Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

Neither of us sleep well. We wake with the alarm and hit the road, stopping just outside of town on a gravel pull-off for breakfast and coffee/tea. Plan on picking up a few groceries and want to give the stores time to open.

The hardware store is asking a lot for their 1 lb propane cylinders – must be made of platinum. And they are out of water bandits. On to the grocery store, where propane is cheaper.

It’s too early to check in so we look for a coffee shop to kill time in. It’s raining so we rush from store to store. Finally find a local roaster and get drinks. I journal while Ashley reads a book about the park. (The bassalt columns I saw along the road are, as suspected, the same as ones in Northern Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway.)

On to the campground. Signal fades as we near it. We find a spot and move in. Electric hook ups! The spot next to us is an old host site so I hook up hoses and refill water (but can’t leave it hooked up.)

Lunch and try to call Mom – call drops twice. No signal at all, apparently.

We watch a movie before supper. No signal is frustrating – we’re both ready to be near some town with signal and bicycle ability. Other than the North Rim of the Yellowstone Grand Canyon and maybe a day hike we’re also ready to head on to the Grand Tetons. Once the rain clears that may be our plan.

Cold, rainy, dreary day. At least our Mr. Heater works well!

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

We wake up early and hit the road, basically with the sunrise. But it’s cold. The 10 miles into town freezes my fingers (I really need to hook up my heated gloves) and all of Ashley. We top off the gas and head to Ernie’s Bakery for some heat. We both get coffees (black for me and some creamer for Ashley) and split a bagel. The steaming mugs feel great in our hands.

  

After sipping our drinks and taking care of email we finally head on our way. It’s still cold out but is tolerable now. We get in to the park an hour or hour and a half earlier than the last two days.

Heading south on the loop we detour through Firehole Canyon Road – a beautiful road that parallels the river for a bit, highlighting some falls and rapids. Well worth the detour. We stop at Grand Prismatic Springs. It’s beautiful – and warm enough that we can feel the warmer air. But at a flat view we know we’re missing out. The next parking area has a trail running to the other side of the spring and we can see people up on the hill above it, so we head there. A short hike and we have a spectacular overview of the whole area. No wonder it’s such an iconic image!

    

After snacking and soaking in the scenery we head on to check out Old Faithful. After some debate we decide to sit on the lodge porch and fix lunch – we brought the JetBoil and some dehydrated meals. Once we finish we have just about 10 minutes until the estimated eruption. I sketch a bit while we wait. “Thar she blows” and we make a couple of quick phone calls while waiting for the traffic to pass.

  

On around to West Thumb, where we walk around and see more geysers and springs, right along Yellowstone Lake. Fascinating how the hot springs and geysers can live along or in the cold lake! Black Pool is stunning, though it looks like a caribbean underwater cave rather than living up to it name.

   
    
 

Next is Fishing Bridge where we refill water and gas. It’s growing rather overcast and the weather forecast is calling for rain so we rush along. In Hayden Valley we hit a line of traffic – a pair of wolves caught an elk and it’s supper time. They’re down the hill and across the Yellowstone River, so no worries. Still surprising how large they are! Everyone is stopping for pictures – a lot of telephoto lenses and some pro photographs in the lineup.

On to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We head down South Rim Drive, checking out Artist’s Point. It is an absolutely fabulous view of the lower falls – and we finally see yellow stones! Filled with busses full of people, though, and that’s just absolutely frustrating.

    

A short ways up is Uncle Tom’s Trail – a short trail mostly consisting of stiars down nearer the bottom of the falls. We pause at the bottom and I quickly sketch the view before grabbing a photo and heading up. And up it is! Whew! It feels like we’re out of shape but we went up steeply and quickly.

  

Now the rush is on – back home, hopefully before it rains. We don’t make it. Just a few hundred feet before the park entrance (exit?) we stop to add back layers. Moments later we get rained on. It’s cleared up by the time we get home. The forecast says this is only a break, though, so we take the opportunity to pack up for tomorrow’s departure.

We found a nearby campground that is only $22 a night – but only electric hookups.We can go hide from the next few day’s rain there and veg out to movies, reading and writing.

