OP
OP
John Stephens
Well-known member
I am back among the living. Gros Ventre in the Grand Tetons has a very weak cell signal, no wifi, and likewise, no internet. I haven't had a chance in the past week to log an entry on this thread. Thank you for your patience.
We drove from Cody to Dubois so we could be closer to Gros Ventre. I had picked an RV park when planning this trip but didn't make a reservation, not wanting to tie ourselves down to another day without fail. Before we left Absaroka Bay, I called the Longhorn Hotel and RV Park to make sure we could get a spot. There was no problem, although during the time we were there, the park appeared to be close to full.
The Longhorn was a little more expensive than I like but when we got there, we understood why. For a pull thru standard size site, they charge $59 per night and accept Good Sam, so the price for us was $53.10 plus tax, which in Wyoming is only 4% with no other hotel taxes, service fees or any other of what I refer to as prostitution taxes (for obvious reasons.)
We planned on staying at the Longhorn for one night and then head out to Gros Ventre for four nights, originally five before we decided to stay in Cody for an extra night. But for the reason I chose not to make solid reservations for any of these parks being having the freedom to go where we wanted and stay for as long as we wanted, we once again changed our plans once we saw the park.
The Longhorn is the best park we have stayed in thus far on this trip, and one of the best parks we have ever stayed in. Hence, the justification for the higher price. This is an old cattle farm that was converted to a hotel and RV park and it has an old West feel in the air. The park has plenty of very large trees which has pros and cons; shade as a pro but poor satellite reception as a con. But the trees add to the beauty of this park. No cable and poor wi-fi are detrimental to any rating to be given, but water pressure was very good at 60 psi and the dump was an easy connect. The electric apparently had issues because each night we were there, the new Progressive surge protector I had purchased for this trip cut the service, reinstating it 2:16 later as dictated in the owner's manual. The first night it happened, we didn't know what went wrong and wondered if the entire park was down, but a couple of minutes later, the power returned. That made me think it may have been the surge protector doing its job. Sure enough, the next night when it happened, I told Judy not to worry because I had a feeling the power would return in just a couple of minutes. I walked out to the power pedestal and looked at the readout and found the voltage had dropped below 104 volts, making the EMS unit stop the power until the voltage rose to an acceptable level, which in this case was instantaneous, but the protector always takes 2:16 to reset. I am now a strong proponent of this sort of protection. Prior, I wanted one but didn't want to spend the money for a good one. But while planning out this trip and realizing just how many different RV parks we would visit, making the chances of getting poor service go up considerably, I decided to buy one through Amazon a week before we left and am very glad I did.
The site was reasonably level, gravel, well packed, with room behind or in front for our SUV. I think these sites were all designed to hold 45' RV's along with a car or truck. On our way to the site, we drove past their dog run. We were surprised and very glad to have this since we thought we wouldn't see one until we got to St. Louis in August and the poor dogs weren't going to have any opportunity to burn off the energy they were building up and storing. Any dog owner knows what can happen when this occurs. Especially with smart herding breeds, dogs will get so bored if given nothing to do to burn off their energy, they'll find something to do on their own, and it will usually be something you won't be happy about.
We didn't unhitch, thinking we were only going to stay one night. As soon as we got connected and leveled with the slides out, we took the dogs down to the dog run. This run is probably about a half acre with a giant tree in the middle, giving male dogs a way to talk to each other, and plenty of room to run and chase balls or frisbees. When I looked out across the lake they have between the dog run and the horse corral and stable, I saw what I considered to be one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen in my life with rolling hills past the horse area and snow capped mountains behind the hills. I asked Judy if she would like to stay another day there. It took her no time to respond in the affirmative, so I walked back to the office and told the nice lady who had checked me in that our dogs had told us they wanted to stay another night. Between the views and the dog run, we were sold. All the workers there were very personable and helpful. We really enjoyed our stay.
