Roaming Through Wyoming

9/25/2023 – 09/29/2023

Forty years ago, wait… NO WAY! Forty years ago?, my grandparents took me and my brother on a trip across the country in their motorhome. We visited several of the “big” National Parks; The Badlands, Bryce, Zion and Yellowstone. As we were leaving south out of Yellowstone, I remember passing by these huge mountains in. Being from Florida, where the highest point is about 300’, this landscape left an impression on me.

Sixteen years ago, wait, WHAT? Where does the time go?? Sixteen years ago, Bill and I took the boys on a camping trip to Yellowstone. Again, as we were leaving south out of the park, we drove by these huge mountains once again. One day we are going to have to come back here and explore this awesome area.

That time has arrived. This week we are finally going to spend some quality time at the Grand Teton National Park and make a day trip up to Yellowstone. We left Idaho on US-26 and followed it all the way to our boondocking spot in the Bridger/Teton National Forest. This will be homebase for most of the week.

Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park encompasses not only these magnificent mountains but lush forests, sagebrush flats, wet meadows, lakes and ponds. Not to mention the Snake River flows right through it all. It is a diverse landscape for sure, and is home to a mixed collection of wildlife. Elk, antelope, mule deer, bison, moose, wolf, coyote, black and grizzly bears, otters and beaver. It is our hope to spot them all. Bill is on vacation this week, which gives us a lot of time to go explore.

The park consists of several scenic drives, numerous overlooks and a few historic houses and cabins. Part of the park can be seen for free as you travel the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway and other parts are only accessible through entrance stations for a fee.

Hiking, biking, fishing and floating are some of the more popular activities in the Tetons. We do not fish, it is too cold to float the river and we are not interested in hiking in the Tetons (hello… bears!) Biking? Maybe, but for now we are going to stick to seeing the park by windshield. 😉

Moran

The first part of our drive takes us to the Moran Entrance of the park where we stopped to admire the views at Oxbow Bend and Willow Flats, two excellent area for spotting wildlife. The views are beautiful but no wildlife to be seen.

As we continue up to the Colter Bay Visitor Center, we come to a traffic jam. Actually it is a “bear jam”. Our first glimpse at some wildlife and a glimpse is all it is. The grizzly is over 100 yards away and laying in the sage brush. It more or less looks like a brown lump in a field. We pull off and get out the binoculars to see if we can get a better view. Every once in a while, he pokes his head up. That’s it. It’s like he knows everyone is there just to see him and he’ll move occasionally just to keep everyone interested. The road was lined with people and their spotting scopes, photographers with their ginormous lenses and tourists sitting on the hoods of their cars all waiting for this bear to do something. Not us, there are other things to go see.

Teton Park Road

The Teton Park Road is next on the list. This 20-mile-long road winds along a small portion of Jackson Lake and the base of the mountains. A short spur road will take you along a piece of Jenny Lake. This drive allows you to get up close and personal with the mountains and ascertain a true feeling of how majestic these rugged peaks are. The views are phenomenal. We are keeping our eyes peeled for wildlife sightings…

Mormon Row Historic District

Heading back north towards camp, we stop at Mormon Row. Beginning in the 1890s, Mormon homesteaders settled in the area and established 27 homesteads. Mormon settlers John and Thomas Alma Moulton built barns on homesteads next to each other. These iconic barns highlight Mormon Row and have become symbols of the park.

Scenic Overlooks

There are several scenic overlooks along the parkway. We stopped at each one and captured several gorgeous shots and one iconic shot overlooking the Snake River. It was here where Ansel Adams stood in 1942 and took his famous picture of the unspoiled beauty of the Snake River and the jagged peaks of the Tetons. Adams’s photograph helped promote and protect this western US landscape. What do you think? Did my shot capture the unspoiled beauty as well as Adams’s? The trees are a little larger now.

Wildlife

Our wildlife sightings in the park were minimal. I really thought with all the warning signs to be “Bear Aware”, go slow for wildlife crossings, moose and elk frequent this area and on and on, we would be seeing some critters.

I read all the articles for the best places to see moose and bear and the time of day they are most active. Blah blah blah. One evening at dusk we went to Oxbow Bend, which was prime viewing for elk and bear. We did see a large elk far, far away walking through a meadow using our binoculars. Too far away for a pic, though.

