Month: September 2020

We really enjoyed our time at Gros Ventre, we have been there a couple times now and would go back.

We did check on reservations for next year in the Colter Bay RV park. The entire 2021 season is already sold out. The demand is very high.

For this year we do have another week at the Colter Bay RV park and that is where we are heading, just 40 miles or so away.

They put us in Row D towards the lake end. This row is just over the ridge in the middle of the park and we were surprised to get a cell phone signal, not great but sufficient to stream TV on occasion. Other times, even sending a text message was hard. I have no idea where it was coming from but at times demand was high and service minimal.

Snow

Most of these days were in the high 60s and low 70s. There was a cold front that came through and brought with it high wind warnings. 60 mph winds were expected, below freezing temps and snow was possible. Park folks came through and let campers know to secure their awnings and equipment. We put up the big patio awning but left the smaller ones down. They have never been a problem in the wind. I didn’t consider snow.

It got down to the upper 20s that night and the next. We were warm and cozy. There really wasn’t much wind at all. I turned on the porch light and opened the door about nine to check out side and much to my surprise it was snowing.

Sort of a yellow tint from the porch light, maybe an inch. I retreated to where it was warm, turned off the light and went back to another good book.

In the morning the sun was out, it was about 30 degrees. I grabbed my camera and a warm jacket and went out into a gorgeous winter scene.

The small awnings were covered with snow. This day was supposed to get into the upper 40s so melting was already under way in the warm sun.

I walked down towards the lake.

The mountains were covered in fresh snow.

The highest peaks of the Grand Tetons were trailing the last of the clouds.

Up in the marina the boats were covered with snow as well. It was very quiet as it is at home when we get fresh snow. Most had not ventured out yet, almost no other people or cars.

Susan got all bundled up in her Lake Superior gear for a walk later in the morning. Me too and we went for a walk.

It doesn’t get much better than this.

Fishing

I got two more one day fishing tags. They send them to your phone, no paper. I thought I would try on the Snake River again closer to the dam.

When I got there a fellow was across the river fly fishing. Only a few minutes later he had a pretty good sized trout on his line and spent a good bit of time bringing it in and netting his catch.

There was smoke in the air from fires in California, Oregon and Idaho. We have not seen it like this before but it only lasted a day and a half.

I was encouraged. The fish were not. When my arm got tired from casting we gave up.

We tried fishing another day further down the river at Dead Man’s Bar.

This sign says it all,about the drive down to the river.

It is a popular fishing spot and launch point for float trips and fishing boats going down to Moose Junction. It is listed as a section of the river for boaters, kayakers and rafters with considerable experience. I talked to a pair pf Park Rangers setting off who told me that at this time of the year it was a good time to learn. In June and July the flow is much higher and the section of the river was much more challenging.

Likely someone will get wet.

Lots of two and three person dory boats like this, one rows and gets paid, the others fish and pay. Several hundred bucks for a half day.

These guys seemed to know what they were doing.

It looked promising. I caught a very nice stick, a couple rocks, lost one lure and was further humbled by the fish and the skills yet to learn.

Susan waited patiently while I tried desperately to prove myself worthy of a fish. They were in their schools, distance learning, laughing.

I am determined to try again if for no other reason than the pleasure of being outside. Well, there is a limit to that, the sound of the rushing water has a certain effect that becomes hard to ignore after a couple hours.

Pacific Creek

There are two high mountain lakes on the eastern side of the National Park, Two Ocean Lake and Emma Matilda Lake. You get there by following a dirt road several miles up into the mountains to a small parking area. There is a picnic area, trailheads leading every which way and a rugged path down to Two Ocean Lake to launch a canoe or kayak. No motors allowed.

Two Ocean Lake is named because it is on the Continental Divide. Pacific Creek flows out the southern end and down towards the Snake River which eventually gets to the Columbia River and then to the Pacific Ocean. It wasn’t clear where the outlet on the other end of the lake went.

It was a nice ride up. Trails go around this lake and over to Emma Matilda Lake and up to a high overlook a couple thousand feet above the lake level. Just around Two Ocean lake the Moderate to Difficult rated trail was almost 30 miles. Back country permits required for overnight camping. And bear spray too.

The lakes and Pilgrim Creek are supposed to be good for fishing. The creek maybe more so in the earlier season.

