Thursday, 9/29.....Yellowstone NP: Old Faithful

By time we got to Yellowstone's south entrance, it was mostly cloudy, with a few drops of rain around. We saw a beautiful rainbow against the last of the Tetons as we left that park....I took it as a good-bye message from those majestic mountains, and promised to visit them again in the near future. What a fantastic place!

On the advice of the Park Ranger at the entry gate to Yellowstone, we stopped at Lewis Lake Campground and selected a peaceful campsite for the next three nights. Some of the park's campgrounds have closed for the season, so the ones that are open fill up fast. It is full as I write this at 5pm, so she gave us good advice! There are no electric hookups here, so we'll be relying on our batteries (powered by our solar panels) for power tonight. It is a different, and nice, feeling to be able to be untethered for an evening! Independence!

Old Faithful is a twenty minute drive from Lewis, so we headed there and had lunch at the historic Old Faithful Inn - an incredible architectural job if there ever was one! The architecture was better than the food, but what the hell, we didn't come to OF for the food! But we did see what we came for - OF's on-time eruption later the afternoon. I can't seem to embed videos into this blog, so I'll attach a very brief vid of the start of OF's business in my email to you.....

The video better captures the size and power of the geyser....this is my first time here, so I'm learning a good deal: Yellowstone's many geysers number more than the rest of the world's combined....

Chicken pot pie tonight, with salad and a Ridge zin....more of Yellowstone's magic awaits tomorrow, along with (promised) sunny skies....

Wednesday, 9/28.....Grand Teton NP......

Awoke to another glorious morning....had a conference call at 10, so Amy went hiking up Signal Mountain (view from the top of Signal, looking out over the famous Snake River):

....while Molly and I had coffee at Jackson Lake Lodge, with an amazing view of the Tetons...I'll try and attach a brief vid of the view to an email forwarding this blog link....after the call, she and I exercised a bit around Jackson Lake Dam, which dams the Snake River to form Jackson Lake....it's a wonderful, small earthen dam....with the Tetons in the distance.....

Lunch was in Jackson, followed by the acquisition of some vittles and other necessities.....we will decide in the morning whether we want to move directly on north to Montana and Canada, or visit Yellowstone NP first....tonight's dinner is chicken Marsala, and we're sipping a youngish but tasty 2012 Guigal Crozes-Hermitage, found in town today....

Thursday AM Update: we have decided to take advantage of the great weather and visit Yellowstone NP now instead of on our way back home a few weeks from now. We're excited - I've never seen it before and Amy's only visit was on a teen tour!  As I write this, I'm sipping my java on my bed with Molly sleeping outstretched on 3/4s of my bed. I think she feels that since she slept on the floor all night while I had the bed to myself, that she deserves most of it now! She's been fantastic on the trip - well-behaved and, of course, the center of attention wherever we take her.....

Tuesday, 9/27.....Grand Teton NP.....

IHad a nice, restful sleep, and woke up to a moose in camp!

Then we drove deeper into the park, with the Tetons to our west...truly, a magnificent sight!

Lunch at Jackson Lake Lodge, a wonderful setting.....

Molly and I took a siesta after lunch (must have been the effects of the Jenny Lake Lager) while Amy went for a hike near Jackson Lake....more later!

Monday, 9/26....Flaming Gorge to Grand Teton NP...

The Green River (which flows into the Colorado River)  is where John Wesley Powell began his journey of mapping the Colorado River Basin, complete with his many harrowing rides of the rapids ending with the Grand Canyon....the Flaming Gorge (which he named) is a remarkable site.....

The Green River was dammed here in the early 60's, and it is a beautiful dam.....

The dam created a huge resevoir behind it, similar to - but much smaller than - what the Glen Canyon Dam did to create Lake Powell.

It was a beautiful morning to explore the area, and then we drove four hours or so north to Jackson, Wyomng. We are camping tonight in Grand Teton NP...we'll spend a couple of days here before heading northwest to Montana....the weather is gorgeous (it's 78 degrees as I compose this at 5pm)....breaking with our normal routine, we will drive ten minutes into Jackson for dinner tonight, where we hope to watch a little of the debate....I hope it doesn't ruin our dinner!!!

Sunday, Sept. 25....Flaming Gorge......

Not much to report this first day, as it was mainly a travel day to the northwest, to Flaming Gorge National Rec Area. It did start out as another glorious morning in Mountan Star...

We arrived at FG late in the afternoon and had a great look at the large dam that created the lake behind it....I hope to take a tour of the dam tomorrow morning. I have a growing fixation with dams! Not to mention water tanks....

We'll find a nice hike in the morning somewhere around the gorge, and then head north to Jackson Hole (about a four hour drive), where we'll spend a couple of days in the area visiting Grand Teton NP....tonight we are drinking a lovely '09 Domaine Tempier Bandol, and will dine on roast pork loin with carrots, mashed potatoes, and green beans from our CSA. Leftovers from a dinner I made Friday PM....all three of us agree it's great to be on the road again!

Beginning our Fall Trip to Canada, Montana, and Wyoming....Saturday, 9/24

Packing up toutou (our motor home, which means "puppy" in French) today, as we depart for four weeks tomorrow, Sunday morning. We've just had our first cold snap of the fall, and the colors this year are spectacular....from our meadow:

I'm sure we'll see some more wonderful fall colors as we head to our northern-most point of the trip, Nelson, British Columbia. We'll take a week or so to get up to that point, stopping along the way at Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park, Missoula MT, and Sandpoint, ID, among other interesting stops. Most everywhere we go will be new to me, as the only spots I've been to up that way were for skiing at Jackson Hole and Sun Valley. For years I've been wanting to go to Nelson, BC; Whitefish, Flathead Lake, Missoula, and Bozeman MT; and, of course, Yellowstone NP in Wyoming. The weather should be coolish, as fall is settling in with temperatures in the 30s and 40s at night and 60s and 70s during the days. Hopefully, we won't have to deal with any significant snow, though that certainly can happen this time of year....

I'll be blogging most days, and will send a link out after each post. I hope you enjoy the pictures and brief commentary.....