September 2 through September 9, 2005

Friday September 2:

Claire decided she needed a shower this morning, and we will dump and fill at Flying J as well as take on Propane.  Today we leave Gillette, and the drive to Thermopolis after we leave I-90 at Buffalo goes from 4000 ft to over 9000, so it will be slow…but we get there when we get there!  I found more engine oil I could not pass up at Walmart...but we're storing it further forward to better balance the load on the axles. We filled propane getting ready for cold nights in Yellowstone... The Gillette CO-OP took our waste drain oil, pointing to their waste oil burner they use for heat....I guess that is one way to recycle it!  :-))  We finally headed off for some hot spring soaking in Thermopolis, enjoying the wide open landscape.

There is certainly much more activity around the oil sites here than there was last year when we went through this area.  

We're happy to see that; perhaps our price at the pump will come down?  As we approach the mountains we can see there is snow in some shaded places on the high peaks.

The climb over the mountain range was indeed a slow slog...30 mph in 2nd gear much of the way up to 9500', then riding 2nd or first gear much of the way down to 4000' again on the other side, just to keep the speed below 50 mph on the downhill curves.  

It is pretty country, but not easy to convert to photos.  We did stop before the scenic run to clean the bugs off the windshield, in case something photogenic did show up...  :-)  And it did!  This pair of real working cowboys were actually moving cattle along the fence near the highway.  

We seldom see such activity in our travels.  We arrived in Thermopolis before 1PM, and were greeted by this stunning view of the mineral deposits built up over millennia....

As the water from the "Worlds Largest Mineral Hot Spring" ran off and cooled it deposited it's minerals, forming beautiful travertine formations as it made its way to the river flowing in the bottom of the gorge (most travertine formations in Hot Springs Arkansas were removed as the city developed).  The RV park was NOT where I (or Street Atlas) expected it.  A mechanic in a garage set us straight, and we moved another mile south on US20 to find it.  We were happy to pay our $11 a day Passport America rate and connect to A/C...it was HOT here this afternoon!  I intended to soak in the hot pool despite the heat, so got the bikes down for the 2 mile ride to Hot Springs State Park.  I found the State Park Bathhouse, and indeed the soaking is free...but the unmentioned hidden gotcha is that you can stay in the 104 degree water only 20 minutes, then cannot re-enter for two hours.  Well, I thought they were open until 10PM, so mentioned I might be back later as I left...but the attendant said there was no time, as they close the bath house at 5:30, and it was already 3:50.  I checked at the pay Plunge spa across the road, and they have multiple pools, water slides, and Jacuzzi tubs too...so we expect it is worth the $9 for Claire and $7 for me to spend tomorrow there.  We will take the RV there early so we find a place to park (hopefully in the shade) and can come and go in the Plunge as much as we like until they close at 9PM......   Sunday we can use the free one a couple times before departing for Cody on our way to Yellowstone on Monday.  Gas here is $2.97 cheapest...I do hope Cody is better.  We must fill there before entering Yellowstone.....  We opened the windows for the night.  It's cool enough at 8PM to be comfortable without the A/C.  I think it's about time for bed myself!

Saturday September 3:

We left the RV park before 9AM, and found convenient parking in the state park right across from the Hellie's Tepee Spa.  I checked the facilities there, and chose Hellie's Tepee Spa over the Plunge…  Before the spa opened, I had time for a few quick pictures of the area.  The free bath house was already open for business.  (Yes, that's our RV parked on the street beyond the pool).

This really is a nice facility, the only negative being the time limit, and the mineral deposits making the pool quite murky.   I walked out on the boardwalk over the travertine deposits....

These were really quite beautiful up close, and enclosed some spring water "cooling pools" where water cooled from the spring's 135 degree F temperature.  The river had a picturesque pedestrian suspension bridge crossing it.  

This area begs more exploration, but now the spa is open and I want to be soaking!  :-)  The Tepee had very nice outdoor hot soaking tubs.....

