Checking In from Yellowstone

It's been a while since we have been able to post. During our days at Mack's Inn RV at Island Park, ID and Yellowstone KOA at outside of the town of West Yellowstone we had virtually no internet connection and barely any cell phone connection.

While at Mack's Inn, Dave spent time fishing along Henry's Fork of the Snake River in Harriman State Park; it was beautiful, but the fish were stubborn and no one was catching anything or even any bites. 

We have now moved into Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone and Dave has been fishing inside the park.  Of course, it is beautiful there also and the fishing has been better.  He has been practicing catch and release, but with the rule changes, I've told him he needs to bring a few back to the trailer for a trout supper.  He fishes in the morning and then in the early afternoon he returns and we head into the park for some sightseeing.  After a couple days of extremely limited wildlife viewing we decided yesterday to drive the upper loop. When we started out we were unsure if we would make it to Lamar Valley, but we were pleasantly surprised and it was open.  That was actually great because we finally found a small herd of Bison which we have been attempting to find for 3 days.  There were few scattered here and there, but we finally found a herd in Lamar Valley.  I love watching the Bison and there are babies everywhere which makes it more fun.   We also had our first glimpse of a Grizzly as we were heading from Lamar Valley to Mammoth.  Yeah!!!!  A few more elk were present also.  Our favorite viewing point for Elk watching has been strangely empty of elk, so it was fun to see a few along our route yesterday. 

Below are some pictures of the scenery and wildlife from the past few days.

Mountain Goats along river outside West Yellowstone

 

Along Firehole River

 

Absaroka Mountains behind Lake Yellowstone

 

Ambling along

 

View between Canyon and Tower.

The road was quite steep and curvy; I wouldn't want to drive an RV along this section.  A large portion of the road is also torn up and under construction.

Between Tower and Lamar Valley

 



 

Scenes from Lamar Valley

 





 

 

 

Getting ready to cross the bridge!

 

 

 





 

First Grizzly sighting!  Great view of it!\



Along the road from Mammoth to Norris

 



 

Belated Recap of Visit to Dinosaur National Monument

Hello Family and Friends, from Mack's Inn and RV Park near Island Park, Idaho.   Since Dave's out fishing, I thought I would take the time to update the blog today with our trip into Dinosaur National Monument, which I had not gotten to earlier.  

The display itself was much more interesting than I thought it would be; when we arrived at the Visitor center a trolley was waiting to take guests to the actual display area about 1 mile into the park.

 

Taking the trolley is the only way into the area where the display building is located, unless you are traveling with a physically challenged individual, then they will allow your vehicle to drive up to that area. 

 

Upon entering the building which is built around a huge excavated wall containing over 1500 fossils which is only a small amount that was discovered in the early 1920's.  A majority of museums around the world obtained their fossils from this area.  That is one way that the museum in Chicago for instance, obtained a mummy, was by trading a complete skeleton of a dinosaur for it.  This fact was learned by a long and very interesting and informative discussion that we had with the Park Ranger.  She was standing off to the side and seemed very excited to have us approach her and start asking questions.  She told us that a majority of the people will not do that; so by us approaching her and starting to ask questions we drew in quite a crowd.  Therefore, she was able to give a rather long and question filled talk on the history of the area.  She made the area become more alive and interesting due to all the facts she gave. We truly enjoyed visiting with her.  She has a degree in geology and anthropology; and her job requires her to move every six months.  But it is clear she loves what she is doing and has worked all over the USA at numerous National Parks.

 

 

Here are a small number of pictures from the display which is two story, so people can get a very good view of the wall of fossils.   Literally thousands of pieces were taken from this area and traded by universities and museums all over the world. Carnegie in Pittsburgh was the initial sponsor of the discovery and excavation. Therefore, the Carnegie Museum there has one of the largest displays.  Guess where we might be going for another trip?

 

 

After leaving the display area, we rode the trolley back to the Visitor center and walked around the gift shop, where we departed with a few items.  :)

 

Then it was on to a 17 mile drive though the remainder of the park; we were provided with a booklet that listed about 15 points of interest along the route.  It was quite hot, in the 90s, and the sun was very bright at this time of the day, so my pictures didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.  Guess, I will need to do some further editing.   We enjoyed looking at petroglyphs in a few different locations on the drive.

 

 

One of the interesting rock formations is Turtle rock; this picture is for Christine.   :)

 





 

After the drive, it was back to Vernal to have a light supper and rest at our campsite.  Here is a little cutie that greets you as you come through town.

 

 

Island Park, ID and Guests from Denmark

HAPPY FATHER's Day to all the Fathers in our Family!

I just wanted to check in with a quick post to let everyone know we are in Island Park, ID for the next three days and then on to West Yellowstone for 9 days.  I am sure I will have lots of pictures to post in the coming days.   

We had an interesting afternoon and evening.  We arrived here at Mack's Inn and were starting to set up camp when a couple on bicycles stopped to ask if we were the camp host.  Dave informed them that no we were not, but gave them directions where to register for a site.  We offered them something to drink and started to get acquainted and ended up spending the rest of the afternoon and until late into the evening with them.  They are from Denmark and are riding their bikes from Salt Lake City to an unknown destination for the next three months.  They have been on the road for about two weeks.  They are hoping to ride their bikes to Alaska from here and then fly home.  So we spent most of the evening searching online and looking at maps we have with us to help them plan their route.  Oh by they way, they are 72 years old!!!!!!!  They have biked across South America and Cuba in previous years. 

