Yellowstone National Park (North Entrance 7/5-7/13, West Entrance 7/13-7/20) Part 1

Well I haven't posted in a minute because we have been so busy I just haven't had a chance.  In our original trip plan, I had booked one week at the North entrance of Yellowstone.  Upon further discussion with people who had been to the park before, we modified and added a second week at the West entrance.  Now that we have completed that part of our trip, I am so glad we did. 

Our drive from Buffalo, WY to Yellowstone was enjoyable and uneventful.  We arrived at Yellowstone's Edge RV campground located about halfway between Livingston and Gardiner, MT and about 35 minutes from the North (original) entrance to Yellowstone.  Yellowstone's Edge was in a beautiful spot right along the Yellowstone river.  We had a great spot with a clear view of the river from our dining table, just lovely.

View from our dining table

Unfortunately, our site was right near the road, but it wasn't any traffic noise that bothered us upon our arrival, but a regular swarm of gnat type insects that loved to gather in the shade in large numbers and a very strong whiff of something in a stage of decomposition.  We tucked in for the night and the next morning ventured to the office to inquire about the insects and the smell.  We were told that the insects were especially bad this year, but a recurring annual phenomenon, they would be with us our whole week there.  The smell was identified as a dead deer off the side of the road near our RV.  They could do nothing to remove it.  You can't control nature....we made the best of it and killed a lot of bugs over the course of the week. 

Due to the expectations of large crowds in the park, we left Ruth at o'dark thirty for the North entrance.  There were less than 5 cars in line to enter and we zoomed right in, first stop Mammoth Hot Springs. I had read about a phone app called GyPsy Guide.  It uses your phone's GPS to narrate information about the park while you drive.  It does not require cell connection to work so it is great for a remote location.  I purchased the Yellowstone, Grand Tetons and West Glacier tours for our trip.  We really enjoyed it during our Yellowstone trip, it gave us a heads up on some of the smaller and less known pull outs and sites that aren't on the main tourist trail as well as some of the history of this geothermal wonder. 

As we explored Mammoth Hot Springs early, there was plenty of parking and a relatively small number of other tourists on the exploration platforms.  As this was our first glimpse of the park, we were in awe of this site, we would soon learn over our two weeks there that Yellowstone is just awe-inspiring place overall.   I've literally never seen anything like it. We saw two elk munching on the grass right near the springs.  

By late morning, we headed to Canyon Village and bypassed Norris Basin Geyser (parking was impossible), the hottest, oldest, and most dynamic of Yellowstone's thermal areas. We stopped for a quick lunch and Canyon Village, while the lunch was fine, the crowds not so much.  We decided that going forward we would just pack our own lunch and find much more scenic picnic areas along our way.   We stopped for several viewing hikes on both the North and South rims of the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone", stunning is a word that doesn't even do it justice nor do my pictures.

We had been in the park since 7am and my Fitbit was on tilt for the day.  We headed back to our campground about 3pm, BIG MISTAKE!  We were caught in two 40 minute traffic jams on the way back out of the park.  We never saw the reason for it, but we also decided we would avoid these times on our next trips. We did however see a group of elk relaxing our our way out which was a nice treat.

Of course, we found some pickleball friends in Livingston, MT.  They played in an old indoor rec center with a terrible wood gym floor, but they were very welcoming.  They had an unorthodox method of game rotation but it worked for them and we adapted to their local custom. 

It just so happened that the Livingston Farmer's market was on Wednesday afternoon right after we played pickleball.  There were 15-20 tents and even live music set up in the bandstand. We were looking forward to enjoying the festivities.  However, there were some very dark skies rolling in.  Unfortunately, just as the market was to begin, a deluge of rain and lightening put an end to the potential fun.  We ended up eating a local Thai restaurant instead in Livingston where we had a terrific meal and waited out the storm to drive back to the RV.

Our second day in the park was an early rise again to the Lamar Valley, the Serengeti of North America.  We were treated to a large heard of elk in the grasslands even before we got to the park entrance.  We then saw hundreds of bison, a marmot.  If there were cars stopped at the pull out, there was likely something to see.  Some other tourist with high powered viewing scopes said they could see mountain goats on the far away rocks, I could not see them.  Took about a 2 mile hike on the Yellowstone trail, sign indicated "bear frequented area", we were armed with bear spray but had no encounters.  We exited through the famous Roosevelt Arch for home.

Look closely for Mike and Janice Bobbleheads. 

The tiny town of Emigrant, MT was 5 minutes from our campground but hosted Wildflour Bakery, Follow Yer' Nose BBQ and the Old Saloon (established in 1902).  We enjoyed both the bakery and the BBQ during our stay.

Mike and I agreed top 5 BBQ ever. 

I don't think the population of Emigrant MT of 271
is proportional to line for BBQ after we ordered,
must be good.  

We also made a side day trip to Bozeman, MT to run some errands in "the city" and check out main street. It seemed to be a vibrant town coming back to life post Covid. 

We decided to go in early one more time to see Norris Geyser Basin and hit some of the other viewpoints we might have missed on other days.  It was a more leisurely visit and our last before we headed to the West entrance.  While the North entrance is probably less traveled, we thoroughly enjoyed our first experience with Yellowstone from this location.

Lone roadside Bison

One of many beautiful thermal pools

Early morning geyser eruption at Norris Basin

Blowing grasslands

We went through our normal departure checklists and Ruth was ready to exit Yellowstone's Edge for our next stop about 3 hours drive away in Island Park, ID near the West entrance to Yellowstone and then this happened...

When towing a 2 ton vehicle behind your 18 ton RV you need extra braking power so you install an extra braking apparatus when traveling to help with this.  It should always be used, but as we were entering some of the more significant mountainous driving of our trip it is even more critical.  We go to  install the "Brake Buddy" as usual on this fine morning and NOTHING, no power was being supplied.  We tried several things under the hood of the Jeep with fuses to find the problem.  Nothing was working.

We then realized the real root cause of the problem...the power chord that plugs into the cigarette lighter for power has no guts and therefore no power.  All the components of the cigarette lighter plug were gone and no where to be found.  Expletive, Expletive!  After about an hour delay, we decided that we would have to drive separately to Idaho.  That is not ideal, but safer than pulling without the extra braking.  I stopped in Livingston to pick up some possible repair supplies to fix the problem at our next location as Mike and Ruth carried on to our next Yellowstone stop.  

Never a dull moment with Ruth.