Little Big Horn and beyond

We left Rex Hart Campground and headed for Montana and the Little Big Horn Memorial. Interesting place to try and drive your motorhome. There wasn't much parking for RVs so we ended up driving it on the driving tour route which takes you waaaay out into the battleground before you can find a place to turn around. We managed to pass another coach coming out, just barely and found some places to turnout and read the signs. Dogs are not allowed outside of the coach, so they watched  from afar when we got out.

 Roxie waiting for us to do the walking tour.  She drove back.

The largest group of Cavalry died on this hill.  Custer was in the middle of the men.  

It's amazing that they can say with some certainty, this is where Custer fell.

It's great that they've also memorialized the Native Americans who died here, although not very many of them did.  The inscriptions say they "died here defending the Cheyenne way of life."

In addition to this being a National Cemetery, there's an impressive monument to the Indians who fought here.  The whole event was a national tragedy.

After Little Big Horn we decided to stay in Hardin, the closest town. The RV park was OK, but we heard from another visitor that a few years back a tornado came through and took out the KOA across the highway! The campground host was very nice, too talkative to be efficient, but gave us good info. We walked to the DQ for ice cream and to give the pups some exercise (yeah right!)

After Hardin we traveled to Dickinson, ND and a really big RV park. Close to a Walmart so we took advantage and picked up some supplies. Noted the 'No overnight parking' sign in their parking lot. Guess you can't park just anywhere. This night (about 3 am) we had our first thunder storm of the trip. The dogs were not happy and Roxie tried to get into the bed with us. No significant wind so we didn't feel threatened. Love the sound of rain on the roof! The windshield was nice and clean so that was a plus!

North Park RV Resort in Dickinson, ND is huge!

From Dickinson we decided to visit Grand Forks AFB on the border with Minnesota. I've always been curious about this base and we can always use a commissary stop. This place is very nice. Lots of room to run the pups, walking trails abound, and we might just get a chance to get rid of our recyclables. We have been saving water, wine, and beer bottles to recycle rather than trashing them so it's getting rather messy. Sorry, Tom G., can't save them for you. :-)  There's also a very big dog park here. We are staying a couple of days so we don't have to worry about competing with weekenders at RV parks along the way. This park is pretty full already, and the down time will be a nice respite.

  Along the way to Grand Forks AFB, we followed several back roads and went through two towns that had airplanes on a stick.  This one is in Hatton, ND. 

 A monument to air power at the main gate .

Getting places is hard work.  We have to rest up at the end of each day's drive.

This is a very nice campground with huge spaces...

  ...and, behind the spaces is a farmer's field.

Traveling to MN next. Stay tuned!

Found it! Better late than never!

Now that's what I'm talkin about! These are MOUNTAINS! Grand Teton! Beautiful! Couldn't get enough of them today. Drove all over the park snapping pics.
The only problem with the National Parks is (and this is true in California State Parks as well), dogs aren't allowed on any of the trails! I know there is probably a very good reason, but it's a big disappointment. We'll be visiting several parks on this trip but I guess the dogs will only see it from inside the jeep! Poor babies. We'll make it up to them. Fortunately they are allowed in the campgrounds.
On a brighter note, we did find a cheaper campground, in the park. There's one north of Jackson called Colter Bay on Lake Jackson. It's first come, first served, but we were assured that if we are there by noon, there will be sites. It's also no hookups, so we will be boondocking, but for a night or two that shouldn't be a problem.Generators are allowed during the day so we can make coffee :-)

History lesson for the day...this is Jackson Hole...the valley on the east side of the Teton Range. Fur trappers called a mountain-ringed valley a "hole". Named for trapper David E. Jackson. Originally known as "Davey Jackson's Hole."

This scene is from the top of 7,727 ft Signal Mountain in the park. It overlooks the 'hole' with fantastic view that these pics don't do justice for. No we didn't hike up.

The view from Jackson Lake Dam

Although we looked, we never saw any bears or moose. But clearly there are bears here! Still looking for the elusive (live) moose.

These are for you, Donna Ellert...until we see the real thing!

I understand that these little cabins are available all year round here. They certainly are cute, but for $300-400 a night, cute doesn't get it for me. There are 21 of these in this resort.

July 15

(My blog about the Grand Teton National Park got lost somewhere in cyber space so we are jumping ahead. Will post the pics later. Not having reliable wifi can be a pain.)

It is just a short few miles between the parks but the terrain and trees changed dramatically. Yellowstone has deep canyons where the Lewis and Yellowstone rivers run. The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was spectacular with two huge waterfalls. 

 Lower Falls

 Upper Falls

Maneuvering around those parking lots with the big bus was interesting as people would park cars in the RV parking areas so we had to make our own spots. One little boy got a big kick out of ‘Willis’, our rubber ducky, in the window.

