Tag Archives: Fulltiming

Two more stops

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Due to campground scheduling, we headed south from the West Yellowstone area to end up by Lower Mesa Falls in Idaho.  We are due to be there 3 nights and the campground is right by the lower falls but about 1000′ above them.  There was no cell service but MANY mosquitos!  The campground had electric but no sewer or dump.  It was very cool and wet with rain on and off.  Perfect weather for those pesky ones!

We took a drive to the upper falls (1 mile) to see them and hike to the lower falls (more than 1 mile):

Upper Mesa Falls

Lower Mesa Falls

Part way through our stay at the falls we had to move campsites as Marcia couldn’t get sites for consecutive days.  One of the sites she got was a double spot so we stayed together in that one:

We enjoyed the time in the area, we even went down to the local town (Ashton ID) for eating and supplies.  We also found a spot near a river where people fed the fish in the stream.  We even saw a bunch of bald eagles.  But as always it becomes time to leave.  Back north we go!

Here is shot of our trailer while our friends were following us:

Oddly enough we ended up going through Island Park ID for the third time!  Island Park boasts having the longest main street in the world!  The actual town is 34 miles long but just over 500 feet wide.  This was done during a time when liquor could only be sold in the city limits and there were lots of businesses that used that to their advantage and it appears to have not changed!

Before we got back to West Yellowstone we turned west toward our next stop.  We ended up at the Lewis and Clark Caverns Campground.  Right after we got there we were inundated with snow!  Not real snow but it looked like snow.  It was coming from the Cottonwood trees all through the campground:

There are some caverns to explore here at the park but we looked at the description of the hikes.  Strenuous, crawling, butt-scooting, etc.  Not quite what we were up to doing.  The Chen’s went on and did it and we watched their dog for them.  From their descriptions, it appeared to be a good choice not to go, but they did enjoy it!

The weather was really nice there!

Roxie’s choice

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Time to leave SLC for our meetup.  It was also time for Roxie to find and reserve some spots for us.  One of the issues when full timing, especially in the summer, is finding camping spots on short notice.  I gave her some tips, like using Allstays, Campendium, RVParkReviews, and maps.  She did very good with all of them except the maps.  Roxie does not like maps as much as I do.  I usually use the map to figure out how far we want to go and then figure out where to stay.  She found two locations, one was a state park and the other a county park.  The latter was close to Idaho Falls where we had some business to attend to.

Our first stop, for 2 nights, was at Massacre Rocks State Park.  I vaguely remember seeing the park last year as we drove by it.  We found a spot in their campground that had water and electric and reserved it.  When we got to a park, a fire had just started across the Snake River.  We determined that our site was level enough to use and changed to another.  By this time smoke was filling the air:

The fire kept burning, more up the river as that is the way the wind was blowing.  There was a cabin across the river and in the way of fire but on the slow fire line:

Here is our spot and what the fire looked like at night:

The next day the fire had burned quite a bit more, we will discuss that later.  We took a drive to Register Rock where many travelers inscribed their names on this specific rock.  There was also some artwork that one person created:

The people in Idaho that were managing the fire across the Snake River from the campsite really dropped the ball.  The aforementioned historical cabin was not protected in any way and succumbed to the very slow moving fire:

It would have only taken 2-3 firefighters to stop that advancing fireline.  The bulk of it was grass and it was burning into a very strong wind. It is disappointing to see the lack of concern for historical items.

We moved on to our next destination.  This site was the Jefferson County Lake Campground in Rigby ID.  It wasn’t too far from our current spot or from Idaho Falls.  Here was the view from our trailer:

On our way to the lake, we stopped at the Potato Museum in Blackfoot ID.  It was very interesting, we ate a couple of baked potatoes, and saw the world’s largest potato crisp:

We spent some time in Idaho Falls to shop, pick up packages and, most importantly, find a location to store our handgun.  We knew we were heading to Canada and they don’t particularly care for handguns, let alone Americans bringing in handguns!  We found a wonderful place to take care of our guns, Guns n Gear.  They were very helpful and reasonable in their fee.

We also did a small purchase in Idaho Falls.  We got a couple of kayaks.  We have been looking at them for a while but were waiting for the right time.  It was right:

Alas, we were unable to try them out at the lake right next to us as it was so windy.  I am sure we will find opportunities soon!

We had finally worked out our meeting time with the Chen’s.  It was the day we were leaving so we were right on schedule.