wyoming – PhotoKent's Musings

Ask me if you know, our camper van is an LTV Wonder. We purchased it in late 2019 just before COVID, and have been traveling around the west ever since.

After the Tetons and a family gathering in Eastern Idaho we wandered, or “Wondered” up to the Yellowstone. We had scored a 3 day campsite reservation in Canyon Village near The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Many of you have read of our hikes and travels in the “real” Grand Canyon but there are several others, not the least of which is the one in Yellowstone National Park. Much of the canyon is actually yellow or hues of yellow, hence the name.

Of course we had to visit Old Faithful. In the past we had cruised by, stopping briefly but decided to make it a go-to place this time. Found a great parking spot way in the back. Pro Tip — Arrive early and have the pick of a spot. We had afternoon shade. Spent 2 days here, including our own breakfast.

We spent a several hours admiring the lodge and even took the 45 minute tour. Unfortunately the photographer of our group spent too much time ogling and not enough time taking photos. Trust me when I say this is one of the most amazing and original lodges in the national park system. Worth a visit. Sraddha did score a pair of earrings tho. They are amazing.

Another day we spent on bikes and foot around old faithful. The riding is slim unless you dare venture out onto the main road, which we didn’t. A 3 mile trail exists to ride down tov the north end of the main geyser area which we did, then we walked around some of hte other areas. Here are a few photos and maybe a video.

Splash geyser in action

We also visited the grand prismatic spring but it was too early and cold so mostly steam. That’s what photographers do…find the shot when the one you wanted wasn’t there.

Steam rising from the Grand Prismatic Spring

Grand prismatic outflow into Firehole River

We didn’t spend a lot of time in the campground. Pretty boring with lots of lodge pole pines. We just chilled. We did walk around the visitor center and village area.

The last morning we departed for points north, we decided to to check into Norris Geyser basin and WOW. We arrived like 630 in the morning. We were the only people out in the basin for at least 30-40 minutes. Truly amazing. Like being back in millions of years ago. And no humans except us.

On the way out to West Yellowstone we stopped to gander at Gibbons Falls

The Yellowstone is so vast it is hard to conceptualize and really describe. We can only hit a few highlights, however, when we are up in 7000-8000 ft elevation, it is very psychically clear. Peaceful, even in in mid summer. We hardly noticed the crowds.

Heading north to Bozeman to visit a family member and “moochdock for a few days including a real shower….

well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted, lol, but I won’t go into all what’s happened. We are on a six week journey in July in the middle of the summer where everybody else travels and it’s usually something we don’t like to do, but we’re doing it.

We headed out on June 29 through Angel Lake their Wells, Nevada then onto the Tetons. On our way to a family gathering reunions are up in eastern Idaho, but first we spend a few days in the Tetons and then after Idaho we’re gonna head up into Montana for a few weeks and then we’re gonna come back to Utah for a wedding. All this is about six week trip.

We’ve been staying in Gros Ventre Campground on the south end of the Tetons and then traveling in different places every day. having been a regular visitor of the Teton Park in the last few years we kinda have our preferred places and since this is a fairly short trip, we decided to go ahead and visit those. We spent a day at string Lake, which is just near Jenny Lake, which afforded us the opportunity tosit out on the Waters edge early in the morning with nobody around. Then take a 25 mile bike ride down to the visitor center and back and also park for a day at signal Mountain facing the wind River range and just enjoy the weather. We had four different rain storms that came in.

When we got to Idaho specifically Ashton Idaho at the Jolly camper RV park, which was absolutely delightful and shaded in the afternoon during the 90° days it was quite delightful except for one thing. We had to replace our macerator pump. The macerator pump is what delivers the Black and Gray wastes to the sewer and it had died. Fortunately, I knew this was eventually going to happen so I bought another pump and with the help of our neighbors we are uninstalled the old one and put the new one on. The rest of the trip we visited with Sraddha’s family and also did some bike rides on the rails-to-trails bike trail nearby, which was used to be an old Union Pacific Railroad rail line.