Escapade

We arrived at the Fairgrounds in Gillette Sunday. As we are boondocking and using our solar we got a space right across from the main buildings. We can just walk to the seminars and get togethers rather than drive or ride bikes as the hook up areas are a little farther away. Also not that many rvs in this sections and so we are not crowded together. We went to some interesting seminars. They had a lot of seminars on rvs themselves, such as tire pressure systems, propane, driving tips, fire safety,etc. Others on workamping, line dancing and financial investment. We were especially interested in the travel seminars. We went to several put on by Mike and Terry Church, who are full timers who have been at it for 19 years. They have written many books and give seminars around the country. We went to to one on Alaska and were just wowed. We want to go to Alaska and their seminar just reinforced it. We also went to a few others of theirs, one on the Pacific Northwest and one on the Southwest and headed up buying their books on all three. We like both of those areas and have spent time there but know we will in the future as well and are always looking for new places in those areas. We also signed up for a group called the Mexican Connection, who spend a few weeks every year traveling somewhere in Mexico. We signed up for a trip next February. It is to Puerto Penasco, or Rocky Point as it is known in English. It is a village on the Sea of Cortez and only about 60 miles below the border.  Its about 3 and 1/2 hours from Phoenix. It should be a good trip. We went to another seminar on traveling around the world by rv. It included some information on camping at farms and wineries. We signed up for $30.00 a year. You can then stay overnight at various wineries and farms for free. Of course, you would want to buy a bottle or two of wine while there but that sounds like a good deal. We also went to seminars on facebook(got to get into the 21st century and sign up for it). I went to one on beyond Picasa put on by the Geeks on Tour. We have been to other of their seminars at another rally we went to last year. I learned a lot at this one about picasa that I didn't know before. Joe had to leave early as we had a problem with our heater/air conditioner and had mobile rv repair person who is at the rally came over to fix it. Always something. There was entertainment at night and happy hours where we chatted with others about their experiences in traveling either full time or part time in their motor homes. We had a good time.

Elk, Buffalo and Snow

Thursday had been rainy and we didn't do much except go back into Bozeman to get Joe's prescriptions and some more groceries so we are set for the coming week in Gillette. Friday morning looked sunny and we all set out for Yellowstone to do some kayaking in Yellowstone Lake. We drove our usual route through the North entrance. At the visitor center there were even more elk than the other day.

                                                             Joe and Savannah waiting for me

We weren't done with wildlife We were close to the lower falls and few families of Bison were walking in the middle of the road, babies and all.

                                                                          

The Lower Falls which is in what is called the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. These falls are 308 feet in height They are about 40 water falls throughout the Park.

When we were there, we were starting to hear thunder and the skies were getting pretty dark in some areas. We had been driving for about three hours already and the boat launch area is still about an hour away It looks like we may skip the kayaking this time. We drove over Fishing Bridge. There is a campground here and is where we stayed last time we were here. Actually a better place to stay as it is fairly center to all the sights in the park. We stopped in a pull out area by the lake and we walked a little by the water with Savannah and had some lunch we brought along. We decided to make our way back home.

                                                                
 Weather had been strange today, sunny, cloudy, thunder and rain and even a little snow in the higher elevations.

Well, this was our last day exploring Yellowstone. Lots of fun. Tomorrow we are off to Buffalo, Wyoming for one night and then will have a short hour drive to Gillette to check in for the Escapade. It is our first one, though we have been to four Escapee Hops, and we are looking forward to seeing what it is like.
                                                                                                                                

More time in Yellowstone

We left Savannah home in the MH and took off for another day in Yellowstone.  We again entered through the Roosevelt Arch and as we continued stopped for some views and took a picture of one of Yellowstone's tour buses. Unlike Glacier's, which were red, these are yellow. Hum, wonder why they picked that color.

We took the turn towards Tower- Roosevelt and stopped at Undine Falls. We then took a six mile side road called Blacktail Plateau Drive. It is an one way unpaved road and usually has a lot of wildlife. We didn't see any but it was still a nice drive.

