Yellowstone, Part 1

West Yellowstone, MT
Baker's Hole Campground

After all the rain and flooding in Idaho, it's nice to get some sunshine on our drive up north to Montana.  It's also nice to be back into the mountains with the fragrant pines.  Another lesson learned, when dumping tanks at a dump station (not at the campground were staying at) don't just take the info you read as truth.  Call ahead.  We wanted to go straight to our campground as it was first come, first serve and it's very popular as it's one of the few forest service campgrounds that has electric hookups and it's within 5 miles of Yellowstone.  I read that there was a place to dump just outside the campground.  They meant completely out of the campground, not across the road.  We figured we could get by another week without dumping the black and gray tanks, but we did need fresh water.  We tried to use a hose cheater, but it was a huge fail.  I stayed back in the campsite with the dog and a chair while Steve drove  the 5 miles back to town to a dump station.  It cost $6 and quite a bit of frustration as Steve could not easily find the park at first.  We won't make that mistake again.

I'm glad I wasn't driving.  The lane was narrow and the
drop off on the right side was about 2 ft.

We love the campground, it sits right on the river with a few river view spots of which a handful will fit a large RV (we are 40ft).  It's about 70 sites, 1/3 are electric which are spread out throughout the campground.  Number 48, a pull through, looked the best and will fit a large rig.  Some are open, most are treed and internet is a little sketchy.  At our spot, #16, we were getting 1 bar of 3G.  Not gonna cut it for Steve's work.  Until we put up our redneck antenna booster  :-)

It's a 4 ft PVC pipe with a small sheet of metal on top with the 4G Verizon Booster Antenna on top of that.  Steve drilled holes through the pipe then put small bungee cords in them.  I climb the ladder on the back of the RV and bungee it up so that it extends 3 ft above the roof of the 5er.  It boosted one single bar to 4 bars.  Still not the best, but workable.  We plan to try a thicker pipe and maybe making it 12 ft.  When not used, it could be bungeed to the ladder.  Not much weight and not that visible.

We spent our first day relaxing and doing a lot of bike riding.  We'd really like to do some fishing while here.  We watched the osprey diving in the river and catching fish, otters playing across the bank and lots of fry (little fish) jumping in and out of the water.  There is a pile of somewhat fresh elk poop behind our campsite, maybe we'll see elk wander through?

 

 

It sure smells good in the trailer.  Steve put together his famous Pork Verde in the crock pot.  Our new 4 qt crock pot.  It's the perfect size.  We used our last jar of a good friends Spicy Chili Verde Sauce.  Steve adds fresh cilantro and more fresh chilis & onions and just lets is simmer all day.  You could smell it several sites down.  For dinner we filled tortillas and had some spanish rice.  Lot's of leftovers too.

Tomorrow we'll drive into the park and spend the day, maybe get a real hike in.  I think someone is tired from our bike riding/walking today.













Saturday, August 9
Upper Loop

There were many waterfalls, fumaroles, mud pots and geysers to see as well as some great wildlife.

 

 

Here's looking over the edge.  LONG way down!

  

At the top just before going over.

 

 

Reflection in Yellowstone River while we took a lunch break.

   Old Faithful, of course!

 

Did you know that the rainfall that lands on the west side of the mountains flows to the Pacific Ocean and the
rain that falls on the eastern side flows to the Mississippi?  It also runs all the way from Canada to Mexico.

 We've been here before, but there is so much to see!  We are having a great time so far.