Two National Parks Checked Off My Bucket List

On June 13, I flew to Denver where Erik and kids picked me up. We stopped in Fort Collins where my cousin Barbara and my Aunt Ellie joined us for lunch. I hadn’t seen them since 2009. Behind her oxygen cannula, she looked as I had remembered her and she’ll be 92 on the Fourth of July! My grandparents and their 5 children, one of which was my mother, had recently moved to Iowa from Denmark. The doctor coaxed Grandma to push extra hard so she could have the baby on their first Independence Day.

After spending the night in Rock Springs, Wyoming, we drove to Jackson, where we picked up the 31’ Class C RV I had reserved. We didn’t get it until late afternoon and drove to a nearby campground, Gros Ventre, near Grand Tetons National Park.

 

 

Wednesday morning, we drove through GTNP and Yellowstone NP, making one stop by some geysers.

 I had reserved three nights at a campground 9 miles outside West Yellowstone, MT, near the west entrance to the park. I began to get a little concerned as we had to drive 5 miles on a forest service road, a graded dirt road. On both sides we had nothing but fallen tree trunks from the 1988 fires. However, when we got to the campground, it was like an oasis. We ended up with a site which had a deck and Erik backed the camper right up to it so that we stepped out onto it. Also had nice fenced in area which made it feel like a yard. Best part of all…full hook-up. Water, sewer and electric. Sweet!

Thursday was cold and windy so we decided to go into town. We spent couple hours at the Wolf and Grizzly Discovery Center. Here they have bears, wolves and raptors unable to be in the wild for various reasons. It was especially fun to watch the grizzlies try to get food out of a bear proof garbage can. Companies send products to be tested to see how hard it is for the bears to get into them. Jeffrey was happy to see bears behind a fence. He didn’t even want to come on the trip because he was afraid of bears.

From the Discovery Center, we walked over to iMax to see “Yellowstone.” While it was interesting, I was disappointed it didn’t show more of the park in spring and summer. It was mainly a history lesson and most shots were taken in winter. Disappointing.

Friday was our geyser day. Back into Yellowstone Park, we headed directly to Old Faithful. After seeing OF perform, we hiked up to the Observation Point, a 200’ elevation change which doesn’t sound like much except when you’re already over 7000’ and live at sea level! I was breathing hard by the time I got to the top. We then followed a dirt trail through the woods, which Jeffrey wasn’t happy about, but wasn’t long before we came upon Solitary Geyser.

We got back to the boardwalk which goes around many other geysers surrounding OF. It was very windy and I lost my hat onto a geyser bed. You can’t walk out there so my hat is now in Yellowstone. We saw OF erupt one more time before leaving what is called Upper Geyser Basin. We then made stops at Midway Geyser Basin and Lower Geyser Basin. Pictures are worth a thousand words…

Solitary Geyser - my favorite

Solitary Geyser so called because it was by itself, surrounded by forest. We could sit quite close and Erik noticed the bubbling water. He pointed to it and about that time the geyser shot 4-5 feet in the air. In 20 minutes, we saw it go off three times. Pretty exciting!








 

We were to check out of our campground on Saturday morning and head to Gros Ventre again. However, we decided we wanted to go to Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone on Saturday. I called to see if we could get another night in our same spot and we could. So the next day, we drove back into the park to go to the northwest section. We were only a few miles into the park when traffic slowed to a crawl. We wondered what animals were crossing the road. After almost an hour, we got to the “trouble spot.” It was 4 elk on the other side of the river. We couldn’t believe so many people had to slow down for that. Once past that point, we had no further trouble with traffic and enjoyed the waterfalls on the Yellowstone River running through the Grand Canyon.

On way back to campground, saw this buffalo herd. Erik counted 25 adults and 12 babies.

Sunday we drove back down through Yellowstone and Grand Tetons to Gros Ventre. We made some stops along the way, one of which was Jackson Lake Lodge, a 5-star resort where presidents stay. We went inside the lobby which has large windows looking at the Tetons. They are so beautiful!!




After setting up camp, we went with Ron and Jane to Dornan’s, an iconic “village” on the plains with a great view of the Grand Tetons. Ron and Jane are friends who lived around the corner from us in Terravita. After coming to the Tetons for 11 years, they found a 4-bedroom condo, sold their Terravita home and are now residents of Wyoming. They have a lovely home in an idyllic setting, very peaceful.

Monday, June 20, we toured GTNP. We took a ferry across Jenny Lake and did a 3-mile hike, Took the ferry back and drove to Signal Mountain Lodge where Erik rented a speed boat and took the three kids for an hour-long ride. It was hot and I needed some peace so stayed at the lodge where I enjoyed a cold beer, Wyoming wings, and USA Today.

 

We had some problems with our RV Monday night, our last night. Erik had filled the water tank. I took a shower as did Gracie. Kadin was halfway through her shower when there was no more water. I had to give her bottles of drinking water to rinse her hair. There was a big puddle outside which was obviously the water tank. I told them about it when we returned the RV. Been nice if they’d offered a refund as we also had some trouble with the generator. Otherwise, it was a very nice RV.

Tuesday, after stopping by Ron and Jane’s, we drove to Salt Lake City. I took a shuttle to the airport on Wednesday, our 53rd anniversary. I saw that my flight was delayed 40 minutes. As I was concerned about missing my connection in Denver, I was able to get the last seat on an earlier flight. I preferred waiting in Denver for two hours than being stressed about my connection. Arne met me in Orlando. By this time, it was almost 8:30. So we did nothing special for this anniversary. We’ll make it up next week-end when we spend 3 nights at The Inn at Cocoa Beach.


Thursday, June 23, a month after my fall, my arm was no better. I stopped by my chiropractor who had me do some arm movements to see when I got pain. He said I should get an MRI to find out what’s going on or we could do more damage. I went to my primary care doctor Friday as she had to see me before calling in an order for the MRI. Now I’m waiting for Lake Imaging to call to set up an appointment. I really miss my sports and hope it’s not a tear. That could take months to heal and I’m scheduled to play basketball at the Huntsman Senior Games in Utah October 3!