While there, we did some driving tours of the area, taking in the scenery and snapping a lot of photos. We drove all the way up the Union Pass and back down, and checked out the petroglyphs south of the RV park. We would have stayed another day but we had already cut our stay at Grand Tetons from five days to three, and I was told we would need at least three days, if not five, to see the Tetons. So on Friday, we packed up and headed for Gros Ventre.
The drive to the Grand Tetons was sometimes difficult with 6% grades, taking our speed down to the 20's on occasion and forcing me to smell for burning brakes on the way back down, even with using the grade brake and the stabbing method of braking. But when we got over the initial mountains, we were stunned by what was in front of us. The Grand Tetons is without a doubt the most stunning eye candy I have ever seen, and what one always pictures in their mind of what the Rocky Mountains are supposed to look like. I have been told and have read that the Tetons are the most beautiful mountains in the United States, only surpassed by the Canadian Rockies for this continent. I tend to agree with my limited experience. I told Judy I was afraid these views were going to spoil us for the rest of our vacation and with the exception of the Icefield Parkway, we probably wouldn't see anything this beautiful again. I didn't realize there are still glaciers in the Tetons. albeit small ones due to climate change. But I thought I would have to wait until we got to Glacier NP before being able to see one. Needless to say more, we were most impressed with the scenery while in this park.
Gros Ventre is a nice, cozy park that has either electric hookups only or no hookups at all. We got there early enough, thanks to Jackie Mac on this forum, to be one of the first to ask for electric and were at our site by 10:30. The site was asphalt, new and smooth, but not level at all. We had to put two 2X12's under each front jack along with the jack pads to get the front end raised high enough to be able to turn on our refrigerator. The front tires were off the ground a couple of inches, something I don't really like seeing, but the jack solenoids on the front jacks were strong. The park is very nice, cut right into the woods and with strict rules about bear proofing any food or cooking utensils outside the RV. It is mandatory to put your grill back inside your RV once it has cooled down because this is in bear territory, along with moose, wolves, coyotes and other animals always looking for an easy meal. There were clean rest rooms and showers within close walking distance, although we had no need for either. The park rangers with whom I dealt were very friendly and helpful and there is a dump as you leave if needed.
While we were there, we drove to Jackson a couple of times to look around and dine. We tried Pinky G's pizza and found it to be good but not great and slightly overpriced. But what do you expect in a tourist trap town? When that is taken into consideration, the price wasn't that bad. One day, we decided to stop at the Dairy Queen while beginning to head out of town on the way back to the campground and realized it was a mistake because there was a tour bus full of Japanese tourists that had stopped for lunch taking up every single table in the restaurant. Apparently, the manager made the decision to make up multiples of their most popular sandwiches to avoid taking too much time. We both got our meals too quickly to have been made fresh, and that was borne out with the first bite of each of our meals.
We tried to cover most of the major roads in and out of the park so we could see whatever there was to see. We did not have the luck to see any moose or elk, but did see pronghorns and longhorn sheep along with several deer on the side of road, mostly standing up. We drove up Summit Drive and saw an outstanding panorama of both the mountains as well as the valley known as Jackson Hole. We were able to get photos that I think will be good enough to blow up into wall hangings when we get home, one of the major goals of this trip. Jenny Lake was beautiful, as well as Jackson Lake, and we drove some back roads that allowed us to see things normally not on most tourists' to do lists.
