We recently returned from a one week RV trip to Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is without a doubt the most scenic place I've ever seen. The rivers, mountains, wildlife...all spectacular!

Like a good part of the country, the week of July 4th was unusally hot. It was in the low 90's even at 7,000 ft. elevation. We left our home in Bakersfield, California about 8 am and headed for St. George, Utah. It was 111 degrees when we went through Las Vegas about noontime. It wasn't much better in St. George. We arived at the KOA about 4 pm and it was only 107! The next morning we continued on I-15 for Salt Lake City, Utah. So it was kind of a short driving day as Salt Lake is only about 350 miles from St. George. The following morning we set our sights on Idaho Falls, Idaho. That's where we picked up our daughter and her son who flew in from Palmer, Alaska. Our timing was perfect. We arrived at the airport about 30 minutes early and her plane landed about 15 minutes early so neither of us had a long wait. After loading up her gear we headed East on Highway 20 for West Yellowstone, Montana. It was a short 100 mile jaunt to the West Yellowstone KOA. After checking in and setting up the RV we just relaxed the rest of the day.

Tuesday morning the four of us went into the town of West Yellowstone and went to the Imax Theater to watch a movie about Yellowstone National Park. After that we just bummed around town a bit.

Wednesday morning we all drove through the park in the truck. The West entrance is only 6 miles from the KOA. We drove the lower loop of the park and saw some spectacular sights. We went to Old Faithful and watched the eruption. This is kind of neat; we knew there was a web cam aimed at Old Faithful so we called some friends and family and asked them to go online and find the web cam and look for us. They Googled the web cam, which updates about every 24 seconds or so, and was able to see us standing there in front of Old Faithful! Pretty neat! My buddy, Leo, saved the image and emailed it to me.

Jan and I are at the corner of the sidewalk in the foreground. I'm in a red t-shirt. She's in white t-shirt and blue hat.(click for larger image)

The next day our daughter and her son spent the day in town. My wife and I rode the Harley around the Northern loop of the park. It was better than being in the truck for sure.

Due to the extreme heat and dry conditions, there were no 4th of July fireworks for us. We couldn't even have a campfire.

Friday morning we loaded up everything and started for home. We decided to go home a different route. Instead of taking I-15 the entire way, I went South on I-15 to Salt Lake City then headed West on I-80 eventually making our way to Highway 395 towards Big Pine, California, where my wifes sister and her family live.

Instead of taking I-80 in to Reno, we meandered our way towards 395. At Carlin, Nevada we took Highway 278 South to US 50 West to Highway 376 South to Tonapah, Nevada. At Tonopah we merged with Highway 6 towards 395 and on into Bishop and then Big Pine, California. By the way, all these little-traveled, off the beaten path roads were excellent! They were as smooth as could be. I can only attribute their condition to the lack af big rig traffic.

This was my first time on Highway 6 and the Montgomery Grade. The grade was a steady gradually increasing ascent. I did most of it in 5th gear but had to get down to 4th a couple of times. The Dodge and it's Cummins diesel pulled her just fine! As we topped the grade and started down towards Bishop we could see smoke...as is forest fire smoke. It was hard to tell where it was coming from but we didn't like the looks of it. We started channel surfing on the radio to see if we could get any news on the fire. We eventually heard that the fire was in Lone Pine and Big Pine, California. We immediately called my sister-in-law in Big Pine to get the scoop. She said the fire was close to their place and were told by the authorites to prepare for evacuation! By this time we were only about and hour away from Big Pine. We planned to spend the night there visiting. Even if we hadn't, the fire would have altered our plans because Highway 395 was completely shut down from Lone Pine to Bishop.

We arrived at Big Pine and headed for my sister-in-laws place. At the intersection at the last stop sign before her house there were fire trucks and emergency vehicles of all kinds. A cop stopped me and asked if I could use my rig to block the street to keep a herd of cattle from coming through. Ooookay, I thought! So, like, are the cows going to ram my RV or what? The only thing I know about cows is that they make for pretty good hamburgers and steaks! Anyway, a lady approached me and asked me to move my rig as the cows wouldn't come near it and it would keep them from getting the herd to where they wanted them to go. Sure enough. I'm sitting there looking at a bunch of cows coming down a dirt street, mooing and carrying-on, and all of a sudden they come to a dead stop about 50 yards from my rig...weird! I guess they were thinking something like; don't know what it is-ain't gettin' near it! So I moved the rig as instructed and proceeded to my sister-in-laws place a couple blocks away. My brother-in-law later told me that the lady who asked me to move my rig owned the cattle. Makes sense.

The fire was pretty dang close to the housing tract there. Luckily the winds were down and the fire cooperated and there was no evacuation necessary.

This is taken from their backyard.

After an evening visit and breakfast the next morning, we were on our way home...200 miles to go!

The trip was great! Yellowstone is fantastic! I'd love to go there some Winter...I bet it's beautiful!

Here's all the pics--> Click!

Ps. I figured it was about time my wife got a little experience driving the truck and 5th wheel. She drove for a little over an hour on I-15. She passed a few trucks and got a feel for what it was like. The best part? She didn't even have to change her shorts when she was through!