Ollie in the Wild!

[Patriot]

1 hour ago, johnwen said:

Hey Ya'll...

Wonderful vids!  What type phone are you using?

Reminds me of our travels there last year, but without the smoke 🙂

John

Hey John, 

We both have iPhone 14’s. And I use an IPad Air for most of my postings. Thanks for the kind words, I am far from an expert photographer or videographer, the iPhone does make us all look good. ha! 😊

31 degrees here this morning when I got a nice walk in at 6:45. The perfect time of year to be here in our experience so far. It would not be as enjoyable in the heat. 

David

 

Edited September 22 by Patriot
Added content

[Patriot]

Checked our weather forecast and we decided to add two more days to our stay here at Fishing Bridge here in YS. This will give us a full week to enjoy as much of this gorgeous park as we can. We are staying put in our site! The staff here has been just really good to us. New Loop E is making a perfect base camp for us and I highly recommend it. The bath house and laundry facilities are huge and brand new and kept spotless.

Fired up our trusty Weber and got busy grilling to carry us over for a few days. We have visited 5 NPs on this trip so far. Between a week at Grand Tetons and a week here at YS, Kathy and I both agree YS is our favorite NP. 

Truly a magical place to visit.

 

Happy & Safe Travels!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Patriot]

We extended our stay 2 more days here at Fishing Bridge CP inside Yellowstone NP to give us a full week at this magical park. Why leave? Ha! And the CG staff have been just awesome taking great care of us. Loop E is the where you wanna be if you are gonna stay at Fishing Bridge. The other loops are very close.

This morning we enjoyed a short hike to the overlook at Grand Prismatic Spring.  wow factor for sure.  We enjoyed lunch at the Old Faithful Lodge and watched Old Faithful for the third time since we have been here. Every 90 minutes give or take it does it's thing.

On our way back to Fishing Bridge we pulled off the road and walked out to the shoreline of Yellowstone Lake just to take in the majesty of this huge lake. More proof that the natural beauty surely is everywhere you look here.

This is the time of year travel out west suits us best. A lot less peeps, much more campsite availability, beautiful sleeping temps, very little traffic and no long lines. What more could one ask for? Not a cloud in the sky, and gorgeous temps!

(Excuse the poor audio in the lake vid, it was a little windy) 

 

Happy & Safe Travels from Hull #634 XPLOR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 26 by Patriot

[topgun2]

Great view of Grand Priz!

Beautiful day!

Great looking lady - but - not too sure about that guy she is with!

Stay safe!.

Bill

[Patriot]

10 minutes ago, topgun2 said:

Great view of Grand Priz!

Beautiful day!

Great looking lady - but - not too sure about that guy she is with!

Stay safe!.

Bill

Still looking for the snow front you said was moving through. 🙄 You must be watching a local channel! Ha!  😂 Stay dry, I do believe you are going get some hard rain.

I did have a short encounter with a bear in Montana at Beartooth Pass in Cook City. Fun times!

We bought him a T-shirt and all was good.

 

Edited September 25 by Patriot

[MAX Burner]

Unless you've already done so, be sure to take your lovely bride around the Grand Loop to Mammoth Hot Springs - spectacular views!

Enjoy, @Patriot - we've been to YNP twice already this year!!!  Love it, always something new to experience there.

[topgun2]

13 hours ago, Patriot said:

I did have a short encounter with a bear in Montana at Beartooth Pass in Cook City. Fun times!

In Cooke City there is a chocolate store just to the left of the Sinclair gas station.  Hopefully you found it.

Great fudge and this lady's "bearclaws" are the best I've ever had.

I assume that you will either be taking the Beartooth Highway towards Red Lodge or the Chief Joseph Highway towards Cody.  Either way - both are great roads.  Its a bit of a shame its relatively late in the year in that a good friend of mine is the guide at the Beartooth fire tower and it is now closed for the season.  In any case, I would not want to tow the Ollie up to that tower.

With regards to the forecast rain - The main storm headed towards western North Carolina hasn't even made landfall down in the Gulf yet.  But, we still got 6.44 inches of rain overnight.  Current predictions are for totals of rain to reach as high as 20 inches.  I'm guessing that this amount of rain will put a stop to the talk of drought.  Hopefully all of those residents that live near streams/rivers have enough sense to get to higher ground and that any land slides do not affect humans.

