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16 Sep 2010

We needed showers and internet, so we stayed at Great Falls KOA in Montana. This is a commercial camping ground on the outskirts of Great Falls. It was getting downright chilly. We had dinner, took showers and went to bed. In the middle of the night I noticed the heater staying on, but it wasn't getting any warmer. I had to go switch propane tanks. The heat came back on and all was well....... that is till morning. When we went to leave it was snowing and accumulating. I didn't want to risk sliding around if the temperature continued to drop, so we decided to stay another day and just rest up. The snow stopped falling later in the day, but better safe than sorry. We still have a long way to go.

We left Glacier NP and headed to a place called Choteau. In some of the books I have it states there is a KOA campground and we need showers and I have to do laundry and a lot of it. We drove in the sunshine up and down winding roads with lots of cattle and hay for scenery. Oh, and of course a lot of Big Sky as they call it here in Montana. Yes it is big, you can see for miles in every direction. We arrived at the where the KOA is supposed to be but it is no longer a KOA and it looks like a run down campground with no laundry and you have to pay for showers. Bob said “forget this lets move on”. So we gassed up and headed to Great Falls to another KOA. It was only another hour and ten minutes. We arrived late in the day as the weather started to get cloudy and got a spot. It looked like the season was winding down for them as there were only about 4 campers in the park. I did five loads of laundry, cooked dinner and got in the shower and got in bed just before midnight. Tomorrow we are heading closer to Yellowstone.

18 Sep 2010

Arrived in Helena and went shopping and stocked up on food and had our first night at a Montana State Rest stop in Bozeman Montana.

19 Sep 2010We drove through clouds and fog and mist. We stopped at a rest stop to stretch and noticed the temperature was around 43 degrees. In about 20 minutes later it was 67 degrees, the terrain had changed completely to scrub and arid mountains, we had arrived a Mammoth Hot Springs, near the entrance of Yellowstone. We unhooked and drove to different parts of the park to view the thermal hot springs, Sheepeater Cliff, Geysers and mud volcanoes.

As we approached our campground in Mammoth Springs it was about 67 out. Hey, bring out the flip flops and a short sleeve shirts, I’m liking this hot dry air! Maybe now our trailer can dry out!

20 Sep 2010

I got up with Gypsy this morning about 7am. Took her out side and then feed her. I sat on my bed for a few minutes and then I heard an Elk bugling just out side. I looked out the window and there he was, across the street on the hill side. There were a bunch of female Elk at the bottom of the hill crossing the street going into the campground. I quickly got the camera and took some photos. The big male walked right in front of the truck! We were on our way to Fishing Bridge campground today stopping to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and the Mud geysers. On the way through the Hayden Valley we saw lots of Bison on the side of the road. Some were alone while others were in a heard in a big meadow. The are so close to you and they don’t care if you are in the way, they will knock you right over!

21 Sep 2010We headed further down the park and camped at Fishing Bridge Campground. There was ice on the windows of the truck when we got up.

We drove around the park and got a great opportunity to see Old Faithful. Further on we saw Lewis Falls and Lewis river, all the willows have turned yellow around the river making it one of the prettiest spots in the park. We then headed south towards Grand Teton National Park and had lunch at Jackson Lodge. I had a bison burger to go, recommended from Tapes. It was great.

It was the coldest morning so far. Of course our battery went dead last night and the heat shut off, but what can you do but get dressed quick and put your coat on! Gypsy had to put on her turtle neck sweater it was so cold! We really enjoyed our drive through the rest of Yellowstone and to the Grand Tetons.

