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Yellowstone NP Check in 5-29 Check out 6-3-18
This was our 5th trip to the park, third time camping, but never this early in the year.
Some points to pass along. --
There are still snow banks, not to mention snow storms - big flat flakes on Dunraven Pass and I am not talking about people. There is a lot of work/construction vehicles doing the speed limit or a little more, trying to get the park ready for summer.
At night we had temp mid 30's with 2 nights at 27 degrees. Hey, what did I expect - it is 7700 ft high. Daytime highs in the high 50's. Had no problems with water lines freezing on trailer. Little lower then the norm's, They also had about 50% more snow this year then the norm's, but the visible grass was iridescent. We had rain 4 of the 5 days, but the last day made up for the week.
We were in C loop of Bridge Bay CG. Our first time in this campground. The turnover rate seemed high. I guess 50% or more each day, but the CG seemed full or almost full each night. A lot of people had smoke, not fires, and it seemed even the dry wood they were buying would not burn. Did I mention we had 4 days of rain? The Camp Sites are far from level.
I think Madison CG or Canyon Village CG are in the best locations to roam the park. You are locked into Fishing Bridge CG if you want hook ups.
We have a RB195 (23'4” trailer). We had total of 6 nights with (1 night traveling) thermostat set to 60 degrees and ice box on propane and did not use a complete bottle of propane, did not turn on the hot water heater.
The Gas Station at Fishing Bridge will fill or exchange propane bottles.(they do both). Gasoline was only about 40 cent higher then Cody WY. They also have Diesel. At the FB campground the shower are $4.50 plus tax, clean and lots of hot water.
We roamed the park about 7 hours each day.
We did a couple things we had not done before. Yes, after 4 trips we did something new. It is a big park.
This time of the year the grass is a bright spring green and if you drive to the North East exit there are fields of green grass and yellow flowers with American bison. What a site to behold. On this road we also saw an Bald eagle nesting. Going the opposite way (west) from Tower Junction we had 4 bears sightings, one being a cub and mother. As soon as crowd show up, a ranger would show up and check that all car stop were on the opposite side of the white line that marked the shoulder, they did not seem to care which way you were pointing, so cross the road to park if need be. The road south from Mammoth was under construction. Ranger at Mammoth said to double your drive time so 20 min would now be 40 min. I think I had half of yellowstone on the car after driving thru the mud, (it was raining) I would have hated to be towing a trailer or pup thru the construction area.
With all the rain, all the water falls were putting on great shows.
At this time of year a large part of the park is not open to vistors for bear safety. Also the tour boat and fishing boat rental had not started to run yet. I got the feeling the park did not completely open until the first of July.
Old Faithful has been seen on all our trips, it was 25 minutes late this year. I am not as regulor as I use to be either, well that maybe more information then you want. If a visitor has not been there before, and needs information, I would stop at one of the other vistor center in advance of Old Faithful. Old Faithful had 5 rangers at the information desk and each had about 7 people waiting to get information.
The hot springs have a layer of fog this time of year (cold air and warm water) so they are hard to see. All the parking lot were full even if the the park was not a full capacity. We could hardly see any of the Grand Prismatic Hot Springs for the fog.
Swiming at the Firehole Canyon Rd, was closed do to high and fast water.
The highlight of the trip was an Elk with a new born that could hardly walk.
This trip was a new side of the park we had not see before, and can not wait for our next trip back.
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RB195 2017
4Runner V8 2005
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