Tag Archives: Pony Express RV Park

10/14/2019 Evening Fireside Resort Jackson Wy, day 34

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Ready to Go!

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Dropping Into Grand Teton NP

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Like a Wolf in the Sage

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Snake River, Grand Teton National Park

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No Snow and a Short Walk to Water

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We Stood Here Last Year!

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Snake River and Grand Teton

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WOW

What a view descending into Grand Teton National Park.  Mount Moran and the Tetons are magnificent sitting across the Snake River, Jenny Lake, or Jackson Lake. We love Yellowstone.  We love the Tetons.  They are both wonderful in very different ways.  Jackson hole is a flat plain surrounded by mountain ranges.  It is home to elk, prong horns, moose, black bear, wolf, fox, cougar, and any number of smaller mammals.  Ellen is excited to take a bike trail north from Jackson.  It runs for twenty miles and more.

At each bend in the road, we remembered details from last year’s trip:  the outstanding grove of aspen near Coulter Bay; staying at Coulter Bay;  getting up early to catch sunrise at Oxbow Bend; seeing bear on a carcass so far away that our binoculars were useless;  driving to Jackson to purchase a spotting scope; having a fantastic lunch at Café Genevieve on a local’s recommendation; visiting the Mountain Trail’s Gallery and their fantastic art. 

I drove right past the right turn to Coulter Bay Village.  I remembered reading that the campground had closed.  I asked Ellen if she’d like to visit Coulter Bay.  “Sure”.  One U-turn and we drove in to Coulter Bay.  Our first clue, the road to the campground had big signs stating “Road Closed”.   On to the Coulter Bay Visitors Center, the General Store, and the Laundry/Shower facilities.  All were closed.  Not one thing was open at Coulter Bay.

We remembered the approach to Oxbow Bend.  The aspen are typically brilliant yellow at this time of year.  The extreme cold of the past few weeks has turned the aspen leaves a dull brown.  Even so, the landscape is dramatic, even awe inspiring.

The massive sculpture that stood outside of Lewis & Clark was sold.  It sits outside a picture window overlooking the snake river in a custom build house.

As we approached Jackson, we remembered and found RV parking.  We walked toward Café Genevieve for a repeat of last years memorable meal.  At the Mountain Trail’s Gallery, I noticed the massive sculpture of Lewis and Clark paddling a canoe was gone!  We walked on to Café Genevieve.  Unfortunately it was “shut”.  They had a fire and are closed for repairs. 

We both thought then said, “Let’s go back to the Mountain Trail’s Gallery and ask for another recommendation”.  At the gallery the same fellow who walked the gallery with us last year asked, “Can I help you?”  We talked art, life, and driving around Jackson.  Teton Pass on highway 22 west, has 10 percent grades.  Just this year a tandem truck rig smashed through and past the emergency truck stop and disintegrated.  The driver didn’t survive. “Be careful if you take that pass!”  I’m planning on going south on 191 and avoiding that pass.  I’ve read about it.  As for restaurant recommendations, he had three: Local, Trio, and Gather.  We checked out all three and settled on Trio.  Ellen had a massive piece of Alaskan halibut, fried green tomato, and corn and red pepper.  I had their pasta Bolognese.  Both were excellent.

We are now at Jackson Hole Campground which is part of Fireside Resort.  The resort is 5 miles from Jackson Hole Ski Resort on the Moose Wilson Road.  Moose Wilson Road is a great place to see moose.  According to the reservation gals, it’s not unusual to see moose in this RV park.  Even better, this resort rents jeeps.  We can leave Li’l Beast and go moose “hunting” on roads our motor home cannot go!  It’s a bit more than renting a car in Jackson might be, but the convenience may be worth it.

