Rolling Along With The Reynolds

Jim and Cindy's Adventure Blog traveling all over the USA

Tag: bison

The Grand Tetons

Majestic. Saturday, 9/2/2023; a perfect day and a perfect window of sunny weather in between rain days. We set off at 9 AM, crossed over the Continental Divide (at elevation 9,584), further higher still at Togwotee Pass (9,655 feet), arrived in the National Park and had an EPIC day that didn’t end until arriving back to camp just as the Cinderella pumpkin bell rang at midnight.

First up was the Elk Ranch Flats turnout. Bison were present, but too far away to really see well without binoculars. Closer up however were wild horses. The beautiful scene presents a vast panorama of Mt. Moran, Grand Teton and Rockchuck Peak. Low clouds kept the tips of these mounts hidden (yet their glory popped out later!).
Because of the recent rains and soggy trails, we decided to keep hikes to a minimum and enjoy the scenic drives. However I wanted to try one special hike up to Hidden Falls/Inspiration Point on the other side of Jenny Lake. We took the 15 minute boat shuttle across the water and the mile hike did not disappoint.
Our next stop was a quick visit to Colter Bay Marina & Campground. Last year the waters were so low, in fact the Marina was closed due to the bay being bone dry! It was so different this year to discover the water was back and the Marina was full of happy boaters. Amazing how nature can bounce back.
Knowing we only had this one day to experience this corner of Wyoming paradise, we made a rather hasty decision to drive another 1.5 hours north up to Yellowstone via the John Rockefeller Parkway. It was 5 PM by this time and the golden hour was approaching. It turned out to be the best decision of the day, because we arrived at Old Faithful at 7:00 just in time to snag a bench seat for the 7:20 eruption right at sunset! Spectacular!
After grabbing dinner at the Old Faithful Lodge, it was time to turn around and head home. So much to see, so little time. Sigh, Yellowstone will have to wait till next year.
But wait, there’s more to this day, or rather, night. Driving back south on the Parkway was a bit challenging in the dark. Road construction (or more accurately road re-building) is still underway from last years devastating floods, so the new asphalt was dark dark black and still awaiting center reflective paint. 30MpH though was a safe speed even though I had a chunk of cars behind me. Entering back into Grand Teton National Park, we pulled over on the first turnout by Jackson Lake to let ‘em all go by. Boy did they miss out by not stopping to smell the roses; the stars were out and twinkling in crystal clear cloudless skies. And all of a sudden we gasped at the sight silently floating overhead; a Starlink satellite train!
By this time of night as we left the Park for the final hour back to Dubois the moon rose. A godsend of natural light to complete the drive back through Togwotee Pass and the Continental divide. The sights here up high were just as stunning as they were during the day – but with the moon, stars, and the Milky Way!
And the final picture on this post features the Wind River highlighted by moonlight back at camp at 12:04 am on Sept 3rd. just 6 hours later was the sunrise birthday pic that I posted earlier.
We’re so blessed to have this RVLife and be in constant amazement of this country. God Bless the USA!

 

Grand Teton Pics (Album 2023-50)

 

 

 

 

Thermopolis pictures (Album 2023-48)

Heading

Left Gillette today and drove up and over the BigHorn mountains. Got up to 9,679 feet in elevation!
We’ve landed in Thermopolis Wyoming for 2 nights to soak in the hot springs.

 

Floating in 103degree mineral waters under the Blue Supermoon in Thermopolis Wyoming at the “Fountain of Youth RV Park”. Loving Life!

 

Thermopolis Wyoming, I’m so happy we decided to visit this town this year (last year we drove right through it without stopping). Home to Hot Springs State Park, a magical place, as a nice local lady called it. The springs here, although similar in looks to Yellowstone springs, are different in the way the waters get heated.
* The Park offers a lovely scenic drive up into the mountains where bison roam, and spectacular swirled rock formations I’ve never seen anywhere else.
* Bubbling infinity pools, suspension bridge, and teepee fountains are featured.
* While in Thermopolis, we also drove through beautiful neighborhoods full of stately deer and went to the top of Red Mountain to look down upon the town of 2,500 and just beyond the Wind River Canyon.
* The Fountain of Youth RV Park was a wonderful setting with their very own spring and large swimming/soaking pools. Just on the other side of the fence from our site was another bubbling spring that hilariously was a mystery the first night; we couldn’t see the source, yet heard something off in the bushes guessing it was grazing cattle.

