July 2020
As we plan our travels, we also must consider the time needed to come back to our home base in Loveland, CO to catch up on paperwork filing, Dr appointments, Dentist appointments, and Vet Appointments. I describe our travels as “flower pedals” From home base we make a loop to the south, then the next a loop to the east, and the next a loop to the north, eventually it will become a flower with many pedals!
Our first loop was to the south of Loveland, to Pueblo, Trinidad, and another to the Salida & Buena Vista area. Another trip was a loop was to the east, to Tulsa and back, and now this third trip is our “north” pedal.
July 12 – Rock Springs, WY – 6 hour drive
Stayed 1 night at Sweetwater Events Center. This is a rodeo grounds, and has a full campground with full hookups. It was nearly empty the Sunday night we stayed, but it was nice. The Showers and bathhouse were very clean. We originally were going to find a “boondocking” ( no hook ups of any kind ) site near Rock Springs, but found Sweetwater available and opted for that instead since we got into town much later than anticipated. We are still a bit nervous about going somewhere and setting up without reservations. We question: Is it safe? Are the roads ok for our truck and 5th Wheel? Are we going to find a spot? Is the spot ok to stay, or will we get a knock at the door in the middle of the night because we are on private property? All these variables cause us a bit of anxiety. Perhaps in the future we may be braver and more knowledgeable on this.
We decided that 6 hours was too long of a drive to do in one day, it was just too long and tiring, and when you get to your spot, all you can do is crawl into bed, exhausted. We would like to see and do something when we get into a new town or location, so we thought that a four hour drive may work better for us in the future.
July 13 – Alpine, WY – 5 hour drive
We Stayed 4 nights at North Alpine Campground, which was a US forest service campsite. It was very small, and nestled deep in the woods, with a little lake by the campground. We loved it here, the trees, the forest, the smell. However, what we didn’t like was the large number, and size of the misquotes. Luckily, we have a screened-in tent that we set up and was able to escape the pests!
Day 1 at Grand Tetons, we were in total awe of the Teton mountains and their sheer size and beauty. We hiked the Hidden Falls trail by Jenny Lake. This trail went all along the lake shore and was absolutely breathtaking.
It was along this trial that we found a cell phone connection, and made calls to work out the details of an apartment complex deal that we were working on. We also touched base with family. Not all areas had cell coverage, but we were lucky enough to make a couple connections. As we live full time in our RV, when we can grab a cell phone connection, we’ll take it!
Day 2 Hike was at Colter Bay. We took an easy trail that lined the lake. Tony loved it, Laura wasn’t feeling it, that day. Perhaps maybe she was exhausted from the prior day’s hike. This hike was fairly level and in the woods. It was a weird feeling being deep in the woods knowing there are bears in the area. We didn’t see any, but we did meet a couple that we stopped and talk with, and they DID see a bear on their way.
Day 3 Hike was the most incredible! After our hike at Colter Bay, we found a visitor center open and we asked the ranger where a good hike would be, given we want a 3 to 4 mile hike, easy to moderate. She told us about Taggart Lake. This is precisely why we like to talk to the folks at the visitor centers. They are inside scoop into the best trials in the park. This one most definitely did not disappoint!! In all Laura’s research, she didn’t read up on this trail. We would have missed this had we not talked to the ranger.
This Taggart Lake Trail went through Meadows, along a creek, walked through a forest of dead trees, ( what an eerie feeling!), live forest area, several waterfalls, and then upon this gorgeous smooth lake that had beautiful reflection of the Teton mountains. Tony captured some great pictures! This is were we captured a great reflection of the Tetons on the lake. We were in awe!
In addition, there was a couple ladies that were on this trail and we although we didn’t talk to everyone, we just happen to ask these gals where they were from , and what do you know??? Yes, they were from Loveland, CO … our home base! It truly is a small world sometimes!
This park is truly majestic in its beauty.
July 17 –Yellowstone, 2 hour drive
We set up camp at Rex Hale Campground which is about 25 minutes from the East Entrance of Yellowstone. We originally had a site IN the park, but once we got the larger 5th Wheel, we no longer fit in their campgrounds, and had to find somewhere else to stay. None of the campgrounds in or near Yellowstone have hookups. So we are “boondocking”. With no Electricity, Water, or sewer took up, but the most difficult part is that we don’t have Cell Phone coverage! We found one spot in Yellowstone that Tony’s phone could connect through Verizon, but Laura’s phone, through AT&T, had no coverage at all. This is exactly why we chose to split our service provider, so we can get some service where we can!
