Click on a photo to enlarge it.
After taking photos of the local ground squirrels who lived right next to where Winnie was parked, we headed into
Jackson, the gateway to Grand Teton National Park. First of all, though, we had to look after Winnie! We bought brake fluid, oil, a new sewer hose and tried to find
an "easy-out" to remove screws that are broken off (for our black water tank). A very nice man at a hardware store
came out to have a look at Winnie and even tried to hammer the screws out for us! After failing to budge them even
a millimetre, he told us that an "easy-out" was no use to us and we´d have to go to an RV repair place just outside
Jackson. Well, at least he was honest, we could have ended up buying a drill and bits plus the easy-out at his shop!
We spent an hour in the library and found out that only one road in Yellowstone National Park (adjoins the north end
of Grand Teton) was actually open! By the time we drove into Grand Teton, it was already late afternoon. We found out
we could park up at Coulter Bay campground, but there were no facilities there. So we found ourselves a spot and got
the whole campground to ourselves. The campground was really large and set in the middle of a forest. From there we
went for a walk along the lake and sunk knee-deep in snow. The one thing we don't have with us, are snowshoes!!
It was really peaceful at our little spot until a snowplough came along the next morning, to work on the campground roads! So we
decided to get up! We drove to Jackson dam and had breakfast in the sun surrounded by a winter wonderland. After a
visit down to Dead Mans boat launch, Winnie had a real problem getting back up the really steep hill. Helen was
driving and Kirsten thought she was playing a joke and just driving slowly! Eventually we got to the top and then
Helen said that it was no joke, and that we nearly hadn´t made it at all!!
On the way out to another campground in the National Forest on the eastern side of Grand Teton, we came across a
rescue training exercise for the rangers. A helicopter picking up an "injured" climber on a stretcher (the stretcher
was of course empty) and delivering it to the medics, and then returning to transport a ranger with another "climber"
off the top of a rock. We watched for ages and were really impressed with the helicopter pilot who managed to get
the end of the safety rope hanging a long way below him, directly into the hands of the rescuers even though it was
quite windy and without the rescuer having to move an inch!
The rest of the afternoon was spent taking the sewer attachments of the old hose and fixing them to the new one,
topping up brake fluid, oil and battery. That night it dropped to -3° overnight!
The next day we drove back into Jackson as the road north to Yellowstone was closed and went and got our black water
tank fixed. It turned out that we didn´t have to remove the screws that had got stuck, as the whole piece that they
were stuck inside was removed from the tank anyway! All we needed to do was to get the other 2 screws out and then
remove the old valve and replace it! Oh well, we live and learn! It cost us $32 to find that out! But he was a really
nice man and he drilled out the other screw that had broken off that attaches the washer bottle under the bonnet and
put another screw in for us, filled up our air shocks, checked our spark plugs and gave us some valve caps for our
tyres as we have lost 3 in the last 7 months!!
Afterwards we lost $1-50 in a washing machine that didn´t work, and couldn´t get our money back because no-one was
around! At 3-30pm we drove out of Jackson, heading into Idaho so that we could drive into Yellowstone through the
West entrance which would be opening on Friday 16th April. We stopped overnight at another free forest campground,
and the next day drove into a little place called Victor, which we will only remember because we got Winnie stuck
trying to park on the side of the road! There was a dip about 4 feet from the curb which meant that Winnie´s back
end got stuck. We couldn´t move forwards or backwards. It took about 1.5 hours to take the bikes off (otherwise we
would have broken them off) and then dig trenches into the really hard gravel and put blocks under the tyres so that
we could reverse back out! What a palaver! Thank God we weren´t on tarmac!
After all our hard work we treated ourselves to Burger King (!) and then found an RV park for the night. On Friday
16th, after Helen had copied some forms and got them sent off in the post, we drove up towards Mesa Falls, but the
road was blocked by snow so we had to turn round and drive all the way back to Ashton! Then we headed a different
way up towards Yellowstone, but it was too late to drive all that way so we found another free spot in a forest near
a boat ramp and ended up staying there for 2 nights because it snowed and snowed and snowed!
Finally, on Sunday 18th April we managed to drive into Yellowstone National Park and saw lots of Bison and Elk. By
the time we got to Old Faithful, we´d just missed him going off. So we went to the visitor centre and watched a good
video about the park. Then we rushed off in the snow and hail to see another geyser erupt, but missed that one too!
On the way back to Old Faithful, we managed to see the Beehive geyser erupt and then waited for a freezing 15 minutes
for Old Faithful.
Yellowstone National Park..
The drive up through the park was quite treacherous through all the falling snow that was sticking and making the
driving conditions abysmal. But we finally managed to get up to the only campground that is open in the park, but
decided that we needed electricity so that we could put our heater on and try and dry out Winnie after all the
condensation of the last few days. So we drove 5 miles out of the park and found an RV park in Gardiner for the next
2 nights.
