It’s been quite awhile since my last post.  We’ve been off the grid without internet or cell phone service since Wednesday the 29th.  We left the Ponderosa RV Park in Cody on Wednesday to find one of the campgrounds we scoped out on our first trip into Yellowstone NP that I wrote about HERE.  We wanted to be closer to the park so we could take day trips in the Silverado without having to drive over 50 miles just to get to the East Entrance.  We did three more trips into Yellowstone on the 29th, 30th, and 31st of July.

But first, I’d like to say – Although this blog is read by family, friends, acquaintances, and even some folks I haven’t yet met; one of the main reasons I do this blog is to provide for a personal record of our adventures and to save these memories for future posterity.  In many ways, I think this blog is better than a photo album.  Therefore, I’d like to catch you up on our three days in Yellowstone and post some of the many pictures that we took, which constitute our most precious memories into separate posts…  one for each day we toured Yellowstone with our grandson.  Hopefully, we (and our grandson) can look back on these memories in the years to come in order to relive our travels and adventures.

With that said, let me begin on July 29th (Wednesday) by sharing the nice campground we found just 16 miles from the East Entrance.  The Rex Hale Campground is in the Shoshone National Forest.

We scored a 50 Amp site with water.  Yes, I said a 50 Amp site… something that’s almost unheard of in national forest campgrounds  We took site 11.

The nightly fee was only $10 since I have a disabled veterans golden access pass.

The camp hosts were the nicest couple.  Gene and Kay Onstine.  Gene told us they’ve been hosting here for years.  He took the time to point out some of the rock formations and the ‘faces’ you could see with a little imagination.

Here’s our site…  We left the slides in and the satellite dish down while we were away because the camp host warned us about hefty gusts of wind that come through the canyon without warning.

And our view…

Our closest neighbor was this deer in our ‘backyard’…

After we got set up in our site we decided to drive on into Yellowstone even though we knew it was a late start.  This time we took our little dog “Coach” along.

Today, we wanted to turn right at Fishing Bridge and see how much of the lower loop we could do in a counter-clockwise fashion.  You may recall that we tried the clockwise direction on our Monday trip, but we only made it as far as Old Faithful before the rain and lateness of the day forced us to turn back.   Well, today wasn’t much different (except the weather was nice) because we only made it as far as Canyon Village before it got too late to continue on.

But before we even got very far out of the campground… I ran out of gas in the Silverado!

We were only a mile (or less) from the gas station at Pahaska Tepee which is only a couple miles from the East Entrance.

We forgot to fuel up before we hooked up the truck behind the Coach to tow it to the campground.  We thought about it when we unhooked the truck but figured we could make it to the nearest gas station.  Luckily, I had a gallon can (empty of course) and I was able to flag down the first car that came by.  The nice couple took my gas can, filled it up, and brought it back to us in a matter of 10 minutes.  I was tempted to download the Harley to go get gas, but didn’t have to, thanks to the nice couple in their Porsche Cayenne that stopped to help us.

Once again, I was able to use my disabled veterans golden access pass to get in the park for free.

We drove over Sylvan Pass which we’ve became quite familiar with over the course of our 4 trips into the park.

After Fishing Bridge, we turned right towards Canyon Village.

Our first stop was the Mud Volcano Area.

And then we toured around the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River area.  There were several different pullouts, loops, and scenic drives in and around this beautiful ‘grand’ area of Yellowstone Park.

At the Canyon Village area, we toured the gift shop, general store, and visitors center.

We saw buffalo, antelope, elk, and even bears throughout the day.  The bears were too far off to get a good picture.

And here’s some more pictures back at our campground in the evening.

Another great evening with a full moon.

Author’s note:  It’s late Sunday night as I finish up this post and we are in Thermopolis, WY.  I’ll try to get caught up as soon as possible with Yellowstone posts about the 30th, 31st, and then our day of ‘just hanging around’ the campground on the 1st of August.  Then I have to catch you up on our trip here to Thermopolis on the 2nd.