Back home in early July we packed
up again and headed north to Island Park, Idaho...just outside the
Yellowstone National Park entrance. We had researched some camping
options there, hoping to find something close enough to get us into
the park but far enough away to avoid the chaos of crowds...and on
Campendium we found Red Rock Road, free camping in the forest! We
had a great spot, tucked into some trees but with plenty of solar to
keep us charged up...easy access, nice and level and our only close
neighbors were the cows that free range through!
On Friday, we went
on a long, bumpy ride north and west out Red Rock Road to a little,
somewhat revived ghost town called Lakeview, Montana. It sits in
Centennial Valley, along the Continental Divide, an old
railroad-settled town adjacent to a National Wildlife Refuge. It’s
definitely a quiet area...lots of wetlands, famous for the nesting of
Trumpeter Swans (which we didn’t see, likely due to the heat!). We did bump into some great friends while wandering out in that sparse area...Lyle & Sue, from I.P. & San Diego (via Africa!) will likely show up in this blog a time or two...it's always good to see them!
We went into Yellowstone on Saturday, to test our theory about crowd tolerance, and while it was crazy, busy, we did manage a nice picnic lunch in the shade on the deck of the Old Faithful lodge for it’s afternoon eruption! It was a nice place to get out of the heat, people watch and take a break from the lines of traffic and parking mayhem!
We also saw some of the thermal features, took the boardwalk over to the Grand Prismatic, which is such a cool sight...wishing we had been there a couple of days later to make the trek up to the new viewing platform.
We didn't see much in the way of animals on our brief visits into the park, but we did manage a pretty sweet sunset on our last evening and we sure enjoyed our time and our great little boondocking spot.
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