Pilgrim Creek

Pilgrim Creek comes out of the Bridger Teton National Forest from the east and flows into the Snake River downstream of the Dam. We cross it every trip going south and see the gravel road heading off to points unknown. Where the highway crosses the gravel wash of the Pilgrim Creek is the only place we think we have seen a bear in the Tetons.

Points unknown no longer, off we went following the Pilgrim Creek road. It was maybe three miles to the Park boundary. Several turn offs, not much that looked very fishable at this time. There was a cabin at the end of the road, probably in the National Forest and two large steel structures maybe 20 ft high. The sign said to hang game animal at least 10 ft above the ground. So this was likely bear country, big bears who could almost reach 10 ft. And if you are hanging game from these would not that just attract anything interested any way?

I have never been a hunter, not at all likely I ever will be.

So we explored and saw Pilgrim Creek Road.

Lakeside Trail

One of the really nice parts about the Colter Bay area are the number of trails to walk on without having to drive anywhere. One is the Lakeside Trail which has two parts. One is about 2 miles and the other add another two miles. These trails go out along the side of Colter Bay and around the point.

You can cross a gravel bar to another island and continue on. The island loop adds a couple miles but gets you up into the woods and out further into the lake. We brought our bear spray but all we saw were deer. There was still snow in the woods.

This walk was full of amazing smells. Normally the warm dry pine smell is dominant. On this trail it was mingled with wet earthy smells. Quite a contrast. At the lake end of the island there are several small beaches and new views across Jackson Lake to the mountains.

From some of these perspectives it is easy to see the deep glacial valleys. This is one of the few places on the planet where mountains and lakes were formed in this way. The mountains literally rise up right out of the lake.

Near the end of the trail as it headed back towards the beach on Jackson Lake on this same hike 5 years ago we came across a decaying stump covered in brightly colored mosses. It is worth anothers look.

It is now long gone. Look carefully, there are so many things that are only in that moment,

Packing Up

This week went by fast. We are heading next to Custer State Park in the Black Hills. We did laundry, emptied our waste tanks, added enough water to get to Sundance, WY, our last stop before Custer where we emptied the waste tanks again and filled fresh water to 98% of capacity. We are going to be in The Game Lodge Campground in Custer State Park for two weeks. Electric only. So the challenge will be to last the whole time with what we have so we don’t have to move. We have done it before, it takes some care.

We are sorry to leave, we like it here.

More Later, Much Love,

Roger and Susan

A Week at Gros Ventre Campground

We left Colter Bay by shortly after 9 AM on our way to Gros Ventre Campground at the southern end of Grand Teton National Park. Our water tank was full and waste tanks empty in preparation for a week of dry camping. That means no electrical, water or waste hookups.

We have stayed at Gros Ventre before. It is along the Gros Ventre River in a much more open, sage brush area with cottonwood trees along the river. We arrived at about 10 AM and there was no one in line! We asked for an open sunny site as we wanted to try to operate for an entire week on solar power only, no land line and no generator. At first we thought we might have to wait for a site but they found one that would work. We finished up the paper work and beaded down to the B loop. $17 per night for those with a Geezer Pass.

We had plenty of room. Sun from morning until later in the afternoon when a tree in the next site over started to shade our solar panels. It was a short walk to the tree line behind us to the Gros Ventre River.

The river varies from fairly wide in places to several narrow flows through the rocky bed. In the spring it must be quite big but towards the end of the summer it is more rocks than river.

The campground extends for more than a half mile along the river. There are bear in the area so each site has a bear proof box in which to store food and cooking things. One loop is for groups. One big loop of the campground is tents only. At least three loops are no generators allowed. Many of these were occupied by tents and smaller campers. One loop has electrical hookups for anyone who wants to pay extra for them. And the remainder is a mix of camping units, most with generators either built in to them or outside units.

It is a big campground and one of few that often doesn’t fill up every day.

Every day we walked or rode our bikes through the campground, some times both. It was not hard to get to three miles just walking. More if we rode our bikes.

Jackson

We went into Jackson (the city is named Jackson, not jackson Hole) to do some grocery shopping and discovered the Framers’ Market was open . It was in the main square in town and parking was a challenge but we found a spot. We found apples, peaches, blueberries, a cucumber and tomatoes. When we find Farmers’ Markets we like to shop for local stuff. I am pretty sure none of the fruit was local and maybe little of the vegetables either. Jackson Hole (as the valley is called) has a growing season of just over 90 days.

