JELLYSTONE PARK

We are spending the evening in Jellystone Park with Yogi and Bobo.  Partly cloudy but a nice evening.  The drive here from Dillon was pleasant through rolling hills of light and dark green and alongside rivers with fishing holes every half mile.  Jellystone (RV) Park is on the west end of Missoula.  Tomorrow we are headed for Sagle, Id - about 50 miles north of Coeur d'alene.  Will be spending a few days there at Larry and Linda's house before heading for Bothell, via Ellensburg.

DILLON, MT

Moved up from Idaho Falls to Dillon, MT today.  The campground manager here tells us it gets down to -35 degrees here in the winter with occasional wind gusts up to 95 mph.  Don't think we will be going this way in the winter!  Headed for Jellystone RV Park in Missoula tomorrow.

Rest Area near Lima, MT on our way to Dillon

GRAND TETONS SUMMARY

We are currently in Idaho Falls after driving down from Colter Bay in Grand Teton National Park.  The picture above was stitched together from three separate photos to give you a feel for the full view from the main Lodge.  The view about 100 yards from our campsite was almost as good.

We had a good time poking around but five days, including our side trip to Jackson,  was almost too much.  Glad to be back in the land of good internet.  Headed for Dillon, Montana tomorrow as we move towards Larry and Linda's home in Sagel, Idaho.

JACKSON, WY

Since we are able to get the occasional e-mail sent out I am updating the blog once again by e-mail message which means no pictures. 

Yesterday afternoon we drove down to a ranch outside Jackson, WY to a dinner show featuring ranch BBQ and singing cowboys.  Doesn’t sound like much but it was actually very good and we had front row seats.  We enjoyed it and had a good time.  The drive down (about 50 miles one way) was through some of the most beautiful landscape I have seen.  The drive back in the dark was something else but we made it.  (One would not stand a chance if you came upon a moose in the road going 45 or 50 mph.)  I was always glad to have another car to follow.

Today is our last day here.  Not sure what is on the agenda yet.  Weather has deteriorated somewhat but at least not currently raining.

UPDATE

A quick update.  We are in an RV park in the Grand Tetons.  Our cell/e-mail/internet coverage is very poor and very erratic so we have not been able to do any posts to the blog.  (Posting this via an e-mail feature in blogger)  Having a good time.  Leaving on Wednesday morning so should be able to post some pictures later that day.

YELLOWSTONE VIDEO

Arlyene has compiled a short video of highlights from our four day visits to Yellowstone.  Hope you can view.  It is a YouTube video and only 4 minutes and has sound.

YELLOWSTONE, MAY 2013

Enjoy, we sure did!

LAST FULL DAY IN YELLOWSTONE

Although we will be taking the motor home through the south part of Yellowstone to reach the Grand Tetons tomorrow, today was really our last day in the park for watching wildlife and taking pictures.  We were not disappointed as you will see in the following pictures.  Although we never did see a wolf we saw two different foxes so we figure they make up for the wolf.  We finally got to see some bison calves too.  There were a total of seven more bears and a heard of big horn sheep.  These pictures hardly do  justice to the magnificence of Yellowstone.  We will certainly need to come back here again.

Moms and kids early morning.

Big Boy!

Sow and two cubs.

Opps, too many people getting too close scaring the cubs and making mom shoo them higher up and away.

Lone Black Bear

Big Horn Sheep.  Males on full alert because of people too close.

This fox was stalking small prey and was completely oblivious to the people watching from the side of the road.

This second fox, at a different location, came out of nowhere and walk right through our group paying no attention to us.  Very Cool.  I was so surprised I barely got his picture but Arlyene got some excellent video.

Mammoth Hot Springs

Vistas from the valleys.

Part of Lamar Valley

Backup from Bison (see arrow) walking down the highway, taking their time, right in the middle of the road.  This is a common occurrence and part of the park experience.

YELLOWSTONE DAY THREE

Today it was mostly vistas and waterfalls.  More Bison too but I will spare you any more pictures of them.  Started out with a clear day but it clouded up soon after we left.  Still we didn't even have enough water drops to count.  Some of these pictures would have been better with good sunlight.

Taking Wednesday off to do some chores.  Thursday will be another long day with farther to travel.  We are going to an area where we hope to see Bison calves and some big horn sheep.  We'll be on the lookout for wolfs and more bear too.

It's a good thing we planned enough time here because this is a very big national park.

CLICK ON ANY PICTURE TO ENLARGE AND IMPROVE QUALITY.

Lower Falls, Yellowstone River

Upper Falls.  If you click on this picture to enlarge you will see people standing on the brink observation area above the falls.

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

There is always someone who does not follow the rules.......

These are common valley/mountain views throughout the park.