After supper we decide to try the campground next to us, about half a mile down the road. They have 4 electric sites and their website shows one as not being reserved yet. Once we get there, however, there is a paper reservation in place. So we head back to our spot by the river – ready to hit the road at first light.

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

After another slow morning we head back into Yellowstone, south on the lower loop. Only a few miles later we run into a trafic jam. We work our way up, passing by the stopped cars and eventually encounter  bison in the road. We edge on past.

Shortly, another line of stopped cars. More bison, we learn. Just ahead we see a side road, Firehole Lake Drive. We see a beautiful spring and, just beyond, a geyser.

The Great Fountain Geyser goes off in 3-5 bursts about once a day. We just happened to catch it at the right time, so we get to see it erupt. Chat with a great couple while watching the natural show.

     

It’s lunch time, so we head over to Fountain Flat drive to eat and then on to park at the end of the road. Only a few miles away is Fairy Falls, so we get to hiking. Ashley’s pretty nervous about hiking in active grizzly country but slowly feels better as we enounter other hikers. We pass through fields/meadows, patches of muddy land surrounded by steam pots (which makes us a touch apprehensive since we’ve spent two days reading signs saying not to touch the ground off the trail because it can be thin and dangerous).

At a split in the trail we head down to the falls. They’re fabulous, well worth the hike. We sit and enjoy the view while snacking.

      

Following the advice for some other hikers we detour over to the Imperial Geyser. So glad we do, it’s beautiful – a pool filled with a fabulous series of shades of blue. Only one other couple is there so we practically have the place to ourself. It erupts as we watch – a constant bubbling.

   
   

Eventually we decide to head on – back to the motorcycle and then back home. We’re more tired than we expected to be. After looking up campgrounds where we can wait out Tuesday-Thursday’s coming rain and cold, then beyond in the Grand Tetons, we prepare for bed.

We gather gear for tomorrow – we’re going to head out early to try and beat the crowds. To help we will take our stove and cook breakfast overlooking Old Faithful.

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

After a slow morning – sun rises at 7 and quickly starts taking the chill out of the air, but doesn’t get warm till mid-morning – we head in to Yellowstone park.

We start by heading north on the upper loop, aiming for Mammoth Hot Springs. Stop at a spring that is bubbling – a couple in front of us says it’s hot enough to make tea. Around the trail we find another pool and are able to look right in and feel the water. Hot and straight walled sides – like a natural hot tub!

    

We stop and admire Gibbon Falls before heading to the Norris Geyser Basin. Fascinating place – like a sci-fi set. The ground has random openings that issue steam or pools of bubbling water in fascinating colors, or water that randomly spews up. Smells of sulfur catch us depending on the wind.

   
   

Mammoth Hot Springs was absolutely beautiful. Natural white stair steps with water flowing over it – a series of mini waterfalls. Beautiful colors highlighting the whites and grays.

   
  
   

We stop in Mammoth for gas, drinks, and snacks. Debating on whether to backtrack or head on to complete the upper loop, we decide to continue on. We rush a bit – stopping only at a waterfall overlook and to stretch. The road goes up over a pass – windy road with some pretty good views.

Well, the tourists are horribly frustrating! There are crowds verywhere – mostly foreigners, it seems – wielding selfie sticks and cameras, eager to photograph everything they can. Pathways are crowded and sometimes hard to navigate. We waited 45 minutes to cover about a mile – people photographing elk and clogging up the road! A couple of other bikes passed the standing traffic and eventually we did the same.

Fumed on the way home. We strive to be travelers – appreciating our surroundings while being polite and respecting those around us. Tourists, by our definition, do the opposite.

After arriving home we decide to go pick up a Mr. Heater – a portable propane heater to supplement our house heater – more fuel efficient and perserve the house batteries. So we head back into town to see what the hardware store is charging. Not as cheap as WalMart but a few dollars cheaper than Red Lodge hardware. Ashley carries it home on her lap. We don’t need any 1 lb propane bottles as we have our 20 lb tank and an adapter hose already.

Very warm in the house – sun hit it all day, plus cooking added to it. I pull in the propane tank and after supper read the instruction manual. Can’t have a propane tank inside. Drats! Back out it goes – but it’s cold and dark so we’ll use the house heater tonight and rig up Mr. Heater with external fuel tomorrow.

