As in most places we take afternoon side drives to scope out the territory.

The skies to the south, with winds from the west,  are smoke filled from the Eureka fire soutrhwest of us. 
At our spot it is clear and can't smell the smoke at all. 

The last night in West Yellowstone while Terry was off fishing I snuck into town and got him a new dutch oven as he left his big one back in AZ. Nice small deep one for traveling. He has bread dough baking in it as I type.

I have been busy searching on the internet for a truck tail light replacement. Seems we take some awful wash boardy back roads and it short of shook (broke) loose. A plastic piece broke holding it in place. Tried super glue, no hold, so now taped in place. Top screw mounting broke, bottom screw still holding. Only two screws hold this whole thing in place.

I am confused as on one parts place implies there is a difference in the light used in a two wheel , and dual rear wheel truck like we have. So have emails out asking for the straight scope before I order as other sites don't say anything about different sizes. Also need to ask if they ship USPS Priority Mail to General Delivery. It gets complcated on the raod getting things sent to you, don't ya know.

Will be moving on next Monday to another big BLM campground northeast of Norris, MT. Want to get there early for the holiday upcoming weekend as it is colse enough to Bozeman and a popular raft, tube, floating area on the Madisom. So should be lots of people out in force. 

Ops gotta go, Terry, Terry, bread is done. Yum.

He sez it has to cool a bit, yet.

Tuesday August 13
Some days are like that.
Most people would call yesterday a big day, but to us it was just another day of moving on.
Why a possible big day for others... That is those who their whole vacation is going to Yellowstone National Park and what did we do.  We entered at the north entrance and drove right on through to the west entrance, without stopping. Even if we wanted to with a big rig it's kind of hard to do that even if you wanted. The views were nice but nothing new to us. 
What is new to us is we found a great FS campground 'Bakers Hole' just north of West Yellowstone. A first come first served campground. No reservations... our kind of campground.  We got here about 11 AM and had many sites open for us to choose from. And did I mention we secured a long pull through right across from the Madison River. With my Golden Pass $8 They even have electric for $22 ($11 with a G Pass) but we didn't need that and with our site with full sun (when it shines) on the river insted of being back in the trees, this is so much better.  Close to town so we can run into town on a whim, so much better than those high cost cramped RV Resort sites that you will find in town. If you want to pay $50 - $100 a night go for it. This FS campground is the place to be.  Now as we are here we find RVers come through the campground late afternoon looking for a site and find no sites available. How strange. Get here about noon and you would be happy campers. 

X marks the spot.

What a change it is to be over here in West Yellowstone... It is cool 70s daytime and now get this 30s at night. Birr...
And to think we cmplained about all the HEAT just a short time back.
Ya know in Yellowstone they celebrate Christmas on Aug. 25. I was in Bridge Bay campground one year a this time and we got 6 inches of snow on the of the pup up camper I had at the time. The host stopped by to invite us to the party. They celebrate as many leave (summer interns... collage students working the summer and have to head home for fall classes) shortly after as the season is starting to come to a close about then.
The Madison right across form our site.

We signed up for four nights as we will decide later if we stay over the weekend or move on sooner.
I lounged around the campsite today and Terry did his thing hitting the tourist trap of West Yellowstone.
As places go West Yellowstone is not all that bad with wide streets and laid out with some order. 
Oh it does ahve a Arbys and the Roast Beef medium was up to our standards in size and taste. 
On Wednesday we do our usual, and go on a scouting mission up the road to check possible future camping and fishing locations.
HW 191 going north is under construction and the two fishing access and campgrounds are listed on Recreation.gov as been closed all season. But not so on the Forest Service web site. I called and the ranger... he  siad they are open if you just show up. So we want to check them out and the road.

These are on the Gallatin River up US 191 and also want to get over to the Ennis, MT area as there are several fishing access and campgrounds over there on the Madison.
US 287 and 287 come together at Ennis, MT.

So Wednesday will be a big day as I say. 
A Big Rig looking for a Tent experience. 
 
 

Thursday August 8
Ran out of day trips so we moved on.
Well our time was up at the last FAS as we had been there for 7 days. So we moved up river to the Carballa BLM Rec Area.  Just north of Gardiner, MT. This is getting old but it's Free here also. So in four weeks we have spent under $50 in campground fees.

