The Big WY O

 

 September 29^th – Entering the big WY O

Roughly every 10 days or so we need to do laundry so before we started our time in Wyoming and its most famous national park(s) we decided to get our laundry done and get a shower.   Usually, laundry days are not that interesting, akin to a laundry day at home, but we got to see quite a show. It started with another couple overpacking the machines and getting very vocal with the owner about the dryers not drying a full load of towels in 30 minutes (the towels were soaked from the washer because it couldn’t spin because it was so full), who eventually kicked them out after being called a few names. Foolishly they forgot one load of laundry in one of the machines and after an hour the owner threw them out.

The other bit of news was Kendra’s credit card, our main credit card for our trip was compromised with $15,000 of attempted charges from that morning across the USA and UK from numbered companies. Don’t worry we still have cards we can use and Kendra’s new card will be sent in 5-10 business days..to Canada, but luckily we have amazing people there who will help us reunite with the new credit card.

Right before heading to Yellowstone National Park, we headed to the visitor’s information centre and I highly recommend asking them all your questions if you ever find yourself in West Yellowstone as they were able to plan our four days stay in Yellowstone almost to the hour to maximize our time. For day 1 visitors information recommended seeing Old Faithful, and its geyser basin, known as the Upper Basin. 

Old Faithful was, of course, on time and a must do, but the other geysers around the area were almost just as dramatic and beautiful with our personal favourite being the Morning Glory Pool.  The best viewpoint for Old Faithful in our mind was the Observation view point a slight walk up a hill, but we were rewarded with a better view with no other tourists. Plus, with Old Faithful’s estimated next eruption time being posted it was easy to time out our walk.

Our first day in Wyoming ended with a beautiful sunset across the Upper Basin as if to reaffirm that we were about to have some most excellent days in Yellowstone.

September 30^th – Northern Yellowstone Loop

The morning came quickly as we had decided to head to the north east section of the park where wildlife is known to graze around sunrise.  The issue was that the north east section was an hour and a half drive from our campground and sunrise was at 7:15am; but we made it and it was worth it!  There were bison, elk as well as pronghorn and best of all we had the place to ourselves. 

After doing a self-guided wildlife safari we saw the other key locations on the northern loop which included waterfalls and viewpoints of the Yellowstone River.

We then headed to Mammoth which has an elk “problem”.  You couldn’t go 5 minutes without worrying you were a bit too close to an elk.  This area had some of the most unique and amazing looking Hot Springs we’ve ever seen, pictures can not do them justice, they are something you just have to see.  The calcified hot spring lattices and unique land formations are things we’ve never seen before.

From there we traveled south and encountered a huge herd of bison which ended up surrounding our van (and causing a multi kilometer traffic backup in the other direction).  I don’t think we will ever forget seeing so many bison so up close.
Surprisingly our wildlife viewing was not done as just as few minutes down the road we ended up seeing a grizzly bear.

Next stop was the Norris Geyser Basin which is the hottest basin in the park.  The whole area looked like a wasteland with Geysers sporadically going off.  It was such a cool place to walk around where, once again pictures did not do the area justice; this would be a common theme.

We then stopped in to see Mud Pots, which looks like boiling mud that is made when Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) from the earth’s core is turned into Sulphuric Acid “melting” the mud or creating lakes with similar acidity to battery acid.

Our final stop was the Grand Prismatic Spring; a beautiful multicolored pool, indicating the different temperatures of the spring by the different bacteria and fungi that grow in that location. The spring has two viewpoints, one at the same level as the spring which is not that impressive and a boardwalk crowded with other visitors to the park and a second lesser known viewpoint that is a kilometer hike down the Fairy Falls trail.  This viewpoint was well worth the extra couple thousands of steps on a day where our Fitbit commended us for being active for almost 12 hours.

