Day 29 July 5- St. Regis, Montana
Before heading out of Olympia, Ed stopped at the repair shop that had worked on our van while we were visiting, so that they could check our transmission fluid (or at least that's the fluid I think it was). Ed had checked it earlier that morning and it had seemed low. I guess they forgot to fill it when it was there. While they didn't charge us for doing it this morning, we were delayed a half hour and we knew we had a long day of driving today.
We then drove approx. 7 hours on I-90 through Idaho and into western Montana. Beautiful weather and countryside. We didn't stop for lunch, just had sandwiches and snacks in the van. After arriving at dusk, Ed and the boys set up the camper at the Nugget RV Park while Ali and I went down the road into the tiny town to a local burger joint to pick up a pretty costly dinner and some shakes (Huckleberry was delicious). I guess it was worth the cost considering how hungry we were and none of us felt like cooking after arriving.
Day 30- July 6 To Yellowstone
Another beautiful drive further east and south of Montana to the western border of Wyoming. We saw the looming dark gray clouds ahead and worried what that meant for our time in Yellowstone. About a half hour before arriving, the clouds opened up and gave us a good car wash. Thankfully, by the time we made it to the Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park, it was nearly finished.
We decided to set up quickly, in case it were to pour again, and then head out to the town for dinner. But, after unhitching the camper and starting our normal routine to set up, the crank which hoists our pop-up made a horrible grinding sound and only lifted it a few inches. It then collapsed and, upon further coaxing, could no longer be hoisted. We drove back to the office to discover that being the Fourth of July weekend they had no availability for their cabins. They had a list of nearby hotels, so we started calling. We found a room in the Days Inn down the road. It was very expensive, but we didn’t have much choice, so we booked it. A couple who had come into the campground office looking for a camping site were quite happy to discover that we would be passing it on to them. We quickly got to our hotel, unpacked our suitcases and cooler, and found a pretty good (albeit busy) restaurant called Gusher.
After returning to Days Inn, we realized that some of our toiletries and other important items that we needed were inside the camper. We were able to open the camper door, remove the camping chairs, and have our thinnest child (Cameron) crawl into the camper and carefully, but successfully retrieve what we needed. But, darn, I forgot to tell him to grab my makeup kit. Oh, well. I would have to make do without! The boys were happy to discover that the hotel had a circular water slide, so I supervised while I had my laptop to keep me busy. They splashed around like little kids. Ed and Ali stayed back in the room and caught up on a few minutes of news and TV programs. Our room only had two queen beds, so we made a bed with stacked blankets and pillows on the floor for Cameron to sleep on. We couldn't be picky as to what rooms they had available. I guess we were lucky to have found availability in town being that it was a holiday weekend.
Leaving Nugget RV Park, St. Regis, MT.
Day 31 July 7– West Yellowstone
The next morning Ed got up early and filled up the gas tank. We didn’t want to have another incident of being low on gas in a national park. After the rest of us awoke, we all had breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant. Upon check-in we were given two free breakfast coupons to use, but the omelet Ed ordered with “everything but mushrooms” was not one of the coupon choices and he didn't realize that all 20 or so extra items were 70 cents each. It ended up being more than $15! We did leave full and ready for our day’s trip in the park.
We packed up our cooler with drinks and lunch items and entered Yellowstone just a few blocks from the hotel. We entered for free with our annual parks pass: We’ve already gotten our money’s worth from the $80 yearly fee. Shortly after arriving we were bumper to bumper in a long line of vehicles. Drivers and passengers eventually parked and got out to see what the holdup was. Apparently there was one buffalo in the road up ahead and visitors were stopped taking photographs. It was cleared off the road and we were finally on our way. We decided to head north and make a big loop through the park. We knew it was going to be big, but had no idea how big- 2.2 million acres! The landscape was incredible, so much so that it brought tears to Ed’s eyes, or maybe just the bright sun shining. J The night before I had found a recommended one-day itinerary from someone who frequented the park regularly. I jotted down the places of interest that were noted, and I referred to these notes as we drove. We ended up stopping at many of them, but not all, as some of the parking spots were overcrowded. There were many animals that we saw up close and personal (mostly elk and bison), but the grizzly and black bears eluded us, perhaps for the best. We saw a plethora of unusual but beautiful landforms: geothermal features, along with rivers, lakes, mountains, and waterfalls. We were particularly impressed with some of the geysers that had bubbling action and differing colors of mud, but there was quite a stench. Pew! We shared some ice cream after viewing one of the waterfalls and then drove around the loop looking at the sights and a place to stop for our picnic. We found a wooded spot to make sandwiches and have our lunch. After Ed used the restroom he warned us that it was really more of an outhouse, so the rest of us decided that we could wait for better facilities at one of the visitor centers which we found not too much further at Canyon.