We are here as we had mail forwarding sent to Gardiner. When we went to town yesterday it ws already at the Post Office. We got propane at the Americas dealer and they let us fill our water bins there also. Very friendly. Checked out the local grocery... NorthEtrance Grocery or somthing like it. WOW wouldn't want to have to live here and pay those prices. Everything was at least double. Found a commercial RV park on the edge of town that we can dump at for $6 when we head out to go through the Park. So we can leave whenever it strikes us. But most likely will stay through the weekend. The determining factor is Terry is catching fish. I think he said his last Brown was 18" along with several more White fish. Fishing is good, a great spot for free, right on the Yellowstone River. What's not to like.  While I'm typing this Terry is in town doing laundry. Chores still have to be done. And he just loves doing them. Sure I'm spoiled, but I kind of got used to it, Don't Ya Know. 

When in town to get our mail the Post Office was closed for the lunch hour so we took a short drive into the Park. Love my Senior Pass since we get in free. Free is good..  Just a short drive to Mammonth Hot Springs. As you can see by the sign at the entrance station the campgrounds and lodges are FULL. This will not be a problem as we are not going to stop in the park but head right on over to West Yellowstone.Will check out Henrys Lake which should I dare say, has free camping at a county park  on the west side. We have stayed there before.

And full of people. We found a place to turn around and headed back out of the park.

Along the road these people were going nuts in the hot springs. Terry said you want to go back and take a dip...  He loves Hot Springs. And I said all those people are camping and have not bathes for ages. YOU want to get in the water with them.  He changed his tune.
I know of some hot springs in the back country further north in our travels for him to enjoy. 

Later took a short side road up a Tim Miner Creek Road. I like to check out the campground off the beaten path, knowing we can't pull our rig up to them bet we can see what is available for the real campers. This time the road like most times turned up ruff and narrow, and we couldn't even make to the campground at the rod turned muddy. I'm in a dually which has no traction even on wet grass let alone in mud. So turned back failing in our quest. 

We are camped about in the center of the picture on the right side of the river. 

The Montana landscape just goes on forever.

 

Sunday Augest 4
Day trips, day trips, and more day trips, and a little fishing.

First off I borke a cardinal rule about museums... I went to one. Terry pleaded and it was free so what the heck.
But, Ya know there are three museums in this town and one was more than I could take.

About Livingston

This was a fancy rail station in its day...

Across from the station is Dan Bailey's famous Fly Shop and Terry had to stop in to check it out. 

And I just knew you wanted the fishing report.

On one day after we were tired of Arby's as here in Livingston we think the local franchise is skimping its customers. As we love Arby's and know how big a sandwich shoud be. We have been to this place three times and order a Medium and it comes out as a Regular, put in a Medium wrapper.) 
So this time we hit Mark's In and Out. Been here since 1954. No inside seating  and nothing outside. Just good food and great Malts. We had a Burger, Fries, and Malts. It was soooooo good.  This is a actual picture of people waiting in line.

Notice you just pull in if you can find a spot, get out and order.

Saturday we thought we would go to the Park County Fair and check out some fair food.
I read the 4-H was serving food.

This has been going on for about 65 years... But me thinks things are not going so well.
This is not your Iowa State Fair.

Take a look around and this is about 2 PM on Saturday.  Do you see people?

Sure there were a few people scattered about but still.

This was the extent of the vender area.

The midway... Blow up things for kids.

Inside the 4-H and crafts building.
On one end of this building is the door to the 4-H food offerings.  The door was shut and a sign said it would reopen at 3 PM. We didn't wait around. 

Another day or was it the same day, it gets confusing from one day to the next, we went looking at other campgrounds. This one was up high and was not meant for big rigs which is par for the course for the forest service. 

The view from heading up to the campground.

Next off to check out Gardiner as we will be heading that way in a week or so to get our mail before we head through Yellowstone Park. Also wanted to check out possable camp sites as we head further south. We like to scout ahead as you just can't pull a big rig up a dirt road to a possible campground and not be able to get back out.

Rafting is a big deal in Gardiner. Looks like they rent the regular scool buses for the summer. Good shuttle transportation for the boat owner and money for the school district. 

This Tourist Trap is in the Big Leagues..

 

And the arch which we will be going through soon.

And back at the campground... Terry got out his fly rod and wondered up the river a bit. Came back to report he had caught a 16" Brown trout and a 14" Mountain White fish. Yep, he had smiles on his face.

Now that it is Sunday we are hanging low waiting for the weekenders to leave. This Fishing Access Site is packed wall to wall with trucks and boats. They are parked on both sides of the road overflowing the boat parking lot. The joys of full timing when Sunday evening comes and you can have the place to yourself again.

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