As of July 25th, we are camped along the Madison River just outside Yellowstone. We left CO on the 9th and arrived here on the 11th. We have spent some time camping in the park, but have also discovered this lovely Forest Service
Another beautiful sunset, taken from our boondocking site near Craig, CO
campground just north of West Yellowstone, MT. We can see the river from our site. I (Jenn) have been swimming frequently. We are enjoying watching the Osprey dive bomb the river for fish. The park is literally across the river from us.
We spent several days geyser gazing in the park and looking at wildlife. Only one black bear sighting so far. The elk and bison are less visible than we are used to. I guess they move higher up in the summer, probably to escape the tourists. We were concerned that the crowds would be too much for us, but so far it hasn’t been bad. It has been amusing to watch people get really excited by an elk or bison next to the road. I guess we take them for granted. We joke that the lone animal got stuck taking the tourist shift. “Ok, you pose for pictures and we’ll all go hide in the forest.”
Our previous experiences seem to hold true, get a quarter mile off the road, and no one is around. We hiked a half
Beaver at Harlequin Lake, Yellowstone
mile to a small lake and watched a beaver make his rounds through the lily pads. We were the only people there and could hear the beaver chowing down. He swam by us several times about 20 feet away. A half mile and no one there, no wonder we keep coming back.
Outside of the park, we are enjoying the mountain biking. There are a lot of snowmobile paths that are available to bike. We biked for hours the other day and didn’t see a soul. The wildflowers are spectacular right now. In fact, all the way from CO the flowers were amazing. Entire hillsides full of yellow, white and purple flowers.
Once again, we are feeling lucky to be able to spend time in one of our favorite areas. Dan said it was like coming back to our summer home. There is so much to do here, that we could keep ourselves occupied for weeks. Now that I think about it, I guess we have been. We will probably mosey on down the road sometime next week. Maybe drive 50 miles down the Madison and look for some nice boondocking. There looks to be some interesting ghost towns up near Ennis, MT. We need to check them out. I hear there are hot springs that way too. After that, who knows, maybe another 50 miles.
As of July 5th, we are still in Colorado. We are camped above Central City, CO in a forest service campground. There is a late afternoon thunderstorm rumbling overhead. Dan is busy working on his Redstone Coke Oven project while I am laying on the couch typing. Ahh… our cozy trailer is home no matter where we are.
Wildflowers along Mountain Bike Trail, Arapahoe NF, CO
We had thought that we would be heading out to Yellowstone last week and then on towards Montana. The plan was to follow the Missouri River from its headwaters to its joining with the Mississippi. That probably isn’t going to happen this year. Due to an unexpected delay on one of Dan’s historic projects, we can’t leave the area yet. We have also discovered about 3 weeks worth of reasons we have to be in CO in September. We are still going to try to make our reservations in Yellowstone, but we aren’t sure where we are going after that. We are hoping to head out in the next week or two and have about 6 weeks to wander around before returning to CO in Sept. Then, we will hurry out to Alabama to meet up with family in October.
I can’t really complain about being “stuck” in Colorado. It is not a bad place to spend more time. We are camped at 9,000 feet and the weather has been warm, but not too hot. The night skies are dark and the stars are amazing. The wildflowers are in full bloom, and we have been mountain biking the old jeep roads outside the campground. Starting at this elevation and going up is good exercise. The campground is full for the holiday weekend, but we know they will all be leaving tomorrow. It should be really quiet here during the week.
Last night we headed towards Central City to watch the fireworks. I had to drag Dan to go and we didn’t really want to be around a bunch of people in town. We were hoping to find somewhere to park and watch them from above. We ended up hiking through an old cemetary to climb a hill way above town. There was no one around, it was getting dark, and the coyotes started howling on our way up the hill. It was one of those, “what are we getting ourselves into?” moments. As soon as we reached the top, we realized we were in for a treat. We had the entire hill to ourselves and the fireworks were practically at eye level. They were beautiful and well worth a hike through a dark cemetary with the coyotes.
We spent some more time in the Redstone, CO area a few weeks ago so Dan could continue working on the Coke Oven Restoration. I went for a few bike rides and explored the area. I saw my first Colorado bear while out exploring in the truck. I also helped Dan out by excavating old pieces of the ovens so he could reconstruct them. Hard labor, but good exercise. The snowmelt has all the rivers running very high and there were a lot of waterfalls coming down the hillsides. All in all, a beautiful place to spend time.