We put our purchases in the cooler in the car and walked back to Cafe Genevieve to have lunch. We got a nice outside table right away and a wonderful lunch. They make their own corned beef so a Rueben sandwich seemed appropriate to me. Honestly it was one of the best I have ever had. And it was huge. Susan ate part of it along with her beet salad with goat cheese and nuts.

We returned later in the week for another meal to celebrate our 45th anniversary of committed likey-likey. (1)

Then off to the Albertson’s for a week’s worth of supplies. Prices were higher than expected but not too bad compared to West Yellowstone. But in general everything is more expensive here because it can be. The average home price in the Jackson area is $1.5 million. If you want something with enough grass to mow, double that.

Apples, fruit, milk, oatmeal, bread, tortillas, vegetables, hamburger and ground turkey. Somehow the cart filled. There are no plastic bags when you check out and you have to pay for paper so it is a good thing we bring our own reusable bags.

Jackson is a busy town. Lots of activity and lots of people. The main street is crammed with shops mainly catering to tourists, some high end jewelry stores, a few real estate offices and lots of places to eat and drink. Like so many of the old west towns it has morphed from the old days of ranch stores and the feed and grain supply to feeding and supplying tourists.

A Dinner with Friends.

We met Dave Katsuki and Nancy Elkins for dinner on a Sunday evening at their coach at the National Elk Refuge. They are Foretravel owners who volunteer at the National Elk Refuge just south of the Grand Teton National Park. It is there because Jackson grew up where the elk used to migrate every winter. So now there is a huge area for them to congregate, not enough food so they get fed. Bison, big horn sheep, birds, antelope and many more species show up as well.

It was a bring our own dinner sort of thing. We brought food, bowls, utensils, napkins and drinks. We had a nice time visiting and sharing time together.

For more information on the National Elk Refuge please see

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Elk_Refuge

Fishing

While we were in Jackson I stopped at a couple of fishing shops looking for advice. Most seemed to think the Gros Ventre river this time of year would not be fruitful. They suggested closer to the dam might work. So I decided to wait a week to try fishing again.

String Lake

String Lake is just north of Jenny Lake. It is a glacial lake at the base of the mountains. They are hidden from view by the moraines pushed ahead of the glaciers as they came down the face of the Tetons. Jenny Lake is the popular one, everyone goes there. The parking lots are full by 9 AM and people park along the side of the highway for nearly a mile in either direction. We stayed in the Jenny Lake campground in 1980 in our camper. Now it is tents only and fills early every day.

In non-pandemic times there is a ferry boat that takes folks across the lake to several day hike trail heads. You can take the ferry back or walk back around the southern end of the lake, about 2 miles. The ferry boats leave both sides of the lake every 15 minutes for the 7-8 minute ride, disembark, load, go again all day long. Usually the line for the ferry boat – after you buy your ticket ($18 round trip, $10 one way) – is about a half hour wait. Crowded with lots of people. Many day visitors from Jackson.

But the next lake north is String Lake, there is a boat launch for kayaks and canoes, trailheads for hiking and quiet picnic areas. The parking areas can get full but 10 to 15 minutes away is too far for the Jenny Lake crowd. We drove there bypassing Jenny Lake, parked, walked along the lake to a bench along the trail and had a picnic lunch.

We have been here before, a much more relaxing place than Jenny Lake.

Laurence Rockefeller Preserve, Phelps Lake

The Laurence Rockefeller Preserve is in the SW corner of Grand Teton National Park on the Moose Wilson Road heading SW from the main Park Visitor’s Center. It is well worth your time to stop at this Visitor’s Center. The Moose Wilson road is narrow and twisty, no RVs or trailers. In some places it is even more narrow. The Death Canyon Trailhead is about half way to the Rockefeller Preserve. Someday I want to drive up there.

Once you get to the Preserve there is very limited parking. You can turn around and leave or wait for a spot. There is actually a parking person. There so no cheating. It is worth the wait.

The Visitor’s Center is more of a library and research center. The displays are there to inspire thought about the wonders of the park and the natural world. We really enjoyed the peaceful quiet and contemplative feel to the Center. Due to the Pandemic it is not open. But the trail heads to Phelps Lake are open. There are several ways to get to the lake, the Creek Side Trail and the Woodland Trail are pretty direct.

