Back to Yellowstone, MT

Miner, Montana
Carbella BLM Boondocking


After spending time in the plains of North Dakota, it was wonderful to be heading back into the mountains!  We are positioning ourselves to be camped just outside of the north entrance to Yellowstone.

 Mountains here we come!

 Absolutely beautiful out here.

Carbella Rec Area is alongside the Yellowstone River and run by the BLM.  Free to camp here along the river. 

 Here we are right next to the river viewed from my brothers rig.  Almost no one out here.

 Looking over to my brothers rig.

 Plenty of sun for the solar panels.

 River view right out our back window.

 

We have a table we keep in the basement and set that up.  I also brought our kitchen chairs out and set thing up nicely for dinner.  Dining al fresco! 

 My brother smoked the sausages and grilled the corn.  We also had roasted sweet potatoes and salad.

 Don't let these beautiful skies fool you though.  It was COLD!  Snow is also in the forecast.

 Since the winds died down we figured we should get a nice campfire in while we can.

 What a great way to end the day. 

 The moon was full and just beautiful.

 

During the night there was some rain which muddied up the river so my brother and I decided we'd take a ride in the Ranger and check out the mountain roads across the river.

 We found a great dirt road to explore.  We were all bundled up as it was very cold!

 

The grasses looked really cool with the wind blowing them across the hillside.

 Lots of Aspen and fancy houses towards the bottom.  As you drive further up it's all National Forest and the homes are a bit more....

 ... simple.

 And the neighbors can be a bit more grumpy!

 Even the creeks up here are running fast and dirty.

We found a pond along the way that was out of the wind and let my brothers dog, Ruger, out for a swim.

 Up here at 8,000 feet we reach the snowline.  We see only a couple deer and no bears.

We stopped at a small hunting camp near a trail head and gathered up some firewood we found along the way.  Looks like the outhouse (above) took a direct hit!

 Such a gorgeous view from up here.  

Back at camp you this is what some of the other areas look like along the river.  Some have better river views than others and some further down have a lot of tree cover.

 There is an outhouse and a place to put in boats/kayaks/rafts just behind the outhouse.

Some crazy winds whipped through.  They blew so hard I could barely hold the door open! We went out to grab a geocache since we couldn't really sit outside.  It was funny because it was called The End of the Road.  You can see why in the pic below.  You drive out on this short road that is less than 100 feet and then for some reason, it just suddenly ends.  No idea why. 

Tomorrow we spend the day in Yellowstone in the upper loop.  Snow is coming during the night so we hope it won't be too heavy!