7/19/2013–Colter Bay Campground, Teton National Park to Baker’s Hold Campground, West Yellowstone, MT

We left Colter Bay Campground and headed into Yellowstone National Park after dumping our holding tanks and filling with fresh water.

We saw very little wildlife on our way to West Yellowstone.

Once in West Yellowstone, we turned north about 4 miles to Baker’s Hole National Forest Campground where we would be staying for the next 2 nights.

After getting set up, we ate lunch then drove into town to check out the visitor’s center and just looking around to see how much the town had changed.

We were surprised to see that Lapp’s Cabins were still there and not replaced by a bigger, newer business.  We’ve been to West Yellowstone about 4 times in the past for snowmobiling trips and we stayed in one of these cabins on two of those visits.

Driving out by the airport, we found the West Yellowstone smokejumper’s base and went on in said there was a sign indicating that visitors were welcome.

While looking at this display in the lobby, we were greeted by the office manager, a nice young lady who gave us a tour of the facility.

The table behind her is where the jumpers pack their chutes.

This is the drying tower where the chutes hang until ready to be packed.

Each of these boxes of various items have their own chutes and are ready to be dropped to the fire fighting site.

We continued north of Lake Hebgen and had this deer cross our path and jump the fence.

After returning to the campground, we walked out to the river to see if there was any wildlife.

The black in the water of this photo is a beaver who was very busy in the water for a long time.  It eventually went up in the brush and returned with a mouthful of tree limbs.

Back in the water, the beaver drug the limbs as it went with the current, and losing quite a few as it swam away.

Once in the small rapids, it dove underwater and disappeared.

We made plans for an early start the next morning to drive to the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

7/18/2013–A Day Trip to Jackson, Wyoming

While still in Teton National Park, we decided to take a day trip to Jackson, Wyoming.

A beautiful view of the Tetons.

We came across a large bison herd.

We made a quick stop and walked in to see the historical Cunningham Cabin.

They were either very short or had to duck on entering the cabin.

A current resident at the cabin.

Jackson is home to the National Elk refuge where large herds from Yellowstone migrate there during the winter months and return in the spring.

That’s a lot of elk antlers!

The visitor’s center had some very good exhibits.

After lunch in town, we drove to the west of Jackson, then drove up the eastern route through the Tetons on the way back to the RV.

This was a good sized beaver hut.

A couple of views of Jenny Lake.  It’s a popular place to visit in the park on a beautiful day.

Jackson Dam.

And then it was back to the RV for the evening.

7/17/2013–A Day Trip to Old Faithful

When we got going on the morning of 7/17, we didn’t have any particular destination in mind other than to drive about 8 miles north to look at another campground near Teton National Park.

This is our campsite in Teton’s Colter Bay Campground.

We hadn’t packed a lunch to bring with us for the day, but we decided to drive on into see Old Faithful for the day and get some lunch in that area.  Old Faithful was great…the lunch was just okay.

Driving back to the campground, we go by Lewis Falls.

We decided to make a trip to Jackson the following day.

07/15/2013–Cody, WY to Teton National Park

We had a short distance to go today, but it would be slow winding roads all the way, so we were on the road early.

Ken spotted this unusual building on the hill as we headed west.

After an hour or so, we approached the east gate to Yellowstone National Park.

After going over Sylvan Pass, we went by Sylvan Lake.

As we got close to one of many construction areas, we had a view of Yellowstone Lake through the trees.

Our next obstacle was a couple of bison in the road daring cars to pass them.  There was another one off to the side of the road.

There were several pelicans resting in this pond we drove past.

Traffic slowed down quite a bit to take a look at these antique cars in a pullout.

The Tetons range.

After we got parked and had lunch at Colter Bay Campground in Teton National Park, we went out for a drive.

At our first stop, we were just sure this was a moose near the water.  We could swear we even saw it move…however, when we stopped again on our way back to the RV, we saw that we were wrong.

Our next side trip was up a road to Signal Mountain.  I’m thinking it’s called that because there was a cell phone tower at the top.

Here’s a view from the top of that road.

Another view of the Tetons.

Next we took a one way road marked Jenny Lake.  This doe and her fawn crossed the road in front of us.

At the Jenny Lake Overlook, we could see across to a tour boat stop.

This next view is of the waterflow coming out of Jackson Dam.

Then it was back to the RV for dinner and an evening of rest…no cell phone signal, no internet (this will be posted later)…only quiet time for us.  Tomorrow the plan is to head back north into Yellowstone and see what it looks like for getting into the park later in the week.