The Big Mountains – Westward Ho!  

We crossed to the west side of Wyoming by way of back roads through some very pretty areas and arrived at the town of Dubois.  It is home to the National Museum of Military Vehicles. A strange place to stop since neither of us have served but well worth the stop. We had been recommended it by Charles at the Lazy S Café and Bar in Thermopolis. Charles was so enthusiastic that we decided to take the chance.  It’s a privately owned museum and the collection of armaments, tanks, artillery pieces, jeeps and watercraft has to be seen to be believed. The whole place was well laid out and told the stories from Civil War right up through Vietnam. It was very informative and saddening to see the short span of time and the long length of war.

While in Dubois, we also stopped at the Big Horn Sheep museum. We met an interesting fellow who was a photographer of some of the pictures in the museum.  He pointed out the albino sheep killed in 2013 by an indigenous women.  She prayed and asked her elders if the time was right to hunt such a magnificent creature.  It is stuffed in the museum. The photographer also suggested a great boondocking spot with possibilities of spotting some of the illusive sheep. While we didn’t see any sheep, we did have a great walk up the side of the hill on Glacier Trail.

The following day we drove towards the Grand Teton National Park.  What impressive mountains these are. While riding down to Jackson Hole, on the free tourist map, we saw that there would be an Elk Antler auction in the town square starting at 8am the following morning. How could we miss such an event! It was held by the Jackson Hole Friends of Scouting.   

Mindi was also in touch with a white-water rafting guide, who turned us on to a wonderful boondocking spot high up above Jackson in Curtis Canyon. We decided to use this as home base for a few days.  We removed the camper from the truck and this made driving around much easier.  It also preserved our boondocking spot while we were busy being tourists. We had a grand view of the Tetons.

Each year the Boy Scouts collect antlers that have been shed by Elk in the nearby forests and mountains. Hunters also donate antlers to the auction – all to the benefit of the Scouts. The collection of antlers was impressive indeed – and while only the Elk antlers would be up for auction, you could buy all sorts of different animal antlers from the numerous vendors around the town square.

We had a lot of fun at the auction – our first Elk Antler auction! – and now have a set of antlers tied to the roof of the camper.

We awoke the following morning to snow which made getting down from the mountain a lot of  fun! Our campsite was already slippery and muddy. I was surprised that my 4-wheel drive didn’t seem to be managing very well… but at the bottom of the mountain, I realized that the truck had been in neutral the whole way down the trail! No wonder it didn’t work well!

At breakfast – at the bagel shop – Mindi found out that a rather unusual trio would be playing at the concert hall.  The flyer on the cork board said the Mike Block trio would be playing Sunday night at the local recreation center. It consisted of a Double Bass, a Cello and a Mandolin. They played a blended Bluegrass/Jazz/Classical tunes. Mike Block, who played with YoYo Ma’s group for 19 years, entered with his unique 3D printed cello strapped to him. This allowed him to dance around while playing.  All of the players were top notch and enjoying their music making together.  It was such a pleasure.  We left and went downtown to sit on horse saddles and play pool at the local (touristy) bar.

Our trip back up to the campsite was much more controlled with the 4-wheel drive working flawlessly! And we got to use our spotlights in earnest for the first time!

For our last day in Jackson, we took in the Wild Animal Art Museum – complete with a travelling exhibit from India consisting of a herd of Elephants made out of an invasive weed, Lantana Camara.  The site to review this exhibit and its goals is www.thegreatelephantmigration.org.

Our drive from the Tetons to Yellowstone was short but impressive as we had great views of the Tetons along the way. Every curve showed us a more magnificent view of these majestic mountains.

We arrived in Yellowstone for the start of the Memorial Day weekend. The place was humming! It’s not so much an impressive/awe inspiring place as a strange place! Fumaroles spouting steam seem to be everywhere so we made our way towards Old Faithful. It is not the biggest geyser, but it is the most predictable, erupting every 90 minutes or thereabouts. We were greeted by our first Bison in the parking lot as we walked to the geyser which was in full throes of eruption – so we somewhat missed it! There are boardwalks all over, so we opted to await the next display and spent some time checking out the highest viewpoint, which we concluded was not much to write home about.

We got back to the main viewing site just before the next ejaculation was due – a prime position among the crowd of viewers.  Unfortunately, the wind changed and we ended up with the ejaculate all over us! I was a little concerned that we might get scalded – but the spray was sent so high that it was freezing cold by the time it rained on us.

In view of the heavy crowds, we decided to exit the park and find a campsite elsewhere. It happened to be just inside the Montana state line. It was a lovely boondocking spot beside a stream. Since we planned to go to Yellowstone from here for the next few days, we again unloaded the camper to allow easier travel and preserve our super camp spot.  We only saw two other cars at our campground the few days we were there.  

Where we had chosen to camp was a rather unique location. It was near Earthquake Lake. On August 17th 1959, a massive 7.5 (measured by the Richter scale) event caused an 80-million ton landslide. It dammed the valley and flooded numerous campsites – killing 28 people.  Unfortunately, the visitor center was not yet open to give all the gory details.

Our second entry into Yellowstone took us to Artist Paint Pot – another grouping of Fumaroles but the coloring was certainly interesting.

After the Paint Pots, we walked along the “Yellowstone Grand Canyon” Lower Falls and got a good view of the magnificent waterfall from a precarious perch on top of a precipice.

Neither of us were quite feeling the love for Yellowstone.  We were bored of the hordes of tourists – even though we were here early to avoid the rush!

So, we started making our way towards Glacier National Park in Montana – and what a tremendous visit that turned out to be!