Yellowstone 2020 Overview
Our route for this trip:
Animals seen on this trip:
Wild turkeys (10+) in Missouri
Antelope (10+) in South Dakota
Mule deer in Montana
Elk (herd of 50+) in Montana
Bison in Yellowstone.
Elk in Yellowstone
Mule deer in Yellowstone
Wild turkey in Yellowstone
Trout in Yellowstone
Bear in Colorado on the Highway of Legends
There is a small bear in this picture running back up the hill. He ran into the road right in front of us, saw us, and ran back up the hill:
Wednesday, September 16. We begin our day enjoying our coffee with a view and then head to the highway of legends. There is no fall color, but it is still a pretty drive. We are taking the opposite direction – going Walsenburg to Trinidad. This is the stretch of road where we saw the bear run down a hill to our right, stop in the street and look at us, turned around and headed back up the hill. Since we love this area of Colorado, we noted several camping places to check out before we go again. Of course we like the state parks in Trinidad and Walsenburg - we have stayed at both multiple times. Bear lake campground and Blue lake campground look to be either state or NFS campgrounds. We also noticed Monument Lake Resort which is only open from mid May until mid September. It is an Independent campground with a small lodge, some adobe cabins and full-service RV camping.
Today, we
got as far as Fort Supply in Oklahoma.
We have stayed at this state park before and it is a pretty spot, I get
half price so it only costs us $12 to stay here.
Thursday, September 17. We got up and hit the road, stopping at a McDonalds that was 14 miles
down the road. We got on the road at
9:00 am and arrived home at 3:00. We had
time to say hi to Mom, Melissa came by, we showered, and headed to Evans
football game.
Monday, September 14, 2020
We
pack up and head out, going east then south on grand loop and then turn towards
the Tetons. The smoke is so much worse
today. It has really affected the
visibility during our drive. As we drive
into the Teton National Park, you can’t even see the “Tetons” in the distance
like we normally can. We cut off on Hwy
287 just south of the park entrance and plan to get to Rawlins, Wyoming tonight.
We are surprised at how long the smoke is hanging around – almost all
the way to Rawlins. We are staying at
the KOA in Rawlins tonight.
Tuesday, September 15, 2020. We are headed to Colorado, hoping to see some fall color. Today is a travel day and we are listening to our audible book. We arrive in Walsenburg, Colorado around 5:30.
We really haven’t gotten an early start any morning, but we got off a little earlier today and the line was still long to get into the park. We plan on fishing a little more today. We made the entire Grand Loop heading south on the loop first. We fished on the Firehole River and the Yellowstone River. Phillip caught a trout on the Firehole River. I got pretty good at fly fishing. J. We had a nice lunch with a view of the thermal features that are a little North of Old Faithful. We did some exploring around Yellowstone Lake and found several pretty spots on side roads.
There is a fire just south of Old Faithful (named the Lone Star Fire) and we notice the smoke today on the southern part of the grand loop. We got back to the camp ground and noticed that it was still smoky in West Yellowstone. Our eyes are burning, we are sneezing and coughing….we feel like we are getting a cold, but it is the smoke. We decided that we should probably head out tomorrow to get away from the smoke.
Our route for this day:
We checked out of our hotel and headed to West Yellowstone through the park. We arrived at our KOA on the west side of town around 10:30 and dropped our camper since it was too early to check in. We stopped at the fly shop in West Yellowstone, purchased our fishing licenses, and Phillip bought some flies. We headed into the park (long line to get into the park) and continued to check out the side drives. Phillip did some fishing on the Madison River. I was sitting in a chair watching Phillip fish and then we walked to the truck to each lunch. I looked up and the “trail” that ran along the river had a Bison walking by and he was just a yard behind where Phillip was sitting eating his sandwich.
We visited some of the thermal features in the Norris Geyser Basin, drove across to the point where the road was closed at Canyon Village. Phillip fished on the Madison and the Gibbons
Rivers today. So we went east, north and then
east again and turned around and went back to the campsite. We still had to set up at the KOA since we had not
checked in yet. We stayed at this campground with Kyler. The weather is pleasantly cool and we sat out by our camp
fire tonight.
Our route on this day:
We are in a line of traffic to get into Yellowstone National Park. We have been to Yellowstone in the fall before - when we lived in Billings. However, it was not crowded at all at that time. We were surprised by the crowds which included young families with children. I am continually surprised by changes caused by the pandemic that I did not anticipate.
