RV adventure: Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park

Yellowstone

We got going early but it was still something like a 9 hour drive so we only reached West Yellowstone late afternoon. The change of scenery was dramatic, from the desert like canyons of Utah to the snow-capped mountains and pine forests of Idaho and Montana. 

We booked a spot in a RV park just a couple of miles from Yellowstone's western entrance so that we could get into the park nice and early the next day before the masses arrive. 

"Is that you John Wayne...Is this me?"

The scenery wasn't the only thing that changed dramatically, the temperature dropped by more than half and reached close to freezing point on our first night! Luckily the RV does a much better job at keeping you nice and cosy in the night than a tent but it was still a big change from the previous two nights!

The next morning we got up at the crack of dawn, the air still frozen outside but the first light breathing life on the world around us...I don't know what most people think of when they think of Yellowstone, probably the Old Faithful geyser, but I always had an image of a wild river, thundering around a bend with rugged, dense pine covered slopes rising from its banks...also of grizzly bears clawing at trout but let's keep it realistic...

Anyway the moment we entered the western gates we were greeted with such a sight, combined with the early morning sun piercing through the cold mist that still lurked in the swallow ground...

We saw elk grazing by the riverside and some big mountains towering in the distance...It was quite the welcome, and almost felt too perfect, like you waited for some slogan to come up for the cereal add they just shot! But hey, I've heard people say this place is special which probably explains the hoards and hoards of people that visit every single day...

The rushing Gibbon River - West Entrance

So from the beautifully scenic western entrance we headed South East to the celebrity of the park, old faithful who was set to blow within the next hour and a half, he's quite predictable, hence the name...

As you can imagine it's quite a crowd puller but there's actually quite a few other geysers to go see that have somewhat less reliable eruption schedules but still offer quite a show and a nice walk to go see them...

Castle Geyser going at it...

But then came the main event and we took our seats with the 1000 others and watched the brief build up and then the massive eruption of steam and boiling water into the blue morning sky...it was really cool to see and also a little bit worrying when you look around and see this massive field of constantly erupting geysers, which makes you wonder what is happening below the surface!

Old Faithful - unlike the other geysers this big guy has a very short build up time, so you could arrive 2 minutes late and miss the whole show!

After old faithful, we bought some coffees to go and headed north, first over the Mount Washburn pass, where we spotted our first bears! A female black bear and two cubs - really cool to see.

Mamma black bear and her cub, gathering food before the long winter sleep...

After watching them for a while we continued further north to the far stretching valleys and grassy plains that lay in the northern reaches of the park. Here we got to see herds of American Bison, the age old symbol of the American plains, that once roamed throughout most of continental US.

Lamar Valley...those black specks are the buffalo - it was the closest shot we could get!

You actually see them all over the park and are most often than not the cause of a traffic jam when they just decide to park in the middle of the road - it happened to us and I was (nervously) wondering whether the old guy might have a go at Harvey! They're really majestic animals and something completely foreign to us Africans! Ons het hulle die heeltyd buffels genoem, net uit gewoonte uit!

Easy does it champ...no need to cause an insurance nightmare today!

That evening we arranged for a spot at one of the RV camps in the park, Fishing Bridge, which sits just off the shore of the massive Yellowstone lake, so after parking Harvey in between two massive 30ft motorhomes we headed down to the lake for some sun-downers, it was quite chilly but the views of the lake were really something, and the beer tasted good after a long day of driving around!

Lake Yellowstone

The next morning we headed out for a hike, which was something we really wanted to do in the park...It's a bit risky with the grizzlies roaming around but we reckoned there should be enough hikers around to provide some safety in numbers...We headed to go do the Mt Washburn hike which is one of the more popular trails because of the great views you get of the park...

We started around 09:00 am so it was light enough outside and there were already some hikers on the trail... The trail was really cool, it zigzaged all the way up to the summit, which already had some autumn snow to give you an idea of the height. 

The views really were amazing, there were some scattered showers mixed with piercing sunlight which made the scenery all the more dramatic, we even got some cool pics of a big old rainbow crossing the western horizon. 