On Monday morning, we really didn't want to leave that beautiful sight, but knew we had to because we had a paid in advance two week stay in West Yellowstone beginning that day. So we pulled in the slides and put the jack system in store mode and I began taking the jack pads and wood from under the front jacks and stored them. Until now, I had always gone to the rear of the coach to make sure the driver's jack wasn't coming up and then would flip the valve on the solenoid to get it to rise. But on this morning, the jack was returning on its own, just as fast as the others, and this was a cold morning when jacks have to be given more time to retract. I was shocked to see that jack completely retract and the front jacks took longer. All of a sudden, I didn't have a solenoid problem anymore. A couple of days before, that jack wouldn't deploy so I looked at the solenoid to make sure I had flipped the valve back closed and noticed the electrical connector had come loose from its mate. I plugged it back in, ensuring it was locked in place and the jack then deployed. Now, I wonder if there is a chance the connector was only partially connected and this may have caused the jack's inability to retract on its own. For now, it appears to be working well and I have written to HWH to let them know, and I will cancel the appointment I made with an RV dealer in Kalispell, MT two weeks away. I have kept an eye on that jack and have found it also no longer appears to be leaking and retracting slightly on its own as it was doing a couple of weeks ago.
We drove to W. Yellowstone without problem, enjoying the views of the Tetons one last time. My Garmin wanted me to drop south to Jackson and take US 22 into Idaho to reach our destination but I chose to ignore it and take the Rockefeller Memorial Parkway instead so we could see the sights of both national parks on our drive. It may have taken an extra few minutes and cost me some mileage climbing mountains, but it was worth it.
Our park in W. Yellowstone is what I call a city RV park. Buffalo Crossing RV Park is the only park I found in my research for this trip that didn't raise their prices when Fishing Bridge closed for the entire season. I wanted to stay at Grizzly since it had been reviewed and rated very highly, but they raised their rates $25 per night from last year. I have no interest in paying $89 per night and not receive any kind of discount, either for weekly, monthly or GS, veteran, etc. With Montana taxes and service fees, this would have cost us close to $100 per night. Buffalo Crossing cost $65 per night and gives a GS discount of 10%, enough to cover the taxes and fees with a little left over. It is gravel from the time you enter the park, but well taken care of with new gravel and chat laid down apparently each season. The site we have is perfectly flat with no need for deploying the jacks other than for stability. It has good electric, water at 52 psi, easy dump connection and a wooden slat porch right out your steps with a nice picnic table on it. There is no cable but it has the strongest wi-fi I have seen in an RV park, good enough to stream at a steady 5+MB. It has no fire pit due to city ordinances disallowing any fires. It has a dog walk, partially grass and the rest being gravel, but dogs cannot be left off leash. Just like Gros Ventre, there are strict rules about food and grills because the park is only one block away from the national park and bears routinely walk through looking for food. The office manager who checked me in told me that just a week ago, he watched a mother bear and her cub walk right through the RV park, cross the street and walk toward the local McDonald's before he lost sight of her. I asked if she walked through the drive up and ordered a happy meal for her little one.
We took it easy yesterday and today, did our weekly housecleaning after having our doggie day spa. I brush Toby, our rough Collie every other day which means that Cameron, the smooth Collie also must be brushed because he is the alpha dog of the house and loves to be brushed. But once a week, we clip their nails and give them (read Toby) a thorough brushing trying to remove as much loose undercoat as possible before vacuuming the carpet. Afterward, we walked the dogs in town to give them new smells to catalog and so we could see what shops we wanted to visit later without them. I have a strained back/rib muscle so walking is about as physical as I'm getting for the moment. I'm trying to lose 20 lbs. during this 3 month trip to make my doctor happy and have cut down portion size considerably. But I still need exercise and have not been getting much.
Tomorrow, we will begin driving in the park and seeing the sights. We have decided to leave the dogs in the coach for nearly every journey after watching Cameron stress out in the Badlands. We think they will be happier in the coach, even for extended periods of time. We will make sure we're not gone longer than six to eight hours each day.
The weather thus far has been drastically cooler than I expected. I know from my research that it can get cold any month of the year this far north and it can snow any month in Glacier NP, but I didn't expect the cold temps further south that we have seen so far. Low 30's at night in the Tetons with highs in the low 50's. Today, it got warm enough to wear only a light jacket and it's supposed to continue the warming trend for the entire week. This Florida boy has had enough of this weather and has been reminded of why I moved to SW Florida. And I'm not finished heading north yet!