 

 

 

 

 

Surreal

The sunniest day yet in the Black Hills (and our last day in the area)  called us back to Sylvan Lake and Needles Hwy. This is one of our all-time favorite places, hands down.

So beautiful!

Surely Sylvan Lake and the Needles were inspiration behind the  90’s virtual reality puzzle games “Myst” and “Riven”.

Sylvan and the Needles Hwy (Album 2023-43)

 

 

Hit the Loop!

8/8 and 8/9  
The Black Hills are stunning.
* Sylvan Lake – my favorite Myst/Riven setting
* Needles Highway, and several one lane tunnels (my favorite highway. To do it in a Miata or motorcycle would be great fun).
* Burros!
* Bison traffic jam
* drove around Mt. Rushmore
* Custer State Park, Wildlife Loop – bison, burros, antelope, prairie dogs

 

 

 

Southern Hills  

 

8/9   
Scenic drive today through the Southern Black Hills;
* Bison Center
* Hot Springs, Pringle, Custer
* beautiful sunny day!

 

 

 

All Aboard the 1880 Steam Train

 

8/10
Train Day!
————-
🚂 From Keystone to Hill City and back, aboard the 1880 steam locomotive on the original route of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.
Engine # 110 is one of two 2-6-62T Mallets in service in the world. 🚂
* 🦧🐻 Dahls Chainsaw Art has workshops all over the many Black Hills towns including Bigfoot in Keystone and Smokey the Bear in Hill City. 🦧🐻
* 🏍️ Just as in Hot Springs and Custer yesterday, both Keystone and Hill City were overtaken by Sturgis cycles. Most Main streets are blocked off to cars, limiting the streets to cycle parking along each side as well as the middle line. Excellent people and cycle watching! 🏍️
* 🍻 Grab a beer, sit a spell and enjoy the show – why yessir we did indeed at the Tin City Saloon across from the Harley Davidson store in Hill City, and at the red-velvet-wallpapered Ruby Rose Saloon upper balcony in Keystone

 

 

 

 

Lead, Neutrinos, and sky

 

8/12
Today’s theme was the awesomeness of Earth and Sky….
* Traveling the Northern Black Hills towards the town of Lead, we experienced an intense 15 minute hailstorm. It came out of nowhere, so we just pulled over and kept our fingers crossed that the windshield wouldn’t crack (fortunately it didn’t).
* In the town of Lead, we were amazed at the Open Cut Deep Hole that is the site of the Homestake Gold Mine. Over 300 miles of tunnels going 2 miles deep!!! No longer mining gold since the early 2000s, it has found a super cool second life as a cutting edge neutrino science research center. It’s a fascinating place; James Bond kinda stuff!
* The heavens just kept on and on revealing jaw-dropping majesty all day long;
– meandering the hilly highways in the midst of rolling clouds
– a full rainbow, right over the Pactola Lake!
– a dramatic sunset closed out the day just as we arrived back at camp.

 

 

 

More of Sylvan Lake and Needles Hwy

The sunniest day yet in the Black Hills was calling us back to Sylvan Lake and Needles Hwy.
Picture album is on the way….

 

 

 

4 Seasons in One Day. What’s next around the bend?

We headed into the National Park from Cody, Wyoming. Cody itself is beautiful; not only in natural beauty, but in humans too – we’ve met some amazing local folks here.  The drive to the East entrance from Cody is about an hour, and what a wonderful hour it was traveling through the Wapiti Valley.
And just seconds into the gate, we spotted a Bison! We took that as a good sign. 🙂

Yellowstone – pics from Day 1

Not knowing what type of weather to expect (but warned about!), we packed for every weather contingency and good thing since we utilized just about every piece of clothing we planned for. We quickly found ourselves in a Winter Wonderland, driving by the still frozen Sylvan Lake and seeing the peaks well over 10,000 feet in elevation.  A little further down the road, something was up off to the side; excitedly pulling over and “prairie-dogging it”, we learned it was a Grizzly bear Mom and her two cubs! Very hard to spot though, as she was bunkered down in a sea of fallen trees and even being only maybe 200 feet in she was camouflaged extremely well. Snapped pics just turned out to be duds. Yet we did manage to study her and the cubs moving their heads about via binoculars. 

