We arrived in Jackson Wyoming late Friday night on Aug 21. It was 11:30 pm. Waaaay past my bedtime! We had planned on spending the night at a rest area about 4 hours away from Jackson then arrive in Jackson on Saturday morning. But when we arrived at the rest area and parked in just the perfect spot we saw the sign. And the sign said overnight RV parking is not allowed! What?! Well we had no plan “B” so we just drove on into Jackson and hoped to find a place to park for the night. We ended up in the center of town in a parking lot that said, “Free Parking” in huge, reflective letters. There were large RV slots and one RV’er already asleep.. BAM! Hit the brakes. Pop out the bedroom slide, start snoring. I was exhausted.
It wasn’t until morning that we realized the sign also said, “No overnight parking”, oops (in smaller, not so reflective letters!). Fortunately a friendly fellow RV’er who showed up early the next morning came by and said, “Hey, you weren’t supposed to park there overnight. Didn’t you read the signs? How could you miss those signs? Those are huge signs. You’re lucky the police didn’t haul you off”!
Oh… OK, Thank you…
Later that day, friends from church flew in to Jackson to start their week long vacation in Yellowstone/Tetons. We met them for dinner, then drove on into Yellowstone to our campground at Fishing Bridge. Who knew it was such a long drive to Yellowstone from Jackson WY? About 3 hours to our RV park!
Fishing Bridge was our base of operations for our entire 9 day stay in Yellowstone. Wow, 9 days and it still wasn’t enough time to see it all.
The excitement and intrigue started right away as we entered the Fishing Bridge RV campground. Right at the main office are some ancient forms of communication apparently used by early settlers. They’re not even roped off. You can walk up to them and touch them (There was also a sign about rare, communicable diseases that may be present – wash after handling). What are these things? No one else seemed too interested. I never saw one other person go over to visit this exhibit the entire time we were there.
Once situated in our campsite (uh, parking lot, tight, barely room to breathe, RV slot), we headed out to enjoy the wonders of the park.
Note: I will admit, of all the “Don’t” signs in the park, this one was the most repugnant to my tender sensibilities. Must they use a silhouette of a DJI Phantom Vision Quadcopter in their posting? Why not a Parrot or a 3D Robotics drone? Why are they picking on us DJI flyers? But I digress…
We saw boiling mud pots. I think this one was the Dragon’s Mouth (or breath).
And then there was this one called something else.
There were buffalo roaming like they owned the place
The typical Yellowstone traffic jams.
We keep the dog in the Jeep with us for times like this when we might need protection from a wild animal! “No. It’s not an emergency, don’t get up”!
Geysers spewing all over the place.
And who knew there was a Grand Canyon of Yellowstone? I didn’t know that. Another fantastic sight to see.
If you time it just right and get to these sights between tourist bus dropoffs the crowds aren’t too bad. That tourist bus crowd can be a rough bunch. Don’t get in their way while they are enjoying the wonders of nature! They usually only have about 10 minutes to take in the glory and majesty of the scenery around them AND stand in line at the parking lot restrooms before the bus driver starts closing that bus door. I don’t know how many times I heard a tap on the door and, “You gonna be in there long buddy? My bus is leaving”!
But the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was great.
I like this Google auto-enhancment of one of my pics.
Here’s a non-enhanced version of the canyon.
And of course we had to pop over to Yellowstone Lodge and watch Old Faithful spout off.
“And now, here’s Eric descending the runway stairs modeling one of the latest designs in Yellowstone T-shirt apparel. He’s still wearing those highly fashionable cargo shorts he’s worn for 3 months now. Hey Eric! It may be time to throw those shorts in a dryer to freshen them up”
Here’s another, typically dazzling waterfall we saw somewhere in the park..
More boiling pots, hot springs and geysers everywhere.
The fun just never ends in Yellowstone National Park!
My sister and brother in law travel around in an RV and usually get free overnight in Walmart Parking Lots.
Yep. We’ve stayed in many..
Apparently these Buffalo didn’t get the word from their Buffalo friends that for a good ole Buffalo laugh, Just snort and then run straight toward Eric and he will stop the camera and hide under the Jeep dash.
Funny boy! You should be on radio so I could turn you off!