The Rockefeller Family quietly bought up large tracts of land in the valley and surrounding mountains. Most of it was eventually donated to the Grand Teton Park as it was in the process of being formed. The area around Phelps Lake was a favorite family retreat, there were cabins on the lake and other structures that made it an isolated and private place for them to come. Laurence was the last holder of this property and passed it on to be part of the park confirming his love for the land, nature and our part in it. The cabins are gone, the lake shore restored, the Visitor’s Center now awaits people, a few at a time, slowly, to absorb what is here.

We took the Woodland Trail to Phelps Lake. It was about 2 miles.

There is a trail all around the lake, about 30 miles. You need a back country permit to camp. We saw very few other people on this hike, very nice. I am sure there are fish here.

We returned along the Creek Side Trail. It was more hilly and lots more rocks and roots to be careful not to trip on.

Solar Power

One of the goals for our week at Gros Ventre was to test out our solar power generation, lithium battery storage capacity and how that balanced with our use. We had no electrical hookup in Gros Ventre and while we have significant generator capacity we wanted to not use it.

Bottom line – success. We had temperatures in the 30s every night except for two in the 20s on either side of a day that only just barely broke 50° and rained most of the day. Not much solar production that day but every other day saw more production than we used. By the end of the week we had not quite made up for the lost day but were getting there. I am thinking maybe we need a couple more panels. But if we were in the sun all week we would have had plenty. But that doesn’t always happen and those mid-winter days are when it would be nice to have the extra capacity.

We are pretty much self contained and independent. If we are careful we can go for two weeks with our water capacity and waste holding tank capacity. Sooner or later we need to empty those, get more water and supplies.

A week with no land line and no generator in a motorhome is a significant accomplishment. Some self patting on the back, I know, but this feels really good.

We are heading back to Colter Bay to the RV Campground for another week.

There are so many amazing places to visit. And we are blessed to be able to return to some of the more special ones more than once and stay longer and enjoy them even more.

More Later, Much Love

Roger and Susan

(1) Jane and the Dragon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_and_the_Dragon_(TV_series)#Awards_and_nominations

We left West Yellowstone and entered Yellowstone National Park heading for Colter Bay, it was going to be an easy 80 mile drive. We headed east to Madison Junction and then south towards Old Faithful. When we got to Old Faithful the road was blocked and signs said Road Closed due to Wild Fire. A lightning strike started a fire west of the road between Old Faithful and the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake. We immediately thought of a long detour through Idaho but the rest of the southern Grand Loop was open. So back to Madison Junction and then Norris. Going clockwise to Canyon Village then south to Fishing Bridge and along Yellowstone Lake to the West Thumb Junction and south to Grant Junction. It was an 80 mile detour through some nice scenery. Surprisingly the traffic was only congested in a few locations. And we saved going over the continental divide twice going this way. Then south towards the South Entrance of Yellowstone Park and into the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway. Twenty seven miles to Grand Teton National Park.

Grand Teton National Park starts near the north end of Jackson Lake where the Snake River enters the lake. The Snake River begins in Yellowstone and is joined by the Lewis River. Together they flow south through the Rockefeller Memorial Parkway cutting some amazing deep canyons. The road generally follows the Snake River to where it heads off to Jackson Lake and the highway enters Teton National Park.

Jackson Lake is about 15 miles long and 7 miles wide. At 6700 ft elevation it is one of the largest high altitude lakes in the US. It is a natural lake which was made bigger by a dam in 1911. The dam was enlarged in 1916 and completely rebuilt in 1989. Part of the lake water is used by farmers in Idaho under water rights legislation that preceeded the park. The Snake River exits the lake at the dam near Signal Mountain Lodge.

Colter Bay Village

About half way down Jackson Lake you get to Colter Bay Village, our first destination. The Village has a gas station, a campground, an RV Park, a gift shop and grocery store, a laundry (the first laundry in any National Park), a Visitor’s Center, a marina, rustic historic log cabins and even more rustic tent cabins. You can even sign up to go on a horse back ride, a guided fishing activity or a river rafting adventure.

At the marina there are docks and moorings for private power boats and sail boats. You can get what you might need in the marina store including fishing tackle and fishing licenses. You can rent a kayak or a canoe or a small motor boat. You can get tickets for a mid-day narrated boat tour or a cruise for breakfast or dinner on Elk Island. You can bring your own boat, there is a nice boat launch.

