August 23, 2014

Saturday, July 26, 2014: We’ve Arrived!

Our first night in the RV went very well. Everyone was properly dressed and warm (even Jill’s mom!), but then we had to wake up and it was REALLY cold. Our first morning was by far the coldest morning we had as the temp was hovering in the mid-30’s. Our battery bank was too low to just turn on the heat and the the campground had rules about running generators or starting your car before 8am. So, we had to tough it out, which was easier for some of us than others. Mugs of hot coffee were poured, many items of clothing were put on and a delicious homemade pancake breakfast was prepared. Jilly slept in latest but perked up as soon as the food was finished (I have a hunch she was already awake and just waiting for the opportune time to come down so she wouldn’t have to help – good plan Jilly). We had a very nice and easy breakfast which warmed our bellies and before we knew it we were ready to head out to explore Yellowstone.

We attempted to get an early start because our very first stop of the day was also the most popular…that’s right you guessed it. Old Faithful. An early start turned into pulling out of our campground a bit after 9am but the amazing scenery during the short 20 min drive flew by and in no-time we were pulling in to the Old Faithful parking lot. We thought driving the RV around the park was going to be a pain, but we were happily mistaken – everything is big with lots of room for RVers. Tons and tons of parking spots were available so we pulled in and parked.

It took no time at all to gather our packs & water bottles and hit the pavement. We arrived to the base of Old Faithful (named because this geyser is the most consistent – it goes off every hour almost to the minute). There was already a rather large group of people loitering around so we knew that we didn’t have to wait long..and sure enough within about 10 minutes we got our first amazing show of the trip – Mother nature shooting boiling blazing water a hundred feet into the sky!

The parental units were a little less patient than Jilly or I, and were ready to move on from the geyser’s eruption before it had even finished. But they sucked it up and finished the show with the rest of the 200+ people and then we hit the trails. One thing to note about the “trails” at yellowstone are that they are built as a series of raised platforms (like fishing docks) that twist and turn spanning several miles through the park’s sulfuric bubbling terrain. It felt like we were on a different planet walking through the crazy formations of springs, pools, geysers and rock features. We spent the first 20 minutes walking and looking at our trusty Yellowstone guide, learning about all of the different features and bubbling pools. Then the parents decided they wanted to walk the short way taking them back towards the tourist shops and restaurant, while Jilly and I wanted to explore the rest of the park, so we split up agreeing to meet in an hour or so at a designated location. We continued on following the trail system taking loads of pics and learning all about the features. It was so cool to see seemingly dead, arid, rocky terrain teaming with life, grasses, trees, and all sorts of wildflowers. Pretty shocking that life has the ability to sustain and thrive since the ground is sweltering and sulfuric, but mother nature is a mad scientist! It made me think that this must have been what it was like in prehistoric times when the Dinosaurs ruled the land; minus the tourists, gift shops; man-made walkways and people.

 
Jilly and I came to a crossroads that would take us all the way to the other side of the park, where one lone geyser stood, or take us up towards the front of the park. We decided to head towards the front, and man are we glad we did! As we headed up, we spotted another large protuberance with a bunch of people hanging around, and it turned out to be one of the highlights of the entire trip: Castle Geyser Eruption. This one only goes off once every 24 hours (but is inconsistent and can be as much as 3 days between eruptions) and we happened to be there at the perfect time, because within about a minute it started to explode. This was crazy cool because you are almost right up next to the geyser as it shoots 100 feet in the air, plus it was much larger and wider formation than Old Faithful so the view was more amazing.

