Planning our trip out west

[StarvingHyena]

Hi Ruthe,
I want to thank you for writing about your travels .... its soooo refreshing to read about traveling / camping rather than "something is wrong with my trailer".

Where are you traveling Escapers all? There must be hundreds of you out there 'doing it' on the back roads somewhere. Lets hear from you .... Please write home and send pictures ... this forum is in danger of getting so boring that it might not be worth the bandwidth to read.

Tom

I appreciate the innovations, the comments on camping locations and areas, the photography, and the comments on our Wild Spaces that are so endangered. Please keep it coming!

[skiman]

Originally Posted by StarvingHyena

Hi Ruthe,
I want to thank you for writing about your travels .... its soooo refreshing to read about traveling / camping rather than "something is wrong with my trailer".

Where are you traveling Escapers all? There must be hundreds of you out there 'doing it' on the back roads somewhere. Lets hear from you .... Please write home and send pictures ... this forum is in danger of getting so boring that it might not be worth the bandwidth to read.

Tom

I appreciate the innovations, the comments on camping locations and areas, the photography, and the comments on our Wild Spaces that are so endangered. Please keep it coming!

Yes, yes, yes!!!!

[RandyT]

Boise has a 21 mile paved bike path following the river through the heart of the city. If you do want hills then check out the Ridgetorivers.org website for 130+ miles of bike trails in our foot hills and then around Bogus Basin (our ski area) 16 miles from downtown.

[holo]

Ditto on enjoying your writing, Ruthe! Have fun on you birthday/eclipse!

And ditto on staying at Gros Ventre Campground in the no generator section...great experiences. I woke up to a mama moose admiring herself in our window. I had to quietly wake Linda and the moose and her baby just hung around for a few minutes.http://www.escapeforum.org/forums/at...1&d=1501456028

[grump]

We stayed at Gros Ventre last September on the way home from picking up our 21. We stayed two nites and both mornings there were 5-6 moose right across the road maybe 150 feet or so away. It was pretty neat. 2nd time I've stayed there, 1st time on my old Harley and in a tent back in August of 2011and there wasn't hardly anyone there.

[Ruthe]

I'm glad people are enjoying these posts. I feel the same way about wanting to read more about actual travels.

We've been in Gros Ventre since last Thursday. So far no moose in the campground but we finally saw a mama and baby at the moose overlook. It's a good campground. We're in F -- away from generators. Our campsite connects to our daughter's via a stony path so it works well. We're also right across from the bathrooms. One upon a time we would be careful to be as far from the bathrooms as possible -- didn't like the noise, wanted to feel like we were in the woods, etc I guess we're older. With dry camping and waking up in the night it's very nice to just walk a short distance. And this morning our hoses reached the water spigot to fill up our fresh tank.

It's a short walk to the river and so pretty.

https://ruthmatilskyworld.wordpress.com/

[CADreamin]

I second (third?) the sentiments about your posts. So nice to read about how people are actually using and enjoying their trailer. Your blog has brought back so many wonderful memories of our trip through Idaho, Montana and South Dakota last year with our two oldest grandsons. We stayed at the Rapid City KOA so that the boys could take advantage of the pool and other activities so we didn't get 'up close and personal' with the wildlife (four-legged, that is). But we all enjoyed our trip immensely nonetheless. (Did the Wind Cave candlelight tour which I highly recommend for those not suffering from limited mobility.) Can't wait to see where you go next. Safe travels.

[Ruthe]

We were supposed to do the Wind CAve CAndlelight tour but I chickened out at the last minute and we did the Fairgounds tour instead. I thought that if claustrophobia didn't get me in Fairgrounds that next time we'd try candlelight.

We're in Jackson for a laundry day today and the traffic is crazy intense. 100,000 people descending here for the eclipse on top of the folks already here is going to be a little scary.

Gros VEntre is pretty busy -- maybe not completely full but pretty close. We're enjoying just being there -- Terry's starting to fish on the river and yesterday I -- very quickly -- took a soak since there are no showers here. Water is COLD.

[CADreamin]

I have claustrophobia and had second thoughts about the Wind Cave candlelight tour right up to the point where we entered the cave. As it turned out, I didn't have a problem with the claustrophobia but I did have an issue with the uneven ground and the low ceilings. (I really wonder why they don't issue hard hats as many of us on the tour endured some pretty good bumps on the head .... ). It's a beautiful tour and I hope you get to experience it one of these days.

You need one of these: The Best Solar Camp Shower | The Wirecutter.

[Ruthe]

The weather has turned colder here and there is haze from the many fires in surrounding state, as well as the Teton forest. We have truly enjoyed Gros Ventre -- And we finally saw the moose come strolling through. Tomorrow we go to Colter BAy

For the moose picture and more please go to my blog.

https://ruthmatilskyworld.wordpress.com/

p.s. I broke the cardinal rule of refrigerator use and put unfrozen meat into the freezer, but after a day and a half it finally froze. We are really counting on that frig next week when the remaining six members of our family arrive. The Colter BAy RV park has full hookups but we aren't allowed to put up our screen tent and there are no bear boxes for the overflow dry food I know we'll have. It's also pretty pricey -- but we needed to have reservations and unlimited water will be nice after two weeks of dry camping.

[Ruthe]

https://ruthmatilskyworld.wordpress.com/

Terry and I just posted eclipse pictures and descriptions to the blog. We're heading back east now. Our stay in the Colter Bay RV Park was really pleasant. It's expensive, but a very convenient location -- spaces are pretty big for an RV park and there are lots of trees. Also full hookups. Within walking distance are the visitor center, a grocery store and laundromat and best of all -- the lake. I was a little annoyed that the only showers are at the laundromat and they are expensive. For what the RV Park charges they really ought to have showers. It would also be nice if they had bear boxes since we couldn't leave anything out.

[Ruthe]

https://ruthmatilskyworld.wordpress.com/

Hi, We just finished the final blog post for our 2017 trip. It took us 5 weeks to get to the Tetons and half that time to get back. Terry figured out that we put about 6000 plus miles on the car -- our longest travel day was between North Platte in Nebraska and Anita Lake in Iowa -- 354 miles. Our shortest was our final leg -- from Kutztown Pa to Highland Park, NJ -- 83 miles -- In between we probably averaged 200 miles a day -- After 3 months in our 19 it does seem strange to be in our big house -- but we're getting used to it pretty quickly.

[Steve Clark]

Thank-You Ruthe, for starting this thread and for all the interest it generated. It was fun following your planning stage as well as all your adventures and activities. Glad you are safely home and getting used to your home again!