 87 heading for Fort Benton. All along the central plains in Montana the rest areas are small city parks in various small towns. It is a little different than the normal freeway rest area, but it works, unless you want to use this picnic table!

So this morning we pulled into a rest area and some guy drives up in a pickup and stops to talk to Wilma. Are you enjoying the rest area? Uh, yeah. I’m the one that suggested it to the town, and suggested the signs be a mile out. Okay. The other John, from the store, got credit for it, but it was really my idea. – and on and on. Luckily, someone else pulled in and he had to move on to his next entrapment. We do get some interesting characters from time to time.

We turned off the main highway to the town of Fort Benton, and found the interpretive center that had the stamp. Except the lady only had one stamp, and it wasn’t the one we were looking for. We got what she had, and listened to her a while about everything the town had to offer, then went to the other end of town to see if we could find the correct stamp. At Old Fort Benton Fred and Barney spoke to a “mountain man” and asked about the stamp.  He said “If you can’t find it , come on back and I will draw one by hand for you.”  All evidence said our first stop was the right one so we went back to ask again. This time the other staff member said sure, it’s right here along side the other one! So after chasing all over town, we were happy to stop and check out the old pedestrian bridge across the Missouri river, then have lunch in the park along the riverfront. The town has probably 3/4 mile or more along the river front all developed into park. It was really nice. And there was a penny smasher at the Chamber of Commerce!

We then went on to Great Falls to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. We had heard that was one of the better Lewis and Clark centers, and it was very nice. One of the great things about it was our Golden Age cards let us in for free!  The movie was just going to start, so we quickly went in and enjoyed it, then went through the exhibits. Very nice interpretive center, and it is the best one we have seen, and we even learned a few things.

As we were leaving town we stopped to see a couple of the falls that give the town the name. There are five different ones in close proximity. Lewis and Clark had to portage all their wood dugouts and gear about 18 miles around the falls. One exhibit had a rope you could tug to see how many miles you could pull the load in a day, and Fred could go 10. Betty made 2, Barney 7, and Wilma didn’t even try!

That was all we had planned for the day, so we started looking for a place to stay. The places suggested in Great Falls weren’t all that great, and it was still a little early, so we continued southbound. It wasn’t too long before we turned off and found a fishing access that had maybe 6 spots marked for camping. We got as level as we could and had burritos and salad at the tipsy picnic table. On the other side of the main road there was a turn off that went down to a recreation area at a lake, and about 8:30 we saw a couple of emergency vehicles go that way. Then more and more about every 5 minutes. Sheriff vehicles, tankers, fire trucks of various sizes, a power company bucket truck, and more rescue and fire vehicles. Probably about two dozen different ones. At first we thought maybe a boating accident, but then it became obvious it was fire related. Then we started seeing a lot a lightning in the hills south of us, and we got some very light rain. We didn’t settle down early, wondering if we would be evacuated, but about 11 pm we started seeing some of the emergency vehicles coming back out and leaving. So then we could get some good sleep.

It seems like we get into a lot of scenarios when we travel. You just never know what excitement we’ll find next.

The adventure continues tomorrow!

Onward to more stamps

Friday, August 23, 2013

As we pulled away from the Rising Sun campground this morning and headed out of the park, a coyote ran across the road in front of us. He kind of hesitated like he might stop, then went on. But all too quickly to get a picture.

After the spectacular surroundings of Glacier National Park, this scenery was totally different! This was rolling plains of wheat. The day was gray and overcast which obscured whatever hills might have been out there. The overcast kept the sun from scorching us, but it was plenty warm.

Arriving in Havre, Montana, we stopped at Walmart to restock a few items. This trip as been off the grid and about the only thing we have purchased so far has been cherries and pastry items. So after 10 days, a grocery store was a good thing.

The Bear Paw museum in Chinook was our destination, and that was a few miles more.  We got out stamps, watched the video, and poked around the museum. It was really well done and we enjoyed the stop.

Heading back to Havre, we were looking for the Great Northern fairgrounds and campground. There are not a lot of places to camp when you are in great plains country. The fairgrounds campground was not an exceptionally scenic place, backing right on to highway 2, but it was convenient and offered power and shower. We haven’t had power yet this trip.

So we settled in for the night and ignored the traffic noise – it didn’t bother us with the air conditioners cooling down the campers, and not much traffic during the night anyway. The sunset was pretty, and we have more adventuring to do tomorrow.