The Visitor’s Center has orientation and history movies, Park Rangers dispensing information, a back country permit window and a nice book shop. They also have an area where Native American artists show and sell their work.

The grocery store is pretty well stocked with just about anything you might want. The ice cream counter always had a line. You can get your favorite adult beverages too. It wasn’t cheap, a bag of Starbucks coffee that we rarely pay more than $6 for at home was $15.99. And Bear Spray for the exorbitant price of $49. You cannot return it and you cannot take it home with you on the airplane. But for any hiking on trails it is a must have accessory hanging on your belt.

The laundry is the first of its kind in any National Park. Surprisingly not too over priced and quite convenient. There were also pay showers there too. $5 or a group of up to 5 for $15. I suspect that was for a family not just 5 of your best friends. You could even rent a towel and buy a bar of soap and some shampoo.

There is WiFi available outside the grocery and laundry. There is very limited cell phone service in this area but in some places it works.

The gift shop is quite nice, we bought nothing, but it does have a wide range of memorabilia, clothes, fishing gear and camping supplies. We looked but didn’t see anything that we just had to have. The last time we were here it was in the last week or ten days before everything closed for the season and most of the things you just had to have were half off. Who can resist a bargain.

And there are two restaurants, one is more of a cafeteria/fast food style and the other is a sit down order from a menu sort of place. The sit down place is probably a better value for what you get. We have eaten at both places and think it is better.

The historic rustic cabins are smaller log cabins with a bathroom. They come in a variety of sizes depending on how many people there are. As far as we could tell there is no cooking facilities or refrigerators. There is no TV, no Phone, no coffee maker nor WiFi. Like a motel, someone comes in every day to cleanup after you.

There are even more rustic tent cabins to rent. 66 of them. They have a nice wood burning stove inside and bunk beds. There is an outdoor fire pit and a place for your cooler and cook stove. They also have bear proof food enclosures to store everything while not in use.

Each has a broom for you to cleanup after yourself.

If you like great pizza, the Leeks Marina about a mile north up the lake has just what you want. It is not over priced and rates very high on the great pizza scale. Beer too.

If hiking is what you want then there are several trail heads starting in the village and give you choices of maybe 20 miles of trails to hike. We have been on all of them. None are too hard but you are at nearly 7,000 ft and those first few days you think you might need some oxygen. And yes, they sell bottled oxygen in the grocery store. After a few days you get used to the altitude and just pant like a dog after twenty steps.

The National Park campground has 330 sites at Colter Bay. They can accommodate everything from tents to a motorhome bigger than ours. There are about 20 sites with electric hookups. It is first come, first served. No reservations. It fills up most days by mid afternoon. Every morning by 9 or 10 there is a line of campers waiting to get in. Sites have a bear proof food storage box and a fire pit. Water is available nearby.

The RV park is a reservation only park with about 110 full hook up sites. This year all sites were sold out for the entire season by mid January. The sites are generous by RV park standards and in a well shaded forest of lodge pole pines. From most sites it is a very short walk (a couple hundred yards) to the swimming beach on Jackson Lake. It is called a swimming beach because people go swimming there. Rocks replace sand as the beach part. Some parts of the RV park have a cell phone signal and others do not. And it can be OK for part of the day and poor most of the day. We never did figure out where the cell phone signal comes from.

They are in the process of running fiber optic cable from one end of the park to the other. When it is done there should be good or better cell phone access almost everywhere. We can’t even get that at home.

That’s Colter Bay Village in a nutshell. This is the fourth time we have been here and it is a favorite.

The Village in a Time of Pandemic

So most of everything is open. One restaurant is closed, the other is carry out only. Sadly, Leeks Pizza is closed for the season. The Marina store is closed but you can still rent a kayak or canoe but no motor boats. No lake cruises. There are very limited Park Ranger activities. Most things are open and visitor counts are up 20% from last year. Even still Colter Bay never seems too busy.

Masks were required everywhere. And people were very good about it. They are from all over the country, not everywhere has the same rules but here they had people checking on masks and counting the number of people in and out. There was a maximum number inside and occasionally we had to wait for a minute or two for someone to exit.

We were here for five days. Then down to Gros Ventre campground for a week and then came back here for another week. We started with two nights reserved on our return trip from BC but when that got canceled we quickly started to try to add more time.

