Category: Campgrounds

Bakers Hole Campground – Sunday June 4, 2017

One of my big house projects was to add this solar panel: Go-Power 120 watt portable panel with built in controller. 

It is working really well and supplying all the power we need for lights, changing iPads, phones; running WeBoost, TV, satellite TV etc.  Will still run generator for microwave and A/C.  Glad I got the 30 foot extension cable we have had to use it here and at Yellowstone. 

It does have several weak points:

There is no way of locking it up so it doesn’t walk away, I drilled holes in the frame to attach a lock and cable. At home I had set it up to make sure it worked and set the controller to flooded batteries. I thought the handle was held on with rivets like the closing clasps but I was wrong, the handle is screwed on.  I was going to hook the lock to the handle. 

The panels fold in half for storage however the locking clasps are just a half a step above worthless. I will keep my eye out for replacements. 

The controller is on the under side of the panel with a nice hinge so it will tip out and it can be read. The controller is held up against the the panels for storage and to keep it out of the rain with Velcro.  The problem is the quality of the glue on the Velcro. It works just fine until the panel is set out in the sun, for some reason the panel gets hot and the glue releases from the panel and controller.  Richard gave me some good double back tape to retape the Velcro. This tape works fine on the back of the panel but releases from the Velcro. When we get to the big house I will use JB Weld to glue the Velcro to the double back tape, I did this with the strap I put on the generator door to keep it from vibrating open.

Bakers Hole Campground – Wednesday May 31, 2017

We left Yellowstone this morning and drove 19 miles to Bakers Hole FS Campground 4 miles north of West Yellowstone.  We are in site 63 only a few feet from the Madison River. This site does not have electricity but it has the view and with our portable solar panel and generator we are fine.  We can stay here for 16 night at $8.00 a night.  Signed up for seven nights to start and the level fishing will decide what we will do next.

View out the couch windows. 

Cathedral Gorge State Park, NV – Thursday April 6, 2017

Here is Jack’s 9 month picture. 

We did not get as far as we had planned. We were on Hwy 93 just north of I-15 when Richard called to say the wind was blowing in Sparks and peaking at 70 mph.  He was giving us a head’s up for the weekend, it usually takes one to two days for a weather front to get across the state.   We decided to pull into Cathedral Gorge, the campground is in a valley and a good place to set out a storm.  Will be here at least until Sunday. One of the park rangers said the weather should get here late Friday into Saturday.  Jean and I spent almost a week here several years ago setting out a rain storm. I’ll have to look that up in the logbook. It is the year I-15 washed out south of St. George. 

In site 13. 
By the way Hank loves the cooler temperatures.