Traveling the USA Part II

We had a long, full day yesterday so we sleep in this morning. We wake up to a fresh 3 inch layer of snow! The average June in Yellowstone has less than an inch of snow—they had a blizzard of 10 inches last Thursday and another 8 inches in the last two days!

After driving through so much snow yesterday, we decide to just stick around the campground, do some laundry and enjoy the snow.

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade—when Yellowstone gives you snow, make snowmen:

Joe and I have fun building our snowman and then having a huge snowball fight. There is so much snow here and it is perfect snowball conditions.

We spend the rest of the day watching videos and playing games and reading our mail (thank you, Jackie, for sending it). Joe got a new wii game from his sister, so he is quite happy to play Mario Kart while the weather is too cold for normal outdoor activities. It snows off and on throughout the day. In the evening we make a quick trip up the road 5 miles to get cell service and check emails. I am tired of the snow and cold.

We wake up to 4 inches of snow!

They are predicting a high of 31 degrees F today, so we are going to drive up to Bozeman, Montana to visit Jere's Dad, who is in Bozeman for an Airstream Rally. It is simply too cold to enjoy any outdoor activities. It snows for most of the ride to Bozeman. We had expected cold, but the snow is a surprise and makes for a slow, long trip to Bozeman.

On our way through the park we see a group of 3 gray wolves eating their recent kill (a baby elk). We have never seen a gray wolf in the wild, so we pull over and watch the wolves.

West Yellowstone, just outside of Yellowstone National Park:

The road north to Bozeman:

After several hours to make our 100 mile trip to Bozeman, we arrive in Bozeman, Montana and have a nice visit with Jere's Dad and Darlene. Jere's Dad is helping to set up for the Airstream Rally, which begins in about 2 weeks. They expect about 800 Airstream trailers there for their annual International Rally.

Our drive home is a lot less snowy. We take a different route and enter Yellowstone at Mammoth Springs instead of West Yellowstone. We stop for buffalo burgers at a little drive-in, The Corral Drive-In, just before entering the park. The burgers are surprisingly wonderful.

We enter the park and then the snow returns as we drive through the park.

We do see another bear, which is always fun:

We eventually get back to the Fishing Bridge RV Park in Yellowstone and call it a day.

It rained all night. When we know it’s going to rain hard at night, we pull in our bedroom slide. Since we didn’t expect rain, our slide stayed out and the rain hit against the aluminum roof two feet above our heads – not a very restful night for Jere and I. So we start the day short-tempered, yelling at each other. In case any of you think that a trip across the country is all ‘peaches and cream’, let me assure you that there are times when all that you want to do is go home!

Anyway, we pack up and start our 100 mile drive north to Yellowstone National Park. As we get to the northern part of Grand Teton NP, the gray clouds disappear and we get to see the Teton Mountain Range one last time.

Our arrival at Yellowstone is classic: waiting in a line of traffic to get through the entrance. They have one entrance booth open and a long line of cars waiting to get through the gate. Just as we get to the front they open a second gate and we finally officially arrive.

Our stop at Yellowstone is supposed to be one of the highlights of our trip. We plan to spend at least a week here, but are already having second thoughts. We had expected cool pleasant temperatures to do lots of hiking. I guess we should have did a little more research about the weather at Yellowstone. Many of the trails are still closed due to snow, and the weather over the next few days is supposed to be extremely cold (high temp tomorrow is forecasted to be 31 degrees F).

We set up camp at the Fishing Bridge RV park. It is not a very scenic campground, but it has electric and considering the cold weather we are glad to have the electric. After setting up we drive down to the Fishing Bridge Visitor Center to look at the exhibits and ask a few questions.

There is no cell phone coverage in this area, but the ranger tells us to drive down the road 5 miles and we’ll have coverage; so that is what we do. The cold wind keeps us from wanting to do anything outside.

The drive is along the lake and a pretty drive. We make our phonecall, check our email, and then decide to drive a little further. We’re glad that we do because we see our first ‘bear jam’—traffic stopping due to a bear. It’s a large grizzly on the bank beside the road.

We drive a few more miles to look at the scenery and the snow. As we drive back to the campground it begins to snow. We’ve heard predictions of 1 to 3 to 9 inches of snow tonight.

We have dinner and the snow stops soon after dinner, so we clean up and then head over to the ranger program that is indoors. The ranger is a good speaker and the slides are beautiful, but it is just a reminder of the many things we’re NOT going to see because we’re here in June and the weather is cold and snowy. Our only solace is that the ranger said this is her third year here and the last two years she has been in shorts in June. Even she didn’t bring long underwear (and she is staying in an unheated cabin).

We got back to the trailer too late yesterday to run our generator and charge our battery, so our heater stopped working sometime before 4am; our trailer is really, really cold this morning (43 degrees F) so I stay in the warm bed til 8am when we can turn our generator on and start warming up the trailer (the campground does not allow generators to be used between 8pm and 8am due to the noise).

The skies are blue this morning and we can actually get a good view of the Tetons. Unfortunately we take our time getting ready and do not leave for our hike til Noon.

By the time we arrive at Jenny Lake to start our hike, it’s starting to drizzle and the mountains are covered with clouds. We take our hike around the lake and up to Inspiration Point anyway.

Marmot seen on the hike:

Fiddlehead ferns along the trail:

Hidden Waterfall along trail:

It drizzles off and on, but it could be worse. The waterfalls are beautiful near Inspiration Point and the view of the lake is nice.

We had planned to hike back to the trailhead, but the rain gets worse so we decide to take the boat back to the other side of the lake.

We stop to see the mother moose and her calf near the Moose Visitor Center one last time, before returning the campground for dinner.

No ranger program tonight – it’s raining. We spend the night reading and playing cards.

Cold overcast morning, but we are determined to go on a hike. It flurries off and on today, but no heavy snow.

Lots of buffalo and pronghorn near our campground again this morning:

We hike the Taggart Lake trail (4mile loop). Before the hike we watch the most photographed moose in the park: a mother and baby moose near the trailhead, that apparently hang out there all the time. Our hike starts great when we see another moose on trail, only a few feet off the trail, and watch him eat for awhile.

We rest on a rock by lake for awhile to enjoy scenery and solitude,

but then eventually we get cold. and hike back. We have winter coats, hats and gloves, but the damp cold weather is still too much for us.

We drive the Jenny Lake scenic road but then decide to drive into Jackson--it's simply too cold to do anything outside. We stop at the visitors center to see the elk and wildlife movies and then have dinner at Bubbas Barbeque (unfortunately the spare ribs are horribly tough to chew). We then get groceries, see lots of moose and buffalo on the way back to campground,

and finish the day by attending the evening ranger program on endangered species success stories (eagle, grizzly, grey wolf), buffalo. The buffalo apparently were in the campground this afternoon and in the middle of the evening program, a buffalo visits the edge of the amphitheatre. No electric in this campground, so we end the day by playing cards in the 5ver using one light (we need a full battery to keep the heater going through the night).