Author: harrylange

Yellowstone National Park – Friday May 27, 2016

Today we headed into the northeast section of the park up the Lamar Valley looking for bears and wolves.  We didn’t see any bears, did drive through an area where the rangers were making people leave.   This usually means there is or was bears and people where blocking the road to take pictures.  Up the Lamar valley we saw sheep, antelope, buffalo and a WOLF.  This is an active wolf dean on the other side of valley had to be more than a mile away.  These pictures were taken with my 500mm lens with 1.4 doubler for 700mm.  I plan to go back with my telescope before we leave on June 6th.
Yellowstone river.
Sheep across the valley.
Antelope.

The wolf is the dark brown spot in the center, just to the right of the tree shadow.

Maps
This is where a wolf dean is located.
Aerial of wolf dean area.
Today’s travels.

 

Yellowstone National Park – Thursday May 26, 2016

Headed south of Madison area to see pools, geysers and the mighty Old Faithful.
We also got to see many people taking pictures of themselves.  Oh what I would have done for a selfie stick cutter.
This is the slow season.
Posing is a popular sport, this can take a while to get just the right pose.
This is what I call the Ipad squat, a very common sighting in this part of the world.
Set though two eruptions of Old Faithful, they are 90 minutes apart +or- 10 minutes.  These pictures are from the second eruption.  The wind changed just before the first eruptions and we ended up being  down stream of the steam.

Yellowstone National Park – Wednesday May 25, 2016

I got up at 6:00 a.m. and headed back to Norris Geyser area.  I spent a couple of hours looking around and taking pictures, only saw one other person during the first hour and a half.
In the afternoon Jean and I want over to Canyon Village to the Visitor’s Center.
Road buffalo.

On the way back we spent some time watching a coyote hunting in the tall grass.  We got to watch him get four of these voles or moles whatever he was eating.

Map
Today’s travel.

Norris Geyser Basin

Yellowstone National Park – Tuesday May 24, 2016

Jean and I went exploring with the RV’s today (Richard and Vickie).  Headed north on the west side of the park to Mammoth and back.  We saw bison and elk along with the Norris Geyser Basin and walked some of the Upper part of Mammoth Hot Springs, back to camp by 4:00.

Formation inside of a pool.

Mammoth Hot Springs.

Norris Geyser.

Mammoth Hot Springs.

Maps
Today’s travel

Some of the walking around Mammoth Hot Springs.

Yellowstone National Park – Monday May 23, 2016

We left Lewis and Clark Caverns this morning with a little excitement.  When leaving the motorhome this morning I stepped down onto the automatic retractable steps just before they locked into the out position.  This sheared 3 of the 4 mounting bolts for the motor off it’s mounting plate.   It keep the steps up while we drove to Yellowstone I used 2 of Richard’s ¼ in zip ties.  If you cannot hold something in place with Duct tape or zip ties it should go directly into the trash.

We got to Yellowstone at 1:30, got our campsite for two weeks, set up camp and pulled the steps apart.  We could use the steps fully extended when they were braced up with my tool box and a leveling block, at least we could get in and out with no problem for the next two weeks.   Richard and I took the step motor into West Yellowstone and found Jake at one of the auto repair businesses who very nicely took the three sheared of bolts out of the motor.  We than went to Ace Hardware and found the three bolts we needed.  It took a little pushing and adjusting to the step motor installed back into the step bracket however we were done by five and the steps work great.

We are staying at Madison Campground 14 miles into the park from the west entrance, in site E196.

Great view from our site.

Maps

Today’s travel.

Madison Campground.

Lewis and Clark Caverns – Sunday May 22, 2016

We drove down to Virginia City this morning, most of the town was still closed things open up on Memorial Weekend.

I will add some pictures when I get them off my camera.

In the morning we leave for two weeks at Madison Campground in Yellowstone National Park.  I know their is no internet at the campground so I do not know when I will post again.
Written on IPad.

 

Lewis and Clark Caverns, MT – Friday May 20, 2016

We go up and were on the road by 7:00 a.m.  360 miles but several stops which didn’t get us to camp until 7:10 p.m.  Walmart and lunch stop took two hours because we could not find anything in the store.  The store had a very unique floor plan and they were out many items, i.e. 1157 tail light bulbs.  Getting checked out was also a major under taking.  We wanted to use our own reuse able bags and the cashier did not like that idea but did it anyway, very slowly. I then got in trouble for putting the two loaves of bread on the checkout belt first and for getting an extension cord which did not have a pricing barcode on it. Oh, by the way the store didn’t have many cashiers working for Friday afternoon. 

Next stop was propane.  I had done an Internet and Google earth search for propane and found two possible places in Missoula. One didn’t have any propane now and other one had the tank in a location where I could not get close too.  We started looking for another option. Richard found one however the person at work did not know how to operate the equipment. I found a place on Deer Lodge an hour east of Missoula note it is currently 3:30.  He said he closes at 4:30 but he’d be more than happy to wait for us.  We got moving and arrived at the propane place at 4:37.  We had to unhook our cars to get close enough to the propane and we were not out of his yard until after 5:00.  A really nice guy running a local business. 

Lewis and Clark Caverns site P 08.

We where here in September of 2001 in site D2. I have a picture on my camera and I will add it once I get it off the camera.

Written on IPad. 

 

Pink House, BLM on Clearwater River – East of Lewiston, ID – Monday May 16, 2016

At one of the few BLM campground’s with full hook up’s and with Old Guy pass only $9.00 a night. We’ll stay here until Friday and then move to Lewis and Clark Caverns 7 hours east of here.
Today’s drive. 

Our campsite. 

We are in site #1, that is site number one.

View towards the river.  This is a big river with lots of people fishing for salmon in boats with 100 to 200 horsepower motors. 

Wanapum State Park, WA – Sunday May 15, 2016

Here is today’s drive, in site 8 will add campsite picture later.

Both Jean and I commented today that it was nice to be back out on the road.  We will be moving East with the goal of being at Yellowstone Natl Park on Monday May 23rd.  We cannot get there early because we already have reservations for two weeks and that is the max time at Madison Campground. 

Seems warmer on this side of the mountains with a few sprinkles this afternoon.  At 8:30 this evening it started to RAIN so it might be a “Listen to the rhythm of the falling Rain” kind of night.

Campsite 8.

Looking out towards the Columbia.