 

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We Found the Cafe

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But the sign reads “SHUT”

 

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Whimsical Bears

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Alaskan Halibut

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Pasta Bolognese

Weather

The forecast for Jackson is for increasingly better weather until Friday.  From Friday through the following Monday snow and rain are expected. On Tuesday and Wednesday rain is expected.   Rain in Jackson could easily be snow in higher passes. Do we want to spend five or six days constrained by the weather.  The other option is to remain in Jackson for another two nights and head south on Thursday. Salt Lake City is about 5 hours drive away and is projected to have rain and snow on Sunday.  We should have clear roads south if we leave Thursday.  Weather is changeable and something we will be checking daily.

10/14/2019 morning @ Pony Express RV Park, day 34

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Lower Geyser Basin

Ask a Ranger

When you visit Yellowstone or Grand Teton undoubtedly a number of questions will pop into your mind.  “How do you keep the bison in the park” is one I had to ask.  Another we asked: “Which wolf packs are active in the park now”.  You’ll see steam, mud, and boiling water gushing from the earth, “how?” or “Why”.

The rangers in the national parks are there because they love the outdoors and love the park system.  They are a wealth of information. Sometimes you may ask a ranger who’s grumpy, or can’t wait for dinner and a shower.  They may not be very conversational in that moment.  A bit later ask another ranger.  Typically you’ll get the answer (or a statement similar to “I don’t know really) and you’ll get much much more related information.

“Which wolf packs are active in the park now”  The “answer” included, “well,, the phantom pack is growing huge.  They had ten pups this season.  They range in this area.”  We’ve seen the Junction Butte pack every day we went looking.  We’ve never seen the phantom pack nor the 8-mile pack.  “Our” ranger went on to talk about grizzly.  We could find them up the Old Yellowstone Trail, a washboard dirt road used by river runner busses, or at Tom Minor.  He explained how to get to Tom Minor which we did yesterday.

Less well known, chat up any of the Yellowstone service people.  They are all here because they want to work in the park, love the outdoors, and may want to become a ranger.  You may be surprised at the experiences they’ve ‘had in the park. “I’ve had a wolf pack stride right past me while I was hiking.  They weren’t interested in me at all. I’ve seen lone bison walk past a pack.  You can tell when the wolves are on the hunt.”  This because I took the time to chat with her rather than just pay for my book and move on. “We’re closing up tomorrow.  I’m going back to Austin!”  “No, Austin is not a small town anymore.”   I didn’t ask where she had her close wolf experience.

Get Out There

As with most things in life, the more you do “it”, the better “it” gets.  Just being outdoors opens you up to experiences you would otherwise never experience.  Go outdoors often enough and amazing experiences may unfold.   You could be very lucky and have an extraordinary experience your first time out.

Get out there and to it.  “That was some real exercise”, said an overweight middle aged man to his daughter. After walking the boardwalk to Mammoth Hot Springs, they were sitting on a bench.  My first reaction was less than generous, “Really? You need to get moving more” I thought.  My second reaction was, “Good for you, at least you’re out soaking in a new experience”.

Closing Down

Yellowstone National Park remains open all year.  By December all the roads south of Mammoth Hot Springs are closed.  Many close earlier.  Dunraven Pass on the Grand Loop Road between Tower and Canyon Village  is now closed for the season.  https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/conditions.htm shows which roads are open, which are closed, and what construction is ongoing or planned.  It’s a valuable resource in late fall and early spring when sudden snow storms will cause partial or full road closure.

Now, October 14, all the campgrounds in Yellowstone will be closed today or tomorrow.  We will push south to Grand Teton where all the park campgrounds will also be closed.  We loved to stay at Coulter Bay Campground in Grand Teton National Park.  Coulter Bay is unusual; ;it has electric hookups for motor homes.  It closed a while ago.  We’ll have to stay outside Grand Teton and drive in daily.  Jackson is not all that far from last year’s moose sighting or Oxbow Bend.

We stayed at “The Virginian RV Park” last year at $110 a night!  They closed last week.  Jackson Hole Campground Fireside Resort is open year round.  After October 1st they provide electricity, WiFi, and Cable at $59 a night. We may get a AAA or Good Sam discount,  It is commonly available.  Jackson Hole is a bit out of the way for Grand Teton access, but it may be our only option.

