10/13/14

Made it as far as Declo, Idaho today (just east of Burley). Found a campground called Valley of Trees RV Resort. A little expensive ($31.10/night with Good Sam discount), but clean and quiet other than the freeway noise. The campground is right on the Snake River and most of the noise comes from the bridge going over it. It is also very buggy, with lots of little gnats flying around.

10/14/14

We decided to stay another night just to have a break from driving. We will leave tomorrow and head towards Farewell Bend State Park just north of Ontario, Oregon. Can't make reservations or check for availability less than three days in advance, so will have to hope there's space available. The website indicates quite a few sites large enough for our trailer. This time of year park usage should be light, particularly mid-week.

10/15/14

Today we drove from Declo, Idaho to Farewell Bend State Park just north of Ontario, Oregon. We arrived about 1:30 p.m., including the time change to pacific time. It's a beautiful little park, with a number of large sites mixed in with smaller sites. All sites have water and 30 amp electric. The campground is right on the Snake River. Unfortunately, it is also located next to a cattle ranch which supplies us with a plethora of flies.

 

10/18/14

We left Farewell Bend State Park a little after 8 this morning and drove to Maryhill State Park on the Columbia River, in Washington (just south of Goldendale). We got to Maryhill around 1:30 this afternoon. Our first impression of the park is very favorable. The only drawback is, it is very near a busy section of railroad track and highway 14. The trains don't seem to use their whistles along this section of track, so a reasonably well insulated trailer blocks most of the annoying sound. This is a area where wind surfers come during the summer, to get some strong wind action. The park is only about half full, or less right now.

10/19/14

We drove to Multnomah Falls by taking Hwy 14 west to Vancouver, then south on I-205 to east I-84. We wanted to see if we could take Hwy 14 to northbound I-205 with our trailer when we head home tomorrow.

 

 

Because of tunnels that are less than 14 feet high, we can't take our trailer on Hwy 14, but we did stop at some of the turnouts, to see the Columbia River. On the way back to camp on I-84, we stopped at Multnomah Falls. There was no parking for our truck at the falls, so we had to stop in the road and take pictures. Fortunately, no one was behind us. Boy, is the road narrow. We did get to stop and get out at Horsetail Falls though. The drive was great.

When we got back to camp, we continued on up the hill to the Stonehenge replica, which is a memorial to the men of the area who died fighting in WWI. There is a second memorial on the other side of the parking area for the men of the area who died in WWII, the Korean War, the Viet Nam War and in Afghanistan.

10/20/14

We left Maryhill State Park about 9 this morning and headed west on I-84, then I-205 and I-5 north towards Seattle. We got to the Puyallup Fair Campground a little after 2 p.m. Barring any unforeseen issues, we will be here about 3 weeks. Then we will head south to Shedd, Oregon.

10/13/14

Sunday was our last day of work, though we only had to work a couple of hours. We closed another one of the campground loops. Now there are only three loops open. With the good weather we've been having, they fill up anyway.

We've been having a grizzly bear sow and cub visit the campground the last few days, off and on. Yesterday they were near the dump station early in the morning, then later in the afternoon they were in the campground near our trailer. The photo below is a shot out our back window.

One of the campers who has been riding his bike all over the country (he started in Anchorage, Alaska and biked through British Columbia before coming to Yellowstone) left some food out on his picnic table (strictly forbidden by park rules) and the bears went after it. The next photo is of the mother bear finishing off some bread the guy left on the table.

 

The mother bear then proceeded to trash his tent, while the cub finished the food. Lucky for him, the guy was not in his tent at the time.

 

 

We called the rangers and they tried to chase the bears away. The bears left for the rest of the day but came back this morning. The rangers were setting up traps when we left Yellowstone this morning. Hopefully they will catch both of them. If they do, they will move them away from all the campgrounds (rule of thumb is to move them far enough that it would take them 3 days to get back). They will also put a radio collar on the mother bear. If they come back to the campground, they will have to put them down, unfortunately.

We gave a copy of all the pictures we took, so the rangers can use them as evidence when the guy that left the food out goes to court in December. He may have to pay for all the rangers time used in dealing with these bears over the last two days, plus a fine.

This morning we left the campground for good, at 11 am. We are spending tonight in an RV park near Burley, Idaho. It's right on the Snake River. We'll either stay here one more night tomorrow, or head for the Oregon border. We'll decide in the morning.

10/9/14

This was our last weekend before we leave for Washington and Oregon on Monday the 13th. We decided to hike with our coworkers one last time on Tuesday, after seeing off three of our other coworkers, who left a week earlier than the rest of us.

Penny and I had not hiked Storm Point or to Natural Bridge, both on the east side of the park. Our hiking partners had, but they wanted to do them again, so that's where we went. Both are relatively short hikes an neither have significant hills to climb, so we were able to do both in one day.

