May 30 & 31-Signal Mountain Campground

30th: It was chilly last night so we did use our heater this morning for about five minutes before we got out of bed. It was 60 in the trailer, but it seemed colder. My phone says the low last night was 38* and the high today will be 73* at any rate we are quite comfortable. Today we explored just a little bit of the campground and rested the remainder of the time. My neck is still a little sore and the dull headache continues so resting seemed prudent. 

31st: It was a little bit warmer last night and we didn’t use the heater this morning. After breakfast and coffee we walked down to and along the shore of the lake, what majestic views! We hoped to see some sort of wildlife but that was not the case. The shore is pebbles or “river rock” but there is sand too. Tony had a lot of fun getting his legs and belly wet. After walking back John brushed him down while I cooked lunch. We started up the generator so I could use that to fix the little Turkey Meatloaf from Trader Joe’s I had in the freezer. That with spinach and red peppers was our lunch. We finished the rest of the bottle of wine we bought a couple days ago. After relaxing we headed to Colter Village to look around. It’s just 15-20 minutes north of where we are staying now. There a lot there: A Visitor’s Center, a pretty nice (though expensive) grocery store, Laundromat, showers that cost a flat rate of $4.50 each. We heard some thunder in the distance when we arrived. The Visitor’s Center is not huge but they do have several movies going all day long. We watched the one on Yellowstone on Fire. This was a huge fire in 1988 that burned all summer long and really wasn’t out until the rain and snow came. Very tragic for people for for the environment in the park it boosted the eco system and even benefits the animals. After watching the movie and walking through the center we headed out. By now it had just begun to rain, wait not rain but now hail!!! We made it to the van before the worst of it came down. We sat and watched as cherry sized hail hit the ground and bounced! The storm didn’t last long and we drove the short distance back to take a look at the store and the shower facilities, then headed back toward camp. I am disappointed we are not seeing wildlife. There are constant warnings about bears and areas are even closed off due to bear activity, but we have seen nothing but various birds and squirrels. Those are great to see of course but hoped to see a moose or elk by now. Our campsite was totally dry so just a few miles away makes the difference in a hail storm like that! Playing cards rounded out our day, then a slight sprinkle after dark when we were in bed.

Walking by Jackson Lake

Colter Bay Visitor Center Views

Colter Bay Hail Storm

~~Bears~~

 

May 29-Signal Mountain Campground Grand Teton

Today we moved from Gros Ventre to Signal Mountain Campground. It wasn’t a very long drive, maybe 25+ miles. It certainly is a scenic drive and we saw several places we will drive back to from our campsite to explore. I am sore today and still have a slight headache so the plan is just to move and then relax the rest of the day. We didn’t end up getting any groceries last night and it is likely we will head back into Jackson one day to do that before heading on to Yellowstone. We really like this campground. It is by Jackson Lake and has a variety of beautiful pine and fir trees. You can still find a few patches of snow on the ground though it was over 70 degrees today. I guess these places in the shade have just not warmed up enough to melt. There are different areas in this campground with many options. You can rent the one and only full hookup site for $55. per night. There are several campsites that offer electricity only for $45. per night. The rest are standard campsites at $22. per night. Some are tent only campsites and there is an area where no generators are allowed. Holding a valid Senior Access Card (formerly Golden Age Passport) any campsite is half price. We have a standard campsite as we have a generator to replenish our power and we are fully contained. After setting up camp we went to the Signal Mountain Lodge for lunch. I had fish and chips, John had a burger, which we each split so we could enjoy both. Actually John had order envy when he saw my fish and chips! Both were delicious and we splurged for a bottle of wine to go with it. We could take our unused portion with us so we will have that with dinner tomorrow. What a lovely lunch gazing out over the beautiful, calm lake with the snow patched Tetons in the background. We relaxed the rest of the day, I even fell asleep, which is unusual for me but I am a bit under the weather from the fall. (found Wi-Fi for posting blog at the Signal Mountain Lodge)