Antelope Flats Road, which ran through a huge prairie and along the Gros Ventre River, did not reveal any bison, elk or moose. No moose or bear were to be found along the Moose-Wilson Road and we drove it three times! We saw nothing, nada, zip. We did come across a “bear jam” on the narrow, winding, Moose-Wilson Road, where you are not supposed to stop or park. That didn’t stop three vehicles from doing just that and by the time we made our way to the one-lane bridge where the bear was, it was gone. ☹ Oh well…

We did see the full moon rise over the mountains, though.

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone became the world’s first national park in 1872 and is comprised of 2.2 million acres. The south entrance to Yellowstone National Park is just 45 minutes from where we are boondocking and we decided to take a day trip up to the park. Can you do Yellowstone in a day? ABSOLUTELY NOT! But we are going to pack in as much as we can.

Yellowstone is divided into two loops, the north loop and the south loop. Our plan was to get up early, have our coffee, get out the door by 8AM and see a lot of the sights on the south loop. We left a little after 9AM. What can I say, we move a little slower these days. Hahaha!

West Thumb

The drive up was nice. We followed the Snake River to the South Entrance where it took a turn to the east. We made it up to West Thumb Geyser Basin around 10:30 and walked the ½ mile loop through a basin of colorful hot springs and lakeshore geysers. It was pretty cool to see these boiling geysers on the shore of Yellowstone Lake.

The West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake was formed much like Crater Lake was. A large volcano erupted about 150,000 years ago, then collapsed and the caldera then filled with water. It is also about the same size as Crater Lake but not nearly as pristine.

Fishing Bridge

Next on the loop is a short stop at the Fishing Bridge. The bridge, which was built in 1937 and was a very popular place to fish because it is a major spawning area for the Yellowstone cutthroat trout. The trout became overfished and the population began to decline. The bridge was closed to fishing in 1973.  We took a stroll across the bridge, caught a glimpse of Yellowstone Lake and even spotted a couple of trout in the Yellowstone River.

Hayden Valley

Mud Volcano

Making our way up to Canyon Village, we stopped at the Mud Volcano near Hayden Valley. Taking a quick walk around the boardwalk we were treated to several gurgling mud pots, the very “pleasant” aroma of rotten eggs and a front row view of the Dragon’s Mouth Spring. Steaming hot, muddy water is being pushed out of the side of this hill. It eventually makes its way down to the Yellowstone River.

Bison

Hayden Valley is a popular area to spot Yellowstone’s bison herd. Often times there are even “bison jams” where the bison are walking in the road and holding up traffic. Today was not one of those days. As we drove the valley we only spotted a handful of bison up in the hills or across the river.

Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon

In my opinion, this is the prettiest part of the park. The South Rim Drive leads out to Artist Point. From here you have a straight shot view of the striking yellow canyon, the vibrant blue Yellowstone River and the magnificent lower falls. I could have sat there the rest of the day and just soaked it all in. But… it’s already 1:30PM and we still have a lot to see. I felt like The Griswold’s stopping for 1 minute to look at the Grand Canyon so they could get to Wally World.

We crossed back over the river and drove the North Rim Drive as well. After pulling in to the first lookout and not getting a very good view, I wanted to continue down the drive and get out at the other viewpoints to have one more look. Bill kindly reminded me; time was ticking and there was still a lot to see. Okay, Clark…

On to Old Faithful

Canyon Village and Norris Geyser Basin are the mid-points between the two loops. Saying goodbye to the gorgeous Yellowstone Canyon we head west towards the Upper and Lower Geyser Basins. Earlier in the day I checked the current eruption time for Old Faithful. At that time, the next eruption was forecasted for 11:00AM and each forecasted eruption after that was approximately 90 minutes apart. I did the math and guessed one of the eruptions would be around 4:00PM. We decided to bypass the Grand Prismatic Spring and Biscuit Basin and head straight to Old Faithful. I mean, you cannot come to Yellowstone and not see Old Faithful erupt, right?