 
After the show (which was way more badass the Old Faithful, FYI) we headed to the museum. The timing was perfect because while everyone was outside waiting for Old Faithful to go off again, we had the whole museum ourselves. Jilly and I love this sort of stuff – plus we learned tons about the park and other places that we would visit. While looking at all the sweet exibits that were displayed we found the next thing we wanted to see: “The Grand Prismatic Spring”. And that folks, was how we chose where to go next. But first, we had a mission…

First, we had to find the parents the old-fashioned way; by looking (as we didn’t have our cell phones). Second, we had to hit up the gift shop to get a gift Grandma Sue (who gave us the “crazy pizza money“) and for Jilly and I to maintain our silly tradition of getting a Christmas ornament from the places we travel to. We quickly found the gift shop, bought a few small goodies and found the parents who were wrapped up in a conversation with some traveling students from Montana. We explained our new mission of Grand Prismatic Spring and told them we’d meet them back at the RV where we would prepare lunch.

Long ago we learned that the best trips are fueled by food. Sure there are plenty of fun things to see and do but our little pirates needed to be fed or we’d have a mutiny on our hands. That brings me to one of my favorite things about the RV: the full kitchen, stove, refrigerator and freezer are all right there and easily accessible. Jill and I made a hearty lunch of German Bread Service; which consists of german sausage varieties, homemade Rye bread, a variety of gourmet cheeses and of course some spicy german mustard. Everything is cut up into bite-size pieces so that its easy to have a little of everything! Even though we were in a now crowded parking lot, being inside the RV with the windows open kept us cool and comfortable – you almost feel like you are at home. So in the middle of a parking lot we had our gourmet picnic.

After lunch we all took our proper positions for cleanup procedure: Jill sat in front reading the guidebook, I did all the dishes, Nana cleaned everything with sanitary wipes, and Papa took a nap! It didn’t take us more than about 20 minutes, but it was nice to take it easy and not feel like we had to rush, because after all, that’s not what camping is about.

Soon we were ready to get back on the road to our next adventure: Grand Prismatic Spring…also the most amazing site you will ever see in your life. As we got close, we experienced our first (and thankfully only) traffic jam of the trip. We knew the end of July was peak-season at the park, and we were mentally prepared for it, but still surprised how crowded it was. Jill’s dad drove us into the overpacked parking area, which was probably the first that didn’t seem to be as “RV friendly” that we had spotted, because there were no spots and the entrance/exit was a bottleneck. So Papa decided that he would continue to circle the parking lot until a spot opened up, while Jill her mom and I went to look at the spring.

Before embarking on the main attrition, we first visited Excelsior Geyser. What makes this so spectacular is that its still an active geyser and erupted in 1940’s incinerating everything within its path for almost a mile around. And its still active! So that means it could explode at ANY TIME…and if you are there when it happens, well lets just say you won’t be for long after. It looked like a Caribbean beach with white rock cliffs, only it was steaming to high-heaven and hard to see through.

Now Grand Prismatic Spring is impressive due to its size. It is the largest spring in the entire park – and is probably no more than 100 feet off the road. Holy cow what a sight. The smoke was every color of the rainbow, and the ground was a mixture of vivid oranges, yellows, greens, blues and other textures and patterns interspersed throughout to create one of the most magnificent “natural” masterpieces of art that we have ever witnessed in our lifetime! The spring is over 200 feet in diameter, so the best view is actually from above (helicopter or top of the hill), but since there aren’t any walking trails around to view it, we had to settle for right up next to it. But even that was marvelous and completely worth the traffic jam. If you ever visit Yellowstone, I would say this is probably the most important sight to see, because there is nothing else like it on this planet.

 
After we took about 100 pictures and looked in awe at the spring, we finished the walk and actually bumped into Jill’s dad, who happened to find a parking spot and walk around the spring from the other direction. It was amazing that we didn’t see him, but then again we all had our heads in our camera lenses. It was nice that he didn’t have to miss this badass place.

The day flew by and we all felt as if we could never see enough of Yellowstone as every small hike takes so long and has so much to offer scenery-wise. We weren’t too far from our next camping spot, Fishing Bridge, at this point, so we figured we’d head over a bit early and relax. On the way to the campground, we noticed a large gathering of people pulled off to the side of the road all looking at something. It was, in fact, our first large-game wildlife sighting…There were two very large elk sitting amongst the dead trees (which were burnt in the big Yellowstone fire). So of course we pulled off with the rest of em to get a shot.