SECOND DAY IN YELLOWSTONE

Made our second trip into the park today for a total of about 7 hours of driving.  We made it up to Sylvan pass that was 8530 feet, our highest point of the day.  Today we actually saw real, live, wild bears.  Two of them in two different places.  These pictures are enlarged because the bears were both some distance away - which was a good thing.  So we can check off Deer, Bison and Bears now.  We still have to work on seeing some wolves and some elk.  Still have a couple more days to work on that.  In the mean time there were plenty of beautiful vistas as well as steaming vents and boiling mud.

GRIZZLY BEAR ENCOUNTER

So... there we are walking by a water fall hoping to see a bear when out of nowhere one appears.

Hearts pounding we hide behind the rocks hoping he will not see us...but

...but we are upwind and he detects our presence.....it is too late.

Thus ends our first Grizzly encounter..........


.....at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone.

Here are a couple Wolf pictures:

DOWN DAY / SUBSCRIPTION ERROR CORRECTED

FIRST - A note for those who might want to subscribe to get an e-mail when we do a new post.  It was called to my attention that this was not working.  I investigated this morning and it appears I did not have one setting correct.  I have changed that it is working correctly now.  So if you are interested give it another try.

As a reminder, you submit your e-mail address in the FOLLOW BY EMAIL box, (top left hand corner of the page) and then you receive an e-mail message at that address from "Feedburner" asking you to confirm you want to receive the notices.  It is easy to cancel later too.

TODAY - Sunday - It has been raining all night and forecast to continue all day with continued chance of Thunder Storms.  (None so far).  Looks like we will be staying in and doing chores today and leaving the park to the tourist buses.  This will probably be it as far as postings go today..... unless a bear walks through the RV park.

FIRST DAY IN YELLOWSTONE PARK

Made our first run into the park today.  Cool and a little rain but not too bad.  Made it to Old Faithful and back with a few stops in between.  Planning on going to another area of the park tomorrow - weather permitting.

Some of today's sites follow:

Grazing at roadside.

Amazingly clear and colorful.

Old Faithful - not erupting just normal steam venting.

One of two taking up the road and backing up traffic.  He could care less!

YELLOWSTONE ARRIVAL

At Grizzly RV Park

We made it to West Yellowstone by 3 pm yesterday, about a 260 mile trip.  Uneventful other than a little rain along the way and some light drizzle at the campground.  It was 46 degrees when we got here.  Quite a change from the 100+ temps in Las Vegas.  Went out for dinner, then watched the Mariners lose in the 10th inning.  The next couple of days call for rain on and off  and chance of thunder storms.  The RV park we are in literally borders the park.  We can walk through a gate in the fence and be in Yellowstone National Park.  We'll make a run in to the park today and play it by ear.  Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday look like our best prospects for better weather.

All is well here.  Everyone is healthy and our coach is operating perfectly so far.

Hope to have some good pictures to post after today's trip.

ONE STEP CLOSER TO YELLOWSTONE

Today we traveled 250 miles from Beaver, UT to Brigham City about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City.  The rolling hills were contrasting shades of green with the spring moisture and were pleasant.  Salt Lake City was like any big city, fast and crazy but we managed it.  Tomorrow we head for West Yellowstone.

MOVING ON

After three weeks in Las Vegas visiting family and getting acquainted with our lot in the Las Vegas Motor Coach Resort it was time to head north this morning.  Our friends Larry and Linda arrived on Sunday and we spent Sunday evening, Monday and Tuesday visiting and getting ready to proceed on together.  We left this morning and have worked our way north to Beaver, Utah which is about 200 miles south of Salt Lake City.  In the morning we will continue on through Salt Lake City to Brigham City which is about another 30 miles beyond SLC.  So tomorrow's mileage will be about the same as today's.  The following day, Friday, we will drive on up to the RV park at the west entrance to Yellowstone where we will stay for 5 days before heading for the Grand Tetons.

Beaver, UT  KOA

The high here in Beaver today was just 79 and it will be down in the 40's tonight.  After two days of 101 and 102 we were ready to move on to somewhere cooler.  Well get that in Yellowstone for sure.

Ahhhh Spring

We have dealt with spring weather in Seattle for years and pretty much know what to expect.  Dealing with it here in the desert is somewhat different.  Last week we were baking in temps up to 99 with no cooling breeze.  Today the wind is blowing and the temp is in the low 70's.  It is cooler here then in Seattle.  So far no rain but it looks like that will not be the case too much longer because......

... look what is headed our way!

The circle and arrow above are our approximate location.

Cinco de Mayo party

We reserved the clubhouse at the Las Vegas Motorcoach resort to host a family party.  Since it was held on May 5th we decided the theme would be Cinco de Mayo.  We all love Mexican food!