Signal Mountain

We drove down to Signal Mountain Lodge to get a fishing license. This is the only place in the park to get one face to face. Once you are in the Wyoming system it is easier to get one on line but wifi at Colter Bay made that tough. The Signal Mountain Lodge and its dining room are closed other than to check people into the campground and to sell fishing licenses. The two gift shops were open, what did you expect?

We drove up to the top of Signal Mountain, a narrow winding road that says “No RVs”. No matter at the top was one of those Cruise America RVs taking up half of the parking spaces and a good portion of the road. A bit further on to the summit there is more parking and great views in almost every direction. And a small forest of antennae for the Park Service and cell phones. Four bars here.

I need a haircut.

Fishing, First Try

You need a license to fish and the Wyoming State Fishing Licenses are good for one specific day or five consecutive days or all year. If you were here long enough to fish for 7 days it is cost effective to buy an annual tag. Since I had no idea when or where I was going to try fishing I bought a one day tag. I packed up my gear and we drove down to an access point on the Snake River about 1/4 mile below the dam. It looked good to me. Some swirling water on a curve in the river with calm areas at the edge of the current.

The people in the boat caught a fish.

As did the wading people.

My entire stream fishing knowledge comes from watching Mr. Foyle fly fishing on a pastoral stretch of stream in Hastings on the southern coast of England during WWII. (Please watch “Foyle’s War”, a Masterpiece Mystery Series from some years back. It is worth your time.) He always wore some cumbersome looking rubber waders, a shirt and tie, a vest and a Fedora. He had all the trappings of a true fisherman or so it seemed. I had my prized net, a Walmart plastic bag at the ready, a small scissors, and a plastic box with snap swivels and three lures that the guy in Minnesota assured me would work in Wyoming.

Susan brought a chair to sit in and wait. I worked my way along the river to a place where I could get down to the rocky edge. I snapped on a lure, got all my stuff organized and was ready to go. My first cast meant to tempt even the most reluctant fish went about two feet in front of me. Clearly I needed to review the YouTube lessons and try again. After a few more goes at it I had the lure out in the stream and started cranking in on the line. Suddenly the crank stopped and I was sure I had a whopper on the line. Actually the lure had cranked up to the end of the rod and wouldn’t go any further. Silly me. I spent several hours (it seemed) at it, Susan was very patient. I moved to several different spots trying to out think a fish. Who was I kidding. I saw lots of fish. They came right up to the surface and splashed water in my general direction. As I looked closer there was a bazillion bug bits in the water, an insect hatch of some sort. Some shiny lure offered nothing when fresh bugs were everywhere. Next time!

Every day here in Colter Bay we went for a walk, some days two. More than anything we wanted to just relish in the feeling of being there. We took our chairs to the beach to enjoy a pleasant late afternoon.

The first three days had the beach closed because of bears taking their turn. We did laundry, checked out the gift shop and grocery. Visited the Visitor’s Center and Book Shop. Went to the Marina and sat on a bench to watch the canoers and kayakers depart and return. We got an ice cream treat and sat out on the picnic tables to eat it as slowly as possible and use the WiFi from the laundry.

I was in the middle of rereading a newly released version of Steven King’s “The Stand”. We both read it while traveling in 1980 when it was first published. It is about a world wide deadly pandemic and the ensuing struggle between good and evil. Fiction then. Pretty close to reality today. The original book left out over 150,000 words from the original manuscript. Mr. King can run on a bit. The newest Kindle version has most of the original work restored and other updates. It was 1500+ Kindle pages. It took me a week to read it, every word. In the end very few survive the pandemic, good triumphs over evil, truth overcomes lies and evil is suppressed but as it is with human nature it does not go away.

Five days flew by, the high mountain air was intoxicating, warm pine smells, the sound of the lake, the majestic mountains rising right up out if the lake just a few miles away. We saw bison, no bears and no elk. We also saw deer. We were just very glad to be back.

We are heading for Gros Ventre, a big campground at the southern end of the park for a week.

More Later, Much Love,

Roger and Susan

We left Columbus, MT heading west through Billings, past Bozeman and then south along the Madison River to West Yellowstone. We stayed there two nights to do some grocery shopping, explore a bit and look for a fishing net.