Because this was the official “middle” of our trip, we decided to live it up and stay in a campground that is RV-Only and had a power hookup. This means that we could now use heat and water and basically have unlimited power, but the tradeoff was no campfires were allowed.

After we settled in, we had a couple of beers and met our nextdoor neighbors. The parental units decided to take their showers (every campsite came with 2 free showers) which was a bit of a hike. So while they got cleaned up, Jilly and I prepared dinner and got in our PJ’s. Because there was no fire, we decided to make homemade sushi, egg rolls and miso soup. Dinner turned out spectacular and as soon as the parents came back, food was ready. We all chowed everything to the last morsel and enjoyed some adult beverages. After cleanup, we played a card game that we bought at Target for 8 bucks, called Deer in Headlights. By the time the sun setn, we were all pretty much ready for bed (which is not the easiest thing for 4 full-grown adults in a relatively small RV). That night we settled in with the heat on and everyone full, happy and very tired excited for tomorrow’s activities.

Sunday, July 27, 2014: Waterfalls & Wildlife

My favorite thing about ‘camping’ in an RV was discovered this morning. I woke up completely and totally warm. We set the thermostat at 60 before going to sleep and it kicked on about 3am, so when I got up at 6am, it was pretty perfect. In no time at all everyone was up and fed. We learned from the day prior that the earlier the start, the less crowds you have to deal with. Our first destination of the morning was Artist’s Point, at the eastern part of the lower Yellowstone Loop.

Our guidebook laid out tons of great tips and tricks, directions, and lots of fun facts that I read aloud as we drove from place to place. As we passed key areas, I read off different fun facts and realized that we were driving right through the heart of Yellowstone’s Wildlife Mecca. Soon enough we saw a bison on the side of the road, grazing through the wildflower fields. The more we drove, the more we saw. The further we drove, the more the terrain opened up to huge expanses of open, rolling, grassy hills, lakes and streams. Bison were littered all over the place in huge herds and off on their own. We made note of this as we planned to stop to get a better look after we hit up the hotspots of the day. Simply driving around is a big part of the Yellowstone experience, and there are so many beautiful places that you can just stop and soak in the sites and sounds of nature at its finest.

We pulled into Artist point and it was quite empty – lucky for us! It overlooks the “Grand Canyon of Yellowstone” and is another must-see for anyone who hasn’t been before. It was formed by erosion and two gigantic waterfalls that tore through the terrain. The sun was still low in the morning sky and we took about 100+ photos of the canyon. The hike, itself was only about 100 yards, so we were only here for about 30 minutes.

 
Our next jaunt was a pretty short drive to the top of “Brink of Lower Falls”. Before we left, we talked to our neighbors, Dave & Donna, who told us about this spot, and said it was a “must see” if you’ve never visited before. Dave showed us a short video that he took with his phone of this spot, and we knew we had to go.

It wasn’t super crowded when we pulled into the parking lot and to the top of the trailhead. Before we went down, Nana had to make a quick trip to the outhouse (which we were all surprised that she would use, but she did!). Then we headed down the short, but very very steep walk to the top of the Lower falls. It was a 600 feet elevation drop/gain in about a half-mile, so the downhill went pretty fast. Jilly and I raced ahead while the parentals took their time. The closer we got the more you could feel and hear the raw power of mother nature, and the force of this power was amazing.

Here’s a short 2-minute video of Old Faithful and Brink of the Lower Falls:

At the bottom we all went into full tourist-mode, posing for pics, shooting video’s and hanging over the rails as far as we dared. This place is totally badass. Being right at the very top of the falls while 30,000+ gallons of water came crashing over the edge each second was pretty crazy. At some point we were able to pull ourselves away and headed the half-mile 600 foot walk back. Jilly practically ran back up just to show off, and I was not far behind her. But the parents were…let’s just say…a little more than a handfull of minutes behind us.

