July 13-14, 2007
Rocky Mountain RV Park

Gardiner, MT
On the north boundary
of Yellowstone Park

We blazed out of Dick’s RV park in Great Falls, gassing up at the local Flying J for 62 gallons of petrol. Ouch! Wasn’t hard to leave Dick’s, perhaps the noisiest RV park we have ever stayed in .He warned us when we called, saying, "Your space backs up against the street, but it’ll settle down by 8 pm." Until about 11 pm it was auto alley, and beginning at 6 am in the morning, it sounded like the pits at the Indy 500.

Heading towards Yellowstone, we attempted to make reservations in West Yellowstone. "Sold out," Changed course to Gardiner, MT on the north border of the park where we got the last space. Nothing plush, but it’s got full hook-ups and a good satellite fix for the internet. En route, we cruised along the Missouri River, watching fishermen (and women, I think) thrashing the water from driftboats. These are premium trout waters in beautiful settings..

Many new upscale ‘dwellings’ under construction, likely from wealthy out-of-staters who are driving up land prices here, killing the ranches and farms. Some beautiful settings for these rich folk along rivers and hanging on the sides of mountains. They might as well have written "Yuppie!”on them.

During the night a thunderstorm moved in bringing rain and thunder in the morning. It was overcast and soggy as we headed into the park. Carly remained behind, due to the lack of shade in Yellowstone and the restrictions regarding dogs in national parks. She was woofing as we left the rig, and was woofing when we returned. Unknown what was going on during the intervening 7 hours we were away. Does a woofing dog make noise in the forest if you aren't there to hear it??

Yellowstone is not a place to visit during the summer on a weekend. Looky-loos slowed the pace on the road to about 20 mph, and the siting of a living critter (like a bull elk) simply brought the pack to a halt. Fumaroles venting in the distance had the folks clicking the cameras. If you’ve seen one fumarole, you’ve seen ‘em all. A couple of waterfalls wowed the crowds, but Janice and I have seen so many waterfalls on this trip (many spectacular!), so we passed on several today. Water can only fall off a cliff in so many ways, huh?


We were on a mission to meet another Mexico caravan couple who we had been tracking via the internet we both approached Yellowstone from different directions, hopeful for a connection. As luck would have it, they arrived to join us just as Old Faithful was erupting. It was fun catching up on road tips with Jerry and Zana, full-timers originally from Modesto. They are planning an Alaskan RV trip next May for a couple months, and it sounds so good, we might just tag along. We enjoyed a nice lunch together in the Old Faithful Inn, then we were treated to another eruption, post lunch, joining hundreds of geyser watchers. (Click here to see). We figured we were owed a good show, as the last time we were here two years ago, we missed the eruption by a few minutes and had to settle for plumes of steam.

Speaking of our last visit, it was nice to see many of the charred spars from the 1988 fire falling on the ground as weather and wind knocked down over 50% of them. Sprouting up are a thicket of trees in the 10-15 foot range. Not much growth for 19 years, but the growing season is short here. Looks much better.