To say that we love Yellowstone might be an understatement. We have visited 5 out of the last 7 years. Each time staying a little longer. The first thing we did when we picked a date to leave was make reservations for a month in Yellowstone. That was when the idea of fulltiming started to seem real to me. I was giddy with the idea of a month in our favorite place. We also figured a month somewhere would help us to step out of the rat race and slow down.
Boondocking near Flaming Gorge, UT
We headed north from Dinosaur through Flaming Gorge. We found some easy and spectacular boondocking in the Ashley National Forest just south of Flaming Gorge. It made a quiet, cheap base camp. Flaming Gorge really surprised us. We expected a hot, dry, desolate lake. We were wrong. There was a variety of vegetation zones from desert scrubrush to forested hillsides. We needed much more time to explore all the hiking and biking opportunites. Unfortunately, we didn’t have more than a week since we had reservations in Yellowstone.
We did find time to take a mountain bike ride along the south shore of
Green River below Flaming Gorge Dam, UT
the lake. It was a fast drop down to the water and then along some canyons with a steep climb back out. The best part of it was the entire hillsides of wildflowers along the way. The place was covered with yellow flowers. I (Jenn) also took a great hike along the Green River below the Dam. The trail followed the river downstream for seven miles. I really want to go back and bike this trail. The river is so green and you are just steps from it, at times the trail is a boardwalk that extends over the river. For someone who loves to be near water, it was perfect.
Heading north towards Yellowstone, we spent some time in the Star Valley. The area is growing fast with a lot of people moving down from the more expensive Jackson area. Unfortunately, the lack of zoning is turning a pretty valley into a sprawling mess. We ended up boondocking just over the Idaho border in the Caribou National Forest. We were happy to learn that Gray’s Lake National Wildlife Refuge was just a few miles away. We spent several hours watching birds, especially the Sand Hill Cranes that were migrating through. We also spotted a moose way out in a field. We always joke about finding moose because they are so rare for us to spot. For us, if it looks like moose habitat, that probably means there aren’t any around.
Back in the Star Valley, we hiked to the Periodic Spring outside of Afton. This spring comes straight out of a hillside and starts and stops every 18 minutes or so. It is one of only three cold water geysers in the world and the largest of those three. Unfortunately, it is only truly periodic in the spring and fall. We were there in May and it was gushing out of the hillside with little obvious difference in flow. It was still neat to see the stream just appear out of the hill and well worth the hike. (Note: We went back in October – See photo album and later travels).
We headed into the park through the West Yellowstone, Montana entrance and made camp at Madison. This is our Yellowstonefavorite campground since it is the closest to the geysers. Dan and I are avid geyser enthusiasts. Our first day out we ran into a geyser gazer that we had met at least twice before on previous trips. It is always fun to run into people that are experts on geysers. They can fill you in on any unusual geyser activity happening. We are starting to get to know some of the regulars after a number of trips.
Yellowstone can be crowded, but not usually early in the year. You can usually escape the crowds by getting a mile
Upper Falls, Yellowstone
or so down a trail. The vast majority of people practice what we call “drive-bys” They stop, take a picture (sometimes even getting out of the car for this) and leave. Of course, these same people probably think we are nuts for sitting next to a geyser that might erupt….sometime. We ended up spending three weeks in the park. We alternated between watching geysers, hiking, and wildlife viewing. We even managed a road ride on our bikes along the Yellowstone River. We had to get off the bikes at one point due to a bison standing in the middle of the road. We waited for a car to come along and then made sure we kept the car between us and the bison! Bison seem even bigger when you are on a bike. Biking a road also makes it seem brand new. We noticed things we had never seen from the truck.Bison dozing in the sun
Our favorite hike was down the west shore of Lake Yellowstone. We didn’t see another person the entire day, though we did keep a close eye out for bears. We also hiked out to several backcountry geyser basins and even managed to find a day or two to do nothing but relax. One of the best things about this lifestyle is having the flexibility to adjust our schedule based on nothing more than how we feel that day. A good example of this was leaving the park after 3 weeks. We originally had reservations for 4, but it was getting too crowded. We had been spoiled by having it to ourselves and found we couldn’t handle the June crowds.
We headed up towards Livingston, MT where we met up with Dan’s aunt and uncle. They are also travelling the country in their RV. This was a treat for us to spend an evening with family and talk about how things were going so far. We spent several days in a great forest service campground just south of Livingston. We saw a black bear twice just outside the campground. We frequently camp in “bear areas”, but this was the first time we had actually seen bears near a campground. Of course, we could have stayed longer, but we needed to head back to CO.
Along the way, we stopped for several days at Glendo Resevoir in Wyoming where I delighted in swimming several times a day. We were camped right on the lake and it was hot, but the water was wonderfully cool. I love to swim and rarely get the chance, so I was in heaven. All too soon, it was time to head back to Boulder, CO to keep some appointments.