 

October 1^st – Happy Birthday to Paul

For Paul’s Birthday we tackled the Southern Yellowstone Loop which started at Canyon City where the Yellowstone River cuts through the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone as it passes through various Waterfalls.  Although there were numerous “Million Dollar Views” our favourite was probably the Artists Point on the Southern Rim; the view was unbelievable.

Our next stops were the West Thumb Basin and the Black Sands Basin both of which were great and reinforced the unique beauty of Yellowstone.

After completing the loop, we returned to Old Faithful to watch the Geyser without our phones and grabbed a shower before heading the city of West Yellowstone for a birthday dinner and a phone call to Kendra’s Mom.  Fun Fact she shares the same birthday as Paul!

Another thing we had discussed about before leaving on this trip was what we would do about birthdays.  We decided no gifts since we don’t really need anything or have space to store new things.  For the past few weeks Paul had been looking to get a new Nintendo game, but was not motivated by the price. On Sept. 30 while stopped on the side of the road to take a picture of a bison, Kendra had hopped out of the van and crossed the road.  When she stopped to take a picture she noticed what she thought was an SD card in a case. It turned out to be THE Nintendo game Paul was contemplating buying. Needless to say we are still not buying birthday presents, but it doesn’t hurt if you find one in a ditch.

 

October 2^nd – Grand Teton

We thought we had never heard of the National Park just south of Yellowstone, known as Grand Teton National until Kendra’s sister reminded us that in recent history a couple traveling in the area in a van started a nation wide manhunt for a murderer.

We crossed into Grand Teton and were blown away at that natural beauty of the Grand Teton Range. We once again started our journey in that national park at the visitor center where the tourist information woman recommended some key areas to view and hikes to complete.  Surprisingly and maybe as a reminder of the implications of climate change the water levels were at historic lows with the area known as Colter Bay being dry and the marina and docks sitting on the lakebed. The lake that supports the marina provides power in Idaho, even though the lake is in Wyoming in a National Park, and Idaho needed more power so they ended up lowering the lake to extreme levels.

Each view that we turned down was beautiful but our favourite was the local favourite that was recommended called Schwabacher Landing which was both beautiful and full of bridal parties and families taking photos.

Our final place to explore before heading to our campsite was a location called Mormon Row which is the location of an old commune that has become a favourite location of aspiring (and professional) photographers.  It’s pretty easy to see why.

 

October 3^rd – The Banff of Wyoming

Although this may be an unfair comparison it appeared to us that Jackson WY, the city just outside of Grand Teton, was reminiscent of Banff.  This city was a tourist town, which wasn’t a bad thing as it gave us a lot to do and see within its historic downtown as well as get our grocery shopping done and go on a date night at the local brewery. 

If you’re in the area it definitely a city to check out!

 

October 4^rd – Teton Park Road

The main tourist road in Grand Teton Park was Teton Park Road where all the hikes and best viewpoints are located.  We stopped at every viewpoint but found the hikes had the best views. 

We completed the two most popular hikes in the park, the first to Hidden Falls which we continued to Inspiration Point with beautiful views of Jenny Lake and the Hike to Leigh Lake.  Although Paul felt it would only be a 5 to 6 km day, we ended up hiking almost 13 kilometers.

We returned back to the campground for dinner but quickly left to watch sunset over the Teton range.  We then returned to Jackson to have drink at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, a Wyoming institution, which was a bit overpriced but neat to see.  Paul even jumped up to steal seat at the bar to sit in a saddle.

 

October 5^th – A Hippie Dip

During our time at the Brewery in Jackson a couple days ago we learned that there was a hot spring an hour drive from the city that we decided we had to check out.   We read it was a spring that flowed into the developed pool (like an outdoor swimming pool) but were undeterred as it had been a couple weeks since we had soaked in a natural hot spring.

We drove down one of the roughest roads we had driven during this road trip but it ended in a free campground by the Granite Creek.  We read online that the hot spring closed at 8pm so decided to cook some dinner, unfortunately online was wrong, it actually closed at 6pm, and we arrived at 5:45pm. 