Lunch at Signal Mountain Lodge

Our Lunchtime View, Jackson Lake & Tetons

May 28-Gros Ventre Campground, Grand Teton, WY

Today we decided to spend the day in the city of Jackson, about 10 miles back on the road we came in on. After doing what was necessary around camp we headed out. Our first stop was the National Wildlife Art Museum. We didn’t go inside but walked on the sculpture trail. Next stop was the Jackson Visitor’s Center where they have some nice displays and a variety of maps and information for free. Part of the city is more modern and although we checked that out, we were more interested in the part that was older. There is a City Square that has a nice little park and at each corner there are arches fashioned from elk antlers. The boy scout collect these every year and sell them at auction. Elk shed their horns every year in case you were wondering. There are lovely hanging baskets of flowers, mostly petunias. We walked all over the town window shopping and I went in a few stores. Every store I went into had at least one stuffed bear or moose, some had several! We had an iced coffee at a sidewalk café and really enjoyed that. We decided maybe we would ride the little stagecoach they have so we went back to the City Center. There was a sign posted that they would be back so we looked for a shady place to stand. Then the unexpected happened when I leaned back on a log railing, it fell and consequently I did too. I landed flat on my back and my head instantly followed slamming into the ground. It happened so fast John and Tony were both looking down at me in amazement. I stayed right where I was for a minute to see if anything hurt but I felt okay other than a “shaken brain.” A man and woman came to see if I was okay and helped me up. I was okay but then we opted to sit on the benches to wait for the stagecoach. No more leaning on railings for me!!! As we sat there a little boy all alone came wandering along almost in tears. Yes, he was lost. I had him come and sit with me and John went to a nearby shop and asked them to call the police. He was just a little wisp of a boy with blonde hair fluttering in the breeze. He lost his babysitter in a store. After the police arrived we trusted he would be taken care of and decided just to head toward our dinner engagement and skip the stagecoach. Tonight we had a nice dinner and show at the Bar J Chuckwagon as recommended by friend Jeff Whitehead. Thanks Jeff! They have some sculptures on the grounds, even an authentic replica of a Shoshone Teepee so it was interesting to walk around after arrival and before the dinner. The food was authentic and the show was really great. People apparently come from miles around to eat here and watch the show, I can see why.

Antler Arches

 

Jackson Stagecoach 

Bar J Chuckwagon

Bar J Bunch

 

May 27-Gros Ventre Campground, Grand Teton, WY

Not long after leaving Wells, NV we saw a small herd of deer by the side of the road. At least I think they were deer, they were lighter in color than the deer we normally see in CA so I’m not sure. They were almost blonde, maybe 12-14 of them. No photo as there was no place to pull over and snap a shot. We made good time today and decided to drive all the way to Jackson, WY (Jackson Hole). We will spend two nights here. Tomorrow we will peruse the town of Jackson and then attend a dinner and show at the Bar J Chuckwagon. Our day did end up being uneventful though we had a little scare when our brakes started smoking coming down a pretty steep 10% grade over the Teton Pass. We did fine going up and would have been fine going down the other side but we got behind a large truck going about 10 MPH and low gear would not hold us back enough so I had to really ride the brakes. We decided to pull over and let them cool off and we were fine when we started out again, no further smoking. It wasn’t too far past Jackson that we found our camping spot. Not every loop here is open but most are and there are many, many open sites. Where we are camped it is very close to the Gros Ventre River and the terrain is mostly sagebrush and other low lying plants with lots of Cottonwood trees for shade. On the way here we saw 4 adult bison, which was a nice surprise. They say there are many bear right now and that moose have also been seen in the campground. It is surprising that we have no “bear safe” food locker but we keep all our food in the trailer anyway so it doesn’t matter to us. So today we started out in Nevada, spent most of the day driving through Idaho, and we are sleeping in Wyoming! We traveled on Hwy 93 almost to Twin Falls, then Hwy 84, to Hwy 86, to Hwy 15 to Idaho Falls, then a few turns here and there and we were on Hwy 26, Hwy 31, Hwy 33 that turned into Hwy  22 in Wyoming and over Teton Pass. Scenic views and a short cut I guess!

Teton Pass

Bison

Setting up camp under the Cottonwoods, Gros Ventre Campground

Tony is tired tonight, all that driving.  LOL

 

May 26-Wells, NV

Here we are in beautiful Wells, NV. Just kidding of course, there really isn’t much here but we are spending the night at the Flying J Truck Stop for free. Our view is a distant mountain that has snow but the close up view is sage brush and tumble weeds. We could choose to stay in a small RV park nearby for $28+ but we are fine here as all we want to do is stay over night. The driving today was uneventful, the best sort of driving day. As we left Donner we noticed there is a Visitor’s Center now, in addition to the museum. It is closed for cleaning but looked pretty modern. We aren’t sure if it was there when we stayed in Oct. 2013 due to the snow. There were three deer by Hwy 80, one still in velvet. I hope they scamper back into the woods, they won’t last long there. Anglers were all along the Truckee River, made me think of Jeff’s love of fishing and how I myself caught trout in the river long ago. We ate at a Rest Stop about 40 miles south of Elko. The salmon we got pre-grilled at Safeway yesterday was very good. It’s early but saying goodnight from Wells, NV before we run low on power.