Bill

 

[Patriot]

This big fella was out munching this morning not far from our site here at Fishing Bridge. We have a large herd of Buffalo being farmed not far from our home in Western NC. It’s still pretty neat to see them in the wild. The guy that owns the fiver you see had eyes the size of teacups. 😄 His expression was priceless.

Onward with a short drive to Cody in the morning! We will be there a few days and longer if we really like it! 

 

Edited September 26 by Patriot

[Patriot]

12 hours ago, MAX Burner said:

Unless you've already done so, be sure to take your lovely bride around the Grand Loop to Mammoth Hot Springs - spectacular views!

Enjoy, @Patriot - we've been to YNP twice already this year!!!  Love it, always something new to experience there.

@MAX Burner Yes! We did that last Sunday…awesome views and the weather was perfect! Did you guys camp inside the park? If so where and your thoughts on the CG. 

Edited September 27 by Patriot

[Patriot]

Enjoying our last what we thought was going to be a nice quiet evening here at Fishing Bridge CG in Yellowstone, we had an unexpected Oliver visit and showing. Where does a 2000# Bison graze? Anywhere he wants!! I kept real quiet, he had no questions, but he loved our Oliver.

What a last night at YS send off! 😂

The Beast head to head with our Beast of Burden.

 

So glad he did not munch our SL mini cable. He tugged on it a few times as he ripped grass out of the soil.

 

Glad we decided to enjoy dinner inside.

Edited September 27 by Patriot

[MAX Burner]

Beautiful sunrise at Pancho Villa SP, Columbus, NM this AM - headed to Old Mexico for lunch today...

Magnus guarding the perimeter with D and Oscar inside enjoying their BRCC morning Joe (note our newly minted wooden signage made for us by our friend, Coy):

@Patriot - FYI: we stayed at Norris CG and loved it there...  We felt it was closer to the sights and hikes we wanted to explore.  We've also stayed at Fishing Bridge and Madison and thought they were just as awesome.

Enjoy, Explor, and Experience it all, brother!

Cheers...

IMG_2848.HEIC

Edited September 27 by MAX Burner

[Patriot]

So we left YS after a week of awesome fun touring and hiking  around and taking in the sights and we headed out the east gate to Cody for our next place to base camp with XPLOR. Came up on this gorgeous pull off and decided to capture a vid.

Safe Travels!

 

Edited September 30 by Patriot

[Patriot]

We are based camped at the Ponderosa CG right in Cody. A lot to do and see here and this town has a really nice vibe. Landed another nice FH site and even a little shade. Tomorrow morning we will get breakfast at Roosters and then head out to Bear Creek Pass and a place called The Red Lodge.

Safe Travels!

Edited September 30 by Patriot

[Patriot]

We left Cody the land of Buffalo Bill Cody and arrived at Devils Tower KOA this afternoon. The sites are close to DT have FH’s and are level. Yay! The staff was welcoming and really helpful. We will get a good nights rest and check out this National Monument. 

The drive through Big Horn National Forest was just pretty spectacular. 

Safe Travels and Happy Camping!

 

 

Our site with a decent views of DT.

Edited October 1 by Patriot

[johnwen]

1 hour ago, Patriot said:

We left Cody the land of Buffalo Bill Cody and arrived at Devils Tower KOA this afternoon. The sites are close to DT have FH’s and are level. Yay! The staff was welcoming and really helpful. We will get a good nights rest and check out this National Monument. 

The drive through Big Horn National Forest was just pretty spectacular. 

Safe Travels and Happy Camping!

 

IMG_2221.mov 71.74 MB · 0 downloads

 

 

Our site with a decent views of DT.

Are they still showing Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind every night at the KOA?

:)

[Patriot]

5 minutes ago, johnwen said:

Are they still showing Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind every night at the KOA?

🙂

Yes, every night at 7 pm. Ha!

[johnwen]

10 minutes ago, Patriot said:

Yes, every night at 7 pm. Ha!

You should try Jupiter campground, just inside the National Park....1st come 1st serve boondocking with many turkeys walking through the campsites.  As you know, lots of hiking around. (2 years ago)

[John Dorrer]

On 9/27/2024 at 9:18 PM, Patriot said:

We are based camped at the Ponderosa CG right in Cody. A lot to do and see here and this town has a really nice vibe. Landed another nice FH site and even a little shade. Tomorrow morning we will get breakfast at Roosters and then head out to Bear Creek Pass and a place called The Red Lodge.

Safe Travels!