Next up around the bend revealed the stunningly large Yellowstone Lake. Not as large as the Great Lakes, but it can certainly tout being the biggest natural lake at a high elevation (at 7,732 feet above sea level) in North America and was jaw-dropping: 132 miles of surface area and 140 miles of shoreline. On our way to to Lower Loop which highlights thermal activity, Steamboat point was spectacular. Although cloudy, windy, and cold, the hiss and warm steam rising up from below was unbelievable. Throw in a few Bison roaming around, it was quite the scene.


Although pleased with the fact that every road in the Park was green (open), there was still much road construction going on repairing pavement impacted by winter. We didn’t hit traffic delays until near West Thumb. With the park being over 2 million acres, one cannot see everything. We decided to keep on driving, missing the Geyser Basin there. 

The sun every now and then peeked through the gray cloudiness, and really showed the glorious sights at their best. But it was always short-lived. By the time we reached the pinnacle highlight – Old Faithful – the clouds were back. We timed it just right however, as the famous geyser goes off about every hour, and we had just about 60 minutes to trek the trails around this area featuring many geysers before circling back and seeing the headliner.

 

Beyond “Old Faithful”, the most emotionally charged stop was the Midway Geyser Basin featuring the Grand Prismatic Spring. Being so colorful for one, this was the stop I was most giddy. Emotions felt here were firstly a bit scary, because it wasn’t just a bit sprinkly-wet here, but lightning and loud rolling thunder were upon us. As soon as we hit the trail the winds picked up and hail actually fell. Cold too. But the boardwalk was so cool and surreal. The many geysers here were so unique; no two were alike. The steam giving off from each one was a welcome sauna bath in between cold needle rain.  Some people amongst the few and brave along the trail would argue that the geysers were disappointing (because you really couldn’t see them very well at all due to the weather), but we found the experience to be thrilling and otherworldly.  Granted, the Grand Prismatic Spring was nothing but steam vapor, it was happily a rare ( I guess) experience unto itself. It felt as if we were trespassing on another planet; certainly didn’t feel as if this was a natural place humans should be walking. 

 

At this point in the Loop, we realized we were only about at the midway mark of our day, yet we were way behind the 5 hour out of 10 hours planned. Thank goodness for the cooler full of sweet and salty snacks, Onwards! The next stretch of road we knew we’d re-visit since we will have to navigate it in the RV itself  when moving on and camping in the West Yellowstone area after visiting the Grand Tetons, so we bypassed a few stops with the hope we will have the time to actually stop. 

 

By the time we were on the final portion of the loop, my personal steam was finally giving out after the Sulphur Cauldron (yes, it was very stinky!) and the intermittent snow. I had to stay in the car to thaw out (my socks and sandals were wet and my feet ice-cold) while Jim took in the Mud volcanoes. 9 PM, we found ourselves driving back through the Wapiti Valley with the sunset shining last lights upon the wildlife and mountain ranges. Stunning.

 

That was yesterday. Wow, what a day. Today’s plan was to head up to the Beartooth Highway, but we took a much-needed day of rest. Altitude sickness I think caught up with me – or was it just the breakneck speed we’ve been doing.  Whatever it was, it gave us a chance to decompress, reflect, catch up, and prepare to move onwards for a few days to explore the Grand Tetons south of here. We then will re-trace a few roads back northwards to land in West Yellowstone to explore all of the Upper Park for several more days.  11 days total in this area and it will still leave us wanting more I’m sure.  

Yellowstone – pics from Day 1

 

Advice from a Geyser….   
Rise to the occasion
Stay active
Find your inner strength
Vent when you need to
Enjoy the quiet moments
Be Faithful
Let off a little steam