Day 144 – August 1 – Teton National Park

Well, they just keep on coming folks!  Another super day on the road – we started out early this morning because we knew we had a lot on our plate today.  We wanted to get into Idaho before we left this area, so we were on the road by 7 o’clock this morning headed west.  As soon as we hit the state line for Idaho, a flagman stopped us.  The sign said 12 miles of roadwork and as we waited, we began to think they were running a pilot car the full 12 miles.  After about 10 minutes we saw the traffic coming our way.  The road was newly paved and the only construction on the stretch closed was for a rest area that was going to be repaved.  The pilot car led us for about 6 miles and then let us go.  Part of the reason for the delay was the pilot car driver had to talk to the flagger at each end for 2 or 3 minutes.  We made our feet entry in Idaho and turned around to return to Yellowstone National Park.

The last time we were in Yellowstone was in 1979 with our popup camper.  A lot has changed and a lot has stayed the same.  It is a kind of scary place with all the steam coming out of the ground.  Dorrie took several pictures on the fly, some are below.

An interesting bird, I don't know what it could be

These are not fires, but steam coming from the ground

We entered the park about 10 minutes before 8 o’clock and we wanted to see Old Faithful, so we checked the schedule for the day and found it was next expected to blow at 9 o’clock.  We made some stops on our way to Old Faithful parking lot and got to our seats about 10 minutes before 9.  At 8:59 by my watch, the show started up and we took loads of pictures.

The base before the show started

After that we drove to Fishing Bridge, with a few more picture stops along the way. 

We crossed the continental divide for the third time today, this time at 8,391 feet above sea level.  The motorhome was moaning as we hit the crest but she did it for us.  We planned to continue on into Teton National Park for the night, so we turned around and headed back to the south gate of the park.  We had not gone very far when there were cars all over the side of the road and people out taking pictures.  Of course I stopped and Dorrie jumped out with her camera.  They were hard to see, but there were a couple of elk laying in the remains of a burned out forest.

Elk jam!!!

We continued on our way and were soon in Teton Park.  These mountains are awesome and more.  The jagged edges of the peaks rising up into the sky are impossible to describe.  You just have to see them for yourself; the pictures don’t come close to capturing effect.

We took many more pictures as we continued on towards Jackson Hole.  We had hoped to stay in a campground near Jackson, but everyone one we called was full.  I called the National Park Service campground at Gros Ventre just inside the national park and they had openings.  We were parked at the visitor’s center at this time and I had asked for directions to the “Million Dollar Bar”.  They said it was an easy 5 minute walk from their parking lot, so we walked down to the Cowboy Bar that features a bar with silver dollars embedded in the bar top and the bar stools are actual horse saddles.  It is quite an interesting place and we really enjoyed the place and the Howling Wolf beer.

We returned to the camper and filled up with gas just in case we had to use the generator at the campground.  I asked the girl inside the gas station if they sold Howling Wolf and she said only the liquor stores in Jackson sold beer, except for a deli that just happened to be on our way.  I tried the deli, but they didn’t have Howling Wolf.

We drove out the campground and had to wait for some bison to cross the road before we could get to our turn off.  

We got an electric spot for what seems like a lot for a national park campground - $36.50 with my senior discount.  Otherwise it would have been $48 for a camping spot with electric hookups.  Oh well, it was hot and this was the only place we could get in for the night.