Saturday, 9/31.....Yellowstone NP.....

Awoke to some morning fog over Lewis Lake, and our campground....checking the weather forecast, snow is expected Monday through Wednesday here...thankfully, we'll be in the Missoula, Montana area by then, where temperatures will be in the 50s....

Dropped by Old Faithful for one last viewing before driving towards Madison and Firehole Lake, where we were fortunate to see a herd of bison up close - up VERY close! Like, in the middle of our road close!  Really a gorgeous scene, with the steam rising off of the lake behind the herd....a herd just like this was probably grazing in this very spot thousands of years ago....a wonderful, inspiring sight.....

Lots of cool geyser formations here.....

Since we were going to head out of the park to the  northwest on Sunday, and needed some laundry done after a week on the road - not to mention that I'd love to watch a little bit of the Ryder Cup on Sunday - we decided to leave the park and hookup in West Yellowstone, just into Montana. We're in a lovely commercial park for a couple of nights, adjacent to the Gallatin National Forest where dogs ARE allowed off leash! Just back from a nice walk there with Molly - she enjoyed the freedom after fairly strict rules of National Parks. Got to toutou just before a front of a thunderstorm rolled in....about 6pm, and Amy and I are going to eat out in town tonight....found a cute little restaurant with a chef-owner that looks good.....

Tomorrow morning we'll either drop off our dirty laundry to be washed and folded (if available), or we'll do it ourselves. Either way, we're having pancakes at Running Bear Pancake House - evidently quite well-regarded around here! We travel on our stomachs....

Friday, 9/30.....Yellowstone NP....

Another amazing day here in the caldera of Yellowstone NP....we saw boiling pools of mud and clay, more geysers - some of which empty into Yellowstone Lake - ate lunch along the Yellowstone River, hiked along the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and saw two awesome waterfalls along the way, saw some bison, and elk.....

Yellowstone is along the tourist route for the Chinese, as it seems about a third of the visitors here are from China at the moment....Molly is of great interest to many of them - a few because they seem afraid of dogs (are there many wild dogs in China, perhaps??)....and most just because she is so friendly and pretty!!!! These friendly people are taking many pictures of her back home with them, and it's funny to think about Molly being viewed by their friends halfway around the world! 

We have one more full day and night here in Yellowstone before we head northwest towards Montana on Sunday morning.....still plenty more to see....and then we'll need to take part of a day to do some laundry....perhaps in Anaconda, or Missoula....

I can't believe I waited until I was 65 to see this incredible national treasure...we ended the day as we did yesterday, with a sunset walk (off leash and highly illegal) along the shore of Lewis Lake, where we are again camping for the night....pasta bolognese tonight, with yet another Zinfandel....

This is a wonderful way to see the West - I'm not sure I'd ever have seen much of it if not for our RV...I have my lovely wife to thank for the idea! And, of course, it's a load of fun to have my pup along for the trip....interesting that the past two days/nights we went without hooking up for anything - no water, electricity, or dumping waste water! Powered our batteries via solar panels and watched our water usage carefully.....

I have a couple of short vid clips from yesterday that I'll include in the email to you, as I can't embed them I this blog, evidently....came across this pic on Amy's phone - me taking the symmetrical reflection video at Jenny Lake that we love.....all for now!

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!