9-17-17 - (Day 48 - Sacramento Pass Campground)

We had a couple of left over pieces of New York Strip steak to go with our eggs this morning.  Pretty darn good.

                                                             on the road

We left our tight nit community of campers and drove 198 miles to a boondocking place. It is a BLM campground with covered picnic tables, a fire pit, and a grill.  We have a view of the mountains and the pond.  It is free and in the middle of no where.  Our kind of place

There is a lower and upper campground.  The upper campground is an equestrian campground.

We chose a site in the lower level, got set up, and decided to see what was up the hill about a mile away. We are so happy with our site.  We were the only ones in the lower level, and there are about 5 campers in the upper level.  We saw hitches to tie up the horses, but no horses, just ATVs.  We love our quiet campground.

We ate some of our food we prepped yesterday for dinner tonight.

We sat inside watching the wind blow the grass and the Jack Rabbits hop around.  There are lots and lots of Jack Rabbits and their ears are huge!  They look like deer in the headlights going back and forth across the road.   Quite amusing.  There must not be any coyotes in this area.

We had a dark, no wind, kind of night.  Campfire time.

We plan to go to Great Basin National Park tomorrow.  We haven't unloaded Amber due to cool weather conditions tomorrow.   We are hoping the predictions are wrong.

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9-16-17 - (Day 47 - Chore Day)

The temperature was 32 degrees this morning.  Ferny Kat hollered at Lauren when he got up this morning.  She was snuggled up with him and wanted his warmth.  She got over it when he turned on the furnace.

We drove 40 miles to stock up and fuel up.  We washed clothes and cooked food for easy heat ups this week.

Ferny Kat got in the back of the truck and played this afternoon while we grilled steaks.  She is one spoiled cat.

A few Pictures:

9-15-17 - (Day 46 - Moving Day)

Lava Flow Campground was cold this morning, a cool 42 degrees with a north wind howling.  It was time to head toward warmer weather.

                                                             On the road this cold morning

After 217 miles of traveling though the lava fields, hay fields, potato fields, and corn fields, we are at Welcome Station RV Park in Wells, Nevada.

It is a pretty, tightly nit campground, with green grass and big trees nestled between two creeks.  One of which is a bubbly creek, the other is smaller than the artesian well water ditch at home.  We were greeted by the friendly campground host and feel right at home

This will be our home for the next 2 days.  A great place to catch up our blog, clean up, and plan our next move.

Da Pictures are 1 click away:

9-14-17 - (Day 45 - Spelunking Craters of the Moon National Park)

We had to get up moving this morning for the guided cave tour in the park at 10 am.  We were right behind the Ranger who was supposed to be our guide for the tour.  The road construction flagger detoured us to the parking lot at Tree Molds Trail.  It's really bad communication when the Ranger wasn't informed that we could not get to the Cave Area.

The Ranger gave us some info on Broken Top Trail and Buffalo Cave.  It was a 1.8 mile loop with the trail head starting in this parking lot.

We had left so hurriedly this morning  that we forgot to bring our flashlights.  We used our cell phone flashlight in the cave, which is not that great in the dark. We scooted in the hole on our butts, walked hunched over for a little bit, was able to stand for a short time, then crawled out the other side.  Pretty cool for a couple of old farts.

                                                                       Crawling out

Three youngsters that were ahead of us were swarmed by bats.  I guess our weak flashlight didn't bother the bats.  Kinda glad of that.

After lunch at the camper, we went to the 1 pm tour at Indian Tunnel.  Ted, the Ranger was our guide. We had a group of about 12 people.  He talked about the Great Rift that occurred 15,000 years ago causing lava to to well up and form this massive area of rocks.  Ted said the volcanic activity is 300 years overdue for eruption, but don't worry.  Hmm!!!

Indian Tunnel was a large tunnel with a lot of light filtering in.  Ted said when you are in the cave it is called skylights, when you are above the cave, its called collapses.  LOL

                                                                  Thanks Ted...

The tour ended about half way through the tunnel.  We had the choice to either turn around and go back up the easy stairs  or climb out the other side.  We climbed out the other side and followed the trail to the caves.

We walked to Beauty Cave.  This is where I realized my lantern battery was weak.  Not to worry, Lauren had the powerful, Clyde flashlight.  Beauty Tunnel was nice, quiet, dark, and cool.  Pretty neat.

                                                               Easy climb into this lava tube

Our next cave was Boy Scout Cave.  We had to scoot in a tiny hole and then we were able to stand up and look around.  This is where we realized, the Clyde flashlight battery was weak.  We watched  the same three youngsters that were swarmed by the bats, climbing through a really tight space where they found icicles.  They advised it was really hard to get through the tiny tube.  We heeded their advice.

