OCT 17, Sunday, to Madison, Montana
I uploaded some pictures last night to our Picasa link, folder #60. Got up this morning at 7:30 am to 7*C (44*F). Pretty amazing! The sky is clearing too! By the way, we are now on the East side of the Continental Divide but will cross it a couple times more. I should also mention that as a point of interest, the park here is sitting on a thermal source so the water that we are getting from the tap is lukewarm and yes, safe to drink. Very interesting, indeed!
We got up late as we have a very short drive to make. We had breakfast and slowly packed then left for our new destination, Driftwaters RV Park. It was listed in “PASSPORT AMERICA” under a different name but they have changed hands. The lady was kind enough to honor part of it so we didn’t have to pay the full price but it was cheap enough for us to stay here. There is a saloon here that serves beer and meals and at reasonable prices.
As we drove through Ennis, we found this town very picturesque and a true Western style town. We slowly climbed over 6000 feet but the temperature is remaining above 50*F (10*C). After setting up, we drove to West Yellowstone town and looked around. We then drove to the park which is right next door and used our pass from last year which is still good. We first went in to see the Fire Hole Canyon drive which was absolutely beautiful with all its waterfalls; then it was on to the Fountain Park where we began to see our first geysers, absolutely out of this world! We stopped to take pictures of Bison, Elks (Buck and female), but didn’t see any wolfs or bears and grizzlies. We saw lots of deer and antelopes.
We went on to the “Old Faithful” geyser (7300 feet) where we had to wait 30 minutes before it blew its top (figure of speech). Took lots of pictures, needless to say!
At the ‘Fire Hole” Lake Drive, we saw more geysers and saw one that had a cone and just as we were leaving, it decided to provide us with a show of shooting hot water and steam up its hole. It was AWSOME!!!!
We drove back home as it was getting late, almost 5 pm, and once back at our park we went for a beer and chatted with the waitress and found more interesting facts about the area. We decided to have dinner there due to the lateness of our return (good excuse). Most of the day was nice and comfortable except for a couple times when we had a bit of rain and wind.
Fuel was 3.19/gallon or approx .80 cents/litre
N 44* 50.824’
W 111* 31.988
Alt: 6130 feet
OCT 18, Monday, Yellowstone
After breakfast, we left for the park once again. This time we went North at the Junction of 89 and 20 and headed towards Mammoth Village and Yellowstone historic Fort. Our first stop was the “artist paint pots” then onwards to Norris Junction where there is a book store and museum but unfortunately it was closed. We did see the geysers however and it really is breathtaking and awesome! We continued on to the Obsidian cliffs where once again everything was closed but we did look around. This is the type of rock that Indians would use to make arrows and flint for their fires. It is almost indestructible. We saw more geysers as we went along and everyone were unique and breathtaking. Words cannot do it justice so check out the pictures in folder #60.
We finally arrived @Mammoth Hot Springs. Absolutely stunning is all I can say! It is tier down the hill and we had a good overview of the village and fort. Unfortunately everything is pretty well closed in the village and fort so we couldn’t see the museum. Even the restaurants were closed for the season so we decided to head down to Gardiner, 5 miles down the road. Gardiner is the service town for the Park so it is busy and we did manage to find a saloon that served food and good beer.
After lunch, we headed back up, from 5600 feet to 7200 feet where the Mammoth Village is and continued on back home. This is a steep and long climb, not gradual like the West gate.
It was sunny all day and fairly warm considering the altitude. We went from 6600 at the West Gate to 7600 feet as our highest point on the road...no snow anywhere! We had left at 9:30 am and got back at 5:30 pm. A very good day indeed! By the way, temperature reached a high of 60*F ( 15*C)
A few facts about Yellowstone:
- A huge part of the Park is inside the crater of an ancient volcano
- The rim is called a Caldera
- The army provided security and controlled poaching from 1886 to 1916
- Speed limit within the Park is 45 MPH(72 Km)
- The grand loop is 142 miles (229 KM)
- The geysers and hot pool are fed by underground magma
- The route south passes over the Continental Divide three times
- Yellowstone became the world’s first National Park in 1872
- The Caldera or Rim is 30 miles wide X 45 miles long
- There are five Gates (entrance ways) into and out of the Park
OCT 19, Tuesday, to Jackson Wyoming
It went down to 23*F (-5*C) but the sun is up again today. Last night, we decided to head down further south. We will leave the East side of the Park for another time, the distance is just too great; yesterday we put 300 KM and the East side is even further.
We left at 10 am after paying our bill and headed east and south on 191. We re-entered the Park one last time and drove south to Old Faithful and eventually South Gate. The scenery was breath-taking. We slowly climbed to 8200 feet to the first crossing of the Continental Divide then up again to 8500 feet over the Craig’s pass and back down to 82 000 feet where we crossed the Continental Divide again. We crossed it one more time a bit later and made our descend to the South Gate at 7200 feet. This side was bit steeper. The truck did very well considering the thin air and the Jake was appreciated once again.
We almost immediately entered the Grand Tetons National Park and took a by-passed to Jenny Lake and a closer view of the Grand Tetons mountains. We also looked for campsites but everything was shut-down for the season. The Grand Tetons were awesome and huge: Mt Morgan is 12605 feet high and Grand Tetons sits at 13770’ to name a couple. Quite breath-taking!
The scenery south of here began to change and became large area of open prairie like areas and more ranches became evident as we got closer to the city of Jackson Hole. 5 miles south of the park exit, we arrived at the city and stopped to get some info. We will spend a couple nights here. We found a campsite across the Snake River on hwy 390, about 10 minutes from town and set up. It is 3:30 pm and time for bourbon!
N 43* 31.212
W 110* 50.330
Alt: 6229 feet
We travelled 171 miles (274 Km) in 5.5 hours at an average speed of 40 Mph (The slow drive through the Park kept us at a low average but we had very good fuel consumption)
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