 
Soon enough we were headed on the next adventure, a drive to the North Rim and out to Inspiration Point. With the sun high in the sky and the end of the path to inspiration closed…we all found the area a little less then inspiring but oddly enough the crowds were so minimal we had at last found ourselves nearly alone. So that fact alone allowed us to really soak in the views and was actually really really nice. After a short 15 minutes, we were back in the RV and on the road.

We turned the big-rig around and headed back down south. It was around 11am so we still had very high hopes of seeing some more animals and scope out the mud volcanos before heading to the last campground. On the drive down we saw random and large gatherings of humans on the side of the road, obviously checking out animals. We pulled over with the rest of them, grabbed our cameras and charged for the crowd to learn that we just missed a slew of wolves hunting a slew of elk who took refuge in a shallow lake out in the distance. Though we missed the best action, and it was really far away to see (Binoculars would have been a very useful tool on this trip) we still saw the animals and Jill captured the elk and one of the wolves with her zoom lens.

A few more stops to view wildlife on the way down south and we found a great parking area for lunch. Everyone got out to view some bison while I got to work on lunch; a chicken chopped cobb salad with all the fixings (this meal was planned with Jill’s mom in mind). Once again we found our own little world inside the RV, with nearly 360 degree views (all of which were amazing) with hills, rivers, wildlife just about everywhere you turned your head.

Jilly explored the area, trying to get as close as she dared to a lone bison on the side of the road to snap some pics, and some really cool wildflower shots along the way. There were a few other folks parked with us, one of which had a huge spotting scope. He let all of us have a peak at the wolves (a family of four) that were romping around the fields. After we enjoyed our delicious and refreshing lunch, Jill’s dad took a nap, I cleaned a bit and relaxed and Jill’s mom put on the final touches.

 
We soon realized that the day was getting away from us, so we got back on the road to our next stop; “The Mud Volcano” area. This area had a great hike, low crowds and tons of things to see. The only downside was that the smell was pretty horendous. We saw Mud Geyser Sizzling Basin and Black Dragon’s Caldron, to name a few; with the show stopper was Dragon’s Mouth Spring. Depending on the wind the sulphur went from bad to worse, so we didn’t hang around this place for very long. I had been to Yellowstone some 20 years ago and recalled this being my favorite spot as the pools looked like boiling mud. But I learned from the handy guidebook that depending on the water levels and time of year, the pools will look drastically different. So while they all looked really cool, it was more like boiling gray water than mud.

 
There were some other sights across the road so Jilly, Nana and I headed over on foot, while Bill held down the fort (i.e. – took a nap). Sulphur Springs, a bubbling spring of mud and death, was directly beneath us. There was even a sinkhole in the parking log…clearly had not been there very long. The craziest thing down in Sulphur Springs was a huge Bison laying right next to the spring, just hanging out. We visited for about 15 minutes and then headed back to the RV to figure out where to go next. The day was still young, but we were all really worn out from the heat of the sun and the miles under our feet. So we decided to head towards our campground which was about a 30 minute drive from where we were.

On the drive down south, we saw a really nice (and secluded) pull-out right next to the Yellowstone River and decided to pull over. It was actually perfect because it was really shady, quiet and beautiful. We brought out our camp chairs and setup right next to the water under some trees. Jill’s mom read her Kindle while the rest of us just sat and soaked in the cool, fresh air. Now THIS is what camping is all about – doing nothing and sitting in nature. It was AWESOME! We sat there for probably over an hour, I think we all dozed off for a bit. Jill and her dad hiked around and took photos, and then we all decided to head to camp and make some dinner!

Our final campground of the trip, “Bay Bridge” was just a short drive south. The distances in Yellowstone can really add up if you don’t plan your trip, with our 8mpg we always paid close attention to travel times. Bay Bridge was the most ‘campie” feeling campground. When I checked in, the ranger said to be careful because there were bears spotted in the area. Since it was a heavily wooded and our site was in the ‘way-back’ we hoped for a bear sighting that never came.

