Today was our last day here in West Yellowstone. It rained all day and the temperature stayed at 59 degrees. We relaxed in the RV, completed a 1000 piece puzzle, and had our electric fireplace on. After the extreme heat, the cooler weather was nice.
​We had the best time here and wish we could stay a bit longer. Our RV is mostly packed up and we will get up at 5am to make our way up to Glacier National Park. Unfortunately, the weather forecast is predicting overcast skies and rain for the next few days and there is also some smoke from wildfires moving into the park. We are still hopeful that the weather will change.

Today we stayed at the campsite, cleaned our RV, did laundry, and caught up a bit with work (I am hoping our bosses are reading this...). Doing laundry at the campsite is a task that we dread. Once we get all our dirty laundry in bags, we head to the campsite laundry facilities, hoping the washing machines are empty. Of course they never are, so we drag our heavy bags full of dirty laundry to another laundry facility, if there are multiple ones at the campsite. We rarely score on the first try and back to the RV we go with dirty laundry in tow. About 30 minutes later we try again,  If we are lucky we might find one or two empty machines and we can start with part of our laundry. There always seem to be machines with "Broken - Do not Use" signs so we never find enough machines to do all our laundry at once. Each laundry facility also seems to have that person - a camper who sits there with 3 books, does loads and loads of laundry, tells others all machines are taken, and makes sure no one uses the dryer, because their load is about to be done and they are about to use the dryer. When we finally have one or two washers loaded, we are ready to start the washing machines. Of course, there is always one that swallows coins without doing the work. We lose our coins and now have to find cash to get more coins. After running to all the facilities to find enough working washing machines, and making sure we have enough coins, we typically have our laundry spread out across multiple sites. Now we need to keep track of what laundry is where and when the machines are done. Cliff, the tech guru, uses the phone app to keep track of our laundry location and wash times. When our laundry is finally washed, a similar hunt begins for a dryer and we carry our wet laundry around in search for a dryer. We make sure we are aware our surroundings at all times and when we see campers approach the laundry facilities, we know we need to be faster.  As with the washing machines, there are typically dryers out of order, dryers that just gobble up coins, and dryers that run but don't dry your clothes. With our laundry distributed again among different laundry facilities, we now must keep track of location and drying times. As some dryers don't work well, we have to re-run some loads, making it even more difficult to keep track of all there is to keep track of. Sometimes we run out of coins, usually when the office is closed, and we must return to the RV with wet clothes. We are then reminded of our failed mission all day as we look at our clothes drying on clotheslines strung throughout the RV.
Laundry is an all day ordeal and that is how we spent most of the day today. It also rained all afternoon, which was great for those of us who love rain, clouds, and cold weather. 
Since there are no pictures of sights to post, I am posting Cliff's selfie collection. Apparently, he has discovered the joy of selfies and has been busy with his new hobby, taking selfies at each site while I practice more advanced photography as seen in the last picture.

Our alarms rang early this morning and we left the campsite to drive down to Grand Teton National Park at 6:45am. The weather forecast predicted overcast skies starting at 11am and we tried to get to the Teton Range before it got cloudy. It took us almost 3 hours to get there as the route took us through Yellowstone National Park where speed limits are low, and, in addition, many tourists drive even slower than the speed limit. Driving through Yellowstone in the early morning was an amazing experience as all the hot springs had enormous steam plumes rising up throughout the landscape. 
Grand Teton National Park was beautiful - and sunny. One of our highlights was visiting the  Mormon Row Historic District, where the iconic barn pictures in front of the Teton Range are taken. In the late 1800's, a group of Mormons arrived in Wyoming and built farms and houses, which are well preserved and draw photographers from all over the world.  
We arrived back at the campground in the afternoon and went to see the  IMAX Yellowstone movie. It was interesting and had beautiful footage of the park. The evening was spent eating dinner outside and playing some sports. I fled inside the RV as soon as the mosquitoes launched their attacks - they are ferocious up here.