                                                             

                                                                                  We got back to the main road and took another turn to see the Petrified Tree. It was created during volcanic activity in Yellowstone. It is surrounded by a fence as there use to be three trees but the others were vandalized as people took pieces of them for souvenirs.

We next continued on to Tower Falls. There is a small path to walk down to get the awesome views of the 132 Falls.
 The formations that are seen here and across the Yellowstone River were formed by a basaltic lava flow that cracked into the hexagonal columns, or "fence posts," as it slowly cooled

                                                            

We stopped at Canyon Village for lunch It was 2:30 and the restaurant was closed and so we just got some sandwiches and potato salad and drinks and stopped at a nice spot on a creek. We then went to the Norris Geyser Basin. It is the hottest geyser basin in Yellowstone. There are two sections, one Back Basin and the other called Porcelain Basin and we took the paths to both. Steamboat Geyser is here and is the largest active geyser and can reach 380 feet when it erupts. Unfortunately, it is rare and the last time it had a major eruption was in 1991. It does have minor eruptions of up to 40 feet.

We headed north and back to the campground where a happy dog, Savannah welcomed us home with her usual kisses.
                                                        



                                                                                                                                                                              

Yellowstone where the Buffalo Roam

We made an one night stand in Great Falls and on Saturday drove to Yellowstone Edge RV Park between Livingston and Emigrant. It is 31 miles to the north entrance of Yellowstone. We plan to be here most of the week. It is a nice full service campground right on Yellowstone River. Unfortunately we weren't able to get a site on the water but still nice views of the hills

Sunday we just went into Bozeman to do some grocery shopping.  Just relaxed back at the site the rest of the day, catching up on blogs, updating ours and reading our favorites and Joe catching up on work. Also getting use to the heat as weather was mild during our Canada time. Monday it was almost noon before we headed for Yellowstone. We are taking Savannah and so will drive through the park, stopping at various sites. However, we will come back another day without her to walk some of the trails that dogs are not allow on. We were here in early June of 2003 and stayed at Fishing Bridge, which is right in the middle of the park.
This time, we weren't sure if everything would be booked and so decided to stay out of the park. Yellowstone is just huge and has so much variety in this volcano area, known for its geysers and waterfalls as well as its abundant wildlife. We decided to take the big loop, going down from the Mammoth Hot Springs down to Old Faithful and then around to West Thumb and Grant Village area to check out possible kayak spots and up past Yellowstone Lake towards Tower Falls.

                                                   
 We stopped at a creek to watch our first sighting of wildlife in Yellowstone and a man fly fishing. He looked like he knew what he was doing  We stopped at a creek to eat the lunch we packed.

Onto Old Faithful, which is always an experience. Eruptions can shoot 3,700 to 8,400 US gallons of boiling water to a height of 106 to 185 feet lasting from around 1.5 to 5 minutes. The average height of an eruption is 145 feet (44 m).^[7] The highest recorded eruption was 185 feet high. Intervals between eruptions are between 65 to 90 minutes apart these days.


Old Faithful




Another shot




Another geyser just down the way

We checked out West Thumb and Grant Village and will most likely kayak in this area later in the week Our drive continued along Yellowstone Lake. This lake is the largest in the park and covers 136 square miles with 110 miles of shoreline. We took a boat cruise on the lake the last time we were here,  which was definitely worthwhile.

What a great drive. We were wondering if we would see any bison and had about given up when we saw a bunch of cars at the side of the road WOW, a whole herd up the side of the road. One was even standing in the parking turnout. What an experience!!!!

In an average year, there are about 3,000 bison in the park. They are the largest land mammal in North America and are very impressive. We watched them for awhile. Savannah, of course, had to stay in the car, and was checking them out and barking. She wanted to play with the big "dogs". We continued on with just more beautiful scenery and an Elk right at the North Entrance.

Roosevelt Arch

It was after 7 o'clock by the time we got back to our site and topped off the drive with a rainbow.  It rained in the evening, which was fine by us as we had a gorgeous day.