Yellowstone National Park

Old Faithful

We were able to secure a campsite in Yellowstone itself, which was sweet because Yellowstone is a big park. We would have lots of driving, as it is, but it would have been even more if we were staying outside the park. We had a site at Bridge Bay, close to Fishing Bridge.  The good thing about our site?? It was not only in the park, but pretty centrally located, as well.  The not so great things??  Well, no hookups, tight, tight sites for big rigs, and generator restrictions.  You’re allowed to run your generator between 8 am & 8 pm.  Coincidentally, those are also the hours that you’re typically nowhere near your rig because you’re out sightseeing.  Yes, due to buffalo jams and a long day trip to the Tetons, we completely missed running our generator two evenings=some really cold nights where we either had no heat at all or heat only the first part of the night.  Alas, it just added to the adventure of it all, and it certainly reminded me that I was ever so grateful we weren’t camping in a tent!

We entered the park through the east entrance and wound our way to our campsite at Bridge Bay.  Even though the mileage is not necessarily big from one place to the next, the traffic, animals, and speed limits make it pretty slow-going.  Interestingly enough, at the entrance to the park, there was a sign posted saying that all lodging within the park was at full capacity.  However, upon arriving at the campground, it was obvious that the loop next to us was completely vacant & apparently closed, and within the other loops, there were plenty of vacant spots. And when Steve had booked our reservation, he was told that he had secured the last available spot.  What in the world??!?  

Notice the fires burning across Yellowstone Lake.
 These would intensify as our time here went on.

We stayed super busy here!  Day one was spent getting set up, visiting the Fishing Bridge visitor center & obtaining Junior Ranger books.  We talked to an awesome husband and wife ranger team who gave us lots of good info.  Afterwards,we went on the Pelican Creek Nature Trail.  It was a nice, easy little hike with lots of wildflowers and a pretty little beach area with lots of animal tracks.   

Day two we spent going around the south side of the loop to Old Faithful.  Not only did we see Old Faithful erupt & predict its next eruption, we spent most of the afternoon walking the boardwalk through a plethora of geysers, springs, and pools.  We were able to see the Beehive erupt, which is not a commonplace thing to see as its eruption intervals are less frequent & predictable!  We also witnessed the Anemone erupt right next to the boardwalk; Alyssa even got splashed by it & verified that it is indeed super hot!  Having never seen anything like this in real life before, it was super cool.   We also saw the awesome Grand Prismatic Spring, then stopped by the Fountain Paint Pots and got drenched in a sudden cold rain.

Beehive geyser.  This one erupts every 13 hrs.  It is much more spectacular than old faithful.

 

On day three we drove up to Mammoth Hot Springs.  By this time, we were starting to get a bit of an overload of sulphur smell.  The Canary Hot Springs were beautiful though!   We drove home through part of the loop that runs along the top of the park and stopped at the petrified tree and Tower falls. We got home really late due to a buffalo jam between Canyon and Fishing Bridge.  The buffalo were crossing from one side of the road to the other, with no regard for all the vehicles on the road whatsoever!   

No lack of Buffalo

 We decided to spend day four a little differently.  We had a slow start in the morning and ran our generator for a long time before leaving to explore Canyon Village.  On the way, we stopped at the Mud Volcano and Dragon Mouth Hot Springs. This is so close to Sulphur Caldron, which is sooo incredibly smelly that you smell it every time you simply drive by it.  The pH of Sulphur Caldron is close to that of battery acid & it smells so bad, that we didn’t even bother stopping to see it!

We continued on to Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River.  Soooooo beautiful! We hiked the 328 steps down to see it and back.  Since we had sleeping kids, we took turns.  Alyssa did this hike twice, once with Steve & once with me!  Amazing!

We drove to the Brink of Lower Falls & discovered it was another big hike down.  Again, we took turns, and this time, Shanan did the hike twice.  Genna was bummed about not going, but Steve knew he’d have to carry her & wasn’t thrilled about that option, and so we took turns staying back with the little ones.  Again, another spectacular view!  The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone was beautiful!  We’d definitely come visit this part of the park again.   It is by far our favorite section of Yellowstone!

In an attempt to see more wildlife, we decided to drive up to the Lamar Valley for the evening.  It seems that the wildlife hears the Zavocki’s are coming and find places to hide!  It was pretty, for sure, but it was also freezing cold!  Silly Steve had worn shorts, and we had no blankets in the truck, so we hastily ate our picnic dinner while gazing at the multitudes of buffalo in the distance, dashed back to the truck, and began a long journey back to the RV.  Thankfully we made it home without another buffalo jam.