One was reported over temperature this morning at 110 degrees.  Sounds like a good way for me to start!  Somehow the Tepee Spa has managed to keep the water pretty clear, although they had a murky white drainage pool right below it.  They've managed to separate the murky minerals out of the soaking water in some manner.  The tubs were in the sun, so hat and T shirt were in order, but the cost was only $7 all day for folks over 63.  ;-))  I took full advantage of the day, Claire volunteered to do my dishes so I could close the place at 9PM...  I must say I was thoroughly HOT SOAKED....at least medium rare! :-)  Claire drove back to the RV park, and I hooked up the electricity in the dark.  We do want the batteries as charged as they can be, and more ice which requires 110 VAC for the ice maker.  It was immediate sleep time for both of us.

Sunday September 4:

We took our time getting out of the campground this morning, the A/C is too comfortable.   We intend to be at the state park before the free soak opens at noon, then walk around the hot spring pools to use up two hours before we can go in again, then depart for Cody, 84 miles away around 3PM. We again find on street parking in the shade.  :-)   This mineral formation, Tepee Fountain, from which the Hellie's Tepee Spa takes its name, is intriguing.

The 20 minute hot soak felt much hotter to me today, after the full day of "cooking" yesterday.  I was ready to come out, and ice water was welcome after!  The time has come to walk the full boardwalk!   We crossed the pedestrian suspension bridge over the river to get the best views.  :-)  From the far side, the views were different.

The sign on the mountainside points out the source of the hot water....BUT, the travertine bluffs above the Big Horn river were incredible, formed over millions of years from minerals precipitating out of the hot spring water as it cooled.

We moved back across the bridge to inspect the true source of all these hot waters (3.6 million gallons per day). We tracked it down in the midst of a splash of green foliage taking water from the flow.  

The weather was HOT (92 degrees on the town bank thermometer when we left) and it is especially hot here over the flowing hot spring waters...but one last look at the mineral covered cooling pools behind the State Bathhouse before we go....

We were both happy to get back to the RV and more ice water.  I called to arrange RV storage in Yuma, and Sue Ann assures us we have the same deal as last year...they will start charging us when the last space fills, but at $34 a month the extra cost is not that significant; having a space when we need it is!  It was time for the last soak, and Claire decided that she had enough heat.....so I went alone.  The water did feel REALLY hot, but I'm sure is was the accumulation of heat and dehydration on this hot day and our walk in the sun over the hot spring cooling pools.  I was ready to leave after 20 minutes, and after a 5 minute rest we hit the road, just before 3PM. I was sleeping much of the first part of the drive. (Yes, it WAS the hot soaking that did that!)   The drive up Wyoming Rt 120 was lonely...little traffic, and only one town, Meeteetse, where we expected $2.91 gas....it turned out to be $2.94, but still cheaper than in Thermopolis, and we filled.  We'd heard that Cody is usually more expensive than Thermopolis, but were surprised to find it 2 cents cheaper at one station...oh well.  I drove after that, a cup of coffee to overcome hot spring lethargy! We found the Walmart easily, and parked out of the way among many other RVs....   Dinner was left over lentil soup and salad.  We shopped in Walmart, bought lots of stuff including two pounds of ground bison....and a pound of ground beef.  When the stuff was all packed away in the RV, Claire said she could not find the ground beef...??  We searched everywhere, no ground beef.  I took the slip back to the checkout clerk and asked him if we had forgotten a bag with ground beef in it.  He got a strange look on his face, checked under his register, abandoned his customer in mid checkout, and went roaming around the store.  He came back and said he could not find the guy who had relieved him on break, but I should take my receipt and go get another ground beef.  I did, and came back through his line, he bagged the beef and sent me on my way....no ring up, no record.   I guess stuff does happen with the bag racks at Walmart.  It's easy to miss something that gets thrown in a strange bag....and we do watch carefully.  I thought I had no hope of recovering that beef...but this time we were lucky!  After dishes, it felt like bed time!  This night was DEEP sleep!