We hope we are in half the shape they are, when we are their age.  We felt very fortunate to share a pork tenderloin dinner with them, and hear their adventures.  We helped them to arrange a rental car for the next two days, so they could tour Yellowstone.  We will drive them to the airport in the morning to rent the vehicle and will pick them up on Wednesday morning when they return.  In the mean time, we will store their bikes at our camp site.  They are such a sweet couple, it was a privilege to meet them and share a bit in their adventure!   

Well it's late and we need to get some sleep.  

Hugs to all, 

Candy

Adventures at Monument Valley and Arches - Beware - lots of pictures!

Nacho here, reporting in.....it has been a very trying two days in my opinion. 

Tuesday
After a fairly early start, thanks to KT and I, for getting Mom and Dad out of bed, we pulled out of Durango by 8:30 and after a pleasant drive of 4 1/2 hours, we arrived at Goulding's Landing at Monument Valley.  Gee was it hot!!!  102 degrees!!!  We needed to get out and walk for a bit, but KT was ohhing and ahhhing and picking her toes up due to hot rocks!!!  It was a very short walk, just to give us some relief.  Dad and Mom got the campsite and Airstream set up in our site quickly, while we stayed cool in the air conditioned trailer.  What a good thing!

Then we headed over to Monument Valley which is owned by the Navajo Tribal Nation.  Dad's Senior National pass didn't work here, just like it didn't work at Four Corners earlier in the day as it also was on Tribal land owned by the Ute Tribe.

Dad decided and Mom agreed (we didn't get to voice an opinion) that we would take the 17 mile road through the valley.  KT and I felt like we were on an extremely rough roller coaster (whatever that is) and Mom looked like a bobble head doll bouncing around in the front seat while Dad drove.  It was extremely bumping, uneven, boulders and rock and lots of sand over every inch of the road.   Mom said this was truly an off road 4-wheeling experience. 

 

Entry to Monument Valley

 

KT looking out over the valley

 



 

The extremely rough road and this is a "good" section. 

 

Now for some awesome views, be prepared for quite a few.   :)

 

 

 

 

After this, we headed back to camp and Mom fixed supper and we went to bed early, but not until we had to have ANOTHER bath because everywhere we walked, we were covered in red sand!  Dad took us hiking on a trail while Mom fixed supper and boy, did we get covered, I was a black dog with a red outer coat.  Ugh!!!  (We had just had a bath because we were covered in blowing sand from Santa Fe!!!)

 

We were exhausted after being shaken up so much, we went to sleep quickly!!!  Besides Mom and Dad said we were getting up at 4 a.m. to go watch the sun rise over the Mittens. 

 

 

Wednesday

 

Nacho here again; KT and I couldn't believe how early we had to get up, gee I usually start to wake them up about 5:15 (I'm still on Central time), but Mom says I have to stay in bed until at least 6:30.  But today she woke us up at 4 a.m.!!!!!  That was way to early.  We crawled in our bed in the truck and went right back to sleep.  :)

 



So here are some early morning pictures of the right and left Mittens as the sun is coming up.  



 

Mom said that are lots more pictures if anyone wants to see them. 

 

So after a nice breakfast and packing up the trailer we were on the road by a bit past 8 a.m. again this morning.  Dad said these early mornings are great!!! 

 

Well, after passing through Mexican Hat, UT, I alerted Mom and Dad to a horrible whooshing noise!!!  We had blown the rear driver side tire!  It was as flat as a pancake!!!! We were stranded on the road (no place to pull off) and in the middle of no where.  Mom got on the phone or attempted to because we barely had any reception for the phones.  After numerous attempts, she was finally connected to someone in the Utah office for AAA.  (She said the money we spend for membership is worth it).  Bad news was, because of where we were located, it would be at least an hour for a tow truck to get to us.  The closet town with a tow truck was 60 miles away!!!!

 

While Mom was attempting to reach AAA and tell them where we were (thanks to the GPS feature on Dad's Garmin), Dad was setting up a orange triangle behind the trailer....hmmm what is that thing?  Also, starting to get his tools and stuff out of the back seat. 

 

While Dad was preparing to get the tools out and get to the spare tire, a Bureau of Land Management Ranger, by the name of Bill Story drove up with his lights flashing.  Boy,  that set me off!!!  Mom didn't appreciate my alarm though....sheesh.  Dad told him who Mom was attempting to reach, and Ranger Story said to Dad, let's not wait for them, you and I can get this thing changed.  Well, it was really hot out there at 10:30 a.m. and already 84 degrees in the blazing sun, but with both of them under the truck, they got the spare out and the flat tire off the truck.  By then, Mom had reported it would be at least an hour, so Ranger Story said call them back and tell them to forget coming, we'll be done long before then.  And they were!!!   Yeah!!! It was really hot!!!!  So with thanks to Ranger Story we were on our way with a detour to Moab, UT which was the closet town with a store that could get Michelin tires like Dad wants.  They ordered them and they should be in by 8 a.m. tomorrow morning.  Dad thought this was working out great, because we would have the afternoon and evening to explore Arches National Park, which Dad thought we wouldn't have time to see.  

 

He said it was way to hot for us to go, so after they got us set up at camp with the air conditioning running on high, they left us in our kennel to catch up on our beauty sleep while they went exploring at Arches. 

 

Here's some pictures from Arches and Mom said there are more for anyone interested.  :)

 

 

 

After two more walks with Dad, we ate supper and now I'm working on this blog.   I'm exhausted, it's 11 p.m. and we've had a very eventful day.   Check back soon!!!

 

Kisses, Nacho