We picked up our rental RV in Jackson, which was very busy, very hot, and full of tourists --
which is exactly what we expected. We got a 30 ft RV which is huge by our standards. Driving
this thing is like driving an oil tanker compared to other things I have driven! It was another 40 miles up to Colter Bay from where we got the RV. Beautiful drive, even in the monster RV!
Almost every mile has a breathtaking view of the mountains or rivers. I never took the thing over 50 mph, just to be on the safe side.
We met up with Gene and Judy at the Colter Bay RV camp site finally at 4:00 pm. Fortunately they met us with open arms and cold microbrews! They had already been here for a few hours so they got a spot next to them for us. The campground is busy buy very nice. Lots of Lodgepole pines everywhere and Jackson Lake is a five minute walk away! The elevation here at the
campground is 6860 ft, so it is very cool at night.
For our first night at the campground we decided to eat out at the local eatery to simplify things. We just had to try out the local Buffalo Burgers! They taste a bit like beef, with a tougher consistency. The oddest part was that most of the servers in the eatery seemed to be Russian! We had fun chatting with them a bit.
The next morning we head up to Yellowstone, about 20 miles north of here. We wanted to take Kyle and Peter to the Old Faithful area since this is the most unique feature of the park. As luck would have it, the weather is very nice, but somewhat windy. We got to Old Faithful and of course there are many many other tourists there all over the place. But it is a big area and
easily absorbs the crowds! We had a brief lunch at one of the stores and then head over to O.F. to wait about 20 minutes for the next eruption. The crowds are circled around and waiting in anticipation, many small children are bored to tears and roll around and whine -- ah yes, true Americana!
After a very impressive O.F. eruption, we headed out on the geyser trail and looked at many of the boiling pools and steaming geysers along the way.
The favorite turned out to be Castle Geyser which blew off for at least 30 minutes while we were there. When we got close we got sprayed with the water, but it felt good because it was actually cool. Pete really liked this one best I think and Kyle too. We bagged two geocaches on the trail, one at Old Faithful and one at Beehive. Of course these were virtual ones since they don't allow real ones in the N.P.
This is such a unique strange area on earth that it is hard to fully describe. There are thousands of beautiful wildflowers near the clear rivers at this site, yet there are dead trees everywhere from the toxic water and gasses. It's strange and otherworldly. The wind kicked up
even more as the day wore by and at a couple of points on the trail we had to brace ourselves so as not to get blown off! That was interesting to say the least.
After being in the sun and wind for three hours, we decided to have a break for coffee and snacks and then head back to Colter Bay. At this point it seems really windy, bothersome to me as the driver! It is about an hour drive back to Colter Bay and at about the half way point a dead Lodgepole pine tree blows over just as we are going by! Now we know that this wind is more than typical here! Two more places on the road back have blown down trees blocking part of the road -- Sharon starts to get nervous about sitting on the passenger side!
We got back to the campground and whipped a huge spagetti dinner. Since we hardly ever camp, we are of little help to our seasoned relatives who are the experts. Thank goodness they have all the utensils and do dads that we don't!
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