Monday September 5:

 Today we go to Yellowstone Park!  On the way out of Cody we drive along the "Stinking River" as the Shoshone River was once called for it's hydrogen sulfide smell resulting from thermal mineral waters flowing into it in places.  

We entered Yellowstone Park and stopped at Steamboat Point along the eastern shore of Yellowstone Lake....

Yes, we're in Yellowstone and the ground is steaming .....  :-))  There is the loud hissing sound of water hitting hot rocks to go with it too…..a really eerie sound to be coming up out of cold ground.....but this ground is NOT cold, and there are signs warning us not to walk on it, as it may collapse letting us fall into scalding puddles of water or mud below...YIKES!.  We continued on to Grant campground, signed in and occupied our campsite.  Grant CG pull through site 304 rated for 30' has plenty of room for us.  :-)  

It is on the lake loop.   We biked to visitors center, found that all the campgrounds here but one would have room for us.  We saw the last ranger presentation of the season on wolves.  The wolves introduced here 10 years ago have flourished, and are spreading outside the park.  The park likes them as they prey on elk and occasionally bison, culling the weakest and controlling the herds.  There has been a compensation fund set up for ranchers who lose cattle to wolves, but the ranger said  there had been lots fewer claims than expected.  We biked the supposed 2 miles to lower geyser basin, but it seemed a long two miles to me.  I guess it was; the GPS said we traveled almost 10 by the time we got back.   On the way we visited the campground laundromat...large and just sparking clean and new!  :-) The geyser basin was ...unbelievable!  To start, there is the thermal area warning sign.....to become very familiar to us during our stay in Yellowstone.

 This black looking pool was a perfect mirror for the sky.  

It must have been cooler than most, as plants grew close and the water was dead calm, unlike many with turbulence from boiling bubbles.  In addition to the boiling pools, there were bubbling mud cones, mud pools, and even small foot high spurting geysers.  This pool looked as inviting as any well maintained swimming pool...except for the steam and bubbles.

There is also the mild hydrogen sulfide smell of the steam...but we could get used to that I guess....  ;-)  We see eight inch deep holes that are reputed to be bison tracks...they gather here in winter for the warmth...I wonder how many of THEM are injured by the hot fluids just under the surface?  :-)  This little mud cone would bubble up spurts of hot mud periodically.

The mud would flow down the sides of the cone, making formations reminiscent of lava flows from a volcano.  This interesting mineral deposited cone in Yellowstone lake near the shore bubbled it's hot water out frequently....

I could not resist touching the water flowing under the boardwalk from a steaming pool.  This young lady followed suit.

It was quite warm, but not scalding....we survived.  :-)   This mud pot attracted viewers of all ages

I'm happy it did not throw big splashes my way while I was taking the picture!  :-)  Evening is upon us, and we biked back to the RV.  It is cooling fast, and we are glad we left the RV closed.  The nighttime low here last night was 32 degrees...brrrr.   Claire fried the ground bison we had bought in the Cody Walmart in patties smothered with onions...YUMMY!  If it's good enough for wolves, it's good enough for me!  :-)  Rice and frozen peas completed a delicious meal, and there were NO leftovers!  After dishes were done, I felt like bed and set the furnace to keep the temperature above 50...it immediately went on.  Oh no, what now.....the temperature in here is above 70, and it seems the thermostat has gone bad.  :-(  At least the furnace can be turned on manually.  I recall having to move the thermostat down to 40 degrees to keep the air conditioner running too...perhaps the set point has drifted.  I am off to bed, we can see about the thermostat in the morning when we WANT the furnace to run!