We drove from Cody to Dubois so we could be closer to Gros Ventre. I had picked an RV park when planning this trip but didn't make a reservation, not wanting to tie ourselves down to another day without fail. Before we left Absaroka Bay, I called the Longhorn Hotel and RV Park to make sure we could get a spot. There was no problem, although during the time we were there, the park appeared to be close to full.
The Longhorn was a little more expensive than I like but when we got there, we understood why. For a pull thru standard size site, they charge $59 per night and accept Good Sam, so the price for us was $53.10 plus tax, which in Wyoming is only 4% with no other hotel taxes, service fees or any other of what I refer to as prostitution taxes (for obvious reasons.)
We planned on staying at the Longhorn for one night and then head out to Gros Ventre for four nights, originally five before we decided to stay in Cody for an extra night. But for the reason I chose not to make solid reservations for any of these parks being having the freedom to go where we wanted and stay for as long as we wanted, we once again changed our plans once we saw the park.
The Longhorn is the best park we have stayed in thus far on this trip, and one of the best parks we have ever stayed in. Hence, the justification for the higher price. This is an old cattle farm that was converted to a hotel and RV park and it has an old West feel in the air. The park has plenty of very large trees which has pros and cons; shade as a pro but poor satellite reception as a con. But the trees add to the beauty of this park. No cable and poor wi-fi are detrimental to any rating to be given, but water pressure was very good at 60 psi and the dump was an easy connect. The electric apparently had issues because each night we were there, the new Progressive surge protector I had purchased for this trip cut the service, reinstating it 2:16 later as dictated in the owner's manual. The first night it happened, we didn't know what went wrong and wondered if the entire park was down, but a couple of minutes later, the power returned. That made me think it may have been the surge protector doing its job. Sure enough, the next night when it happened, I told Judy not to worry because I had a feeling the power would return in just a couple of minutes. I walked out to the power pedestal and looked at the readout and found the voltage had dropped below 104 volts, making the EMS unit stop the power until the voltage rose to an acceptable level, which in this case was instantaneous, but the protector always takes 2:16 to reset. I am now a strong proponent of this sort of protection. Prior, I wanted one but didn't want to spend the money for a good one. But while planning out this trip and realizing just how many different RV parks we would visit, making the chances of getting poor service go up considerably, I decided to buy one through Amazon a week before we left and am very glad I did.
The site was reasonably level, gravel, well packed, with room behind or in front for our SUV. I think these sites were all designed to hold 45' RV's along with a car or truck. On our way to the site, we drove past their dog run. We were surprised and very glad to have this since we thought we wouldn't see one until we got to St. Louis in August and the poor dogs weren't going to have any opportunity to burn off the energy they were building up and storing. Any dog owner knows what can happen when this occurs. Especially with smart herding breeds, dogs will get so bored if given nothing to do to burn off their energy, they'll find something to do on their own, and it will usually be something you won't be happy about.
We didn't unhitch, thinking we were only going to stay one night. As soon as we got connected and leveled with the slides out, we took the dogs down to the dog run. This run is probably about a half acre with a giant tree in the middle, giving male dogs a way to talk to each other, and plenty of room to run and chase balls or frisbees. When I looked out across the lake they have between the dog run and the horse corral and stable, I saw what I considered to be one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen in my life with rolling hills past the horse area and snow capped mountains behind the hills. I asked Judy if she would like to stay another day there. It took her no time to respond in the affirmative, so I walked back to the office and told the nice lady who had checked me in that our dogs had told us they wanted to stay another night. Between the views and the dog run, we were sold. All the workers there were very personable and helpful. We really enjoyed our stay.