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

Woke up and turned on the heater to warm our outsides as the coffee worked inside. I caught up on writing – articles and journaling – while Ashley whipped up some cocoa peanut butter oatmeal power balls for hiking snacks.  They’re tasty and, since they’re bite-sized, will be hard not to just sit and eat in a round or two.

Finished the afghan!

  

Eventually we head on down the road, about 100 miles to West Yellowstone. No specific destintion in mind, just saw a lot of RV parks in the area so we should have a choice of places to stay once we get closer.

Stop at the ranger station as we enter town. They’re closed for lunch so we do the same. After eating they’re back in business and a ranger gives us a couple of suggestions. Not a huge amount of options – at least not close. It’s all either private land or paid campgrounds.

We follow the directions and head out of town, wandering down a gravel road. It starts to look rough and Ashley hops out to ask a couple of fellas in a camper about the rest of the road. They confirm that the road worsens and we shouldn’t attempt it. A road back, however, has a few options where they have seen other RV’s parked. So we head out to see how they look.

The first option is owned by the National Forest but is a fenced-in field next to what looks like a creek. We walk down to see how the road looks – it’s basically a pair of tire-track ruts through the field. Other than the entrance it’s basically flat. A spot right next to the water is available. It’s open to the sky so we’d benefit from early morning sun light.

Ashley is a bit apprehensive but we make it in to our spot with no troubles – not even a single under-carriage scrape. Very level, we need only an inch under one front wheel.

  

I gather firewood while Ashley sets up inside. We have only one neighbor, halfway between us and the road, tucked in the patch of pines – out of sight unless we really go looking for them. The water seems to be popular for fishing, though, and we’ve seen a few boats pass by.

Going to cool down to the upper 30’s tonight. We button up early to trap in heat and turn on the house heater with a low fan and set at 55. That should keep everything from freezing.

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

   
 

Ashley researched options downtown so we go to check them out. It’s a splurge day – we enjoy coffees and a muffin, bagels at Bagels, Etc (delicious and basically a cream-cheese sandwich) then explore downtown and top off by splitting a breakfast scramble with bison sausage at Main Street Over Easy (it was huge – half each was plenty!) and then back to Wild Joe’s coffee for some cookies.

Lots of delicious food and an enjoyable morning spent exploring the area. It was a great way to spend the morning and we thoroughly enjoyed exploring downtown Bozeman.

On our way out of town we stop at a cool food co-op and resist buying anything but some freshly ground peanut butter.
I must not have slept well, as I’m getting tired. We stop at a coffee hut for a pick-me-up and continue on our way.

  

Halfway to West Yellowstone we happen to turn into one of the few National Forest Campgrounds that offer electrical hook-ups. They’re tucked along the (we believe) Yellowstone River. We get settled in. I rewire the brake lights on the trailer and replace the power hatch lid while Ashley cleans. We revel in our abundant electricity, boiling water in our eletric kettle and flipping on lights with reckless abandon.

After supper we settle in to enjoy a movie.

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

It’s moving day! A bitter sweet one – we’ve been in the area for 3.5 weeks – our longest time in a state, much less a specific area. We’re happy to be moving on but also really like the area – there are still trails to hike!

We eat, pack up, and start rolling. In town we head to the post office. Ashley’s glasses have not yet arrived, apparently. 3 hours to kill before the next shipment is sorted and available.

To pass time we lunch, empty and fill tanks, top off propane (they also help to trouble-shoot the trailer lights – for free! – think it’s the trailer plug that needs replaced) and then head to the tea shop for some tea for Ashley. Their card machine doesn’t seem to be working, and a gentleman says he’ll pay for her bag of tea ($10) as his random act of kindness for the day. How nice! She’s still excited about that.

Her glasses are in (as they were earlier – had them under H for Holt). We swing by the library to research locations for Xmas tree lots. A couple are only 15 miles from Temecula – that’d be grand! Also find 3 or so others that would be good. We send some emails, I tweak website settings (making journal entries their own page and hiding them from the main page) and we head on out.

Late start, 4:30ish, but Bozeman is only about 2 hours away. We stop at a rest stop for salads for supper (quick to prepare and clean up). Ashley cracks her new frames, trying to put in new lenses – apparently you’re supposed to soften them in hot water first.

