Yellowstone NP, Grand Teton NP and the campsite from hell!

We didn't get to see a live moose, so this is the next best thing.

Our time in Yellowstone NP was a lot of fun, and enough interesting things happened, that it deserves it's own blog entry!  As mentioned in the previous post, we drove into YNP via the Northeast entrance based on Clark's recommendation.  The drive was beautiful, and you got to see snow up near 9500' elevation!

The reason for one of the "wildlife jams" on the roads in YNP!

We drove through YNP Saturday afternoon.  The Lamar Valley was spectacular for viewing wildlife!  There were Bison and Elk all around on the drive through.  After driving through the Lamar Valley, we ended up at Canyon Village.  The Slackettes signed up to do the Junior Ranger Program at the visitor center, and then we headed over to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and Yellowstone Falls.  We had followed the Yellowstone River all the way across ND and MT, and then found it again inside YNP.  From the lookout points, you could see a beautiful waterfall of the Yellowstone River, and the canyon that had been carved out by the river over the years.

Slackettes at the Grand Canyon of YNP with Yellowstone Falls in the background.

After spending a few hours scratching the surface of things to see in the park, we headed out the West entrance to our home for the next two nights in West Yellowstone, MT at a KOA.  Boy were we in for some interesting times at this place!  Since we had planned this trip without much advance notice, we were not able to always get the best choices for hotels/camp sites, etc.  Completely understandable considering the timing.  We had to choose an RV site at this KOA as all the tent sites were sold out already.  Well, our RV site was right next to a well traveled highway, and therefore the amount of noise from cars and semi trucks was not good!

Bish and girls standing in front of some of the paint pots mud pots on Sunday morning.

We got to the KOA around 8 pm in the evening, so still had 2 hours of daylight in which to setup our tent.  Little did I know that we'd have a slight deterrent during the tent setup process!  We backed into  our parking spot, and began to unload the tent and other camping gear for setup.  I started laying out the tarps and eventually the tent.  We purchased a family size tent a few years back, so it's kind of big.  As I was unfolding the tent, I started getting attacked by "angry birds!"  There were 2-3 blackbirds sitting in tree tops nearby that kept diving down and attempting to peck at my head or my butt (when bent over).  I asked Bish to go up to the office and ask if they could come attempt to figure out why they were attacking us.

A picture of me after driving for 9+ hours and having to deal with stupid drivers/wildlife jams in YNP.

While she was gone, I figured I'd look in the local large bush to see if there was a nest in there, and sure enough, a small next with a baby black bird was about waist high in the bush.  Two guys from the park staff, and eventually the owner came out to look.  None of them wanted to remove the nest for some reason.  So I eventually got one of our cooking sticks and went into the bush to knock the nest out as I knew the darned angry birds would not stop attacking me!  Once the nest was gone, one of the park employees picked up the baby bird in his hand (sure death IMHO as my knowledge is that a wild animal will be rejected once touched by a human).  They put the baby out in the grass near the nest.

I was hoping that was the end of the "angry birds" incident.  The next morning, as I was walking to the bathroom to brush my teeth, one of those damned "angry birds" followed me and dive bombed me 2-3 times as I was walking!  I called the office again later that day and they were going to try and get someone out to the site to somehow get rid of the "angry birds."

Old Faithful going off right on time!

We got up early on Sunday and headed into the park to try and get ahead of the mad rush of foreigners visiting YNP.  We stopped and saw the mud pots on our way to the Old Faithful Lodge and Visitor Center area.  We got to see OF go off 3 times while we were in the area!  We initially did a ranger led walk around the boardwalk that circles OF.  It was very  interesting to learn about the geysers and some of the characteristics of the different geysers/colors of bacteria/etc.

Slackettes standing in front of a blue colored (around 195 degrees) fumarol near OF. 