On our way to the first trail head we saw a male grizzly bear walking across the meadow just west of Canyon Junction. His name is Scarface because of all the scarring he has on his face and the lack of one ear. We assume it's because he got into a lot of fights in his earlier years. He is now going on 25 years old. He has been hanging out in the Canyon area since he was young.

Storm Point is at the north end of Yellowstone Lake. There is a town of Marmot that live near the point, but they apparently go into hibernation early and we didn't see a single one. Our hiking partners said there were dozens of Marmots in a pile of rocks near the point, when they were here earlier in the summer. The hike is a pleasant walk along the northwest corner of Yellowstone Lake, with a loop back through the forest.

 

After the hike, we drove east to an observation point that gives a view to the south end of the lake and beyond, all the way to the Tetons.

 

After the observation point, we drove back a few miles west and had lunch on the north shore of the lake. After lunch we drove to the trail head to Natural Bridge, near Bridge Bay. Not far from where we lunched we saw another grizzly bear coming down the hill, foraging for roots and berries. It came within 20 feet of the car.

Natural Bridge is an interesting feature, formed by water erosion and freeze/thaw cycles.

 

There is a trail that leads up to the right of where I was standing, that goes up to the top of the rocks. It was getting late, so we didn't go that far but we are already planning on going all the way up next year.

On the way back to the trail head Penny saw a Grey Jay and got a nice photo of it.

Wednesday, Penny and I went back to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and hiked Uncle Tom's Trail and down to the Brink of the Lower Falls. Both of those hikes are climbs of 600 or more feet, so they gave our legs a good workout.

I've shown photos we took on Uncle Tom's trail when we hiked it earlier in the year, but we hadn't hiked to the Brink of the Lower Falls until now. The first photo is from the brink of the falls, looking upstream from the observation deck. The second is looking at the brink of the falls and the third is looking downstream after the falls.

 

We will be leaving Yellowstone Monday morning, making our way back to the Seattle area over the following few days. We may not get there until sometime the week of the 20th, but there's a chance we'll get there sooner. We won't be driving for long hours and we don't want to drive every day either. If we find a nice place to stop, we may stay there a couple of days. We'll let you know when we get there and we will keep in touch.

10/2/14

It's been raining for the last few days, but we went for a drive Tuesday afternoon, around the upper loop. They had just opened the road between Norris and Mammoth, after a two week closure for construction. There is now a new section of roadway, built above the old road, but none of it has been paved so it was a muddy drive through that section.

   
We saw three young bull elk in the Mammoth area and a few bison around the loop, but no large groups of either. There was a bit of snow falling on Dunraven pass but it wasn't sticking.

 

 

Heading south from the Tower Junction we stopped at the Calcite Cliffs Observation Point.

 
As we were leaving, we saw a herd of mountain sheep up on the top of the hill across the road.

 

We think Wednesday was our best sightseeing day ever. At first, we figured we'd stay home and do some needed house cleaning. After cleaning the kitchen and vacuuming the carpet in the living room, we decided to take a drive down to the Midway Geyser Basin and see if we could climb the hill overlooking Grand Prismatic Spring. About halfway there, we saw a grizzly sow and cub just in the trees across the road. Only a couple other vehicles were stopped, so the bears must have just reached the area where they could be seen. We were able to watch them forage for berries for about 10 minutes. They crossed the road in front of our truck and headed across the Firehole River to the exact place our friend Phil had been fishing earlier this summer.

 

A bit farther on, there was a herd of bison lounging in the meadow just west of the Lower Geyser Basin

As we approached the Old Faithful area we could tell it had been colder there than at the campground the night before, because the hills were blanketed with the first light snow of the season.

 The parking area for our hike was full, so we parked on the road, but there's a trail between the road where we parked and the trail head since this trail is extremely popular. The climb up to the observation point behind Grand Prismatic Spring is steep and cluttered with fallen logs, but the logs actually help to some degree by giving you a handhold for climbing. It's well worth the effort once you see the view it affords. Had it been 20 degrees warmer, there would have been less steam and the images would have been even better.

 

After climbing the hill, we drove on to Old Faithful and were lucky enough to find Castle Geyser erupting. Something we hadn't seen before.

 

Around the corner the Old Faithful Inn still had snow on the roof. We went inside and treated ourselves to a scoop of ice cream. When we came out, it was snowing again and the roof of the Inn was really turning white.

The snow stopped a couple miles west of Old Faithful and we drove through the Firehole Lake area. We got to Grand Fountain Geyser just as it was erupting, so we sat and watched it for the next 20 minutes. White Dome Geyser also erupted in the background while we were there, as you can see in the third photo below.

 

 

When we got back to the campground, there was a bull elk with his harem lying in the meadow by the Gibbon River.

 

It's a tough job seeing all these sights, but somebody's got to do it and it might as well be us. It was a great day.