Mesa Falls

Upper Mesa Falls

Steve decided we would drive to see Upper Mesa Falls on our way to our place for the night just 14 miles from the entrance to West Yellowstone.  Though the Falls were indeed pretty, the crowds weren’t.  There were so many people set up with tripods at each of the lookouts that it was difficult to enjoy.  Oh well…

And now, here we are, at Valley View RV Park with full hook ups & wifi, trying to catch up on anything that needs to be caught up on before we head to Yellowstone tomorrow.  Steve is washing the truck, I’m catching up on blogging, and the kids are just enjoying some downtime after the last string of busy days and one-nighters.   

Looking over the edge

Great view of the edge

Idaho Falls

Because we arrived at Craters of the Moon early & were able to stay there instead of Arco, we were able to see all we wanted to with a just a one-nighter.  And so, off to Idaho Falls we traipsed.  We determined that Steve’s first choice for camping was not a good choice after all.  Pretty much a dive.  We ended up at Snake River RV Resort.  Kinda pricey, but we did enjoy our time here.  Great playground, fabulous pool & hot tub (man were the kids bummed they couldn't go in the hot tub!), and great showers!  Jake was able to crawl around in the grass, too.  After having to keep him off the ground at Craters of the Moon, I was happy about him being able to go exploring!

Steve noticed that the Bodies exhibit that has been travelling around was in Idaho Falls at the Museum of Idaho for its last weekend during our time here.  We'd wanted to go when it was in Dallas, but it was pretty pricey, especially for the whole family to go!  It was only $10/person or $30/family here, definitely cheaper than Dallas.  I think we all learned a lot, though it was crazy busy since it was on its last weekend.   The museum had an awesome kids’ room, too!  They all could have stayed & played forever, it seemed!  

EBR-1

On the way to Idaho Falls, we stopped at EBR-I, the world's first nuclear power plant.  We were all so tired, and the two little kids were fast asleep, so it was oh-so-tempting to just drive right on by.  Nonetheless, it was highly recommended by several people, and we made the stop.  It really was worthwhile!   We learned a lot about atoms, neutrons, protons, electrons, and fission.  I was impressed with how well the displays were worded.  When we walked in, the kids knew absolutely nothing about nuclear power, and when we left, they had a basic understanding of it.  Definitely more than I knew at their ages!      

The kids loved the hands-on exhibits

These four string lights were the first items ever powered by nuclear power (not the same bulbs from 1951, obviously).  The next day, the plant operated exclusively on nuclear power...impressive!

Control Room

Right above the reactor (you can go inside & we did)

Craters of the Moon

We left Three Island and were planning to stay in Arco for two nights and day trip to Craters of the Moon.  The info on Craters of the Moon indicated that it couldn’t accommodate a rig as big as ours, but it seemed a bit of a bummer because our campsite would be about 18 miles from Craters of the Moon.  We decided to stop anyway with the rig & see what we could see before heading to Arco.  So glad we did!  It turns out we were able to stay here after all!  This was our first experience with dry camping, and we weren’t exactly prepared for it; we had no water in our tanks & no way to get water in our tanks.  It all worked out though.  We were able to use our generator for the first time, which was a good trial run before our stay in Yellowstone. 

This was our campsite right in the park

What a cool place this is!  Not only is the park itself really neat, the staff was fabulous.  By camping here, we were able to attend the evening programs:  a Junior Ranger talk that the kids all participated well in, as well as a regular Ranger talk on astronomy, and the big kids & Steve went to a star-gazing party and learned even more about the solar system & constellations!

Guided cave walk with the awesome Ranger Lenny, who has a degree in Soviet history

Indian Tunnel

Spatter cones

One of the craters

At the top of the crater looking down on a sea of lava

The next morning we went on an early guided Ranger tour through Indian Tunnel.  We also did a little cave exploring on our own & determined that none of us are super fond of really tight & super dark places. It was still pretty cool though!