This ended up being a blessing in disguise as we heard that there was a natural pool at the base of a waterfall that could be only reached by crossing the Granite Creek.  We crossed it, and although it was freezing the natural pools were amazing becoming one of our favourites on our entire trip, second only to Liard River Hot Springs.  Interestingly we learned that these natural hot springs in Wyoming are known a as a Hippie Dip.

 

October 6^th – Traditional Day of Camping

We were burnt out after a week of exploring and hiking the national parks so we decided to drink a 6 pack of seltzer, have a fire and reorganize key areas of our van, specifically our long term storage location of the van.

We spent most of the day beside a fire talking and relaxing.  It just felt like a day of camping we would have had on a random weekend in the summer while in Quesnel.

 

October 7^th – Problem and Solution

We decided to start the day with another Hippie Dip, which was great as we had the place to ourselves, however, it was hard to relax as the van was making an odd noise again and it was a Friday, meaning we only had that day to figure it out or we would have to wait until Monday. Luckily Paul was driving this time so Kendra didn’t “break” the van.

We left the hot springs around 12:30 and made our way back to Jackson, the sound was loud and reminiscent  of the sway bar issue on the drivers side we corrected in Nelson, but this time it was on the passenger side.  Kendra phoned OK Tire’s warranty line who gave us a couple shops we could go to in Jackson.

We quickly learned that every shop in Jackson was booked for the next 3 weeks.  Thankfully, Shervin’s Mechanic Shop had their service manager crawl under our van to take a look.  The bad news was it was not the sway bar as they were both solid and tight, meaning it was something else unknown to us.  Good news, the Service Manger called in a favour to his colleague in  Pinedale, a community an hour and a half from Jackson who said he could look at it on a Friday afternoon. 

We cautiously drove to Pinedale and sat in the waiting room to learn the issue, worried that it was an issue warranty would not cover.  After about an hour the service manager in Pinedale came out to let us know that it was just loose hardware associated with the suspension work, we got done in Quesnel and that they were not going to charge us.  We got the issue fixed for free!!!

We decided to celebrate by going out for dinner spending all the money we thought we would have had to spend by having a mechanic look at our vehicle for an hour.

 

October 8^th – The Star Valley

While we were in Yellowstone, we ran into a man recommending we check out the Star Valley as we drive towards Utah; unfortunately, he was pretty vague on the route we needed to take.  We knew it was either Highway 89 or a Forestry Road.  Based on the conversation we had with the man we assumed it was the Forestry Road since he provided specific miles to turn at but didn’t mention a highway number.  We aren’t sure if we were wrong, but the forestry road, at least in some spots was not up to the British Columbia forestry road standard.  We turned so many heads of drivers of side by sides, quads, and trucks in 4x4 as our van dumped and jumped around some parts of the “road”. 

The road was nice but probably not worth the drive.  We decided to camp near the mountain path which according to Kendra’s phone was almost 2.5 km above sea level.

 

October 9^th – Hotel Party

It was Kendra’s decision day and she had two objectives, the first was to drive towards Salt Lake City, the second was to get a shower.  She looked a various community but could not find a shower that would cost us less than $30 for both of us to get clean.  Paul decided for another approach, that would be to check for cheap hotels and he was able to find one in Evanston WY for just over $60 a night AFTER the pet fee.

Believe it or not the hotel was not the worst, it was clean and the shower was hot.  Although the WIFI seemed intermediary, the two queen beds ensured both of us could stretch out!

The town itself was fine, being that it was a Sunday everything was closed except for the local brewery and a hibachi dinner place which we can attest was delicious.   The downtown was odd, it seemed like something out of our horror movie as it was deserted with pop music being played from speakers on every light post.

The best part of the day was watch TV and drinking wine while being at minimum 6 feet apart!

Next Stop Utah!!