Hi Ho, Hi Ho, to Yellowstone We Go – Fri., Aug. 3

Flagg Ranch to Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone National Park:

Polecat Creek on Grassy Lakes Road out of Flagg Ranch was our first destination this morning. Bob found it on his walk last night and wanted to share the beauty with me. Lovely spot. Here are a couple of photos…

Polecat Creek --south

Off to Yellowstone we went at 10:45 a.m. The travel distance today was 43 miles.

Highway into Yellowstone Nat'l Park from the South Entrance.

We arrived at Fishing Bridge at 12:30 p.m. Our site, E201, is waaaaay in the back of the campground.

Bob tested his maneuvering skills backing Rigamarole into her slot. There is not a lot of room to move around with narrow lanes, wooden poles delineating the sites, other RVs immediately next to where you back in, and lodgepole pines where one would normally swing the pick-up around to steer the 5er. After many back and forths, we settled “The Rig” in her home for two weeks.

The 5^th wheel in the spot behind and a little to our left has a rear-entry door, so we couldn’t back our rig up too far or they’d walk right out the door into the back end of our 5er. This means the front of our 5er is barely out of the narrow roadway. We had just enough room to open our slides. Our dining room slide looks out on, i.e. is practically in, a beautiful spruce tree. Better than looking in someone’s window. If the people a little behind us and to our left opened their back shades, we could see right in.

Our site in the E loop.

You can see how close the rig is behind us.

While Bob worked on setting up the outside logistics, I took care of the inside and made tuna sandwiches for lunch. After lunch we did laundry in the very crowded laundry room. (People were waiting for washing machines.)

Bob ran out to Mary’s Point, five miles from here, where there is cell phone reception to make some calls for work. While he was gone, I read my book as the laundry washed.

We went over to the Post Office at Lake Village to set up General Delivery mail. This will be our first mail forwarding in three weeks.

From there, we went to Mary’s point and made more phone calls. Bob was able to pick up 3G coverage on his Verizon Samsung smartphone and got on the internet for a bit. I was able to moderate my blog comments and publish them, but not enough juice to post my blogs.

Steamboat Point, Lake Yellowstone

We can pay $4.95/hour per computer for internet at Lake Lodge. It looks like we’ll go there a couple of times per week for our internet fix. All of my blog posts are being typed in Word, and then transferred to Blogger when we have a connection.

Wildlife today: white pelican, elk, yellow-bellied marmot, squirrels

It’s 9:00 p.m. Time to go to bed and read. I’m really into Lee Child’s “Echo Burning.” It’s exciting!

We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Plans for Yellowstone so far:  

1. Lake Yellowstone Hotel Tour (free)
2. Storm Point Trail, three miles
3. Old Faithful Inn tour (free)
4. Mammoth Area: Explore the terraces; Wraith Falls, one mile
5. Lone Star Geyser hike, 4.8 miles round trip
6. Scenicruise on Yellowstone Lake
7. Hikes at Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
8. Hike to Natural Bridge
9. Visitor Centers
10. Ranger-led interpretive hikes
11. Hayden Valley and Lamar Valley for wildlife viewing.
12. Old West Dinner Cookout (?)
13. Three Volkswalks

•  Old Faithful Upper Geyser Basin, 10K (6.2 miles)
•  Fairy Falls and a geyser, 10K (6.2 miles)
•  Mt. Washburn, 10K (6.2 miles)

I hope you’re all having a fun summer and doing all the things you wanted/hoped to.

Travel Bug out.