22 Sep 2010We left Starlight Rest Area in Wyoming and headed for Hyrum Utah. I was especially looking forward to the drive from Bear Lake Wyoming to Logan Utah. When we reached Bear Lake I couldn’t believe the difference in what I remembered. It seems that it has now become a summer vacation place for summer homes, rentals and cabins. There are now little towns nestled in the canyons of the hills surrounding the lake. There is also a new modern marina with both power and sail boats for rent. It wasn’t one of my favorite places so what the heck. We climbed up into the mountains from the lake and crested at a rest stop around 9000 feet. It was blustery and quite chilly. After leaving there we headed into a mostly down-hil drive through Cache National Forest along a highway that follows the Logan River. This is a place I really wanted to see again. I’m really glad I did. I’ve seen other mountains, and craggy rocks, small rivers and just about everything that is in this drive, but somehow I just love this place more than the rest. It’s accessible, it’s not too big or too remote or too anything, and it’s not crowed at all. I could definitely spend an entire summer here. I pulled into a small camping area, and we were just a little too big to make a turn once inside. We did manage to back up and negotiate some very tight turns, and by then Kim wanted to move on. I wanted to stay. Oh well, we moved on and headed to Hyrum Reservoir State Park. This was a very nice and tidy state park. It has nicely kept lawns, super clean and new showers and is located on a bluff over-looking the reservoir. Not a very big place at all, but just what we needed.

23 Sep 2010

We moved on to Yuba Reservoir State Park. It is really remarkable how such a beautiful gem of a place could be located in this land of scrub and desert. Of course, the name of the place is Oasis Campground. There was one other camper here when we arrived, and we took the opposite end of the campground. Perfect weather with a breeze. Up here in the high desert, the full moon really lit things up. I can’t remember when moon shadows were so distinct. Kim thought it was romantic.

24 Sep 2010We decided to go to Bolder Nevada and visit a good friend nearby since we were in the neighborhood. It was a long drive but worth it. The Virgin River Gorge is awesome although there are no turnouts to stop and take photos. The photos of the large buttes were taken by Kim while we were driving. Nice job! We stayed at Canyon Trail RV Park, nice place, with lots of semi-permanent large rigs.

26 Sept 2010

We left Boulder City and had to backtrack up through LasVegas and I-15. We made a turn to the east at St. George Utah, and headed into Zion National Park. Believe it or not, Zion was still full, but we decided to go through and not stop since there was only one way traffic through the park. We had a few stops for road work where we had the opportunity to take some pictures. Zion is more of a scenic park than a “to-do” type park so things worked out perfectly. Zion isn’t a very large park, and within a few hours we were out the other side. Tomorrow we’ll head into Bryce Canyon National Park, and hopefully stay there. If not, there are all sorts of other places to go that aren’t crowded.

27 Sep 2010

We started out with going to Bryce Canyon as our destination. It wasn’t too far away, and after studying the maps and reading more information about the area, we decided to just take Rt 12 on through all of the National Parks that we could fit in since they were all mostly scenic parks. “A Journey Through Time Scenic By-way”, Utah. A great decision on our part. Yesterday, we thought that Zion as a single destination was an okay place, but if you include it in a scenic drive that includes Bryce, Grand Staircase Escalante and tomorrow Capitol Reef National Park, it becomes one of the best trips we’ve had.

The route passes through some real live western cattle farms and ranches. The season is for some hay mowing and rounding up the cattle in the high pastures. We had a stop for a bit with a herd of cattle bunched up on the road and cowboys pushing them onto new pastures. Of course, a few broke away from the herd and the cowboys raced after them and the cattle dogs were doing their job of nipping at their heels. It couldn’t have been planned any better. These grazing areas are very high up in altitude. We passed over a summit that was 9600 feet. That’s higher than many mountains we’ve seen on our trip.

The day was getting long, but the scenery still remains beautiful. We saw some huge red bluffs right next to the road and there was a pull-off with a couple campers in it already. We pulled over and joined them. What a special camp site! We watched the sun set and had dinner. After dark and before the moon came up we went outside to view the Milky Way. It was unbelievable; with only a pair of binoculars we could see the moons of Jupiter and nebulae.

28 Sep 2010

We continued the drive through Capitol Reef National Park. The reef is a long stretch of earth that has risen above the rest of the area and extends for over 100 miles. We headed for Green River State Park in Utah. Another great little state Park. The terrain had changed to wide open spaces, large canyons and mesas and mountains in the distance. We pulled into the town of Green River and are sorry to say it seems to have been very much affected by the recession. Many places boarded up or just closed down. But the park was like another oasis, with green lawns, showers and located right next to a golf course. The weather was perfect and I just lay on the grass and closed my eyes for a long time.