Monday, May 23, 2022; Devil’s Tower to Yellowstone

Monday, May 23, 2022; Devil’s Tower to Yellowstone

It was a peaceful and comfortable night in the RV after all the camp fires finally went out.  As we left Devil’s Tower, we stopped and watched the black tailed prairie dogs for a bit and just outside the park we saw some long horn cattle and bison in a pasture.  

We filled up in Gillette WY taking on 17.169gal @$5.279/gal with 25752 miles on the odometer (13.6mpg).

The drive from Devil’s Tower to Yellowstone was notable for a brief blizzard we encountered in Wyoming while Janet was behind the wheel.  

We thought we might have to pull over, but Janet kept having visions of the Donner party resorting to cannibalism to survive the winter while trapped by winter storms.  That kept her pushing on, and as we descended down the back side of a pass, the snow disappeared.  

We drove through some remarkable canyon lands as we descended into the plains of Wyoming that reminded us our our rafting trip down the Grand Canyon because the walls of the canyon towered over us with spectacular rock formations and breathtaking sky above.  

Ben had planned on spending the night at the Walmart in Cody, but Cody was just 2 hours from Yellowstone, so Janet wanted to try to make it into the park today, rather than tomorrow.  Ben got on the phone while Janet drove and was able to snag the last RV site in the park for the night at the Madison Campground, which is on the west side of the park.  All of the campsites in Yellowstone are managed by Xanterra and all require reservations.  Before we left on this RV trip, Ben was unsuccessful in booking any sites in the park in advance.  This site must have been made available due to a cancelation.  

The plains of Wyoming are remarkably wide open.  

We saw many antelope in the distance.  They were shy creatures who would bound away if we tried to stop on the shoulder to get a picture.  As we got closer to Cody, we drove past several pastures that were full of deer.

In the town of Tensleep, we encountered a cattle drive crossing the highway.  That was something you wouldn’t see if you stuck to I-90 all the way.  

For a second, Ben panicked that Google maps may have put us on a path that would bypass Cody and head for the South Entrance to Yellowstone, rather than the East Entrance we had planned on.  We were down to under 80 miles of range and Google maps had put us on some gravel back roads in Wyoming.  Fortunately, we eventually ended up back on pavement and the next road sign reassured us that Cody was just 15 miles ahead.  

We filled up in Cody taking on 19.928gal @$5.479/gal with 26004 miles on the odometer (12.6mpg).

We arrived at the East Entrance to Yellowstone at 5pm.  There was no wait at the gate, which was nice.  It is very early for the Yellowstone season, but we were also arriving very late in the day.  As we drove into the park we noticed there was a lot of snow and a lot of dead trees from recent wildfires.  Yellowstone Lake is largely still frozen and covered with ice and snow.  

We did encounter bison just inside the park.  And around the corner, we encountered our first geothermal activity at Steamboat point- so named not because it is shaped like a steam boat, but because of geothermal vents along the shore that spout steam like a steam boat might.  

Next we toured the West Thumb Geyser Basin.  West Thumb is a caldera within a caldera.  It is much deeper than the rest of Yellowstone lake and there is a lot of geothermal activity in the bottom of the lake.  

There were also a lot of elk wandering around the area.  No visit to Yellowstone would be complete without a visit to Old Faithful, and true to her name, she put on a grand eruption within a few minutes of our arrival, much to our delight.  

We then checked into our campsite at the Madison Campground.  It was nice to get set up before dark.  We had a pull through site that was pretty level.  It did not have any utilities, but we did notice a couple of sites with utilities.  The rangers put locks on the power and water and only remove them when people who have reserved those sites show up.  They did not have an outside potable water spigot for campers to use other than one in a “campers sink” for dish washing.  

Even paying campers can’t use the trailer dump because of “Freezing conditions”, despite the water being on frost free hydrants.  It’s a good thing we have adequate fresh water for a few days.

We had classic camp “Chili Mac and Cheese” (Kraft box + Cattle Drive can) for dinner.

Visiting Yellowstone in May has its advantages and disadvantages.  The main advantage is the lack of crowds.  There is little traffic and the parking lots have lots of space for cars and RV’s alike.  The boardwalks are uncrowded and everything is naturally socially distanced.  The only exception is the campgrounds which are “full”.  We had a neighbor noisily setting up his camp across the narrow campground drive from us at 11pm.  However, there were several booked campsites that nobody ever showed up in overnight.

The disadvantages are that some of the roads may not be open.  In our case, the road from Tower-Roosevelt to Canyon Village, which Ben had been counting on to drive the park in a loop, does not open until Memorial Day, which is a week away.  So we will have to do quite a bit of back and forth recovering our paths to see much of the park from Madison.  There are also many picnic areas and trails that are closed because they are still covered in snow. But that can simplify the decisions on what stops to make as we tour the park.