Yellowstone is famous for ‘Old Faithful’, but did you know there are geysers all over the park? ‘Yellowstone was established as the world’s first national park primarily because of its unparalleled collection of geysers, hot springs, mudpots, and steam vents.’ We saw some places where the steam was coming out of the ground right next to Yellowstone Lake as well as boiling mud pots beside the road.

Bison roam freely throughout the park but none were in large herds or on the road. You really had to look hard for them.

There are millions of dead trees in a swath across the southeastern part of Yellowstone, evidently from a huge fire in 1988! It doesn’t appear that they will remove them and plant new trees; just letting nature take its course and in some places new trees are growing while in others none. It’s such a contrast to the rest of the park lush with old growth.

Geography Lesson: Yellowstone Lake is North America’s largest high-altitude lake with 141 miles of shoreline and is 20 miles long by 14 miles wide. Its deepest spot is about 410 feet and its average depth is 140 feet. We were surprised that there were few boats on the lake, just a few kayaks.

We left Yellowstone via the East Entrance toward Cody, WY and found Rex Hale, a Shoshone National Forest Campground, with lovely full hookups for $10 a night along the Shoshone River. We have a Senior Pass from the National Park Service and that allowed us free entry into all parks and half off the fee for camping in the National Forest. Regular fees for the parks was $30 per vehicle in each park, or $50 for both, good for 7 days and the camping fee here was $20 a night. The passes were $10 a piece so we’ve saved a bunch already. Cool. We’ll try to find more of these along the way.

There were warnings about bears in the area and we saw lots of buffalo ‘chips’ in the sites. Only ‘hard sided’ RVs were recommended in the campground, but there were lots of tents and one guy just rolled out his sleeping bag on the ground…brave or just stupid? He had Virginia plates on his car and a bike on top so it’s anybody’s guess.

Oh yeah, no wifi, no tv, no phone service.  We started our first game of cut throat Hand & Foot; Bruce is still learning the game. So far he’s ahead (beginner’s luck?) and we’ll see how often he’s willing to play. I’m hoping by the time the trip is done, he’ll be a pro or at least enjoy the game J

July 14, 2016

From Rex Hart campground we headed toward Montana with the Little Big Horn National Memorial. It was a beautiful drive and even the secondary roads (i.e. not interstate highways) were nice and wide. We headed north from Cody to I-90 and Billings and then east. 

July 10 – Day 1

After a late start (10:40) and some anxiety about the possibility of not having electric power on the trip, we set out for Elko, NV on Day 1 and the first stop to visit Bruce’s brother, Scott, and his son Travis. Mary Ann (Travis’s mom) came along to dinner with us too. It was pretty windy in Elko and the weather report predicted a low of 37 degrees overnight, but the change was nice from the heat in California.

Our first problem arose when we plugged the coach in at the house and got no electricity and the breaker panel started clicking wildly. We didn’t know what was going on. We tried starting the generator to run the a/c but that wasn’t going to be good enough because it was pretty hot. So we called and made an appt. with our RV repair place for Tuesday (this was on Friday of the 4^th of July weekend). They checked it out, plugged it in and ran a/c and everything checked out ok. Took the rig home and plugged it in again and …nothing. We had them check our extension cord and had an electrician come to the house to check out the outlet and circuits…everything was ok. A dilemma for sure. Finally just two days before we were to leave, Bruce bought a new pigtail cord to let a 50 amp cord plug into a 30 amp outlet, which is what we have at the house. Voila! That was the culprit! We were in business and all systems go! Got the fridge started cooling down and the a/c going. Now we could load up. A ruined trip averted.

July 11 – Day 2

Today we left Elko at 7:30 am toward Wells and turned north towards Idaho before heading East again to Jackson Hole, WY.  We were amazed at how green the terrain looks in Nevada...usually it's pretty brown by this time of year.

This stop light was out in the middle of nowhere.

This is an 'overpass' for deer to cross the highway.

The road to Twin Falls, Idaho was good with little traffic. Took the Interstate to Idaho Falls and then a smaller highway to Jackson. That's when the terrain got really beautiful. If you've ever watched Big Sky Living on HGTV, you'll know what it looks like. Lots of open land with big log houses and mountains all around.

We followed the snake river from Idaho Falls. Lots of white water rafters enjoyed the ride.  Check out the swimmer ahead of the raft! 

The campground we stayed in, Fireside Resort, in Teton Village, was a little disappointing for the price ($125/night!). The fire ring was too far from the site to be usable, but it was grassy and in the trees. 

We are spending the day exploring the park and looking for another campground to stay another night...one that isn't so expensive. Otherwise we'll leave this area and travel through Yellowstone National Park towards Billings, MT.