We pulled into the lot right at 3:55PM and figured we probably missed it. But as we walked around the visitor center, the benches were still filled with people waiting for the geyser. We hurried up and walked out there. The next forecasted eruption was 4:13PM. WE MADE IT JUST IN TIME!  Good job, Erin (patting self on the back) And good job Bill for suggesting we come to Old Faithful first and then go back and see the Grand Prismatic Spring.

Old Faithful is not the biggest geyser in Yellowstone and it is not the most consistent.  It is, however, the “biggest most” consistent geyser in the park. A typical eruption lasts 1 ½ to 5 minutes and shoots anywhere from 3,700 to 8,400 gallons of boiling water up to 184’ in the air. The eruption we viewed lasted 4 minutes and 16 seconds. 😊 Mission accomplished.

Grand Prismatic Spring

We backtracked a few miles to see Grand Prismatic Spring. This spring is the largest hot spring in the US and third largest in the world. Normally you would be able to see the bright blues, greens, yellows and oranges in this spring, but the air was a little chilly and that created a lot of steam.

We were treated to a bison sighting as we left the spring area. We watched this guy walk across the river and come up the bank munching on the sweet sage grass.

Afternoon is slipping into evening and we have a 1 ½ hour drive back to the coach. I feel happy with what we were able to see in Yellowstone in only 7 hours. Like I said before, you really do need to spend at least a week here to do this magnificent park justice.

Is it Jackson or Jackson Hole?

You’ve probably heard people referring to the town on the southside of the Grand Tetons as Jackson Hole. That’s what I thought it was called. Nope. Jackson is the name of the town and Jackson Hole is the valley that stretches between the Gros Ventre and Teton mountain ranges.

Today we took a little walk around the town of Jackson in the Jackson Hole Valley. 😉 Last on our “things to do” in the Tetons is to visit Jackson. It is a cute little town with a western theme and offers year-round recreation opportunities. Summer brings rafting adventures, hiking, biking and camping. Winter is all about skiing.

I enjoyed checking out the shops and looking at some of the beautiful artwork and photographs. We had a little fun with some “friends” we found around town. After sampling a local brew and purchasing our t-shirts, we head home to plan our escape.

The Road to Casper

Our route out of town, US-26, crosses the Continental Divide at 9,658’ and rain is in the forecast, which translates to snow in the upper elevations. Bill and I talked about it and we decided to leave the Tetons a day early and stay ahead of the weather to get across the pass.

Thursday morning, we pack up and head for the Wind River Casino in Riverton WY. Theo made the 3,000’ climb up and across Togwotee Pass. It was all down-hill from here. Yay, we are officially across the Rockies with no incident.

Dubois WY

We stopped in the little town of Dubois to visit the Giant Jackalope, definitely a roadside attraction. The Exxon Country Store has a couple of jackalopes to pose with as well as a very large assortment of t-shirts, mugs, and anything else you can think of displaying a jackalope. It was a fun little stop and a good place to stretch the legs.

Riverton WY

We are not due to arrive into Casper until Friday, so we decided to spend the night at the Wind River Casino in Riverton. It’s a nice little casino and they were very happy to take a little of our money. 😉

Casper WY

We are now back on schedule and staying at a Harvest Host site in Casper WY. Gruner Brothers Brewing hosted us tonight and we enjoyed a nice shandy and hazy IPA on their deck. We arrived early in the day and that allowed us to explore Casper a little bit.

Bike Ride

I looked at the Visit Casper website and found they had a bike path along the North Platte River. That sounds like fun and a good way to get a little exercise. We got our bikes off the rack and started the ride. We went up one way and came to a closure. Okay, turn it around and head the other way and we end up in an industrial area. Alright… let’s try going across the bridge. The path leads nowhere. The bike ride was a bust. We probably rode about 4 or 5 miles, but it was a ride that led nowhere.

Putt-Putt Golf

Along the bike ride, we noticed a putt-putt golf course. The day was still young, so why not. We had a fun time playing the 18-holes of this western themed course. And…. I almost won. If it wasn’t for that one hole…

We can now add the Wyoming sticker to our map. It was a great visit and this state has much more to see and do. We will be back to “roam Wyoming” some more.

What’s Next?

We are on our way to the Black Hills for a couple of days and then we will be boondocking on “The Wall”!