One of the goals for this trip is to try some fishing. The last time I went fishing was in 1966, 54 years ago with my sister. We went out on Whitefish Lake “up north” in Minnesota one evening when and where everyone said there would be no fish. But we did anyway and caught some Northern Pike. And there is a picture to prove it. Somehow neither of us looked too happy about it, it was more likely being forced to pose for a picture.

A Fishing Net

Back to today … I got most of what I needed before we left but just in case I actually caught something I figured I needed a net. My friend Chuck, suggested I wouldn’t need one. I think he knew just how futile this effort might be. Since Yellowstone is prime fly fishing country and September is some of the busiest I figured advice and a net couldn’t be too hard to find. Do you know that you can spend several hundred dollars on a net to scoop up a fish from a stream? I had no idea but in most of the fly fishing shops we went into that is about where the prices started. After checking out several shops I went into Jacklin’s Fly Shop. I was able to get a package of small snap connector swivels and there at the very bottom of the stack of nets there was one for about $30. I asked the proprietor what the difference between the $30 net and the ones ten times the price. He said “the price”. Like hand tied custom made flies vs mass produced ones they both work. If you can afford an expensive fly or net or rod or reel and you think (believe) you will have better success then they are for you. I coughed up $30 and now have a functional net. Well, we shall see.

I had no expectation of even catching a fish and if I did no idea what to do with it. I have no fancy stripped willow woven creel. I brought a Walmart plastic bag. I sort of remember cleaning a fish from 50 odd years ago so I supposed we could use our folding picnic knife, no fancy engraved filet knife here. I had no idea how to even use the reel I bought (a spinning reel) so I had to go on YouTube and find a video on how to use the reel, how to cast with it and even as an old Boy Scout, how to tie an appropriate knot to attach the snap swivel on the end of the line. Not quite like lashing some logs together. I guess I was set. Oh, there was no fishing advice in West Yellowstone for that activity in the Tetons.

Groceries

There are two grocery stores in West Yellowstone at least as far as we could tell. One had a big sign that said RV Parking. We figured that attracted more tourist/campers. The other one didn’t have much parking and looked bigger. Maybe it was where the locals shopped. Looked that way when we walked in but prices said otherwise. Maybe it is just really expensive in West Yellowstone. We figured cheaper here than in the small grocery store in Colter Bay so we got what we needed, loaded it into our own bags and walked back to the camp ground. The grocery stores in Wyoming charge a nickel a bag for paper bags. Not a plastic bag in sight. I like that especially since we use our own bags as much as we can.

The Last Supper

We had been hungry for a hamburger for some days. We haven’t been making them for ourselves for some time so we started checking out the local eateries. The Buffalo Bar got some favorable comments. There were others right on the main drag through town that may have been OK but the Buffalo Bar had a large outdoor dining area, just what we wanted. Quite a menu as well, Buffalo meatloaf was tempting

We ordered up a couple of hamburgers. Susan chose a mushroom swiss burger with fries. I had a mushroom swiss burger as well but chose Tater Tots. We ordered a couple O’Douls as well. The burgers were gigantic, we could have easily split one. The fries were hot and crispy. The Tater Tots were not little barrel shaped things we are used to but more like small crispy quarter sized hockey pucks. In any case they tasted like Tater Tots, they were hot and crispy. Great burgers, we ate half of each and took home the remainders along with most of the fries and tots. Dinner for two nights, the tater tot and fries got chopped up, reheated and found their way into breakfast burritos.

The Buffalo Crossing RV park was right behind the local movie theater. It was an OK stop, nothing special. Neat and tidy, only a block from the main West Yellowstone crossroads, gravel sites, good water, electric service and waste hookups. Each site had a small patch of grass and a picnic table. It is a new park, paved driveways are coming. And it was probably about $30 a night cheaper than the Resort Parks. Staying in the RV park got you discounts on movie tickets and in their gift shop. It also got a nice soft serve ice cream cone for 50¢. Lots of stuff out this way seems to be Huckleberry flavored.

Travel in a Time of Pandemic

We were pretty pleased to see that most people wore masks in town. Every store and restaurant required a mask to get in. Tables at the Buffalo Bar were spaced more than six feet apart. We can control our own space in an RV but need to depend on others to do their part everywhere else.

We are off to Colter Bay in the Grand Teton National Park next.

More Later, Much Love,

Roger and Susan