Junior ranger swearing in

Three Island Crossing State Park

We only stayed here one night, but what a sweet night it was!  Absolutely beautiful…perfect grass, perfectly peaceful, and beautiful weather, too!  Bathhouse was fine...the shower I had was fabulous…hot water that never runs out with good water pressure is like a little slice of heaven on earth! J

Onsite, they had an Oregon Trail Education Center that we visited.  This was not as extensive as the Interpretive Center in Baker City, OR, but it was still worth a stop.  The only bummer was that when we arrived, we realized we had a hole in one of our tires; you  could actually hear the air escaping!  Fortunately, Steve was able to get it patched in town & have rims exchanged for a whole $14, & now it is our spare.

Check out the realistic baby in this display

Our RV if we lived 150 years ago

The girls had a fun time building a house out of Styrofoam & decorating it.  They didn’t want to toss it the next morning, but they had a great attitude about doing it anyway. 

We totally loved our time here & would not hesitate to stay here again!      

RV Repair & Maintenance

We may not own a regular home anymore, so we don’t have mortgage payments or utility bills, but we do still have to deal with home repair & maintenance!  Here is a list of what we have had to repair or replace so far:

1-two tires – one with a bubble & one with a rip (about $150 each)

2-converter-we are finally getting this replaced here in Twin Falls, Idaho this week.  Thank goodness that we won’t have power issues any more!  Just in time, too, when we’re headed to Yellowstone where we won’t have electric hookups, so we wouldn’t be able to use our battery charger to keep things working. (would cost $460 but is covered under our extended warranty minus our $50 deductible).  

3-front leg/jack for the RV  (about $300)

4-broken window-We still haven’t fixed this one yet.  When backing into a friend’s driveway, Steve got into a tangle with a tree that broke the window on Shanan’s bunk.  Fortunately, it was something he was able to patch up until we are ready to replace it.   We hope to replace with plexiglass.

In addition to these big issues, when we were in Clarkston we learned about some maintenance issues that we  needed to play catch up on.   

a)  Our roof needed to be cleaned and treated.   This was a huge job and took Steve about 10+ hours total to complete.   He scrubbed all the grime off using Bon Ami and Simple Green.  We should have taken before & after pics; it looks amazing!  All those dead mosquitoes plastered to the front since Minnesota are finally gone!  Don't worry; I'm sure we'll acquire more, but they should be easier to clean off now that it's waxed.  

b)  We also learned that we should keep the RV waxed.   Of course you can't wax it until it is clean.  Our decals also need to be treated for UV so they don't peel off with age.  

c)  We discovered we needed a second battery if we wanted to make it through the night using the heat while in Yellowstone with no electric & no generator use between 8pm & 8am.    This was relatively easy but cost us about $120.   

d)  Since we bought the RV Steve noticed that there is liquid that spills from the waste tanks when opening the tank to attach to a sewer or dump station.   In the front our black tank seeps a bit (Yes, totally disgusting), and in the back, our galley tank (gray water) leaks a lot.  When I say leak, I mean the valve does not quite close all the way.   We have a sealed bottom, so this is a hard fix.   To correct this issue, Steve installed secondary valves near the end of the pipes.   See photos below.

e)  The people that did the converter showed Steve how to maintain the hot water heater.   We haven't done it yet but we need to replace a metal thingee that gets corroded instead of the tank.   

If this isn't enough, today we discovered that if we let our gray #1 tank get completely full then it will leak water into the underbody.   Needless to say, we were very concerned and frustrated when this happened.  Thankfully Steve saw the mobile repairman who installed the converter in the park about to help another customer.   He explained that the seal at the top that leads to the stack in the roof probably leaks.   He said if we never let it get full then we should be okay.  

Guess what, still not done.  When we were leaving someone stopped us and let us know the that one of our tires was low.   Steve went back to our site and got the air compressor out and filled up the tire.  It looked fine after we gave it about 30lbs of air.  We then drove to our next site 57 miles away and when we arrived and were parking, Steve noticed that he could hear the tire leaking.   It must have just happened because it was leaking fast.   He got the jack under the axle and put the spare on.   Tomorrow he is going to get that tire patched and put it on the spare rim, and then put the spare on the regular rim.   It was a total blessing that the tire didn't go flat on the road!  Thank you Lord!

I think all these repair issues are getting to him.  I hope we can have a long break from any kind of RV issues!

Front waste tank with inline valve ($20)

Rear waste tanks with valve attachment ($40)

Window in Shanan's bunk broken in Spokane

Clean and treated roof, all 39.25 feet of it!

Bug free front, and waxed as well.   99% of the bugs were from the Minnesota leg of our trip.