Since we couldn’t get a campground for Friday night we are staying at the Absaroka Lodge and we left the camper in their parking lot during the day while we go into the park. We line up to get in the park around 9. Although there is a line, it moves quickly. We decide to check out the side drives this time around and we plan to see Lamar valley today.
Lamar
Valley is teaming with Bison herds and we stop and look at those. We take a side drive to Slough Creek
trailhead and saw some Bison along the creek as well as Pronghorn. We decided it was a pretty spot for lunch so
unpacked our chairs and picnic and sat and enjoyed the scenery.
Afternoon
we hike part of the Lamar River Trail (see picture). Phillip found petrified wood in the river! Before going back to the hotel, we visit Mammoth Hot Springs. It has changed so much since we first started coming to Yellowstone. It is
so disappointing since it has basically dried up.
I got up early and walked around the campground in Broadus to get a little exercise. We had breakfast in the camper (pandemic!). We arrived in Billings at noon so we made a stop at a Starbucks on King Street. I went inside Starbucks to get our food. Phillip was walking around the camper checking everything and an Indian woman came by and asked if that was his rig – he said, "Yep." Then she said are you married? And he said, "Yep and my wife is walking up now." She said, "OK. have a good day" and walked away! So funny - I'm going to have to keep an eye on Phillip.
We headed to Gardiner via Hwy 89. We stopped at a rest area and saw a herd of elk heading up the mountain – so cool. We are checking out a few campgrounds along the way – all full. We had already tried to get a reservation but since not all campgrounds were listed on my app, we thought we might be able to get in a campground. We ended up going to the Eagles Nest campground on NFS land which was our plan if we could not find anything else. The campground was full so we continued up the mountain another 1.5 miles to the boondocking area. We found a spot on the side of the road (they were all like that). This was a one-lane, gravel road, but somehow Phillip got the RV turned around so that we were facing down. This camping spot is so scary for me! However, Phillip had chocks and wood blocks on 4 wheels and had the emergency break on.
We had chili dogs for dinner and sat
outside. Phillip went in and got ready
for bed. I went outside after dark and
SAW THE MILKY WAY! IT WAS AWESOME and on
my vacation "to do" list (no picture). No hookups,
but we did fine. Although it got down to
30 degrees during the night, we both stayed toasty. I planned for boondocking and brought instant coffee and a pot for the stove top. After blueberry pancakes we headed
down to Gardnier. We still couldn't find a campground for Saturday Friday night, so we made a reservation at the Absoraka Lodge. They agreed to let us drop the trailer in their parking lot while we explored the park. This big guy was checking us out when we pulled into the lot:
We hit the road this morning around 9 am. We are headed to a campground in Broadus, MT. The advertisement said that this is a working farm and to expect animals roaming around the campground.
We are staying at the Wayside RV campground. It is very small - about 10 spots. Apparently they get a lot of hunters here. The owners live on site and have chickens, ducks and turkeys. This big bird - Mr. Tom - will be on their Thanksgiving table. They eat the eggs from both the chickens and ducks, IF the snakes don't get them first.
This was a very long travel day for us, but tomorrow we will arrive in Gardiner around 2 pm. We will probably have time to set up camp (we are staying here for 4 days) and drive into the park for a bit. We got out of the rain around noon today and it has been beautiful weather. High of 66 degrees and perfectly clear Montana "BIG sky."
The last time we were in Yellowstone in the fall was 2002. I had just accepted a job at Montana State University in Billings. Phillip had moved what little furniture we had in the apartment and gone back to Arkadelphia to finish up some work at Daily Lumber Company. Although I had been in Billings since mid August, Phillip arrived on September 12, 2002 and our adventure began. We absolutely loved the area in the fall and have wanted to go back in the fall since then. However, when you teach you can't take vacations during a semester. We have waited for 18 years to go to Yellowstone in the fall and we are so excited!
We left Farmington, AR at 8 am today. It was 80 degrees, but we knew the temperature would drop throughout the day because the high in Sioux City, Iowa was 46. By the time we got to Kansas City at noon, the temperature had already dropped to 56 degrees! The temperature went down steadily thereafter. It also started raining in the afternoon and continued through the night. We arrived in South Sioux City around 5:30 pm at the Scenic Park RV Campground. The campground was easy to get to, well maintained, and right on the bank of the Missouri River (Nebraska side).
