Yellowstone National Park & Grand Teton National Park

After leaving Canyon Ferry Lake, Court Sheriff campground on Monday; we headed for Yellowstone National Park.  What an experience!  Just after entering the park we viewed several male Buffalo, a female Elk, and a Trumpeter Swan.  We entered the park at the West Yellowstone entrance and thought that we would have an easy time getting a spot at Madison campground.  Not exactly!!  There were only 4 out of the 7 campgrounds open and Madison was the only campground that had spots big enough for our RV.  We pulled in and the campground host was pretty sure that we were SOL, but after doing some checking, he was able to put us in a beautiful site that not only was big enough for our rig and slide outs, but we were also able to pull the car in behind the motor home.

The campground has no hookups but we were able to fill up with water in the campground and again, we have our inverter and generator so not a problem!   Because Roger has the National Park Senior Pass we got into the park for free, which is normally $25 and we only paid $32.75 for 3 nights in the campground.  Not too shabby!

After settling into our spot we decided to head out and take a look around, so we drove to the Norris Geyser Basin and saw the Artists Paintpots, Steamboat Geyser and Beryl Spring Monument geyser.  There are so many sites that it almost is overwhelming.  Not only are the lodge pole pines spectacular, but the Aspen were also in full fall color.  The following morning we took off for the Northern Part of the loop.  We set out for Mammoth Hot Springs, Undine Falls,  Petrified tree, Dunraven Pass, and of course, Canyon - home of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  Besides seeing a huge Male Elk and his group of Females, Mule Deer, and Buffalo, we also saw a "Cinnamon" Black Bear lumbering across the road.  I think that it was a grizzly, but another tourist thought it was a Black Bear.

On Wednesday, we left for the Southern end of the park which includes Old Faithful, the Old Faithful Inn, Craig Pass, Yellowstone Lake, and the famous Mud Volcano.  We took a beautiful walk along LeHardys Rapids and toured Sulphur Caldron.  I don't think that we missed too much of the park, but in case we did, there's always the next trip.  On this side of the park we saw at least 200 buffalo, a wolf, and many coyotes and fox along with the occasional elk and many mule deer.  On 2 of the 3 nights we had a beautiful fire in our fire ring.  You are allowed to cut and burn fallen dead trees, of which there are thousands.  Lodge pole pine burns very nicely and for a long time. 

Today, we left Yellowstone and drove south to Grand Teton National Park.  We didn't see much wild life but the Teton's are absolutely gorgeous!  We arrived at the Montpelier Creek KOA in Montpelier, Idaho shortly before dinner time and were able to wash the motor home, car and clothes.  It's pretty nice having full hookups since we've gone a while without.  Again, I'll try to spend some time going through pictures and posting some soon.