Jackie and Austin Visit

Whitefish and Kalispell

Last Monday I decided to check out the two larger towns near West Glacier. Whitefish has a beach, and it was in the upper 80s, so thought it might be nice to check it out. I got close enough to see that it was pretty small, and there were way too many people and way too much traffic to get to the beach, so I went to the main street shops and restaurants area instead. Aimless shopping is not really my favorite thing, so I didn’t spend long here before driving around more of Whitefish, and then heading over to Kalispell. This was a pretty large town, and even had a Costco so I was able to pick up a few things. After dinner I went to see the new Thor movie before heading back home for the night.

Travel Day 1 - Anaconda, MT

On Tuesday it was time for me to leave Glacier, and of course I had issues with my slide. Eventually I was able to manually override the controller that is supposed to be keeping the motors for each side in sync and get it back in, but this was really frustrating. It was a pretty easy, although pretty slow, 4 hour, 214 mile drive down to Anaconda, Montana, which was about halfway to my next stop. The campsite wasn’t anything special, although I did get a pull-through site that was long enough so I didn’t have to unhook the trailer, which is a nice bonus when just staying for one night:

Travel Day 2 - Island Park, ID

On Wednesday I made the three hour, 150 mile drive down to Island Park, Idaho, which is just 15 miles from the West Yellowstone entrance to Yellowstone National Park. The campsites are closer together than I would prefer, but it is nice to have full hookups, cell service, and a clear view of the sky for Starlink to work again:

I had to force the slide out here, but at least I was able to get it out since my sister Jackie and my brother-in-law Austin were going to be arriving in two days and the extra space was definitely needed. Since I actually had sufficient cell service, I called the trailer manufacturer again to get some help troubleshooting the issue. Supposedly there is a troubleshooting flow chart that they can send me, but the lady I talked to never sent it. I wasn’t too concerned because I didn’t want to take any chances with bringing the slide in and getting it stuck before Jackie and Austin arrived, so I put off following up on that and did laundry instead. One very convenient thing about this campground was that it had a full laundromat on site, so for a fairly reasonable $12.25 I was able to get my laundry done without having to leave the campground.

Errand day

On Thursday, I had to run some errands. My truck was past due for an oil change, I guess when towing the computer is not as good at predicting when an oil change will be required, so I got the notification that one will be due soon and the notification that I was past due on the same day. The truck is still new enough that it is hard to say for sure, but the computer said an oil change was required after the first 10,000 miles, but looks like on this trip it will probably be required every 7,000 or so with towing the trailer mixed in. Not too bad, but I’ll need to keep a better eye on it instead of waiting for the alert.

Unfortunately the closest place to do a non-scheduled oil change was over an hour away, so plenty of more driving. The town did have a Walmart and a decent grocery store, so at least I could knock out my errands quickly in one town.

Grand Tetons

On Friday, Jackie and Austin flew in to the Jackson Hole airport, which is located on the south end of the Grand Tetons National Park. We grabbed lunch at the golf course/tennis club (I was kinda surprised they let us in), and then went in to Grand Tetons to do do a hike around String Lake and Leigh Lake: We did a little over six miles out and back, but it was a nice, flat hike that mostly stayed along the lake shores, so there were some really nice views:

On the way home, we saw a large herd of elk pretty far off in the distance: And also a moose that was much closer to the road:

Yellowstone

On Saturday, we went to Yellowstone, starting with Old Faithful:

Next we stopped by Kepler Cascades:

We saw lots of elk, but this one was pretty close to the road and had one of the larger racks that we saw:

We also saw lots of bison, but not many as close to the road as this one:

Next we stopped by Fishing Bridge to enjoy the view:

We then went to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and first saw this view of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River from Artist Point: Then made our way over to the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River:

As we were headed to our next stop, Austin spotted a black bear by the side of the road. By the time I got the truck turned around, it was crossing the road: Two cubs weren’t too far behind and chased her across the road (sorry it is blurry, they ran pretty quickly and came out of nowhere):

It was less than another 20 minutes of driving before we came across another black bear:

We finally got to Mammoth Hot Springs without another bear sighting, but these elk were lounging around like they owned the place:

The Mammoth Hot Springs were pretty cool, part of them looked like they were made of ice:

Our final stop of the day was Artist Paintpots:

Grand Tetons Day Two

On Sunday we went back to Grand Tetons National Park, starting with the Signal Mountain Summit Road which offers amazing views:

Next we did a little over five miles of the Bradley Lake and Taggart Lake trail. The views were great: Not really sure what it was about this trail, but I did not do well, I ended up pretty dizzy and having to sit for a good while to recover. Fortunately after a snack and sitting for a bit I started to get back to normal, and we made it back without issue.

Next we went to the Snake River overlook:

The last stop of the day was Oxbow Bend:

Fairy Falls

On Monday, Jackie and Austin were leaving, so I took them back to the airport in the morning and then stopped on the way back to see the Fairy Falls. It was a little over five mile out and back trail, but it was almost perfectly flat, so it was an easy hike. The falls were nice but it was very crowded, so it was hard to get a good shot, especially with the sun dropping right behind them:

Tuesday ended up being productive but not a very fun day. I had some planning, scheduling, and purchasing tickets for some activities in a coming stop. I found out my COBRA auto payment was apparently not auto paying, so took some time to get that straightened out (hopefully), and finally writing this blog post. I really need to do better about not letting a week go by without writing, as they get pretty long and take a long time to put together.

Gas Update

I’ve been lucky in that most of my recent towing days haven’t required more than one fill-up, which makes life easier for me. I’ve also been pretty pleased, my truck has been getting really good fuel economy while driving around Yellowstone and Grand Tetons, seems like the 45 MPH speed limits and relatively flat roads really help with fuel economy. Fill-ups since last update:

Total: