Sunday, June 22 (North of Vernal, Utah)
We are continuing our ramble toward Canada camping in a new state every day so far...
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| Flaming Gorge Reservoir dam |
Today started with a short ride from our mountain top camp site at Longbow NFS CG. Beth has not done much riding since she cracked her kneecap in December. Riding a third consecutive day with a lack of calluses in key spots is beginning to be "felt". Today's ride was more about building saddle time than going long distances. Plus, if we rode too far in either direction it was going to be a long, steep climb back to the RV. 15 miles and 1000' of climbing was enough.
As we continued north we drove through Flaming Gorge Recreation Area . A large dam blocks the Green River creating a large reservoir. The gorge is quite impressive. Then on into Wyoming. We stopped for gas and lunch in Rock Springs and groceries in Pinedale. Our final destiatnion for the day was Hoback campground along the Hoback river. Hoback is about 30 miles south of Jackson, Wyoming and the Jackson Hole area. Another very nice, national forest campground, although a little primate, it had a good selection level parking sites for the RV. We appreciate the conforts of the RV, especially Beth. Having been in the Jackson Hole/Yellowstone area the last 2 summers, finding a camping spot can be a real challenge. So finding a $15/night camping spot is a real bargain.
Monday, June 23
The Teton's are always impressive and today was no exception. We really enjoyed our 44 miles loop around the park. We rode through the park 2 years ago from south to north. This time riding north to south provided a different perspective. The views were exceptional, the weather fantastic and the drivers courteous. We saw Bison, Antelope and Deer along the way. Grand Teton National Park and Jackson, WY are linked by a bike path so from Moose, WY to Jenny Lake we were on a designated pathway. It's a nice way to see the park and would be manageable for the less experienced rider or families as it's only a 14 mile round trip ride. We saw a few families on the path, but it would be nice to see more bicycles and fewer cars in the national parks. Unfortunately most are not set up for bikes with little shoulders on the roads plus they charge a bike $12 per person! Not very friendly to us low carbon foot-print types riding a bicycle and driving our diesel RV. That makes this bike path exceptionally nice.
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| The Grand Tetons ... and the flowers were great as well. |
After our ride it was into the RV and onto Yellowstone National Park. Having been to the park the last two summers, we decided to skip the Old Faithful area (and the accompanying zoo that surrounds it) and travel up the east side of the grand loop. This took us out of most of the heavy traffic and provided new scenery. The Yellowstone river is quite impressive and you still get to see quite a few bubbling hot springs (and smell the sulfer). The Yellowstone River is the largest un-dammed river in the continental US.
Bision seem to be plentiful this season especially in the eastern side of the park. And of course most people seem to think they are the only ones in the park. As we approached one area, an RV crossed the road directly in front of us, barely go the tires off the road, the side door is flies open and three people jump out into the road to take a picture. Not that the Bison seem to be moving away in any big hurry. Now we are not the largest RV but we are not small, nor are we quiet. We barely got stopped in time to avoid the 3 people jumping from the
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Bison enjoying a hot mud bath... people pay a lot of
money for this treatment at a spa |
RV or removing their door. Another time, we ended up stopped in the middle of the road behind about 5 cars. Each car pulled up to the two Bison standing by the road, came to a complete stop, rolled down their window and took pictures. There was a pullout for cars just 100 yards down the road. I'm not sure why wildlife in national parks is so much more interesting and by this point we had probably seen 1000 bison. Mammoth Hot Springs is just inside the North Entrance and is again a driver's nightmare. It seems you get to leave your common sense at the gate of a national park.
But sometimes there is justice... just after we entered the south entrance of Yellowstone we were passed by a blue Toyota going about 70 mph. The speed limit in Yellowstone is 45mph at it's highest and we were going about 50 at the time. A few minutes later we were looking for a pullout to take a quick
rest and saw one up the road with our friend in the blue Toyota parked in it. We pulled in behind them and planned to pull forward in the pullout when they left since we were barely off the road. They jumped back in their car after their quick picture of the scenery, but seemed to be having a problem. I sat and watched for a couple of minutes as I saw the door open and close, the doors lock and unlock, but no progress toward moving. Finally the driver jumps out and starts walking back toward us. I had a pretty good guess what his problem was... he couldn't get the steering wheel to unlock to start the rental car. He was from an asian country, but spoke fair English. I said I thought I could help him out since we had owned a Toyota 4Runner and knew the steering wheel sometimes needs to be turned to release the lock to allow you to start the car. So I jumped in and got him going... my good deed for the day, but I did get a couple of good chuckles at his expense while I watched him struggle to start the car.
On another note:
Once we were outside of the park, cell phone and internet service resumed. We stopped to listen to messages and Ted took the opportunity to call Mike, his brother. Unfortunately the news was not good. Ted's mom had been diagnosed with Stage 4 Pancreatic cancer two weeks ago. It is progressing fast and although he had been back to visit her last week before we started the trip, we have decided that we need to head back to Missouri again. So we will be making a right turn and heading east. Chances are we will not be posting again. We will start a new post when we are able to plan another adventure... or resume this one sometime in the future.