Tuesday September 6:

The outside temperature under the RV is 33 at 6:30AM.  A nearby car started around 3AM, I'm sure for heating chilled tent campers in adjacent sites. I bet we are officially below freezing here today. We found the furnace thermostat has indeed drifted, and the scale is much compressed, but it does cycle the furnace off and on, so I mark a few crucial temperature points in pencil until we can decide if we need to fix it better.  I plan to grease the RV before we leave for the 21 mile drive to Old Faithful this morning, if it is not TOO cold.  We are toying with leaving the park through the north entrance in a four or five days, and heading for the Washington and Oregon coasts on I-90....600 miles away.  We will pay through the nose for gas, but we expect both price drops and better availability after Labor Day.  We are as close to the northwest as we've ever been here, and might not get another chance.  The drive down the coast on US 101 should not get heavy snow this early....  California does not seem to have the big gas price premium over other parts of the country now, either.  Hope the weather holds!  At 10 AM we departed for Old Faithful.  The dump area appeared crowded... but we do not need to use it today!   We found two young ladies hitchhiking with a sign for West Yellowstone, and for the first time ever we stopped to ask if they were looking to go to Old Faithful.  They said it would help, and seemed eager to ride in an RV.

Rachel (on the left) and Betty are college students from Taiwan, Betty studying English literature and Rachel accounting in Taiwan universities.  They did not know each other before joining the overseas exchange program and being assigned to work for the summer in Yellowstone at Grant Village food service.  They are returning to school in Taiwan on Thursday, and are going to tour San Francisco on the way to their flight.  It was interesting meeting them and talking with them, and we hope to hear by email how they are doing when they get home.  We found the Old Faithful area large and confusing.  Parking was easy to find, but the buildings were separated a lot, and the geyser was not visible.  Finally I asked a pair of briskly walking young ladies where it was, they pointed, and we walked through a grove of trees and it was there, steaming silently surrounded by benches. This is a place where we should have used our bikes!  There is a lot of walking.  We asked a ranger when Old Faithful would next erupt, and were told 11:50.  The visitors center was across the area, and we went there, finding schedules for MANY geysers in the basin, a surprise for us.  We decided to try for Riverside geyser over a mile away and scheduled in 30 minutes.   Claire decided she did not want to walk that far that fast, and she'd wait for Old Faithful.  I charged ahead, quickly photographing the features I passed, like this small geyser showering passersby (like me) on the downwind side....

I hurried quickly on, but when I reached Riverside just at it's scheduled eruption time, I found it had gone early and had just finished.  I immediately started back to rejoin Claire.  Across the basin, a large geyser was erupting...a passerby said it was Beehive geyser.

 I took plenty of photos, all I'm sure looking pretty much the same....  :-)  The one above is unique in that someone was passing on the downwind side, trying to hunker inside their jacket for shelter from the spray.  :-)  When I got back to Old Faithful, I could not find Claire so walked to the RV, and picked up the pedometer and radios so we could communicate if we hooked up.  I was amazed that I  walked over a mile checking the buildings in the area before again returning to the RV and, found Claire there.  We ate a quick lunch, took the bikes down, and I charged off to Old Faithful.  It turns out I had 20  minutes to wait as it was late, not early as Riverside had been.  Of course there are MORE pictures...again all looking much the same....

Other than those the guy ahead of me got his head into, which we'll not make you suffer through.  . :-)  We biked the trail I had walked in the morning, finding Morning Glory pool, named for its shape and color reminiscent of morning glory blooms.

A poster begged visitors not to throw ANYTHING into the pool, as it changes the water flow and chemistry, and was causing the colors to lose their brilliance.  :-((   On the way back we found a crowd gathering at Castle geyser; the sign said it would erupt some time in the next hour and a half.  It bubbled and spurted teasingly every 10 minutes, but after 40 minutes of waiting Claire decided to go back and peruse the gift shops.  I decided to  wait...and wait...and wait!  Finally near the end of the two hour uncertainty window, it spurted to life.  This one erupts for 20 minutes, and it put on quite a show!

At the end the mostly steam rushing out made a low hissing sound.....  

