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!

A little taste of LA and the start of our RV adventure: Zion National Park

While we initially planned to do our RV trip from Chicago to LA, a sobering reality check hit home when we reviewed the quotes for such an endeavor! The drop off fees and mileage alone made up our initial budget for the trip! So we went back to the drawing board and reviewed our options...Traveling with an RV is still an expensive means of travel for a backpacking trip so we found the only way to still incorporate it was to find a good deal, which is usually when the rental company needs a motorhome to be taken from one place to another. Fortunately we found such a deal within our time frame, where the RV had to be picked up in LA, California and dropped off in Phoenix, Arizona 15 days later. We looked at a map and saw that we could fit in most of what we wanted to see and do on our initial trip within the alloted time so wasted no time in securing the booking!

And since we were planning on going to LA anyway, Kristi's cousin Braam and his family stay there, we could head to their place for our a couple of days, plan our trip, leave some stuff at their place and then head to the rental center to pick up our RV...

We arrived in LA on Sunday, September 11th, yes flights were cheap that day, and had to pick up the RV on the Tuesday... Braam's home is fortunately quite close to the airport so it was only a short uber drive to their place - LA as those who have been there will know, is huge!

It was great to see Braam, Kelly and the girls again. It was also the first time Kristi and I got to meet little Rosilee, who's just the sweetest little blue-eyed girl!

On our first afternoon we got to go over to Kelly's folks for a Sunday afternoon barbecue, which was really great, Dave, Kelly's dad comes from Utah so he gave us some valuable tips for our trip and then of course the BBQ ribs were amazing!

Sunday family meal in LA

The following day Kristi and I headed to the Manhattan Beach County Library to crunch in some research for our upcoming RV trip, we found a nice quiet room with wifi, laid out a bunch of maps and travel guides, grabbed some Starbucks and got to work...

Crunching in some last minute planning!

At the end we managed to work out a viable route: first heading into South West Utah via Las Vegas (maybe try and give our budget a boost!) and then up to Montana to the Western entrance of Yellowstone, after a couple of days in America's first National Park we will head down to the Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, which is a short drive south from Yellowstone. After a few days there we will head down to Eastern Utah where we will explore some of the crazy parks out there before finding our way down to Phoenix, Arizona which we will then use as a base to visit the Grand Canyon National Park... I know it's a mouthful but we ran the numbers and it looked doable! Guess we'll just have to wait and see if we were right or absolutely bonkers!

After a short drive to the RV rental center, Cruise America, in Carson, LA we signed some papers and got started with a instructional video while our RV was being prepped. We booked a 19ft unit, which is quite compact but advisable for anyone rving for their first time, unless you're more than 3 people of course... After waiting for about an hour we finally got shown our RV, who shall be known as Harvey the RV from henceforth, and received a brief overview of the vehicle...Then we got given a map of the area, the keys and off we went!

Getting out of LA was no laughing matter, there may be 9 million bicycles in Beijing but it felt like there were 9 million cars in LA that day - and it was only like 11:30! Anyway we eventually found our way to interstate 15, cranked up some country music and watched the buildings give way to dry cactus covered cliffs as we headed into the Mojave desert towards Nevada...

We reached Las Vegas around 17:00 and briefly gazed around at the unbelievable extravagance of this desert oasis. While the glitz and glamour of the casinos were luring us in like a moth to a flame, our GPS kept us on route to our destination...the nearest Walmart super-center...just let just me explain...I know it sounds absurd but the Walmart offered two things we needed - low cost, bulk purchasing and free overnight parking in their parking lot! Moerse classy!

Our overnight parking/camping spot at the Las Vegas Walmart

Zion National Park

The next morning we hit the road early and headed north east to Utah and our first National Park, Zion! It was a four hour drive so we arrived in Springdale, which the town situated at the base of the park, at around lunch time. We booked a spot in a RV park in town but since the park literally surrounds the town we had a nice setting with the massive red canyons towering all around us. 

Zion and Springdale have put in place a great shuttle system that takes you from town into the park and then to also to most of the hiking trails in the park. 

Zion and Springdale shuttle system

We decided to do a late afternoon hike and hopped on the shuttle that took us to our trail, hidden canyon. It was a relatively short hike up to the canyon but with the afternoon light we really got some great views of the mountains and the spectacular colours that emerge at that time of day...

Enjoying one of the many viewpoints on the Hidden Canyon trail

It was a great introduction to our Zion adventure and we couldn't wait for the hikes we had planned the next day.

Great to be out on the trails again!

That evening we got a fire going, poured some wine and enjoyed our first campside braai on our trip - camp fires were not allowed in South America...

It's something we love from back home and thus were quite in our element sitting there in our camping chairs near the warm glow of the fire under a clear desert sky...

Diep gelukkig!

There are two must do hikes when you get the chance to visit Zion. Angels landing, which is a great monolithic rock sitting right in the heart of Zion Canyon and the Narrows which is a river that runs through a narrow canyon. We did both in one day, and it's very doable...

Since the desert temperatures can run up to the 30s even in autumn, we opted to do Angels landing first in the early morning hours and then hit the Narrows in the afternoon.