Sometimes the treasure under the rainbow is right before your eyes...you just have to look!

There's an old weather station at the summit which allowed us to get some shelter from icy cold while taking in the views from the top...

We'd definitely recommend doing a hike in Yellowstone if you get the chance, take some bear spray with if that's a concern but the chance to get out there in such a wild and picturesque environment is definitely worth it! It was without a doubt one of our best day hikes on our trip!

After scurrying back down we drove South to find a nice picnic spot to make some brunch and reward ourselves for the mountain we just climbed...We found a very nice spot in the Hayden valley region, nestled in between some Pines, next to the Yellowstone river - there was even a small herd of Buffalo grazing a couple of hundred yards from us... Kristi made some of her delicious scrambled eggs and I whipped up some flapjacks - we're still in America after all!

Pancakes!! My favourite post-hike meal!

It was a really tasty meal and topped off a great morning!

Our next destination was the Grand Teton National Park which lies just south of Yellowstone, so we tried to get a spot at one of the campsites close to the Southern entrance of the park, Lewis Lake. Unfortunately it was already full, Yellowstone is a notoriously difficult place to find camping/rv spots just due to the sheer numbers that visit on a daily basis...We had to then reassess our options, given that it's already quite late in the season meant that a number of the other campsites have already closed so we didn't have any choice but to continue South, out of the park in hope of finding something in Grand Teton or maybe just before it...

We could easily have stayed another week in Yellowstone, there's so much to see and do and each section of the park offers its own unique scenery, but alas we had to say an abrupt and remorseful goodbye to the nations' original National Park...

The river runs through it...(they actually filmed most of the movie in Yellowstone!)

Yellowstone is definitely a must see for anyone not just traveling to Wyoming but to the states for that matter, it really provides a unique and breathtaking glimpse into the grand memory of the wild North American Frontier...

Grand Teton National Park

So we then made our way into the Grand Teton National Park, a bit ahead of schedule but the need to find a home for Harvey pushed us from campsite to campsite until we finally found one with an open spot just outside a very small town called Moose, which lies at the southern section of the park, just north of the town of Jackson Hole...

The camp terrain was really nice with cottonwoods lining the Gros Ventre river bank along which the camp (with the same name) was located...

Gros Ventre Campground

Kristi made us some tasty wraps for dinner and we hit the hay quite early because we had a busy schedule planned for the next day...

A lot of the campgrounds in the national parks work on a first come first serve basis, but they fill up really fast, usually by noon. We were eyeing one that sits right on the shore of Jackson lake, Signal Mountain campground, so headed out nice and early and managed to find a really nice one that's secluded and has a view of the lake. Once we secured our spot we made some breakfast and headed to the picnic benches on the 'beach' to enjoy the shards of morning sunlight.

We planned to do our fist hike that morning just a few miles south of our campground. The starting point was the Taggart lake trail head, which is essentially just a parking lot with a ranger station and some restrooms. Our hike took us first up to Taggart lake and then up a mountain slope to another lake, Bradley. 

Taggart Lake

It was a really nice walk, not too strenuous and the lakes all have great views of the Teton mountain range, which form part of the larger Rocky mountain range.

Taggart Lake trail

The most striking aspect of the Grand Teton park, compared to Yellowstone, was not just the striking mountain range but more so the spectacular autumn colours that are prevalent all over the park. 

Lake Bradley

The golden hues of the cottonwoods and aspens, mixed in with the burnt red autumn shrubs and your evergreen pines really painted a surreal setting, and whose colours seemed to change constantly as the day progressed.

That afternoon we took a drive up to the northern reaches of the park to take in the beautiful views of the lakes, mountains and vegetation as the sun descended behind the Teton mountains... We found this great viewpoint overlooking Jackson lake and the grasslands that stretched out to its shores... 

As we were sitting there waiting for the sun to drop below the rim, we spotted two massive Elk bulls in the clearing before us, their antlers glowing majestically in the afternoon light. They even had a short sparring contest which seemed to end in a draw as both just went about their business afterwards, bellowing every now and then into the crisp evening air - probably a biased account of the recent contest...