We pull into Walmart – it’s a nice one! Lots of other RV’s already there. Stock-up time. we load up on groceries and get a trailer plug for me to wire in (sticking to a budget is no fun!) A snack while we revel in cell connectivity and then bed time.

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

Another cold morning. I turn on the heater and after a bit I turn on the generator to keep the batteries topped off. Much nicer morning when we can’t see our breath inside! I make progress on the afghan – only a few yards of yarn left!

Two hikes we want to do and we plan to leave tomorrow – assuming Ashley’s glasses arrive. So we pick the Beartooth High Lakes Trail. It’s back up over the pass, so we bundle up. Though the sun is shining merrily it’s still cold up above 10,000 feet.

We motorcycle over the pass, appreciating the view. It’s so much clearer than our prior trips, without the smokey haze! What a fabulous view – we can appreciate the “most beautiful motorcycle ride” title.

Parking at Island Lake we quickly pack away our motorcycle gear and start hiking, trying to get warmed up. We are back in Wyoming, where they apparently try to scare the bejeezus out of you about grizzlies (we are up in the wilderness, after all). It seems that every 50′ on the road and every 15′ in the parking area there is some sort of sign telling how you will die a horrific, gory death at the jaws of grizzlies if you don’t triple lock any sort of scented item inside of an insulated, fire-proof, titanium container specificaly made to deter and resist the Grizz. And even then, BEWARE THE BEAR!

These signs made Ashley become quite the astute tracker as she peered at every imprint on the ground, looking for bear tracks. Likewise, her radar was on high alert, monitering every leaf’s flutter and bird’s tweet. For all her searching, though, we saw neither hair nor track of a single bear (no complaints from either of us, there.)

  

If you could grow tired of seeing and photographing gorgeous mountain lakes set amid majestic mountians with stunning blue skies overseeing the view, this was the day and trail for it. Other than a single hill that dropped down from one lake to the next our hike was basically flat and enjoyable. We passed one lake after the next, stopping to eat lunch on a rock at the end of a piece of land jutting out into the middle of a small lake.

  

The crowning glory of the hike was Beauty Lake, which truly lived up to its name. The trail ran along the shore for some time. Unable to imagine the view possibly getting any better, we stopped one lake short of our intended destination and headed back to the bike.

    

Almost back, we found a seat overlooking Island Lake and split an apple with peanut butter while taking in the view. Finished eating, we headed back on and quickly geared up to head back over the pass, aimed for home.

A fox ran across the road in front of us (a new critter to add to the list!) We spotted Beartooth Peak, after which the range is named.

Back home we started prepping for tomorrow’s departure. Ashley made supper as I cleaned up outside. In an effort to use up all of the firewood I’d collected we had a grand fire going for a few hours (didn’t make it – next campers should be pleased – it’s split and stacked). We ate next to the blaze and then took advantage of a splendid bed of coals for one last round of s’mores.

We saw a spectacular, if short-lived, sunset over the mountains!

  

Darkness had fallen, along with the temperature, so we headed in and on to bed. What a great day!

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

It’s another cold morning. We wake and quickly bundle up for a ride in to town. To celebrate Ashley’s birthday we’re going to head in to Prindy’s Place for breakfast. It’s nice and warm inside and we both have coffees while waiting for our food. Ashley gets the special of the day, three pancakes and scrambled eggs. So big she can’t finish them. I get a standard – eggs, hashbrowns, bacon and rye toast. Everything is tasty, a nice start to the day.

Apparently we beat the rush, so we head out to empty out a table. On to Honey’s. Ashley specifically wanted a latte.  She’s happily warm and bundled up – we don’t feel like heading home to change to go for a hike, so we’re going to spend the day about town.

We get our coffees and I set about updating journal entries online. Basically, we pay for wifi and a seat and they throw in a beverage. Ashley really liked my posts, especially “Silver Linings” so I schedule that as well for tomorrow.

Finally finishing up we walk down to Lyon’s Park to check out the Art Festival. Makes us think of the Art Fest in Lexington, just smaller. Lots of really good work, with a good ratio of crafts to arts. Ash liked the alpaca socks and I appreciated the traditional wood long bows.