May 25, 2014–Donner Lake

We left Janice’s house at 8:15am and headed out with the destination in our minds of Winnemucca, NV or beyond if we felt like driving farther. We got to Donner Summit and began to admire the lake and how nice it would be to spend the night there. I was pretty sure there would be no campsites available on this Memorial Day weekend but John figured we would just take a look anyway. To our surprise there were openings in first come, first served Creek Campground. This is where we stayed in the snow last October! Ridge is full as they take reservations and Split Rock is not open yet. We were told to take any empty site so we chose the exact same campsite we had last October…funny. After unhooking we took a drive around the State Park side of the lake. What amazing improvements have been made. There is the boat rental area, which was there before, which I don’t really care for. All along the lakeside they have made a gray, paved walking path with a log boarder. It’s not wide but very nice. They have added a few restrooms and many picnic tables, fire pits, and barbeques from the lagoon area all along the lake to the China Cove area. It is a great improvement to the day use area and makes lakeside access so much more convenient. The tables and such are well spaced to maintain some privacy. I might add the paved walking path appears to go from the campgrounds to the lake and also to the Visitor’s Center. After taking a look there we drove into Truckee and Old Town to see what changes we could find there. The big Safeway on the East side of Hwy 80 is now a Save Mart and there is a new and even larger Safeway on the West side of Hwy 80. The town has built up some and looks like most “old towns” with the older store fronts and quaint shops and eateries. We stopped at Safeway and bought deli things for a couple meals and headed back to camp for our lunch. After lunch we did a lot of walking all around the different campground areas. I think there are more campgrounds than there used to be but I am not sure. They have certainly updated the restroom facilities, including the showers, laundry wash tubs, and little foot washing spigots in the larger restrooms. It’s .50 for a 5 minute shower, which is a good deal! We played cards when we were tired of walking and then had a salad for dinner. It is cooling off fast once the sun started to dip down behind the trees.

Our Campsite #52

Old Town Truckee

The Eash Factor

We call it the Eash Factor. This time as we pulled out for the beginning of our travels we noticed the speedometer was not working. It’s always good to know your speed, especially in CA where you are not to exceed 55 MPH when pulling a trailer. Plus there is the minor details that it is illegal to drive without it working. This has happened before on this older van. We swung by our mechanic who could not recall what he did to fix it before, he had called Chrysler to get the instructions so he suggested we just zip by there on our way out of town. That worked after a fashion. Two nice mechanics were able to push the right buttons as the right time and zap, it recalibrated – no charge. While there we were drooling over a very nice Jeep Cherokee. They even offered to help us move all our camping gear from our van to the new vehicle. Sure would have been nice but the reality is we want to finish out this season in the van. We just had a once-over on it and had the bearings replaced. Anyway, just an hour or so after our first departure we were on the road again!

We made it to my sister’s house in Folsom just in time to head out to the Happy Hour at Ruth Chris with her. We ended up just a little bit late for opening and had to wait for a seat but that was fine, enjoyed that immensely. I had these grilled mushrooms, teriyaki skewers, and a little salad smothered in bleu cheese…YUM! Nice to visit with her and spend the night on the way toward our next destination. We will spend Saturday visiting with her and then head out Sunday morning planning Winnemucca as our first stop.

Leaving Tomorrow…

Several little changes in our plans but we are still leaving tomorrow and will head to Janice’s house overnight for at least one night, if not two. From there it will be the Grand Teton’s followed by Yellowstone. Our timing is good and we are eager to leave since the report is a wave of hot weather is heading to the Central Valley.  This is no surprise! 

Yellowstone

Three weeks from today we will leave for Yellowstone. We will stop at Janice’s on the way out of CA, then stop to see Tara and Joseph in Idaho, then heading on to Yellowstone from there arriving June 5th. We will spend four nights in Madison Campground to begin with. We have reservations at Fishing Bridge and Canyon as well for a total of ten days in the park. We are pretty sure we will head east from there and go through North Dakota on our way to Michigan. We will enjoy Yellowstone and feel excited to complete our total of 50 states as we pick up ND and MI. John likes the idea but it has been a dream of mine for some time. 

Yellowstone Nat’l Park