This was neet, as the crowd was quite close to the vent hole and the sound was quite audible.  By the time I returned to the RV it was time to leave...and we were both "geysered out".  We stopped at the registration office on the way to the campground and reserved a space in Canyon Lake campground for the next night, then proceeded to our site.  Claire prepared dinner while I greased the 13 fittings on the RV chassis.  Macaroni and cheese with tomatoes went well, and after dishes I decided a shower was in order, to keep the "under RV grit" from getting in the bed.  It was well after dark when I turned in, and found Claire already there.

Wednesday September 7:

For some reason it does not seem so cold overnight…but under the RV it is 32.8 degrees at 7:20AM.  I'm sure the official temperature at Yellowstone lake will again be below freezing.  We heard distant animal howls at 3AM…not sure what they were…wolves?  They did not have the "yip yip" of coyotes...but did not seem as long as the recorded wolf calls we heard either.  We are under way by 9:30, dump behind the gas station where some summer handyman has bolted the dump cover on in a way that the hinge will not allow it to open wide enough to accept our sewer hose...I finally squeeze it in by removing the "L" end that normally makes it easy to keep the hose in the dump hole....   We will drive up to Canyon area via the west side of Yellowstone lake, and stop to see a few points of interest along the way.  This steamy pool has tracks of cloven hoofed animals in the mud.....

I hope they like a hot mud pack on their feet!  We walked close by Churning Cauldron....

Here hot gases bubble up through the scalding water to produce a false appearance of a rolling boil....but fearsome nonetheless.  Dragon's Mouth Spring rumbles and roars as gasses stir water to hit caverns inside the cave.

I'm still wondering why Claire was so eager to put MY picture in front of this one.....  ??  :-))  There are boiling mud pools, some of which are as acid as battery acid from the action of organisms which live on hydrogen sulfide in the hot water and create sulfuric acid that dissolves rock into clay, forming mud which spurts out of the ground.  Imagine getting a spurt of that stuff in your eye!  

The heavy rock walls along the road and walkway are built up high above the thermal features in this area, unusual out here in the west where park visitors are usually allowed to act stupidly and kill themselves if they so desire.   Warnings are posted, but usually nothing stands between the visitor and the hazard....  But this hazard is a bit hidden...you see the steam and bubbling mud, but do not immediately understand how acid the churning pool is.....and how dangerous a drop of it in the wrong place could be!  We enjoy the look down from on high, and have no urge to get up close and personal with these!  We enjoy the Yellowstone river and the occasional bison grazing unconcerned along the side of the road.  We check into the campground around noon and pull into our site for lunch before proceeding to the Yellowstone Grand Canyon and the waterfalls.  Artists Point is exquisitely beautiful, with the 300 foot high lower falls in the distance and the canyon walls brilliantly colored by ancient  thermal deposits that are nearly impossible to capture fully on film...but we try!  :-)  

Actually, in retrospect after weeks to forget the true glory of that place, the picture looks pretty good; I can recall being disappointed at what I saw when I first looked though...so go see for yourselves!  It's awesome!  We hike down the 500 foot drop to view the falls near the bottom...over 300 steps to the bottom.  There is a rainbow visible at times when the sun shines, but it does not show well in the photo (Look to the right of the photo, on the rock wall for a bit of color).  Later I realize that the polarizing filter must have killed much of the rainbow's brilliance.  :-(

Everybody seemed to be getting back up the steps, but NOBODY was doing those steps two at a time at this 8000 foot elevation!  We've seen about as much unique beauty and as many bizarre features as we can take in one day...so decide to return to the campground.  On the way out of the parking lot, a coyote is hunting at a rodent hole, oblivious to us.....