Over to the grocery store. After shopping we dropped the food stuffs off in the saddle bags and walked down to the Tea Shop. They have IngenuiTeas, which Ashley has been wanting for some time. Mom deposited some birthday money in our checking account and Ashley is using that to buy her gift. She’s so excited!

Gift collected, we head home to try it out. Her face lit up with delight as she made tea. She swears her drink has a richer taste due to the loose floating leaves, compared with them remaining compacted in the tea ball.

We head out for a stroll and find ourselves down at Wild Bill’s Lake. It seems to be a popular picnic/fishing area. Apparently, in 1902, William dammed up a glacial gouge to create a recreation area. Stocked with white fish, built a wood-fired hot pool for soaking, added an outdoor fire place and even a dance floor. Must have been quite a lively place! Over time it deteriorated. In the 60s the dam was rebuilt (by Navy Seabees!) and now it’s what we saw. Pretty lake.

At the far end, away from everyone else, we watched what we assume are muskrats. They swam up to downed logs and sat there, eating. Then dove off and came back to repeat. We spotted at least 5.

We mosey back up the road to home – stopping to snack on some raspberries. At home, we aren’t very hungry – lunch was a bit late and pretty big – so we decide on a popcorn snack. We start discussing the animals we’ve seen and realize it’s a pretty good list so we start writing them down – 20! That’s pretty good, we think!

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

It’s cold when we wake – neither of us want to get out of bed. Eventually we rise. Ashley writes the journal entry for Thursday as I finish up the skien of violet (one left!) and write some posts.

We debate what to do – errands (like groceries) in town or hike up to the waterfalls at the end of this gnarly gravel road. Both, we decide, and gear up for a hike. We can shop this afternoon.

On down to the trailhead we ride. Everywhere we pass is pretty full. Holiday weekend and no threat of rain help with that.

West Fork Trail meets up with the Lake Fork Trail we overnighted on. They converge at Sundance Pass. Today, however, we’re only hiking in 1.8 miles to see both of the waterfalls.

A very pretty trail, we claim it (in conjunction with Lake Fork) the prettiest of the trails we’ve been on. We pass through a variety of terrains, from the rocky remains of an old avalanche, ghost forest of a burnt stand of pines, surviving pine forest and even alpine meadows. I catch myself looking for the colors we saw in the rain on Thursday in the burnt trees.

   
 

Calamity Falls is beautiful. We walk in to the bottom, delighting in the view, then follow the trail up to the top where we enjoy our lunch. The falls are a series of steps, working their way down a hill and around a bend.

   
    
 

After eating we head on up the trail, looking for Sentinal Falls, half a mile further on. We see some white water and a group of people stopped for lunch and continue on. Perhaps that was it?

We stop at every meadow, wide spot in the stream, and view that catches our eye. There are many. We begin to wonder if we missed the falls, if that patch of white water was it. Rock Creek has turned into a wide, meandering stream – blue in the mountain meadows. A far cry from the noisy, splashing rocky creek racing its way joyously down the hill.

   
 

Sure that we’ve walked too far we enter a meadow with a sign. We are in Quinnebaugh Meadows – we’ve walked 2.7 miles past our destination. With enjoyable conversation, breathtaking views, and a delightfully level trail the distance flew by and we didn’t realize how far we’d traveled.

   
 

Once again sure of where we are and about to head back into the pines we decide to turn around and head back. We spot a few people setting up camp. There are more people on the trail today than we have passed up to this point, combined.

We pause and take in the view at Sentinal Falls. Still beautiful, though less impressive than Calamity. A couple of stops are made for wild raspberries growing alongside the trail. We’re sure that we’ve hiked right past a veritable smorgasboard of wild foods without knowing it – our ignorance of what may well be lost knowledge is frustrating.

Back at the trailhead we hop back on the motorcycle and head for home. Once there we decide to save our shopping trip for tomorrow. We can fix supper and edit writings together tonight. Since we’re going in for breakfast in the morning for Ashley’s birthday we can shop then.

Ashley fixes supper as I journal. I have left-over soup from yesterday’s lunch. Ash didn’t care for it.

We edit posts and read before bed.