We again jumped on the very convenient shuttles and headed to the starting point for our hike up to Angels landing...The hike up has been made much easier with the construction of a series of switchbacks that lessen the gradient of your ascent. The sun was just climbing over the eastern mountains so the valley was slowly lighting up as we made our ascent...It was really awesome.

Initial switchback section of the Angel's Landing trail in Zion

Then when you get to the top of the switchback section to a place called scouts lookout, you get this insane view of the valley below and the last climb up to Angels landing. The last section of the climb is not recommended for those with any fears of heights since the trail is narrow with big vertical drops on both sides...For those who like the thrill, it's a really cool trail with great views all around!

Last section leading up to Angel's Landing - looming proudly in the background

They called it Angels landing because the natives believed that the rock was so high that only angels could land there... Once at the top we just parked on one of the borders overlooking the valley, basked in the morning sum and enjoyed the unbelievable views...

It's really worth doing if you ever find yourself in this neck of the woods!

Great viewpoint of Zion Valley from the top of Angel's Landing

The walk down was relatively quick and all together the hike took us about 3 hours and unless you have some vertigo problems I wouldn't say it's too strenuous...

After the hike we took the shuttle back to Harvey and headed to our next campsite, Watchman, which is actually located in Zion Park. 

Now as I'm sure most people will know, living in an RV demands some basic tasks that come with the house on wheels adventure. Being our first time all these came with somewhat of a learning curve and none more so than the RV dumping procedure. It's actually a straight forward task of parking at the dumpsite, pulling out the dumping hose (a big plastic pipe), connecting it to the sewage outlet on the RV and placing the other end in the sewage hole. Then you just open the valves to the toilet and runoff water tanks (in that order) and voila, you let Harvey do his numbers 1 and 2...Simple right...Ja not for our first time! 

Being first timers we asked the people from the RV at the other dump site if we could watch them do it first, which they agreed to somewhat reluctantly - the Swiss guy gave a "that's kinda gross look" when I asked...None the less we watched the whole procedure and it looked relatively easy especially with that Swiss precision! 

Then came our turn and the whole Swiss family and a German family who now joined the party got out to watch - probably to help but we felt like they were just watching, the one German even had his camera out...

I did everything according to the book, got out the plastic pipe, and got ready to attach it when the Swiss guy shouted, "nay nay! You have to put on some protective gloves". We didn't have any so a little Swiss kid brought me an extra pair, and after thanking them, I put on the gloves like an old practiced surgeon, took the pipe again and reached down to open the sewage outlet. Then came the shenanigans...The minute I screwed opened the cap a massive stream of excrement (thank the heavens only urine) came rushing out, flowing all over my arm and the pavement! I then tried to screw the cap back on to stem the flow but that just made the stuff spew out more violently! This obviously caused much commotion from the onlookers (and entertainment for the kids), the German guy with the camera even starting taking pictures! 

I eventually secured the cap back on and the torture stopped, turns out the valve for the toilet tank wasn't sealing properly or at all which meant there was no way to stop the stuff from spewing out when opening the sewage cap...This created a bit of a predicament, but thankfully one of the Germans came forward and with that characteristic blunt German perspective told me to park the RV so that the sewage outlet is right above the dumping hole and then to just pull open the cap again and let the waste pour straight into the hole...

The whole party of onlookers helped me get the parking right and then I had to perform the sanitary task again of opening the cap and letting all the stuff flow out but this time it at least hit its target and I was somewhat more prepared...The valve for the other tank worked fine so theoretically you could attach the pipe and pull the valve out to let the runoff water pour down the drain, but we already had the RV parked over the dumping hole so we just let the grey tank run empty like we did the black tank...After the show the Swiss and German families took to their vehicles and wished the two us of lots of luck for the next dumping endeavor! Never a dull moment with us South Africans hey!

"Lug dai been Harvey, ek het 'n Walmart sakkie oor my hand so jy kan maar laat loop..."

After a thorough scrubbing down, we headed to our spot, made some lunch and had a short snooze before we had to go out again.

For the Narrows hike we headed out around mid-afternoon, so it was still hot but we reckoned if your going to be hiking by a river in a canyon there will be enough reprieve via the shade and the water.

We first had to walk all along the river till we reached the mouth of the canyon but we thought you just continued walking along the river bank, instead we found out that you actually walk in the river the entire way! So we tossed our shoes and hit the river old school style, barefoot. The water was surprisingly cold, like Clifton cold, so I first had to do the flamingo walk to acclimatize my feet...I'm sure the Americans must have thought I'm from some aboriginal tribe, practicing a river walking ritual!

The Narrows of Zion!

The walk was really cool, the canyon walls rise directly from the waters edge which made for some dramatic scenery as you ploughed on through the river! Our feet could only handle a couple of miles up the river - my memories of running up the vineyard rows over thorns and rocks seemed all but a distant dream and offered no muscle memory for my now well softened feet!

Kristi venturing deeper into the maze...

It was another great outing and also a must do when visiting Zion... 

Afterwards we headed back to our camp for one of our favorite times of the day, sunset around the fire!

Zion offered a great way to start our RV adventure with amazing scenery, great hikes and lovely campsites...

What a way to start!

The next day was a long drive up through Utah, via Idaho and into Montana, to the Western entrance of Yellowstone National Park!