While there, we did some driving tours of the area, taking in the scenery and snapping a lot of photos. We drove all the way up the Union Pass and back down, and checked out the petroglyphs south of the RV park. We would have stayed another day but we had already cut our stay at Grand Tetons from five days to three, and I was told we would need at least three days, if not five, to see the Tetons. So on Friday, we packed up and headed for Gros Ventre.
The drive to the Grand Tetons was sometimes difficult with 6% grades, taking our speed down to the 20's on occasion and forcing me to smell for burning brakes on the way back down, even with using the grade brake and the stabbing method of braking. But when we got over the initial mountains, we were stunned by what was in front of us. The Grand Tetons is without a doubt the most stunning eye candy I have ever seen, and what one always pictures in their mind of what the Rocky Mountains are supposed to look like. I have been told and have read that the Tetons are the most beautiful mountains in the United States, only surpassed by the Canadian Rockies for this continent. I tend to agree with my limited experience. I told Judy I was afraid these views were going to spoil us for the rest of our vacation and with the exception of the Icefield Parkway, we probably wouldn't see anything this beautiful again. I didn't realize there are still glaciers in the Tetons. albeit small ones due to climate change. But I thought I would have to wait until we got to Glacier NP before being able to see one. Needless to say more, we were most impressed with the scenery while in this park.
Gros Ventre is a nice, cozy park that has either electric hookups only or no hookups at all. We got there early enough, thanks to Jackie Mac on this forum, to be one of the first to ask for electric and were at our site by 10:30. The site was asphalt, new and smooth, but not level at all. We had to put two 2X12's under each front jack along with the jack pads to get the front end raised high enough to be able to turn on our refrigerator. The front tires were off the ground a couple of inches, something I don't really like seeing, but the jack solenoids on the front jacks were strong. The park is very nice, cut right into the woods and with strict rules about bear proofing any food or cooking utensils outside the RV. It is mandatory to put your grill back inside your RV once it has cooled down because this is in bear territory, along with moose, wolves, coyotes and other animals always looking for an easy meal. There were clean rest rooms and showers within close walking distance, although we had no need for either. The park rangers with whom I dealt were very friendly and helpful and there is a dump as you leave if needed.
While we were there, we drove to Jackson a couple of times to look around and dine. We tried Pinky G's pizza and found it to be good but not great and slightly overpriced. But what do you expect in a tourist trap town? When that is taken into consideration, the price wasn't that bad. One day, we decided to stop at the Dairy Queen while beginning to head out of town on the way back to the campground and realized it was a mistake because there was a tour bus full of Japanese tourists that had stopped for lunch taking up every single table in the restaurant. Apparently, the manager made the decision to make up multiples of their most popular sandwiches to avoid taking too much time. We both got our meals too quickly to have been made fresh, and that was borne out with the first bite of each of our meals.
We tried to cover most of the major roads in and out of the park so we could see whatever there was to see. We did not have the luck to see any moose or elk, but did see pronghorns and longhorn sheep along with several deer on the side of road, mostly standing up. We drove up Summit Drive and saw an outstanding panorama of both the mountains as well as the valley known as Jackson Hole. We were able to get photos that I think will be good enough to blow up into wall hangings when we get home, one of the major goals of this trip. Jenny Lake was beautiful, as well as Jackson Lake, and we drove some back roads that allowed us to see things normally not on most tourists' to do lists.
On Monday morning, we really didn't want to leave that beautiful sight, but knew we had to because we had a paid in advance two week stay in West Yellowstone beginning that day. So we pulled in the slides and put the jack system in store mode and I began taking the jack pads and wood from under the front jacks and stored them. Until now, I had always gone to the rear of the coach to make sure the driver's jack wasn't coming up and then would flip the valve on the solenoid to get it to rise. But on this morning, the jack was returning on its own, just as fast as the others, and this was a cold morning when jacks have to be given more time to retract. I was shocked to see that jack completely retract and the front jacks took longer. All of a sudden, I didn't have a solenoid problem anymore. A couple of days before, that jack wouldn't deploy so I looked at the solenoid to make sure I had flipped the valve back closed and noticed the electrical connector had come loose from its mate. I plugged it back in, ensuring it was locked in place and the jack then deployed. Now, I wonder if there is a chance the connector was only partially connected and this may have caused the jack's inability to retract on its own. For now, it appears to be working well and I have written to HWH to let them know, and I will cancel the appointment I made with an RV dealer in Kalispell, MT two weeks away. I have kept an eye on that jack and have found it also no longer appears to be leaking and retracting slightly on its own as it was doing a couple of weeks ago.