A park ranger was able to find out when the next expected eruptions for Old Faithful were (on average, it occurs every 90 minutes), so we had an idea of when we needed to be in the general vicinity. At the entry to the center, recent visitors listed what animals they had spotted, their location, and approximate time of the sighting. I noticed that a grizzly, a two toed sloth (a joke!), and a wolf, to name just a few had been noted on the board. While we kept our eyes peeled out the windows, but we weren’t so lucky to find any of the more uncommon animals. It was like a large-scaled game of I-Spy. At one point, Ali and I had thought we had seen a black bear in the woods, but neither of us were sure, and didn’t feel it warranted a trip back to see. We stopped at some more “must see” sights that were on the recommended list and lost track of time. We didn’t want to miss Old Faithful, so we drove as quickly as possible around the southern route, all the while still looking for the more rare animals, but mostly just came upon more bison, elk, and deer.
By the time we got to the parking lot for Old Faithful, it was 6:45 and the predicted times were 6:35-6:55, so I was convinced that we had missed it. Thankfully, Ed had remembered it’s general location since it wasn’t apparent with all of the gift stores, restaurants, and the visitor center in the area. We were hopeful when we spotted a large crowd surrounding the geyser. A fair amount of steam was rising from its top, but we soon discovered it had not yet erupted during this time frame. We found a place to stand or sit to wait, which turned out to be only 5 minutes, before the performance began. I wasn’t as impressed with this natural phenomenon as I thought I would be – not sure why, maybe because it is so predictable. Of course, I did take the obligatory photos and video. Maybe I’ll be more impressed when I look back at them later.
After the show, we headed over to the eatery beside the Visitor Center to get something to drink. We were starting to get tired, having spent the entire day exploring the park. We decided to head back to the west entrance, finalizing the entire loop around Yellowstone. We drove about half of the 14 mile road to the exit before coming to another grinding halt. As we inched forward for a few more miles we discovered that a bison is in the Yellowstone River right beside the road and more visitors are stopped taking photos. Once we got to the location where the bison was, the cars on both sides of the street stopped, so Ian and I decided to get out of the van to see what was happening. At this same time, the bison decided his river bath was through and he/she came up the river bank to the road. I didn’t know how large an animal they are until they stand beside you! I stepped behind a nearby parked car as it walked down the middle of the road beside us. Ian and I quickly got back in the van and the parked vehicles continued on. A park ranger sped between the cars and herded the bison off the road to either protect us or the bison, not sure which.
The rest of the drive out of the park was uneventful and we headed to a pizzeria in the town which was listed in the AAA guide. It was a Saturday night, so there was a 45 minute wait. Ali and the boys went to check out the other pizzeria a block away and found that there was no wait. Ed and I joined them and got the last table outside.
While we waited for our order, Ian complained of not feeling well. He had his head down and wasn’t sure if he wanted anything to eat. Could it have been the altitude affecting him again? But once he had a slice of the pizza, he perked right up again, and even wanted a salad. As we sat under the awning eating we saw the gray clouds approaching again, a repeat of the night before. This time the storm began with hail before turning into rain. By the time we were completely finished with our meal, the rain had pretty much stopped. We were again lucky to have had a gorgeous day in the park and only rain while we were at the restaurant. We went back to the hotel and Ian wanted to go back to the pool one last time. Just as he got there they had closed it, even though it was well before the posted closing time. I found out that because there was lightning in the distance, the rule is to close the pool (even though it is indoors). So, the kids decided to go to Dairy Queen instead, just a block away, to get dessert. We didn’t let the woes with the camper spoil our day. We'll have to get it taken care of at our next stop.