Weather

Since the snow storm, the weather has been better every day.  We’ve had bright sunny days with temperatures hitting 50’s, then high 50’s and 60’s.   The weather will close out this thursday with rain and snow forecast.  This could make heading south from Jackson problematic.  Until we drop down from the high country, finding RV Parks with electricity could be difficult or impossible.  We depend on having an electric hook-up to run our tank heaters.  We’d be risking frozen pipes without an electric hook-up.  I suppose we could run the generator all night.  How would we sleep through that racket?

I’m not worried, I’m sure we’ can drive out of the high country if need be.

On the Move

We could drive through Hayden Valley going north to head south on a long loop.  I’d love to see Hayden Valley.  A simple drive through feels wrong.  As with Lamar Valley, a few days spent watching, waiting, and soaking in the feel of the valley would be a much better approach.  Simply driving through feels wrong.

We’ll save Hayden for another time.  Today we will depart Yellowstone National Park for Grand Teton National Park.  Though they are in close proximity, the two parks are quite different.  They feel different emotionally.  I wonder how the transition will effect me.  That phrase “something lost and something gained” springs to mind.  It is time.  Yellowstone’s great migration is underway.  Elk are moving out of the park along the highway 89 corridor.  Bison have left Hayden Valley for lower plains in the central park.  Winter is coming to Yellowstone.

 

“When do they let the animals out?”  I still cannot get over the implications of this question:  how profoundly unaware.

10/13/2019 Canyon Village, Tom Minor, Pony Express, day 33

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Buffalo Crossing RV Park

Ellen and I both thought Buffalo Crossing was less appealing than Pony Express!  With snow melting, Buffalo’s roads were muddy.  It was difficult not to bring sandy mud into Li’l Beast.   They did have water available during the day.  We topped up our drinking water and flushed & cleaned our waste tanks.  Funny, the black tank didn’t flow right away.  On went the tank heater and the icy log jam broke.  Love that tank heater.

I called Pony Express early in the morning to reserve site 5 tonight.  Pony Express isn’t much to look at.  Everything works very well, there’s plenty of heat and hot water in the showers.  That’s a huge plus in sub freezing weather.

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Today’s Low Temperature

 

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Today’s High Temperature

About the weather…  Today we saw an enormous temperature swing.  The overnight low was 10 F.  The high hit 76 F.  No kidding, I was comfortably walking around at Canyon Village in a shirt over a T.

We left Buffalo at checkout around 11:04.  We’ve been moving slowly in the morning.  Lots of cappuccino and some CNN.

Hayden Valley

To get to Hayden Valley from West Yellowstone, we drove to Madison Junction, turned left toward Mammoth Hot Springs, then turned right toward Canyon Village.  We hit some icy spots in the pass headed to Canyon village.  Dropping into a valley over the pass there were cars parked in the road looking to the right.  Cool, wildlife.  I pulled off the road as much as I could (not much) and stopped.  Ellen grabbed the binoculars, but didn’t need them to see “them”.  THEM.  Now that we know relative size, it was clear what “they” were.  Not foxes, “they” were too big.  Not wolves, “they” were too small.  Coyote!  We watched two coyote hunt.   Ellen watched as I checked traffic to ensure there was room for cars to get by.  Traffic was low, we were good for a while.

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Coyote are solitary animals.  It’s unusual to see two of them together.  We took a number of shots. 

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At some point traffic was coming both directions.  Clearly we had to move and we did.  We drove on to Canyon Village.  Neither of us remembered stopping here for anything more than diesel last year.  As we walked into the General Store, we knew we had eaten here last year.  It was memorable for how good it wasn’t.  My “burger” was all onion and lettuce (good), but the meat and bun?  We both remembered, “overpriced and poor quality”. We walked around, looking at the memorabilia and walked out.  If you are looking for Yellowstone Memorabilia, go to the IMAX theater in West Yellowstone. We left.

