GRAND TETONS AND YELLOWSTONE

We left the campground around 8:00 AM MT headed west toward the Teton National Park.  The landscape west of Dubois was similar to what we saw as we moved north from Rawlins, however, approximately 25 miles west on US 287 in the Shoshone National Forest the sights became incredible.

Soon after we entered the Shoshone National Forest we saw a mule deer grazing by the road.  We crossed the continental divide several times today. The first crossing of the divide was situated on a ridgeline overlooking a picturesque valley where we stopped and walked the dogs.  This is where we had our first glimpse of snow.

A few miles further and 25 east of Moran Junction in the Grand Tetons we had our first bear sighting. He was rather curious about our presence and was aware of the fact that Shiloh the hound dog had shown significant interest in eating him. The bear seemed unimpressed and we moved along as he remained in his chosen location.

Today's travel is slow going because we are stopping frequently to soak up the beauty of these mountain passes. Sometime we wonder if Uncle Sam got it wrong. The Shoshone and Gallatin National Forests that bracket Yellowstone and he Grand Teton National Parks  seem to have so much more beauty then the 2 national parks.  But we know other folks see it differently.  The mountain tops can be seen peeking through the clouds at times. Another rainy day for us to be sightseeing.

After passing through Moran Junction in the Grand Teton National Park, we drove along Jackson Lake.  I'm sure this area is prettier when the sun is shining and the mountains are reflected in the lake like a mirror.

Both parks were slammed with summer visitors. One thing for sure, 50 foot long motorhome rigs with a toad do not get to visit or park in turnouts at park venues on crowded summer days. There simply isn't enough room in the parking areas. So we plowed on to West Yellowstone, Montana to set up the rig to stay for a few days.  Many of the pictures taken were as we drove by many of the places we would have liked to stop.

Today we ran into our first significant glitch. Let's call one an "incipient" glitch- that is one that might be fixing to happen. As we checked the RV forums, we a saw posting about the ALCAN closing. Assuming our Canadian fire fighting friends knock out the forest fire at Ft Nelson, BC we won't have a problem. There are webcams set up on the ALCAN and the one at Fort Nelson shows heavy smoke making visibility difficult.  If they don't get it to where the ALCAN remains passable then we will face a serious challenge. We have about 10 days to keep an eye on it and see what's happening. 

The more serious challenge is that we suffered damage to the rig today. We noticed a crack on the passenger side that kept growing as we were driving pass Jackson Lake.  There is lots of loose aggregate  (a/k/a rocks and stones)  on northwestern US  and  Canadian 2 lane roads. Today while traveling northwest on US 287 our windshield caught 2 rocks from a passing semi. One of the rocks hit a day earlier from another southbound truck. Two of the rocks seriously pitted the windshield and the third thoroughly cracked it on the passenger side. As the crack was over a foot long the insurance company requires the windshield to be replaced.

The insurance company is trying to figure out how to chase us down for what is at a minimum a 12 hour replacement project. Due to its size and the requirements for installing this type of windshield its a bit more complex than a normal car windshield. As we are approaching our crossing into Canada, any repair before Anchorage seems to be out of the question as the insurance company's suggested contractor  does not do windshield work in Canada. And as this is a unique 8.5 ft X about 4 foot windshield, one won't find them lying around in many warehouses in these parts. So the contractor and insurance company are working on having a new windshield shipped to Anchorage for what hopefully will be a replacement when we arrive there on or after the 24th. There are a lot of "ifs " in that arrangement- but our fingers are crossed.

Since we still had about a 50 mile drive through Yellowstone National Park to the campground, we decided to continue seeing what we could and follow-up on the "crack" when we get to the campground.  We entered Yellowstone National Park from the south end passing Snake River along the way.

Then we sat for over 30 minutes (on a Thursday) waiting to pass thru the entrance gates.  This entrance is undersized for the number of vehicles trying to get through.  Couldn't imagine what it's like on the weekend.

The road going into Yellowstone follows the Lewis River which has cut a deep gorge.  There were some pretty sites along this roadway.

Trying to find a parking place at Old Faithful Geyser in the moho was impossible so we pushed on to the campground in West Yellowstone, MT.  We were able to part of the Midway Geyser Basin from the road.  We will be spending 2 full days in Yellowstone and will explore the park in more detail using our toad for easy access to areas inaccessible to us today.

Once we settled into Grizzly RV Park, we managed to connect with an auto body shop that was around the corner from where we were staying that seems to have cornered the market for windshield work in these parts. They worked on stabilizing and slowing the three cracks to try to keep us running to Alaska with some form of usable windshield. So far (3 hours later) it is holding and the crack has not expanded, but we still have a cracked windshield.

We've unloaded the car from the dolly and plan to run around with it for a few days seeing the northern part of the park.  We did the southern part last year.  We will combine the next 2-3 days into one post since we will be parked in one place for 3 nights.  Oh- did I mention- we continue to enjoy downpours EVERY day- everything is so wet and dirty. The weatherman is predicting more rain.......