Watching the Elk sparring contest!

After the sun set we headed back to our camp to get the fire going before the darkness set in...that night we just had some viennas on the braai - our inventory was running low and the nearest Walmart is a 100 miles away!

Our campsite at Signal Mountain

The next morning we went to the camp registration to book one more night at our idyllic spot and headed out to do one of the more popular hikes in the park, Cascade Canyon. You start off at the South Jenny lake trail head, it's about a 10 mile hike up to the canyon and back so a good half day outing.

The lake side trail around Jenny Lake

The trail first took us around half the circumference of Jenny lake, which is probably one of the more scenic lakes in the park, and that says a lot given the picturesque nature of all the lakes in the area! We were well on our way when we walked around a corner and came right up to a Moose cow and calf standing dead in the trail! Kristi and I froze immediately not knowing how to react since the two animals were literally just a couple of meters from us...Just as we started to back away, we heard this deep bellow coming from the right, followed by these massive antlers appearing through the trees. It was a giant old Moose bull that came strutting into trail. 

Dai is 'n paar "moose" horings!

Now we've been told it's mating season so the Bulls can get aggressive when you get between them and their ladies! Fortunately he was in line with the cow and the calf and we were a little ahead of them, so we were kind of safe for the time being, still frozen still. I started mouthing to Kristi, "haal jou kamera uit", which she did with the subtle ease of an experienced national geographic photographer! The bull started these weird foot stompings and what looked like awkward leg squats, obviously some sort of mating ritual. 

I don't think the "shitting dog" move is working...They all seem a bit freaked out!

The calf was in between the mother and the bull and then out of nowhere the bull charged at the calf, who then bolted straight at us. Kristi jumped like a cat to the nearest bush, I lunged awkwardly after her but the calf made a quick turn back to his mother and the old bull retreated back to the other side of the trial, where he continued his macho maneuvers...After about 10-15 minutes, more hikers arrived and we all just stood and watched the show...then after another 15 minutes we realised that the Moose party weren't planning on moving on anytime soon so I led a 'bundu-bashing' expedition off the trail, well clear of the bull to come out again at the other end of the trail.

It was our first Moose sighting and we couldn't have asked for a better viewing! Pumped up from the Moose encounter, we headed along with a spring in our step, we hiked for one more mile along the lake and then started up the mountain to the canyon that lay further up. There was a great viewpoint at the top of the climb, called Inspiration point (Americans...!), which had amazing views of Lake Jenny and the valley below. 

Inspiration Point - All you needed was one of those motivational slogans from your high school Math teacher's classroom...

We took a quick breather at the viewpoint and then headed up the canyon. Cascade canyon runs something like 20 miles deep into the furthest stretches of the Teton mountain range, we only went in about a mile and a half but even then the mountain scenery was just immaculate. 

Cascade Canyon with a (slightly) snow-topped Grand Teton in the background

The snake river runs all along the canyon, we decided to make our turn around spot on one the more scenic river bends, parked on a big rock and just basked in the sunshine for a while - it was a stunning autumn day!

Pit-stop next to the Snake River in Cascade Canyon

All in all it was a great hike with the Moose sighting definitely propelling it high up the already extensive list of completed hikes on our trip!

We got back to the trail head at around 14:00 and were suddenly beset with hunger, so much so that we couldn't bother with preparing lunch so just headed to the Signal Mountain Lodge restaurant to spoil ourselves for a change! We just craved french fries for some reason and being in America we were not disappointed with the results! God bless America! ;)

After a great lunch we got some coffees and hit the wifi spot at the nearby gas station to plan the next few days of our trip - there's no signal in these parts which is actually great...

For our final evening in the Grand Tetons we just wanted to relax at our campsite around the fire taking in the peaceful presence of the place for one last time!

Sunset at Jackson Lake, Signal Mountain Campground

The next day we had to head back South to the Eastern parts of Utah. We will definitely always remember the wild, rugged beauty of Wyoming and it's two great parks, the picturesque frontier landscape is something completely different to what we see back home and so it made a deep impression on the two travelling South Africans!