We drove to W. Yellowstone without problem, enjoying the views of the Tetons one last time. My Garmin wanted me to drop south to Jackson and take US 22 into Idaho to reach our destination but I chose to ignore it and take the Rockefeller Memorial Parkway instead so we could see the sights of both national parks on our drive. It may have taken an extra few minutes and cost me some mileage climbing mountains, but it was worth it.
Our park in W. Yellowstone is what I call a city RV park. Buffalo Crossing RV Park is the only park I found in my research for this trip that didn't raise their prices when Fishing Bridge closed for the entire season. I wanted to stay at Grizzly since it had been reviewed and rated very highly, but they raised their rates $25 per night from last year. I have no interest in paying $89 per night and not receive any kind of discount, either for weekly, monthly or GS, veteran, etc. With Montana taxes and service fees, this would have cost us close to $100 per night. Buffalo Crossing cost $65 per night and gives a GS discount of 10%, enough to cover the taxes and fees with a little left over. It is gravel from the time you enter the park, but well taken care of with new gravel and chat laid down apparently each season. The site we have is perfectly flat with no need for deploying the jacks other than for stability. It has good electric, water at 52 psi, easy dump connection and a wooden slat porch right out your steps with a nice picnic table on it. There is no cable but it has the strongest wi-fi I have seen in an RV park, good enough to stream at a steady 5+MB. It has no fire pit due to city ordinances disallowing any fires. It has a dog walk, partially grass and the rest being gravel, but dogs cannot be left off leash. Just like Gros Ventre, there are strict rules about food and grills because the park is only one block away from the national park and bears routinely walk through looking for food. The office manager who checked me in told me that just a week ago, he watched a mother bear and her cub walk right through the RV park, cross the street and walk toward the local McDonald's before he lost sight of her. I asked if she walked through the drive up and ordered a happy meal for her little one.
We took it easy yesterday and today, did our weekly housecleaning after having our doggie day spa. I brush Toby, our rough Collie every other day which means that Cameron, the smooth Collie also must be brushed because he is the alpha dog of the house and loves to be brushed. But once a week, we clip their nails and give them (read Toby) a thorough brushing trying to remove as much loose undercoat as possible before vacuuming the carpet. Afterward, we walked the dogs in town to give them new smells to catalog and so we could see what shops we wanted to visit later without them. I have a strained back/rib muscle so walking is about as physical as I'm getting for the moment. I'm trying to lose 20 lbs. during this 3 month trip to make my doctor happy and have cut down portion size considerably. But I still need exercise and have not been getting much.
Tomorrow, we will begin driving in the park and seeing the sights. We have decided to leave the dogs in the coach for nearly every journey after watching Cameron stress out in the Badlands. We think they will be happier in the coach, even for extended periods of time. We will make sure we're not gone longer than six to eight hours each day.
The weather thus far has been drastically cooler than I expected. I know from my research that it can get cold any month of the year this far north and it can snow any month in Glacier NP, but I didn't expect the cold temps further south that we have seen so far. Low 30's at night in the Tetons with highs in the low 50's. Today, it got warm enough to wear only a light jacket and it's supposed to continue the warming trend for the entire week. This Florida boy has had enough of this weather and has been reminded of why I moved to SW Florida. And I'm not finished heading north yet!
Keep up the blogging 