It takes digital zoom to capture him, but I'm willing to sacrifice the sharpness for something like this.  We arrived back at the campground quite tired around 4PM.  I am finding the high elevations much easier to take this trip...and the main difference is I am drinking very little coffee....not even a cup a day.  I believe the coffee adds to the normal dehydration that takes place at high altitudes, and has caused me a lot of problems on past trips, when a hot drink was so welcome on the cold mornings.  Now I boil water to drink in the early morning, the stove heat warms, the hot water warms, and it leaves me hydrated too.  :-)  Dinner was spicy steak made with a smoked pepper sauce Claire brought from the southwest last trip, a black bean and rice mix that Claire picked up to try, and frozen corn.  It was delicious, but SPICY!  Dinner was finished early, and Claire decided to use the left over steak sauce in a pot of beans for tomorrow night.  As soon as the cooking was finished, we both sought our bed...even before it was fully dark.  :-)

Thursday September 8:

It is much warmer overnight…48 under the RV at 4:45 AM, and no heat is needed.  It is over 60 inside…COMFY!  :-)  We left the campsite around 9AM to tour the Yellowstone Grand Canyon north rim.  The morning light was not very favorable to pictures, and neither of us were feeling much like another 500-600 foot climb down into the canyon, so we skipped those trails.  We soon finished with the north rim road and departed for Mammoth hot springs.  The road almost immediately narrowed, although it was not rough in many places.  We stopped at those roadside items of interest that appealed, notably the steaming Roaring Mountain.

 This feature has calmed a lot now, but in years gone by it was reported that the roar of steam escaping the mountain's vents could be hear 4 miles away.   The highlight of this trip was the bison roadblock....what a hoot!  

They were using the road as their trail, and a ranger was warning all of us in the long vehicle line not to use flash to photograph the big bulls, as they did not like it and MIGHT decide to gore the vehicles...  The RV gave an ideal platform for photography out the side windows.... Calves of various ages were still staying close to mama.

It was obvious why they chose the road a bit further on...

It is certainly the easier way to travel in these parts, and the bison are smart enough to use it.  :-)  We soon reached Mammoth hot springs...and the large travertine cliffs were visible through the trees....

The RV was not allowed on the road through them.  We'd seen a lot of them, so decided to skip taking the bikes down.  It was a steep drop to the park headquarters area, where we stopped to get directions to the permitted soaking area where the hot Boiling River runs into the cool Gardiner river.  The park service does not advertise this soaking area, but the visitors center will give printed directions if you ask. The Directions read "From the visitors center, head towards the north entrance for 2-3 miles until you see a sign that says '45th parallel half way in between the equator and the north pole', at that sign pull into parking lot on your right. Trail starts at the back of the parking area, walk 1/3 mile along the river until you reach the fenced area.  You can soak in the Gardiner River where the hot spring water meets the Gardiner River, NOT directly in the Hot Spring water. Please read the posted advisory at the trailhead."   It appears they really want to keep the use of this area for soaking to a minimum.  They have an automatic counter on the wooden walkway leading to the river to count users, and it appears from posters at the trailhead that they are quite concerned about "overuse".  Outside the park visitors center we were directed to a huge bull elk lying along side a building chewing his cud.

I approached as close as I thought prudent and got as many pictures as desired.  Another man walked MUCH closer for a picture, and we decided it was time to leave.  It is mating season now, and these guys can be quite unpredictable and aggressive.  We drove to the campground and signed in.  When we asked, the host said the dump stations outside the park in Gardiner had raised their dump prices after Yellowstone closed the dump in Canyon Campground.  OK, we can get to Flying J in Idaho with our fuel and water, and will do that!  The fuel is cheaper there, and we have no need to spend our money in Montana!  We found our campsite and started lunch...when a large bull elk started exercising his antlers on a nearby tree.  A again approached as close as I dared...not too close at all, as a car drove up within 10 feet and took pictures, then a couple women walked by on the trail...he paid no attention.  A cow elk in his harem grazed toward my position.

 Suddenly the bull bugled, and came charging at her (and quite near me) to drive her back to the rest of his harem.