At the visitors center we went separate ways.  I chatted up the Yellowstone Forever register gal.  Ellen headed to the rangers manning the entrance fee register.  I learned a bit about wolves and found an academic text about wildlife in the park.  Ellen learned that the migration was happening and that the bison had left Hayden Valley.  Most wildlife was headed up 89 to the north, leaving the high country!   I got my book, Ellen suggested we head more north, even out of the park.  We both had heard about Grizzly at “Tom Minor”.  Where the hell is Tom Minor?

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On the Road to Tom Minor Campground

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Tom Minor

OK, we’ll not drop into Hayden Valley if the wildlife has gone lower.  “Let’s go to Tom Minor.  It’s north of Yellowstone.”  I agreed and we drove off to Mammoth Hot Springs.  This took us west and north some 40 miles.  At Mammoth, I took a bathroom break.  I found Ellen talking to a knowledgeable ranger who know Tom Minor well.  He runs there.  He also suggested Old Yellowstone Road as something we should visit. Both are packed dirt roads.  The ranger mentioned going over the Yellowstone bridge at tom Minor.  River runner busses drive Old Yellowstone Road in-season.  The road is wash-burn in many places.   Neither road should be a problem for you.  Cool.  With an assurance that there were no cliffs on Tom Minor road, we left the park and headed toward Livingston looking for the Tom Minor turn-off after the bridge over the Yellowstone River.

Well, no!  Ellen pointed out a big sign, “Tom Minor” on the left.  What? No Bridge?  I U-turned (I’ve regained my mastery of the U-turn) and went back.  Sure enough a dirt road wound off to the right.  No Bridge?  Oh, there’s a bridge AFTER the turnoff. It’s an old rusted one-lane steel bridge.  Two signs announce loudly “6 Tons Maximum”.  Li’l Beast is just under 6 Tons or just OVER 6 Toms depending on water and waste tank loads.  “I’m sure we’re under 6 tons”, said I, hoping I was right.  With some misgiving, we drove across the bridge.  A bit further on we crossed another smaller cement bridge with no load limit and continued up a steep slope past some large log cabins, a few massive stone custom homes, and some ranch entrances.  To the left there were distant groves of aspen, stunned into drab brown by the sudden freeze. Fall colors are all gone to grays and browns.  We scanned the tree line for motion and found none.

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We didn’t drive to Tom Minor Campground at the road’s end.  We turned around in a driveway with two dogs who oversaw our manoeuver.  We didn’t see Grizzly this trip.  “Next Time”  We’ll revisit Tom Minor’s around dusk the next time we stay at Gardiner.

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The drive back through Gardiner, Mammoth, Madison Crossing to West Yellowstone was uneventful.  We saw elk as we descended toward West Yellowstone.  The drive is wonderful.  It rises through Douglas Fir and Lodge Poll Pines, along rivers, and through gorges.

Pony Express RV Park

We arrived “home” at site 5 around dusk.  Temperature was dropping.  We work like a well oiled machine setting “camp”.   We can be setup or ready to leave in a matter of minutes. 

Now at 8:30 and 31 F, Ellen has cooked a stir-fry with noodles that was excellent.  She has showered.  We’re watching CNN’s review of how Trump’s unfounded Ukraine conspiracy came to be.  We’ll watch “Last Week Tonight” a bit later.

Plans

We’ll drive south to Grand Teton tomorrow.  We could go north and east to Canyon Village through Hayden Valley then back south of Old Faithful, or we could go directly south past Old Faithful.   That depends on how we feel tomorrow.  I think Ellen would like to mark Hayden Valley mentally “for next time”.  We’ll figure out where we’ll stay once we’re close to Jackson.  I’ve been told there are three massive bull moose in the south Tetons.  Moose grow huge.  They would be something to see.  I loved the Tetons when I first saw them.

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