Getting in Boy Scout Cave was a challenge.  Climbing out,was even more of a challenge.  My back foot got stuck between rocks crawling out.  Finally, I realized I had to back up to get it my foot loose. When I came out the hole with a couple of guys waiting on me, I told them, "this is fun!!"  It actually was, even with the scuffs on my legs.

We climbed up the Inferno Cone, a quite challenging uphill climb with beautiful views.  We stopped at Snow Cone, Splatter Cone, and Devil's Orchard then headed back to camp.  We had planned to go on the North Crater Trail at the campground and look for Pica's.  It turned cold and started raining. We might try it in the morning.

                                                         Left over snow in the snow cone

We spent the day in this 7 mile round trip park enjoying the unique scenery.  We hiked 8 miles and climbed 63 flights.

Tomorrow is moving day.

Right here, the pictures:

9-13-17 - (Day 44 - Lava Flow Campground)

We worked diligently with our slow speed AT&T internet this morning,, hoping to find the prediction of snow in the area was wrong, NOT!.

If we don't like the weather then we don't have to stay in the area.  We decided to head away from the  Alaska cold front.

After 201 miles, we are at a unique place, Lava Flow Campground.  It is a primitive campground in Craters of the Moon National Monument in Arco, Idaho.

There are only a few big rig sites in this campground.  We found ours across the road from the main campground.  It is a nice isolated, pull through site.

When we arrived, there were just a few campers in the campground.  Then one camper  behind another arrived.  At 7 pm, we felt like we are parked across from Camper City.  We love our isolated campsite.

When we got here, Ferny Kat laid inside looking out the window.  She was probably thinking, what are they thinking, taking me to a lava field.  It wasn't long, she was out and about, dragging me and her lead up the hillside.  Another Ferny Kat  approved campground.

The prediction for rain is high tomorrow, so Amber is safely in the garage.  Hopefully, we will be able to ride around in the truck and take a few hikes tomorrow.  We will see.

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9-12-17 - (Day 43 - Yellowstone)

It was another beautiful day in Yellowstone.  We said farewell to our traveling Gulfport Buddies.  Sad to see them go, but totally understand.  With snow prediction this weekend, it wasn't a good time to go to Beartooth Highway.  Maybe, next year.

We took a motoring tour in Yellowstone again today. We saw a turkey, a baby elk nursing, and a lot of pretty scenery at the start of the day.

We had a little lull of animal sightings, then all the sudden,  Buffalo in the road.  Big Daddy, several Momma's, and babies within a few feet of us.  It wouldn't have been quite been as exciting in an enclosed vehicle. We sure are Glad they were on their best behavior.

We continued on, watching hundreds of buffalo in the plans.  This is definitely the home where the buffalo roam.

We ate lunch, at a nice riverside picnic area. and motored on.  We again were at a dead still in the road coming home, watching Elk bedding up beside the river, and a big ole Bull across the river.  Definitely worth the slow down.

We used our campfire to heat up leftovers on this dark night.  We don't have a clue where we will end up tomorrow.  Hopefully away from snow.

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9-11-17 - (Day 42 - Yellowstone, The Tetons, and Jackson Hole)

We waited for warmth before taking off on this beautiful morning.  This is our third time to go to Yellowstone.  I guess  you have figured out. we love this place, and being Glacier didn't work out for us to meet Judy and Terry, here we are!!

It was a nice ride through Yellowstone.  We were on a mission and puttered through.  The only wildlife was a couple of buffalo.

After a short wait, Old Faithful erupted, she was a little ahead of the planned schedule.

We stopped at Lewis Falls to take a picture and continued to the Tetons. We got stopped for road construction.  While waiting on the pilot car, as  I was applying sunscreen, the flagger told me that sunscreen was bear bait.   Needless to say, I was totally safe, no bear in sight, it must of been an off brand.

It was our second time to see the Tetons.  I clicked the camera so many times trying to capture the majestic mountains, that Lauren may not hear clearly again..  All I can say is, Gorgeous, even with the smokey haze.  We both love the Tetons.

We were shocked entering Jackson Hole.  Unlike the last time we were here, there was traffic.   We took the antler picture riding through town, got fuel, and headed to Teton Pass.

Again another shock,one vehicle behind another, bike paths on the side of the road, nothing like the isolated road we were on about 8 yrs ago.  This place has changed.

We stopped at our favorite milk shake place in Victor, Idaho.  This town had grown a lot in the last few years, but the Emporium,was still the quaint malt stand/tourist trap as before.  The Huckleberry Milkshake  was awesome with a straw big enough to accommodate the huckleberries.   It had so many huckleberries in it, it was like a main course, (for vegetarians,) and a desert. (for ice cream lovers),  all at the same time.  It was our dinner.

It was a nice,  2 hour ride back to camp through farming country.  We road almost 300 miles on Amber today and loved every minute of it.

This is the first place in a long time that there were no fire restrictions.  Our first campfire this trip was very enjoyable.

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