Summer Vacation…Yellowstone!
We headed out east this year for our summer vacation…destination Yellowstone, Wy. So far the furtherest we’ve been out east. As I mentioned in our previous post our plan was to boondock most of the summer, to help with our budget and that, we have been doing. Our travels through eastern Oregon and Idaho, took us to West Yellowstone where we found the most amazing boondocking site near Island Park, ID. We were planning on spending 2 weeks there and 1 week at the Grand Tetons. But after a couple days at the boondocking site near the Grand Tetons we chose to come back to this amazing site. Why? for the simple reason that the boondocking sites in the GT were limiting. Being a 40fter we had to find a place we can both fit and access easily, meaning the road had to be decent. And internet is a must as our livelihood is tied to being able to be online. The sites we found did not meet up to those needs.
But that was okay cos’ we found most of our fun time was spent in Yellowstone NP itself…site seeing, fishing, relaxing and meeting up with our eldest son.
The road trip over to the Grand Tetons was a little scary, as we traversed the mountains to get over to Wilson and Teton Village on our way to Jackson Hole and then on to our boondocking site. Hauling 40ft behind you on those steep inclines kinda makes you hold your breath til you are at the bottom. But the Tetons are A.M.A.Z.I.N.G…they are so huge that they looked surreal every time I looked up at them. Although…it’s not a pet friendly place at all. Yeah, I know National Parks aren’t known to be pet friendly, but at least there are places to hang out and things you can still do with your dog in Yellowstone NP…but we felt very limited in Grant Tetons NP. BUT…have you all heard of the B.A.R.K Ranger Program. Well I’m sure there will be mixed feeling about it but I’m excited to hear about it. All the same we did enjoy our stay there even though it was only for a couple days.
Our site wasn’t bad per se, it had great views, mostly easy access and it was close to the park. But the Internet was not dependable at all and it started to get crowed as many, much like us didn’t want to take on the rough narrow road to the Upper Teton View site.
While visiting the Tetons, we drove around Jenny Lake, had a picnic by Lizard Creek and even got to see some Wild Horses. We shopped inJackson Hole, an interesting party town from the looks of it but it had much more reasonable shopping then West Yellowstone. Keagan earned his Junior Ranger badge for each park while we explored. Those workbooks are chuck full of info, we all learned a lot along with him.
Our trip highlight was experiencing Yellowstone and all it has to offer. We spent almost 3 weeks there and were able to explore it from end to end. The town of West Yellowstone, was a busy and expensive touristy town.
If you ask my little person what he enjoyed the most…he’d say all the animals, especially our black bear cub sighting.
If you ask Doug…he’d say the fishing.
Me? Well, definitely meeting up with my eldest son and knowing he’s thriving, but back to the park…the amazing natural beauty. I loved the thermal features, the expansive (there’s my word of the year) valleys and mountains, the forests, the rivers…gosh, I could not get enough! Check out some videos we took and I made of our trip Here.
We also took a trip to the “Top of the World” as we drove through Lamar Valley, one of my favorite places, and on to Beartooth Pass. We were up there playing in the glaciers in the middle of Summer!
Okay, so you boondockers are gonna want take note of the coordinates to this amazing spot, just 20mins from West Yellowstone. It’s called 
Bootjack BLM: 44.5781,-111.341. There are a lot of spots there some, spaces are big enough to have a rally/meet up with other families. Our sweet spot could host 4-5 trailers, it even had a homemade swing!
Well we are back in our new found favorite, quaint Idaho campground, Fort Running Bear as we start making our way back home to the Oregon Coast for the up coming school year!