 

[Patriot]

We are here right now -https://www.nps.gov/deto/index.htm and had a decent hike around the base. In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the tower and over 1000 surrounding acres a national monument. We are camped essentially on the door step of this tower. We woke up to a nice crisp 37 degrees but were both toasty warm inside our Oliver aka XPLOR. There were there people climbing the tower today as we hiked around its base which was pretty awesome to see.

Onward tomorrow saying so long to Wyoming to XPLOR parts of South Dakota.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Patriot]

We are based camped at Horse Creek CG, near Hill City SD. A nice little CG nestled in the Black Hills of SD. We landed a nice long end site with a great view of the Black Hills and right on the perimeter of the National Forest. Headed to see Mount Rushmore aka “the faces”, needles highway, Spearfish Canyon, and Custer SP. Who knows maybe a little dinner at the Alpine Inn? 😋 

Safe Travels and Happy Camping!

 

No fire ban here, so we enjoyed the warmth of a hot fire and continued to plot and plan for the next few days. With careful overwatch, later in the evening I doused it before we knocked off for the day. Super quiet here with very few peeps and jeeps. 😊

The barbwire fence you see is the actual border between XPLOR and BH National Forest.

 

Edited October 3 by Patriot

[Patriot]

Completely enjoyed the presidential walk around Mt Rushmore, driving through Custer SP and Needles Highway is a must see! The drive and the views were incredible. We were stomping hungry 😄 and had a fabulous tenderloin dinner at the Alpine Inn. The meal was perfect and the homemade deserts were awesome. We highly recommend the Alpine Inn for dinner in Hill City. 🤩

Off to Wall, SD tomorrow making our way east. Our hearts are very heavy about the conditions left behind by Helene. We look forward to getting home and volunteering where ever we can help to our fellow North Carolinians. Hopefully we will find roads open so that we wont have to detour to Atlanta. We think I40 east of Asheville is open from what we are learning. We will probably have to go to Wytheville, Va and drop down on I77 and pick up 40 east.  

 

Dinner at the Alpine was On! May head back today for lunch it was soooo good. The horseradish a must have with any steak was super potent! Loved it!

Deserts are house made..

 

 

Edited October 4 by Patriot

[topgun2]

I believe that your assumptions about getting home are correct.

40 west of Asheville will be closed for some time.  26 north of Asheville will be closed at least until Spring.  26 south of Asheville had problems but those are now cleared.  Other highways - like 276 north of Brevard and south of Brevard are closed due to landslides, but, I've not heard of anything that would prevent you from getting west on 40 from 77 or simply taking two lanes from 77 over towards your place.

In any case - be careful!

Bill

[Patriot]

We are departing Hill City this morning, and headed northeast to Wall, SD and it appears to be just in time. We had the opportunity to visit and spend time at Mt Rushmore, Custer SP and Needles Highway on Oct 3rd. Beautiful.

We have an app called “Watch Duty” and learned about a fire 🔥 in Custer SP not far from our base camp. If you don’t have this free app I highly recommend it. 

Thanks to our Starlink Mini we are staying weather and fire aware. The dry west is a tinder box!

https://www.keloland.com/news/local-news/fire-warning-evacuation-near-little-devils-tower-area-friday/

Onward! 

Edited October 5 by Patriot

[Patriot]

Landed our rig XPLOR in Wall, SD we did a little shopping and a walk through of the Famous Wall Drug Store. It was ok…more of the same touristo t shirt type stuff. We are still spoiled by Buc-ee’s ha!

After Walls Drug visit we set up base at camp Sleepy Hollow CG. Then headed to the Badlands NP convientently only 8 miles away. It was a super windy park visit, not at all crowded and cool temps for sure. Gotta love the America the Beautiful pass which provides free entry into All National Parks unless otherwise posted.

The Badlands was established as a National Monument in 1939 and became a NP in 1978. The name Badlands comes from the Lakota Indian tribe who called it Mako Sica aka - Badlands. This is some of the roughest territory we have ever seen. It is almost like being on a different planet.

Please excuse the poor audio in my vid. It was super windy.

 

Cheers and Safe Travels! 

 

Edited October 6 by Patriot

[johnwen]

On 5/11/2022 at 2:53 PM, Patriot said:

Indeed, thanks! The trout fishing was ok too! 

 

Buffalo National Grasslands is about 6 mi south of wall...park right on the edge of a cliff :)  Boondocking of course.