We left Grand Teton for a brutal 110 mile drive to our KOA campsite in West Yellowstone, Mt. We had to drive all the way through The Grand Tetons, then into Yellowstone National Park. As you can imagine, a very scenic drive. As we got past Old Faithful Geyser, the traffic coming south was unbelievable. There was at least a 10 mile long line of cars at a dead stop for no apparent reason (frequently traffic becomes stopped due to a buffalo or other animal on the road, but we didn’t see anything causing this jam). Moving away from Old faithful was fine, so our guess was just tourist traffic. Coming up on the weekend, we decided not to go into the park thinking it would be very crowded.
We had pretty good internet at our campground, so Saturday became a workday. We find we like interspersing fun, exploring days with days hanging out at the camp ground. I can’t say how much work we get done, but we do need days like this every so often. We did take off in the afternoon to find Lake Hebgen – it’s a pretty good size lake but we could not find it. We were following the GPS and got into some very high end housing areas where we could see water, but we could not get to it. Undaunted, we tried again on Sunday with better directions. What a glorious find! Just below the dam we found Campfire Lodge (and RV Park). It is nestled in the trees right on the Madison River. The RV park was older, very tight with all the trees, but man what a location. So even if we couldn’t stay there, they did have a funky old time cafe that served great food. Nothing better than a stick to your ribs breakfast while sitting 25 feet from a roaring river.
On Monday we headed into the Park early (early for us anyway). Not crowded too badly, traffic flowed, and all the sites were easily accessed. Of course we had to stop at Old Faithful. It erupts about every 98 minutes – we parked, walked up, it erupted. Couldn’t have timed it better. We visited the Visitor Center (we like the movies they show about the area). Then we continued on the Loop Road around the Park.
The Lake Hotel is one of the oldest hotels in the area, We stopped to enjoy lunch, but it was truly only mediocre. You would think a fancy older inn would have the food issue down pat, but the food was nothing to write about (and yet I am, huh?). But seeing buffalo and elk nearby made up for it.
Fishing Bridge area, the only camp ground with full hook ups, is totally torn up as they are redoing the entire area. Lots of road and camp ground construction, but in two years it will probably be fantastic. Campers love full hook ups, so this camp ground books very quickly. As we continued on the Loop road, we ran into more buffalo (well not run into them – just got to see them). But the rain was coming so we decided to head back to the camp ground.
The next day was another hang out at the camp ground. Sitting outside having coffee is an excellent way to start the day. The surrounding area is beautiful – the peaks still have some snow on them. It’s not so bad just hanging out, reading, talking and napping.
So after a day of rest we do like to get back out there and explore. Although there are no separate bike trails, we did find a road along the river that was not well traveled, so we jumped on the bikes for a ride. We see people riding the Loop Road, but with all the traffic it makes us too nervous. But this was perfect – a few fly fishermen, beautiful river and no cars. We explored more of the park and called it a day.
Our last morning here we decided to go back to the cafe at Campfire Lodge – I think that piece of the river was a highlight for us all. We’d love to camp there if we ever come back to this area. Nice drive to get there, great food and awesome setting.
We take off early tomorrow morning, but this afternoon was laundry, cleaning and getting some work done. Well we did have time to share some Champagne with our friends. I’ll get this posted while we have decent internet. We’re still having a blast, enjoying our travels, seeing God’s beautiful creation and meeting people along the way. Yes, we are liking this lifestyle.
