Yellowstone 2016 or Bust! Forum Rally May 15 through May 21, 2016

Weather has not been our friend this week in Yellowstone, but it did not appear to dampen enthusiasm at the group dinner at Bullwinkle's in West Yellowstone.

Eric Straughn, Max (MN Blue Skies)'s better half, celebrated a birthday with everyone singing Happy Birthday, and we thought food service was excellent for such a large group. It was apparent they were used to large groups!

Hope everyone enjoyed themselves!

I have to apologize for the continued yukky weather...  :'( It really messes with things!

Tonight, Friday, let's move the 7pm up to 6pm?

And Saturday, a combo Happy Hour/Goodbye at 5pm so folks can prep for travel the following day?

Open to suggestions!

I have to apologize for the continued yukky weather...  :'( It really messes with things!

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So it's your fault?  ??? You really need to do better, Kim...  : ;D

skyking4ar2 said:

I have to apologize for the continued yukky weather... 

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Kim, no apology necessary.  It's really a matter of perspective.  For example, if you were stranded at sea in the midst of a major storm, you'd consider this weather almost pleasant.  Then again, if you were baking in Death Valley with high winds and 130?, you'd be remembering how nice it was in West Yellowstone.  So the old saying really applies.,  When life gives you lemons, you have a cup of hot chocolate. 

Despite the temps and rain, we've had a great time, made some new friends and will remember to pack a better umbrella next time.  Thanks to you and your team for all your hard work and the camaraderie of a great group of forumites. 

Hear, Hear!

Fortunately, they don't close the park or put the animals away so they don't shrink when they get wet...and being forest land, this country NEEDS all the rain it can get.

6 o'clock tonight works for me, and I also concur with a 5 PM Happy Hour on Saturday. We are one of the folks pulling out Sunday so it would be a good time for one last visit. 

Today's YNP website shows Dunraven Pass is open. We are headed that way aiming for the Mount Washburn trailhead

Tonight at 6 works for us and really looking forward to tomorrows HH/Goodbye.  Made some great new friends this week and got to know some other friends even better.  Thanks to Kim & Christi for putting this together.  For a newly retired guy, he sure does work hard. 

I wouldn't worry about the weather Kim. This is just typical Yellowstone NP weather. It hasn't kept us from doing anything or even slowing us down. Personally I think it is perfect. We have been here mid-summer with 90+ degrees and I would MUCH rather have 50's/60's for hiking than 90's.  Evenings are nice and cool just the way we like it.

Mike.

Somehow, a conversation with Jim Dick the other day about the other geysers besides Old Faithful, morphed into a planned walk around the Old Faithful area boardwalk to see those geysers, which morphed into "let's have breakfast before we do that" plan, which morphed into "we want to do that, too!", and we have a photo op when we discover the original perpetrator, Jim Dick (the actual photographer here) with wife, Pat, eating right across from us!

Dave (Gunny69) and Nancy Moser , Marc (mfish4299) and Jimmie Kay Fisher , Joe and Patty Gray (pgray52246), Dee Falchini, Mike Zuech (zmotorsports), Kim Bertram (skyking4ar2), Chrystal Zuech, Jared Zuech, Christi Bertram (gypsyfeet), and Steve Falchini (Steve N Dee)...

Lots of Framily!

We had a great time today Kim. Thanks for the invite. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather for the 3+ mile hike after breakfast. It was also great to meet some new to us friends from the forum that we had not had the privelage to meet until today. New friendships in the making.

Mike.

We couldn't agree more.  Great walk, great breakfast and even better company.