It was still a little early to start dinner, so we took turns walking around, visiting other campers and exploring the local sites. Jilly and I played frisbee for a bit while the parents went off, and then we went off to explore (mostly searching for bears), while the parents drank and relaxed by the RV. We got the fire going after we returned, and prepped our Steak Fajita dinner. After dinner, we sat outside and chatted with our neighbors.

RV’ers have to be some of the friendliest people and all of those around us fit that bill. One woman brought us extra peach cobbler she had made on her fire. I assumed everyone would be locked up in their RV’s pretending that they were in fact NOT in the outdoors, but in fact everyone was outside, socializing and having a jolly old time. I suppose if one is always on the move, you are eager to chat with someone when you are sedentary.

We settled by the campfire and watched the wood burn down as we talked about the great time we’ve all had. Of course, we had to cook up smores for our last night, which were super yum-o. By our 3rd night we were all in full swing of the RV lifestyle. Once we got into the flow it felt like we could do it forever (at least Jilly and I felt that way, maybe not the parents). Another few card games and we were all more then ready for bed as we planned to get a very early start to head back home in the morn.

Monday, July 28, 2014: Homeward Bound

We really thought we were being clever as we charged the batteries before bed and conserved power by using head lamps. We thought we would have just enough juice leftover to use the furnace in the morning. Bill set his alarm to go off at 4:30AM so that he would turn the heat on, before we all planned to get up at 5:30am. But he found that the battery power was too low to run the furnace. Thankfully, the morning was not very cold. It was also great because everyone woke up at 4:30am and we decided to just hit the road to make headway for the drive home. We made some tea and coffee but decided we would make breakfast at our first stop. So we started up the RV and headed out of the campsite.

What we learned from this was that predawn is the most beautiful time to be out and about in Yellowstone. As the sun started to rise along the lake, we saw a ridiculously beautiful plethora of sites and animals out in the wee early AM hours. Our “quick” 30 minute planned drive easily turned into a 2-hour stop-and-go from pullout to pullout to capture another fascinating scene; be-it nature or wildlife – or both.

We finally got to the Park Entrance/exit, and headed toward old Colorado. The drive was a lot easier heading back because it was less windy. We all took turns driving, even Jill’s mom. We pulled over at a rest stop in Northern Wyoming to make a lunch of leftover hot dogs, salad, and other miscellaneous items that we had lying around. It was really nice in the RV and pretty comfy, other than the noise level. The drive went by pretty fast with everyone taking 2-hour driving shifts. Before we knew it we were pulling into our driveway in Boulder, Colorado. We spent the next hour emptying everything out of the RV and dumping it in the house. It was almost like a mad-dash to get it all out so that we could collapse and relax.

That night we ordered some asian cuisine from our favorite takeout place and chowed down on delicious food. We were pretty wiped out from the drive and happy to be home. The next day we returned the RV (spic and span) and just lazed about for most of the day. We went out to dinner at Native Foods Cafe, which was a treat for us, and we were really surprised that Jill’s parents were willing to try the vegan gourmet food. Both of them actually loved it (even her dad, though he did say it wasn’t as good as a real cheeseburger), and all of us left stuffed to the brim. All-in-all, it was a really great visit and everyone was sad to see it end.

Here’s a random compilation of other pics, in case the 50 or so photos above aren’t enough for you!

 
Jill and I will probably need to go back to Yellowstone because we could easily have spent 2 weeks there really taking it all in. We also discovered the perfect way to space out the day to get the maximum sites with minimum crowds and can’t wait for another adventure. Hopefully Jill’s parents will be inspired to get their very own RV. I know all of us have those “someday” dreams; I suggest taking someday and turning into a real day – a definite day. Plan it out and make it happen.