He moved VERY fast, and was equipped to get the cow's attention, and mine too.   He stood still for a LONG time facing away from me, before I felt safe to tiptoe away to the RV and my waiting lunch...  :-)  

In the afternoon we drove to the hot spring and parked.  There was not a lot of space for the motorhome, but we found a space on the end that took only one car space.  A man returning from the spring said it was very hot and worth the walk. A sign posted at the trail head indicated nudity was forbidden, and warned that the boiling river waters support organisms that can cause Primary Amoebic Meningoenchephalitis and Legionnaire's Disease, and there was risk of fatal infection if you submerge your head or inhale thermal steam...and we take this threat seriously to a point, although inhalation of steam is pretty hard to avoid here in Yellowstone!  :-)   We took plenty of drinking water, and it took about 10 minutes to walk the 1/3 mile trail along the river.  The soaking area was quite apparent from the fences built to keep foot traffic away from the river's edge in the area.

People were apparent, close to the west bank where a rock levee had been built to slow the cold water running into the warm area where the boiling river tumbles over the  rocks to join the Gardiner.  There was a large bull elk lying across the river watching us swim...and his harem grazed up the hill, but these are more common than dogs here.  :-).   The first pool I tried was too cool, but further down stream more hot water flowed in and it was warmer.  The footing was not good, as rocks were slippery from algae growth, but if you walked on smaller pebbles it was OK...only hard on bare feet!

The water was DELICIOUS!  Too hot swirls of water mixed in with swirls of cold from the Gardiner...quite a sensation!  Claire enjoyed it too, as she could find cooler spots more to her liking.  Claire left about 30 minutes before I concluded it was time to go back, and when I reached my pack with watch and water I found it was nearing 4PM.  I started back and noticed I had a LOT of sun on my arms.  There is no shade in the river and the sun here is intense.  We drove back to the campground and enjoyed opening all available ventilation and windows....it was HOT.  Dinner is beans...spicy and hot!  It was not yet dark when dishes are finished and we both retire for the night.  We decided to stay here another day and visit the gift shop and soak more, then leave early the next day to get most of the way to Idaho before stopping.

Friday September 9:

It was very warm overnight, we did not close the vents until after 10PM.  The temperature under the RV at 6AM was 57 degrees and indoors it was 70 without heat.  BALMY!  Claire went through the visitors center gift shops while I worked on the first webpage of this trip, covering the "Get Ready" trip to Montreal with Carol.  She came back reporting a bull elk with his large harem was wandering around the park center buildings....  wild animals for sure!  :-)  We drove to the soaking area parking lot, and I walked in...no sooner had I traversed the rocky river bottom to the hot area than rain started, followed shortly by thunder.  I decided it was foolish to stay and started back, meeting Claire half way out.  We both turned back, and waited out a thunder shower in the RV.  I worked more on the web page.  Claire decided to go back and soak, and I followed when I reached a breaking point.  There were more threatening clouds, but they missed the soaking area.  I had found a really warm area in the river, and in an hour I was thoroughly hot soaked through, and colored somewhat like a freshly boiled lobster everywhere that had been under water.  I had enough soaking, as hard to believe as that is....  :-)  I snapped this photo of the solar powered US Coast & Geodetioc Survey river monitoring telemetery station located near where the Boiling River joins the Gardiner.

From the angle and type of antenna, it appears to use satellites for communications.  We returned to the campground and spent the remaining time finishing the web page, and readying it for upload.  By 9:30 we were both in bed.

PLANS:  This is completed September 28 at the National Forest Service's Eel Creek campground south of Reedsport on the central Oregon coast.  There are few campers here now, and the campground closes October 2.  We will continue moving south along this beautiful coast as slowly as the spirit moves us, into California and down at least to San Francisco, unless we feel the need to speed up or turn inland when the weather turns rainy.  This coast is cool, most days in low 60's and nights in the 40's, with fog most mornings;  in this dampness we need morning heat.  In rain it would be unpleasant, and the "dry" season does end sometime in October.  We picked the best time to visit here, and are enjoying the fall weather.  :-))

Until next time, ENJOY!

We are....  :-)