Due to horrible service and traveling the last couple days of blogging will be connected into 1 singular blog. Sorry for any inconvenience.
We left our latest Rv park at around 9, the plan was to drive up to Devils Tower in the morning and head west for the rest of the day toward the Grand Tetons. Devils tower was in Wyoming so we had to cross yet another state border. At this point we were only an hour ahead of Klamath Falls time. My grandpa had recommended we go and see Devils Tower, when we we entered Wyoming we went down to a visitor center and got information on the best route to take an Rv to the Tetons. Devils tower was beginning to emerge in the distance. Devils Tower was huge. It was a geology mystery why the tower had formed. It wasn't a volcano. The rock was made of igneous rock, standing 867 feet from base to summit. When we were walking around the loop trail that surrounded the base we multiple groups of people walking around the trail with ropes and helmets on we saw other people already climbing up the rock. Scaling it, from down below it looked very difficult but I was sure because of the columns it must have been easy for the climbers to just stand on top of the columns.
As we walked farther around the trail we began to see some of the fallen columns that had fallen off the side of the butte. The park was cool, definitely not something you would see everyday. One of the highlights even so was the fact that there were prairie dogs here too, and these ones were very tame and friendly. Meaning some people had likely fed them. one of the little animals aloud us to walk like ten feet away from him. he then did a little photo shoot for us. The whole time squeaking, I was close enough to see the teeth in the prairie dogs mouths. They were very adorable and made me think of the guinea pigs. I was basically counting down the days until we got to see those little squeakers. They were holding down the fort down at home and every few days we got sent pictures of them from the girl who was feeding them. Out of all things at home, I definitely missed the guinea pegs the most.
It was about a 7 hour drive from Devils Tower to the Grand Tetons. Since it was already past 12 we knew we wouldn't be able to make it all the way over to the next location. Instead we decided to drive part of the way, and then have a fun day of seeing the Grand Tetons as well as probably Yellowstone tomorrow. Kim booked an Rv park for the night out by Riverside. We ate dinner in a parking lot about an hour and a half away from the park. We arrived just as the sky was getting black. This Rv park was right by the Wind River. And to Kim's happiness not directly on the freeway, so we were also free of diesel fumes.
Day 56
The next day when I woke up I decided to head over to the river. I walked across the Rv park and checked it out. The whole park was very peaceful. We didn't leave until nearing 10. We were headed to the Grand Tetons. Kim was the only one in the family that had seen these massive mountains. The Tetons were located by multiple different lakes, some of which you could swim in, others had snakes or dangerous wildlife. We took a boat across Jenny Lake, we hiked up to a water fall half mile from the dock on the other side. When we were done with that little hike we were already inching up on our ETD. But of course we couldn't leave until we all swam in the lake. The water was very cold, but once you got used to it the wind on top of the water felt colder. The lake was crystal clear, there was rocks at the bottom, I didn't know if the rocks were man placed or by nature. We left the National Park at about 2. The next park on the list was Yellowstone. Kim said that she didn't have an attachment to seeing that much in Yellowstone, but that instantly changed when she saw the first meadow.
Yellowstone was a very large park, with valleys after valleys. We saw Buffalo in the first couple meadows. The animals were giant, they were just hanging out, swimming in the river and rolling around in the dirt. The buffalo were in large herds, some of the females were being followed around by there little babies. The Buffalo would cross the road and some of them would just sit in the middle and not move for minutes, holding up traffic. In the time we stopped for dinner we saw multiple different herds come and go. By the end there was a police car moving the buffalo off the road. As we continued traveling, there were deer up in the trees as well as ducks in the ponds. There were giant steam clouds, emerging from boiling water. It took us a long time to exit Yellowstone considering any time there was something cool to see we pulled off the road. As we finally left we saw a large group of female elk roaming around by some store lots. I had kind of hoped to see a grizzly bear but they usually only came out at dusk and dawn and we hadn't timed our trip for that.
With Yellowstone behind us there were only a few more stops left on the road map. Including Glacier National Park. We would be heading north all the way to the north end of Montana and then drop back down all the way to Oregon. With home only a few days away I was beginning to feel the anticipation of laying in my own bed again.
Check out the road map to see where were going next! Link below!
Click HERE for road map!