venturing4th: August 2017

Good for Another Six Years - 8/31/17

The main reason why we travelled along I-90 to Box Elder, South Dakota, is that our driver's licenses are about to expire (after 5 years!!) and I needed to get mine renewed. While we were there we got the paperwork for Frederick to renew his license on-line when he is six months out from his birthday in July.

There it is, our "home" building on the edge of Rapid City.

Americas Mailbox also has a few spots for RVs to hook-up. Not very glamorous, but it served our purpose!

Canyon Rim North - 8/27/17

It was a beautiful day to hike along the Canyon's North Rim which is loaded with world-famous scenery of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Brink of the Lower Falls.

View of the Lower Falls from Lookout Point, above the trail to Red Rock Point.

We took the trail down to Red Rock Point where a nice woman took our picture with the Falls in the background.

Lower Falls from Red Rock Point.

Lunch Spot at the top of the trail to the Brink of the Lower Falls. We didn't take that trail again having done that in the spring.

View of the Upper Falls from our lunch spot.

Today's hike:
Length - 4.2 miles (6.83 km)
Duration - 2 hours, 22 minutes
Elevation gain - 542 feet (162 meters)

Traveling "Home" - 8/30/17

We had a great Service Advisor, Shawn, in Billings and he recognized the problem we have been having with the fuel injectors which causes the check engine light to come on. The "fix" he suggested (and Mercedes, too) is to add a bottle of cetane to the fuel tank. The injectors then perceive that the cetane in the fuel is rich enough and they're happy. We shall see if we are happy and this solves the problem. The provident coincidence is that Shawn spotted an oil leak from the new hose that we had installed in El Paso back in the winter. We had to stay an extra day in Billings for the hose to be sent from Los Angles, but we feel fortunate that this problem was found in the shop.

Leaving Billings, we saw some of the industry makes Billings a thriving city.

Leaving Billings we headed diagonally across the south eastern corner of Montana, across about 15-miles of Wyoming and in to Rapid City, South Dakota, our "home".

This part of Montana is virtually un-inhabited but...

the scenery along the highway had lots of hills, knobs and bumps.

Also, some artistic wheat fields and...

Black-Eyed Susans along the roadside. They look like they could have been planted as an edging - charming.

Home at last!

Billings - 8/28/17

Travel day back out the North Entrance all the way to I-90 and on to Billings. We were anxious to get to Billings because - Suprise! - the check engine light came on in the car and there is a Mercedes-Benz dealer in Billings.

The Gardner River near the North Entrance to Yellowstone National Park.

Park tour busses at the ready. The North Entrance/Mammoth is where the Park Headquarters is.

Scenery, with the Gardner River, at the North Entrance.

Roosevelt Gate at the North Entrance.

Along the route from the North Entrance to I-90.

Elephant Back Mountain - 8/26/17

Close to home (ie, Fishing Bridge RV park), Elephant Back Mountain hike took us to an observation point that provided a sweeping panoramic view of Yellowstone Lake and surrounding area.

Yellowstone Lake with the Lake Hotel at center bottom of the picture.

Lunch spot.

Today's hike:

Length - 4.62 miles (7.46 meters)

Duration - 2 hours, 39 minutes (including lunch)

Elevation gain - 858 feet (247 meters)

Christmas in Yellowstone - 8/25/17

"Christmas comes twice a year - once at home and once out here!" That's what we used to say 50 years ago when I worked in Yellowstone durning the summer. Since we wanted to have dinner at Old Faithful Inn, "Christmas Day" seemed to be a good day to indulge.

But first, a hike! We chose the hike to Fairy Falls because it is close to the Old Faithful area and because we were unable to hike this trail in the spring because the trail was closed to allow a bear to enjoy a carcass along the trail.

The hike to Fairy Falls passes a newly constructed observation platform that provided a spectacular view of the Grand Prismatic Spring. The walk out to the observation platform was crowded, but most people turned around here and we had the rest of the trail mostly to ourselves.

Fairy Falls is a tall, slender waterfall that falls over 200-feet over a rocky cliff.

If you have enlarged the photos you might see the drone that someone was flying near the falls - near the center of the picture. Drones are actually illegal in the park.

Lunch spot at Fairy Falle.

We continued on the trail past the falls and at a trail junction we came upon these hikers traveling as a group from Denmark. Of course, as usual, they all spoke near-perfect English and told us they had traveled here at this time to see the eclipse - in Nebraska! Apparently there is quite a Danish community in Nebraska.

Not too far from Fairy Falls we came to Spray Geyser 50-yards off the trail.

Our goal, though, was Imperial Geyser, a beautiful, active geyser that was almost continuously erupting.

On our way back we could glimpse Fairy Falls in the distance.

Old Faithful Inn was decorated for Christmas and that evening they were decorating Christmas cookies in the lobby. Santa had visited last night and this morning for breakfast. We had a delicious dinner and...

on our drive back to Fishing Bridge we were rewarded with this rainbow.

Today's hike:

Length - 7.25 miles

Duration - 3 hours, 28 minutes (including lunch)

Elevation gain - 457 feet

Mount Washburn - 8/24/17

Yesterday was a challenging 24 hours! About 7:45 p.m. on Tuesday, 8/22, as I was washing the dishes, my right hand came in contact with the big knife (our 10" chef's knife) and we decided that I needed some attention. We went to the RV office where we learned that there was a clinic at Lake, about 2 miles away, that was open until 8:30p.m. Away we dashed for three stitches.

Wednesday morning, as we were preparing to go out, we heard the sound of water and dashed to the rear of the Airstream where we discovered a burst shore-water hose with water pouring into the street-side bedroom window. The bed-side rug, the end of the bed, and the floor were soaking wet. We put out the bedspread, the linens, plus the rug, on the rack to dry outside.

At about 1:30 p.m. a thunder storm blew in with hail and rain. We moved the drying rack under the big awning to protect it from the rain. By 4 p.m., another storm came through which had wind driven rain that re-wet the bed spread, towels, rug, etc. We brought them inside and draped them over our chairs.

At 5 p.m. we noticed that the rain water from the storms had collected in the big awning which was level with the trailer. Normally we would have the awning at an angle so water could run off, but we were unable to open the awning all the way and tilt it down. The weigh of the water caused the automatic closer not to work so we had to siphon enough water out of the awning "holding tank" so we could push the awning up to release the water. That was enough for one day!

Today we had a lovely hike to the top of Mount Washburn, one of our favorite hikes in Yellowstone.