Yellowstone, just in time!

We are really stretching traveling during the “shoulder season” up north: camp grounds are closing a day after we leave (or shut off the water for the season), roads are about to close. So far, we have been really lucky with the weather. The drive up to Yellow Stone was beautiful. Tod and I both visited the world’s first National Park independently decades ago, and I forgot how huge it is.  Just when you are happy to arrive at the West Entrance, it is still 60 miles to the only campground open in the South this time of the year, Lewis Lake.  We saw our first bison and elk on our drive south, and also the first snow. Not much snow, but we can imagine it piling up here in the winter. Fortunately 2 visitor centers were still open, and Tessa enjoys visiting these centers a lot (especially when there are movies playing!). On our second day, we waited for the old Faithful geyser to erupt (the famous geyser of this park, but Yellowstone has many others, and has the most geysers in the world), then drove out to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River with waterfalls.  Our second night in the northern part of the park, Mammoth Hot Springs, was warmer, but not so warm that we wanted to go out for a long hike, just a short visit to see the terraces composed of travertine.

Once we made the decision to visit Yellowstone, we called our cruising friends of s/v Believe, Sherilyn and George, in Bozeman, Montana north of Yellowstone to see if they were home. Spending time with them was great, and we are looking forward to see them again in a few months in Mexico. They recommended to us to visit the Museum of the Rockies in their town, and boy, are we glad we did! This museum has a huge exhibit of dinosaurs of different eras, the largest one on display was about 38’ long!  With many interactive displays and films about the discovery of the dinosaurs in this area, combined with a special kids section, makes this museum well worth a visit.

Sherilyn knows how to make a girl happy, and made these for Tessa, now
we can hear here everywhere she goes

Time to move south now, as the weather is changing!  As we came south past the west side of Yellowstone park we encountered a bit of snow that was starting to stick on the roads, so we were happy that we didn’t stay any longer in Montana.  With our LPG heater we are staying warm, but outside play is a bit more restricted, and that’s what we like to do.

change of scenery: after long drive, we arrived in Bear Lake State Park, Idaho

Some stats: we have done more than the 3500 miles, and also crossed the $1000 level for gas (yikes). Camping fees for the month of October, mostly state and national parks and forests, average $14/day (off season rates). You can spend way more when you choose RV parks with full electricity, water and sewer hook-ups, but we tend not to like RV parks.  The most expensive overnight stay was $35 in a RV park in Vancouver (well worth its cost due the location).  To dump our grey and black water tanks, and fill up our water tanks for showers and dishes, we use a handy app on our phone that locates places all along the US. LPG for our heater, fridge and stove is readily available everywhere we went so far.