Lamar Valley

This is our last day in Yellowstone and we spent most of the day in the northeast section of the park in an area called Lamar Valley.  The valley is named after the Lamar River which runs through the valley. The Valley is known for its wildlife viewing.  Bison, elk, grizzly bears, wolves, black bears, pronghorn, and coyotes are just a few of the animals you might see in the area. We didn't see any wolves or bears, but we did see some pronghorn and over a thousand head of bison. Tomorrow is a travel day as we head to Glacier National Park.

A Field of Daisies

Yellowstone River

Bison in the Lamar Valley

Bison Around the Lamar River with two Fisherman in the background

Old Faithful

Video of Slow Moving Traffic in Yellowstone 

Some More Yellowstone Pictures

Thermal Spring and Vent (Below is a video of the Spring)

A Bison Grazing in a Field (I was hiding behind the tree to get this picture)

A Coyote Walking along the Road

Water Falls on the Firehole River

Mammoth Hot Springs

A Nice Day for a Hike

RoxAnne packed me a nice lunch for my backpack, packed me several water bottles and I went off on a hike.  My first stop was a hill on the backside of the Grand Prismatic Spring.  The spring has the distinction of being the park’s largest hot spring. It measures approximately 370 feet in diameter and is over 121 feet deep. It discharges an estimated 560 gallons of 160 °F water per minute.

Grand Prismatic Spring

After leaving the spring, I headed towards the "Fairy Falls".  The falls are 200 feet high and is one of Yellowstone's most spectacular waterfalls.

The basin at the bottom of Fairy Falls

Fairy Falls

The total hike was about 8 miles, so the best thing I could think to do was to go swimming.  It just so happened that the Firehole River was near by and there was a section in which people could swim.  Since the river was being fed by hot springs, the water was actually in the high 70's to low 80's.  Very refreshing on a hot day.

Firehole River Swimming Hole

A Trip into Yellowstone

Yellowstone National Park is the oldest national park.  It was established by Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872.  Yellowstone is the site of a huge ancient volcano, whose remains are called the Yellowstone Caldera. The caldera is the largest volcanic system in North America.  640,000 years ago a huge volcanic explosion blew 240 cubic miles of rock and lava into the air. It was 1000 times larger than the Mount St. Helens eruption.  Yellowstone is still a geologically active volcano (that means that a eruption is expected in future).  There is ground movement and small earthquakes happening quite often.  In fact, right now Researchers have recorded more than 1200 earthquakes in Yellowstone, part of an ongoing earthquake swarm now in its fifth week.  The floor of the caldera has been rising, but experts say there is no immediate danger of eruption.

Today we drove through several areas of Yellowstone.  We saw some pretty cool things.

A Bison taking a stroll along the road.

A Thermal Pool

Two female Elk hanging out by the River

Snow capped mountains overlooking a lake

Yellowstone Park

We left Thermopolis, WY this morning and drove to Yellowstone National Park.  We had the camper attached to the truck, so we couldn't stop and sightsee.  We did see a lot of thermals from the road and a few animals, such as bison and elk.  The last few days in South Dakota and Wyoming the temperatures reached 100 degrees. As we were driving through Yellowstone the temperature was 53 degrees.  It is supposed to get down into the 40's tonight.  We are currently camping in West Yellowstone.  It is actually in Montana and is right outside the boundary of the national Park. Tomorrow we plan on spending the entire day sightseeing.

Detoxify

They claim that soaking in the hot mineral water can get rid of toxins in your body. If that is true, then RoxAnne and I are completely detoxed.  We started soaking in the pool at about 7:30 this morning and finished up at about 9:00 this evening.  We took a few breaks during the day, but the water just kept calling us back.

Tomorrow we leave Thermopolis and head to Yellowstone, but I'm sure that we'll hop in the pool one last time before we leave.

This is a picture of the spring at the Thermopolis State Park.  The mineral waters flow over the rock and dump into the Big Horn River.

A Really Big Hot Tub

We are at the "Fountain of Youth" RV Park.  The park itself is older and needs some TLC. However, we are really excited to be here.  The reason is that they have their very own hot spring.  They claim that it is the third largest hot mineral pool in the world. The pool is fed by the Sacajawea "hot springs", named for the Indian squaw who led Lewis and Clark to the Pacific. The well was drilled in 1918 by C. F. Cross in a search for oil. Instead of oil, hot mineral water was struck. The pressure was so great that it destroyed the derrick. Currently, the well flows at the rate of 1.3 million gallons of 130 degree water each 24 hours. The pool measures 235 feet by 72 feet and holds 84,600 cubic feet of water. With 1.3 million gallons flowing from the Sacajawea every 24 hours, the water in the pool is exchanged every 11 hours.  The pool is divided into three separate areas.  The first pool has water that is around 116 degrees, the second pool has 104 degree water and the last pool has 98 degree water.