As Ranger Carl was just beginning his introduction of his talk on geysers, he had just mentioned the very important aspect of NOT getting off the boardwalk to try and get closer to the geysers as the ground can be unstable in some areas, and the water is very hot and corrosive!  He explained to us that a lady had approached him a few minutes before with pictures of some dork that had walked out to get a closer look at OF.  Just as he was telling the group this information, the same idiot (we thought) walked off the boardwalk in the distance behind Ranger Carl and right out to the Old Faithful Geyser hole!!!!!!  Ranger Carl yelled at him to get back to the boardwalk, and he then radioed the law enforcement rangers to make them aware of the guy and hopefully come grab him!  Unfortunately  we all stood and watched the guy walk back to his car and eventually leave prior to the law enforcement rangers showing up.  It was really sad that one asshole thought their interests were more important than nature's and everyone else's!  To really make Ranger Carl's talk entertaining, (at least for Bish and the girls!) I made the boneheaded move of falling on my ass while walking along a paved walking path!  I was dinking around on my phone, and listening to the ranger, when my foot hit the edge of the path I went down hard on my knee and palm!  Ranger Carl offered first aid, and said that was "one additional task he was allowed to do."

Darby helping the wildlife talk ranger to show how far away from wild animal you should stay.

We also did a ranger talk later that morning to learn about the wildlife in the park.  Both ranger talks were very good and informative.  If you ever go to YNP, definitely take some time to listen to some ranger talks.  We drove over to the West Thumb area of Yellowstone Lake in the late morning to see the lake and go for a hike.  After that, we decided to head out of the park around 2-3 pm as it was getting really busy, and the traffic was slow and heavy everywhere!  The rangers talked of "wildlife jams" which is when there is a siting of a bear/bison/moose/elk/etc. near the road.  It seems that every idiot tourist has to not only stop their car in the middle of the road to take 10,000 pics from their phones, but also feel the need to often get out of their cars and try to get closer to the wild animal for a friggen selfie!!!  I was hoping to see some stupid tourist get gored, but wasn't that lucky!

Danica volunteering to do her best "bear impression" for the ranger to help show how far away you should use bear spray!

In our typical blind luck fashion, we had arrived back to our campsite around 3 pm.  To have a quiet evening, and get away from the rush of tourists in YNP.  Thank God we did, as about an hour after we had arrived back at camp, a small rain storm decided to blow in.  I really like our new tent, and it seems to be pretty easy to set up and very functional for our use.  However, we learned that it is NOT the type of tent that can withstand wind gusts very well!  As I lay in the tent attempting to get in a nap, the wind began to blow.  Eventually Bish and Darby had to stand at the corners of the tent and hold onto the poles to help prevent it from collapsing!  I ended up getting out, and we decided to collapse the tent by removing the vertical poles, so that the wind didn't implode the thing!  So we removed 6 poles, and then got our suitcases out of the van and laid them on top of the tent in the windward direction to help prevent the wind from catching the material.  And we all settled into the van to hunker down and wait out the storm.  It only rained a little for about 10 minutes after the wind came through, and eventually the sun came back out.  We were lucky we had decided to not stay in the park all day or else we would have come back to a mangled tent that evening.

Our collapsed tent and refuge van, with rain clouds overhead and that damned angry birds bush in the back left!

We just hung out at our campsite that night and cooked left over peirogies on the fire, and also made some brats and popcorn for dinner.  We attempted to get a good nights sleep in between all the traffic noise and cars driving over the rumble strip in between lanes on the highway.  We got up relatively early the next morning, tore down our wet tent, and headed back into YNP to see a few more sites in the southern portion, and for the Slackettes to get their Junior Ranger patches!

Darby and I cooking dinner at the campfire - peirogies in the used Pop secret pan and brats on the stick.

We drove out the South entrance and right into the Grand Teton NP.  Yellowstone is really cool and very diverse, but I think I like GTNP even better!  There is less to do, and it is smaller, but the view of the Grand Tetons is just amazing!  We initially went to the Colter Bay visitors center to get maps, sign up the girls for the Junior Ranger program, and learn where we wanted to visit as we passed through the park.

I, state your name... (what movie?) - Getting sworn in as a Junior Ranger at GTNP.

We did less than we probably would have preferred in GTNP, however, we all were kind of tired after two nights of poor sleep in the campsite from hell!   We walked around while at Colter Bay, and then went to see Jenny Lake, and attempted to try to see Moose (plural Meese - just ask Darby!!!) near Phelps Lake.  Then we went to the Craig Thomas Visitor Center in the southern part of the park for the girls to complete their Junior Ranger work.

Slackettes with Jenny Lake and the Grand Tetons in the background.

After that we took the short drive down to Jackson, WY for the next leg of our adventure!