2013 Western Trip – Victor, ID

Our stay at Red Rock was to include a trip down to Jackson, WY for a girls day of shopping, but when we realized it was a two hour drive and they decided one day may not be enough, we changed our plans.  Since it’s easier to find campground spots after Labor Day, I made no reservations past our stay at Red Rock so I looked around for a place near Jackson and nothing came very well rated so we ended up in Victor, Idaho for a three day stay.

It was an easy 120 mile drive to get to Teton Valley RV Park, which is located in the valley of the Teton River, with the majestic Teton’s to the east and rolling Big Hole Mountains to the west.  It’s a flat valley heavily used for agriculture (wheat and potatoes) and ranching.  Like Townsend back in TN (Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge are on the other side), it’s known as the quiet side of the mountains (Jackson, WY on the other side).

The three valley towns are Tetonia, Victor, and Driggs (the largest).  We'd actually been through Victor and Driggs several times when we would stay in Jackson but ski mostly at Grand Targhee - some of the best conditions ever.

As is often heard said about a successful business – it’s location, location, location and this park is an example - $55 per night for a nice, but pretty average campground (usually $20/ night less somewhere else)  We had an end spot and as you can see there is nice space and good greenery between sites.  I would stay here again if in the area.

On the first full day the three three girls went shopping in Jackson (Pat came home with an reindeer hide) and I puttered around the RV. 

Sorry about the lack of food posts lately, but we've been to busy to cook anything interesting or even eat out except fast food.  

Also, you can see from  the event date at the post bottom that I'm getting far behind - I write one nearly every day but post every other day so if you'll hang with me til about Thanksgiving you'll see the entire trip :-).

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

9/6/2013 event date

2013 Western Trip – Yellowstone’s Upper Loop

Our second day in Yellowstone began with the upper and lower falls on the Yellowstone River which we didn’t do on the previous day’s lower loop tour – this was my main want-to-see in the park.  We went out the north rim and didn’t get a great view of the upper falls, but did get a good one of the 328 stairs leading to the bottom (what a hike).

Known as the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, it is pretty spectacular in its own right.  This is the lower falls and a couple of shots of the deep gorge.

From there, we headed up over Mt. Washburn for some vast scenery views,

then out into the Lamar Valley toward the NE park entrance hoping to see more wildlife and we did see many more bison but nothing else.  While we saw plenty of bison and elk in the park, we did not see some of the other park residents – such as moose, bear, eagle, wolf.

We finally drove over to Mammoth Springs for a view of park headquarters, which reminded me a lot of a small military post. The thermal feature there is a large complex of hot springs on a hill of travertine, which was difficult to see without climbing lots of stairs and was not as impressive as the other features we’d seen.  The first shot is mine and I lifted the others from the web.

I know we did Yellowstone an injustice by spending only two days there and regret we missed some of the sights you suggested, but I think we got to see a little of about everything - the lower loop contained the most.  It would have been nice to have been in shape to see a little of the back country but such is life.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

9/3/2013 event date

2013 Western Trip – Yellowstone’s Lower Loop Part II

As I said in the previous post, from Old faithful, we headed over to West Thumb Basin and made a couple of stops along the way.

West Thumb is along the banks of Yellowstone Lake and contained one thing Bev really wanted to see - the thermal features bubbling up through the lake water.  But alas, the water level was too low and they were above it.

The remainder of the basin contained some amazingly blue hot pools.

From there, we drove along the lake to Fishing Bridge then along the Yellowstone River to Canyon Village, with stops at Dragon's Mouth Spring, Mud Volcano and Sulphur Caldron.

Further north we saw several large bison herds grazing in the plains along the river.

Fire damage and re-growth are evident throughout the park.

Finally, we headed for home and had our best view of elk along the river drive.  While we were watching the females and young in the water to our right, the bull, who we had not seen, stood up abut 15 feet from the left of the car.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

9/2/2013 event date 

2013 Western Trip – Yellowstone’s Lower Loop Part I

The day after Labor Day, we finally got serious about seeing Yellowstone, but before we did, I consulted with our campground neighbor who had been coming here regularly since the mid 70’s and worked in the park for three years.  He gave us the scoop on the places we could get the most bang for our buck beginning with a drive along the Firehole River Canyon.

Next we headed for the Lower Geyser Basin and Fountain Paint Pot which contained one of each type of thermal feature found in the park – geysers, colored hot springs, bubbling mudpots, and steaming fumaroles. Half of the world’s thermal features are in Yellowstone.

And as all visitors must, we next went to Old Faithful.

After a visit to the Old Faithful Inn, we headed for the West Thumb Geyser Basin and I'll pick up there on the next post.
  

It was an exciting day in the park and we got to see many wonders.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

9/3/2013 event date