Today we went back to Yellowstone to see Old Faithful Geyser erupt. Park rangers are able to predict eruptions from this geyser and post approximate eruption times daily. It was pretty exciting, waiting for it to erupt. We also revisited the mud volcano area, which Cliff and I had seen on our second day here already when the boys had stayed home. The strong sulfur smell and roaring bubbling mud was quite an experience. I posted pictures of this area on day 9. 
Later in the day we visited the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, a large canyon on the Yellowstone River with beautiful waterfalls. The highlight of the day was when we spotted a black bear - none of us had ever seen a bear in the wild and we were all in awe when the bear showed up close to the road. Unfortunately, we were not able to grab our cameras quick enough as the bear quickly disappeared back into the forest.
In the evening we strolled through West Yellowstone and stopped at our favorite old fashioned soda fountain place to enjoy delicious milkshakes. 
I also posted a few more of my favorite bison pictures. If you look really close at the picture of the bison head (second to last picture), you will see him grinning. 

After walking many miles over the last three days in 90 degree heat and high altitude, we took a much needed rest day today. We slept in, strolled through West Yellowstone which has many unique little shops, bought some souvenirs, and visited the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery center where they house wolves and bears that cannot be released back into the wild. In the late afternoon we strolled around the campground and enjoyed the pleasant evening temperatures and dry air. 

Today we spent our third day at Yellowstone and the sights were just as stunning as the ones we visited the past two days. We spent a lot of time walking to the sights, up and down boardwalks, in almost 90 degree heat and at 7000 feet high. We could definitely feel the effects of the high altitude and had to slow down a few times. In the afternoon we saw multiple bison herds; some of them were even crossing the roads causing traffic jams. I was within 10 feet of a bison as he walked in front of our car and then turned and passed by the passengers side - with me, the photographer, outside of the car, pinned flat against the passenger side door. What an experience!  

Today Cliff and I headed back to Yellowstone so I could take some additional photos of the sights we saw the day before. A big thank you to Cliff who drove me all around the park again so I could get those perfect shots. I still have a lot to learn in photography, but I am thankful for the support of my family, who patiently waits as I take an embarrassing amount of pictures at each site. Yes, I am that tourist that takes 20 pictures of everything.
The boys stayed behind as they had gotten sunburned yesterday. We did add a few additional sights today, which we will revisit with them. The highlight of our day was photographing a bison  sitting next to Sulphur Caldron.

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir

Today we visited Yellowstone National Park - one of the crown jewels of the national park system. The hot springs and geysers were absolutely stunning!! We hiked many miles today and every turn we took offered new amazing views. There was so much to see and, so far, we have only covered a third of the park.
The temperature in the morning was very cool, but it heated up quickly to 80 degrees by late morning. Unfortunately, we did not apply sufficient sunscreen and the very fair skinned among us returned to the campsite with a sunburn. We hiked at 7000 feet above sea level today and the UV rays are so much more intense up here. It was also extremely windy, in fact, it was so windy that my hat would not stay on, no matter how much I tightened the string.
​We did see a bison perched on a sandy spot next to the road, most likely watching tourists.

We are in West Yellowstone, where we will stay for a few days. The west entrance to Yellowstone National Park is only a few miles away and we love our campsite. The temperature was a pleasant 79 degrees when we arrived. Per our weather app, it might get cold a night though. The 6am predicted temperature is only 48 degrees. The altitude here is almost 7000 feet and apparently we are halfway between the equator and the North Pole. 
Today's 4 hour drive led us through stunning scenery; so stunning that it will be difficult for me to leave. Unfortunately, the pictures I took while we were driving did not turn out well; I am posting only two that came out somewhat acceptable.
In preparation for visiting Yellowstone National Park, we purchased bear spray today. I am considering bringing along my onion goggles, in case the wind blows the wrong way....!
As our refrigerator still seemed to have some issues, we investigated further and finally realized that the RV service place installed the new refrigerator door without the seal (that black rubber strip), leaving a significant gap for cold air to escape and the door lock not to fit appropriately. We cannot believe that we did not notice that earlier. For now we stuffed the gap with paper towels and secured with painters tape. Problem solved.

We have made it to Big Sky Country! After a short 4h drive, we reached our campground in Billings, Montana. We passed through barren areas that were devoid of any trees and beautiful hills with ponderosa pines. While we seemed to have left the flies behind, the extreme heat followed us - it was 98 degrees when we arrived. We will stay here one night and will reach our campground in West Yellowstone tomorrow.