Day 1 We drove the west side of the park, first seeing the most iconic stop, Old Faithful. We watched it erupt, and since it was our first sighting of a geyser, we were in awe! While sitting there waiting for the geyser with our camera and GoPro, we overheard some other people talking and asking where they were from, and to our surprise, the family sitting right beside us in the bleacher area, were from Loveland!!! We talke about our neighborhoods until the Geyser erupted. So, within a week, we met two different families from Loveland, and we only talked to maybe 4 families altogether! It’s not like we talked to everyone we came across, this was truely bizarre! We continued around the walk path, which ended being about a 5 mile trek. There were many geysers, and pools, and hot springs. Although we anticipated a long walk, it was exceptionally long, and we were beat by the time we got back to the truck.
But, there was more to see, so we continued on the adventure to see more of what Yellowstone has to offer. We attempted to go to Lower Geyser Basin where there is “Fountain Paint Pot” Geysers, but the parking was full. July is the busiest month of the year for visiting the park, and this is erroneously the time we went. Lesson learned!! We were, fortunately, able to get into the parking lot of Grand Prismatic Spring. This is the most colorful, and iconic spring that Yellowstone is famous for. We walked around the crowded walkway with our masks on, took a few pictures, and by this time we were totally exhausted, so we headed back the campsite to relax.
Day 2 We took the road on the east side of the park, and drove all the way to the north to see Mammoth Hot Springs. Along the route, we saw plenty of Bison, a deer, a field of cow elk, fox, and a coyote. We continued along the road stopping at all the sights. One stop, at Norris Geyser Basin, we were on the boardwalk seeing all varying colors and taking pictures, when we saw a large Geyser erupting. We learned this is Steamboat Geyser, the world largest geyser. Apparently this Geyser is very unpredictable, it can go off once in 50 years, or once every 4 days. We scampered back to the top of the trail where the geyser was and continued to watch it erupt. It lasted over 30 minutes! We were so fortunate to be on the trail at this time to watch this incredible geyser erupt. Although there were many people on the walkway, most wore masks, and a lot of people went to the top deck to get a close up view, but then most viewed, and then backed down the walkway ( as we did ) to allow others to get a good view of the Geyser. I was quite surprised by the unspoken way people were cooperating and enjoying the views.
Unfortunately, going back to the truck, we realized that the Geyser sprayed acidic water all over the cars in the parking lot. As soon as we got back to home base, we washed the truck to get all that acidic water and ash off.
But before going to the home base, we stopped at one Visitor Center where there was cell phone coverage and got about an hours worth of work done. We had to the paperwork necessary to purchase the condo unit in Tulsa with our ROTH IRA, in preparation of next week’s close on that property. We also made the arrangements for funding the purchase of 6 more houses in Tulsa.
Day 3 This time, we took the east road again in Yellowstone and stopped at the Canyon Village. There was a small walk path up to “Artist Point” where there is a spectacular view of the lower falls and the canyon. They call this the “grand canyon” of Yellowstone. We walked all around this area, as well as places on the other side to see the “upper falls” and ended up taking the longer hiking trail through the woods to see the falls. Again, we were in admiration of the beautiful landscapes and waterfalls.
This is a park that we would like to come back to again, but during the “off” season as it was just too crowed for our comfort, especially during this pandemic.
July 21 – Cody, WY
Laura got the reservations wrong and missed a day of an overnight stay. We could have asked the host to revise our stop at Rex Hale Campground, but after a week of no internet, we knew we needed to go somewhere with cell phone coverage. While we were in Cody, ( just 45 minutes from our campground ) we did some laundry and found a small campground within the city limits of Cody. We figured we can catch up on some work, grocery shopping, and family phone calls.
We did all this in one day, and now it’s time to head towards Devils Tower.
LESSONS:
- Always have a hat and sunscreen if you think you are outside for anytime more than 15 minutes. The 15 minutes turns into much longer, especially if you are distracted by beautiful scenery and wild life!
- Always bring a back pack containing extra water, snacks, first aid, a small towel, and most importantly, the GoPro, so we don’t miss capturing the adventures we come across.
- For us, we realized that Boondocking works, but having cell service is essential. Without cell service, we are totally disconnected from business, and family and that doesn’t work for us.
- Although we got some reservations wrong, everything worked out just fine, and perhaps even better.
- On Travel days, no more than four hours drive time, and plan to arrive no later than 4 pm.
Full Time RV Travel Adventure 