Steve & Dee

Tom and Margi said:

Good Lord!  Makes me so happy that we were fortunate to see YNP in 1986 and 1987 just after Tom retired.  We had animal jams back then, too, but nowhere near the "combat photography" this picture shows.  Hope you all have a wonderful time at the rally.  It's such a magical unique place.  If wishes were fishes, we would do it all over again!  ;D

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Margi, It has become one nightmare with all the visitors we have at YNP now! It doesn't take long for the park to close parking areas so the animals can have a little peace and quiet Consequently, we do not see many of the sitings as we are usually working. We did see a Grizzly Sow and two cubs on our way to a YA meeting on Wednesday but I was driving so missed any photo ops. On Thursday we spotted a lone Griz on our way back from an NPS seminar but my camera was not set properly so I missed getting any shots. This year is going to be a huge challenge for all parks to accommodate visitors who want to see everything possible in the shortest amount of time. It will tax all who work here to the limit!

Had a busy day yesterday.  Almost 11 hours in the park.  Saw nine bears.  Three moms each with two cubs.  They ranged in size from quite large to very small.  The smallest couldn't have been more than a few months old.  They looked to be about the size of our large cat.  Maybe 15 lbs.  They crossed the highway behind their mom jumping and running as only young ones will do.  Two others were in a tree as their mom was gathering dinner in the field below.  We drove through Fire Hole and almost every other attraction up to the junction a few miles past Tower Falls where the road takes a right turn and heads to Cooke City and beyond.  Saw that yesterday so no need to do it again.  Dun Raven Pass was closed so a bit disappointed that we didn't get to the 10,000 foot level.    Maria finally got to see Old Faithful.  Didn't get back until 9M and caught a few Mule Deer or similar up close and personal.  It was getting pretty dark and they weren't bothered by our presence.  That concludes our parks rides.  We probably added more than 600 miles to the Jeep.  Nice to be able to pull off the road with a steep shoulder and just keep going after seeing the sites.  By the way, I thought I heard the park is 2.2 Million acres.  FWIW, that's 3,437.5 square miles.  At least if a square mile is still 640 acres.  So me thinks there's a lot more park to see.  Another time with a bit warmer temps.  On the other hand, warmer weather means more people, a lot more people.  So maybe??  Don't really mind the rain since it seems to bring out the animals.  All in all a great week.  Many thanks to Kim and team for all their work. 

We would like to give a special thanks to Kim and Christi for planning and spearheading the Yellowstone rally. We had a great time. It was also nice see old friends and great to meet so many new friends who we hope to see again at another rally or just on the road in our travels.

We hope everyone travels safe.

Mike.

It's always bittersweet to close out a rally, especially with such a fun and excited group. Every night, we got louder and louder and that's an indicator to me that folks were having a good time!

To reiterate a point made by Jeff, I hope our rally Framily will take a moment to consider using the DONATE button at the top of the page, and drop a few bucks in the kitty to support Tom and his mission of keeping us all online and informed. It is often a thankless task, Tom takes it seriously, and because of his efforts we can remain "the friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing".

Special thanks to SargeW for letting me bounce some ideas off him and his amazing whistle!

I would very much appreciate any critiques or observations you would want to share privately via the email button or even on this post so that the next rally, wherever it may be, can benefit!

Safe travels to all who are moving out tomorrow! It was very much our pleasure to host this rally and we hope to see you out on the road!

Kim and Christi

You did an amazing job Kim. It's hard to know when pulling a rally together to know just how much "organization" you need to put into the day to day events. Yellowstone has so much to offer, most folks were busy almost every day. You struck a good balance between events, and free to wander time. 

Congratulations to you and Christi for pulling this off so smoothly!

Marty and Diane

We had a great time Kim!


Thanks for all the work.

I was so glad to meet many of the attendees that ripped by the bookstore at Old Faithful, just sorry we didn't have the chance to get out to Grizzley for a meet up.  Hard to believe it is wrapping up. 

Glad everyone had wonderful time!  See man y of you on the road and in our travels.

Bill & Jolene

Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to put this all together !

For those who never rallied before, do not hesitate to join a rally. Being able to tap into the experience of our fellow rally-ers(sp) is priceless and gave us the ability to make the most of our time here. And they are really fun people !

Thank you all !