RV Travels: Weekly Wanderings #36 – Yellowstone

Hey! We're still in Yellowstone! Our one week has turned into two. Mr. Misadventures is like a kid in a candy store and why take a year off from work if you can't go where you please from time to time!

We're actually staying through October 2nd when we will make a five-day beeline for Red Bay. Until then, the Yellowstone fun continues.

After four straight days of very early mornings, 6-8 hours of driving (100 – 200 miles a day) and massive temperature swings, we called uncle on Sunday and did nothing but rest, do laundry, eat three hot meals. It was raining/hailing off and on all day but that was just fine by us.

Monday morning we started early (wildlife early, not sunrise early) and spent the first part of the day watching a large bull elk herd his harem on the Madison River. The male's calls make such a racket like someone first learning to play a clarinet or flute. But the pitch and volume are awesome!

Next on our schedule was the mountain road between Canyon Village and Tower Fall where for the last week mama bear and her cubs continued to feed on pine cones (the nuts I've learned). Some mornings there was a young male black bear as well.

At one point in time, there were two bears on one side of the road and the mama with her cubs on the other. The roadway always becomes a disaster, they call it a bear jam, you should have seen it when there were five! Most of the rangers do a good job of controlling the cars and the people, but it takes patience! People can be so stupid!

Tuesday morning foxes running through our RV park woke Mr. Misadventures at three a.m. so he slipped out for sunrise and left me sleeping. Bless his heart I got to sleep in until 7 and he got a gorgeous bull elk in the misty sunrise over the Madison River. It was the same group of elk from the previous day, but the sunrise was better, so he was a happy camper.

We decided to play tourists and skipped the wildlife (photo) hunting and headed to some of the geysers. On the way we drove up Fountain Flat Road and saw 300 bison hanging out around the Madison River, it was awesome. Mr. Misadventures is all about the bears, but I love the bison!

That night we went out for a sunset shoot at Nez Perce Creek but were a little too early so we continued up the main road and turned onto a side road that leads to Great Fountain Geyser. It was totally random, but awesome because we arrived ten minutes before the eruption window. The geyser only erupts once every 10 hours and 45 minutes (give or take 2 hours) and so we felt lucky that it was taking place (a) when we arrived and (b) at sunset.

The next morning we headed back to Nez Perce Creek for a sunrise shoot. Afterward, we went back to the Great Fountain Geyser to see when the next eruption would be, we had just missed it. As we continued down the road (Firehole Lake) we ran into 30 bison who were moving from the thermal area (where they likely spent the night, after all the ground is warm) to the meadows around Fountain Flat Road. I guess it's easier to walk along the road than the forest, so we were stuck in a bit of commute traffic for about 30 minutes, it was awesome. One big bull kept turning around to give us the evil eye!

Thursday we moved RV parks, we finally got into the one we stayed in last May, it is super nice and a couple of miles closer to the West Entrance of Yellowstone. It rained all day, so we took it as a day of rest. You need those every couple of days given the schedule we have been following.

We hoped with the rain that it might have snowed in part of the park, so this morning we headed out to see if we could find any. No luck, although there is supposed to be some tomorrow, we'll see. It would be awesome to get some shots, landscape or wildlife, with a snowy background.

We decided to hike around Norris at the Porcelain and Back Basins, about 3 miles give or take. On the way down from the mountain pass, I spotted 3 wolves in a clearing. We turned around and parked in a safe area, passing them again as we did that. Once parked by the time, M. Misadventures got the right lens on his camera (he was prepped for geysers not wildlife) all he got was a blurry shot of them running off. It was a shame there were two black and one white wolf. One black wolf was standing behind the white wolf practically posing, it would have been a great shot!

The adventures will continue!

Current location:

Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park, West Yellowstone, Montana.

That was my week, how about yours?

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