Sacajawea well that supplies hot mineral water to the pool

Goodbye South Dakota; Hello Wyoming

We left the Badlands of South Dakota this morning and today was basically a travel day.  We ended the day by setting up our camper at the "Fountain of Youth" campground in Thermopolis, WY. Most of where we traveled today was pretty barren land.  Not much to see but brown grasslands or rocky terrain.  However, when we approached the Big Horn mountains the landscape started getting picturesque.  You could see the snow covered mountain peaks in the background and then we started going up the mountain.  The truck did really well pulling the camper.  At the peak of the mountain was the Powder River Pass (elevation 9666 feet).  You could really tell that the elevation was high and the temperature dropped from 98 degrees to 71 degrees at the top of the mountain pass.  (On a side note, we met a family at the top of the mountain pass that lives in Gibsonia, PA.  Only a few miles from where I grew up) Then we started back down the mountain.  That was a little more challenging than going up the mountain.  Luckily the truck has an "exhaust brake" option so you don't need to use your brakes as much.  It was pretty steep in places and many sharp turns.  Towards the bottom of the mountain was a really pretty canyon.  The afternoon temperature reached 100 degrees, but the truck stayed cool in the heat.

A Day to Relax

We didn't do much today.  Stayed at the campground and hung out at the swimming pool.  The campground is right beside the White River.  The river is a Missouri River tributary.  The name stems from the water's white-gray color, a function of eroded sand, clay, and volcanic ash carried by the river from its source near the Badlands.  Presently the river has very little flow due to the dry climate surrounding of the Badlands. Water is a rarity in the area, so when you go look at the river you see many animal tracks on the banks. The river is one of their only sources of drinking water.  Tomorrow we leave the Badlands and head to a town in Wyoming called Thermopolis.  The town is named after the numerous natural hot springs in the area.

The White River

Our spot at the Badlands/White River KOA

The Prairie and Bison

We drove through a different section of the Badlands today.  This section consisted more of prairies and less of the buttes, pinnacles and spires.  As we drove we encountered acres of land that was inhabited by prairie dogs. It is impossible to get close to them.  As soon as you start moving towards them they start alerting the others with a warning call (it is referred to as a bark) and they all start running towards their burrow.  We also encountered hundreds of bison roaming in the prairies.  Many of the bison were next to the road in which we were traveling.  Some were even on the road and become a pretty substantial road block.  A mature bison bull will weigh about 2000 lbs.  You also need to be careful not to make them angry.  They can run up to 40 mph.  Many of the trails had signs to beware of rattlesnakes.  Luckily we didn't see any snakes.  We did however see pronghorns (some call them antelope) and we saw deer.  On the way back from the prairie we again drove through the rock formations. They are amazing.  Was about 96 degrees outside today.  Came back to the campground to cool off in the pool and it was 88 degrees.  Overall, a great day in the national park.

Badlands National Park

Today we arrived at a campground next to the Badlands National Park in South Dakota.  As you travel through the Badlands you see many sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires, but also there are large mixed grass prairies.  The prairies are home to bison, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs, and black-footed ferrets.  Behind the scene are one of the world's richest fossil beds.  Ancient mammals such as the rhino, horse, and saber-toothed cat once roamed in the area and their fossils are buried throughout the park .

It was extremely hot today.  The high was about 98 degrees.  The air was very hazy and it didn't make it easy to take clear pictures. Hopefully tomorrow we can get better pictures.

prairie dog

Sioux Falls

We drove about 7 hours today, traveling through Iowa, Minnesota, and finally arriving in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  Sioux Falls is the largest city South Dakota with a population of about 175,000.  It is also ranked as the 47th fastest-growing city in the United States.  The waterfalls are part of the Big Sioux River.  We are just stopping at the campground to sleep, so we didn't even disconnect our truck from our camper.  We are extremely excited about tomorrow.  We will be arriving at the Badlands National Park and will be staying there the weekend.

Iowa

We left Illinois this morning and started heading west.  We passed a lot of farms and corn fields along the way and drove as far as Dubuque, Iowa where we have stopped for the night. Dubuque is located along the Mississippi River.  We didn't have the time to explore the city, but it looked like a very nice place.  Nearby is the movie location where they filmed "Field of Dreams".  It is a very popular tourist spot.  There were several storm warnings out this evening.  The sky actually started looking pretty scary. We had lots of rain, lightening, thunder, and wind, but luckily no tornados.  Tomorrow we'll be driving northwest.

Grand Design

Today we toured the Grand Design RV facility where they made our 5th wheel camper. The facility is located in Elkhart County.  The majority of the RV's in the US are made in Elkhart County and it is known as the "RV Capital of the World".  The county is also known for its sizable Amish and Mennonite population.  The tour was amazing. I would estimate that about 95% of the workforce were Amish or Mennonite. They actually ran from one area to another when assembling the RV.  I've never seen any group of men and women work so hard.  They were so good at what they were doing and worked so well as a team. They start their shift at 4:45am and they finish before 1:00pm. Last week it was really hot in the shop, so the one assembly line decided to start at 2:30am and finish their shift in the morning before it got hot. It takes them about 1-1/2 days to build from the beginning an RV like we own. Truly amazing.

Day 1

Today we hooked up the camper to the truck and started on our 3-1/2 month trip.  We plan to drive out west to the Rocky Mountains, then head north into Canada.  After exploring the National Parks of Canada, we will be heading over to the Pacific coast of Washington and Oregon.  Our final destination is a campground in Dunedin, Florida which we have a 6 month reservation starting November 1st. We presently have no idea of the route we will be taking from Washington to Florida, but we will just determine it day by day as we travel. Tonight we are staying at a campground in Elkhart, IL.