Today we drove from near West Yellowstone, Montana, down to a campground just south of Jackson, Wyoming. The shortest route would have been through Yellowstone National Park, but that probably would have taken the longest because of the speed limits in the park and the amount of traffic even this late in the season.
There were two other routes that we considered. One was down to Idaho Falls, Idaho, and then across into Wyoming, roughly following the course of the Snake River. The other was up over Teton Pass between Victor, Idaho, and Jackson. We had been up over the pass a number of times in years past and I knew that it would be a test for the truck and camper if we took it.
Boy, was it ever a test!
The maximum grade on the road is 10% and I think most of that was down hill for us going into Jackson. The truck and fifth wheel seemed to be handling it fine, but I was reluctant to drop down from second into first gear.
I should have!
At one point, I pulled over to let a small car go by and really had to press on the brakes to slow to a stop. The brakes were smokin’! Literally.
The rest of the way down, I dropped the transmission into 1st gear and used the brakes sparingly so that they could cool down. When we got to a stop light a few miles further on, the rig stopped just fine with no squealing or fading of the brakes.
Lesson learned!
I’ll use the lowest gear necessary to keep from overheating the brakes — even it means slowing others down. People don’t need to go fast on that kind of road anyhow.
Better yet, we’ll take the longer route — if feasible.
Continue reading about Ten percent grade on the highway was almost too much!
We’ve visited Yellowstone National Park quite a few times over the years. Normally, after Labor Day the crowds are no longer there except at the most popular spots like Old Faithful. Usually, even there, the crowds are not as large.
In 2007, it’s different. The crowd to watch Old Faithful was huge and it was difficult to find a place to park in the huge old Faithful parking lots. A steady stream of vehicles flows on the park roads. Most of the time, except when there’s a “critter” sighting, it’s not bumper to bumper, but there always seems to be a car or two in sight ahead of you and another one or two behind you on these winding mountain roads.
The lady at the our campground’s check-in desk told me that one of the hotels in town had called to see if they had any cabins available, because the hotel was full. She said that this was the first time it had happened this year.
A man and his daughter in one of the cabins told me a similar story. Having been to Yellowstone before in September, they didn’t expect to need reservations. Not a single room was available in West Yellowstone. They managed to get a cabin here, several miles from town.
My guess is that some folks, many of them retirees like us, postponed their trip because of the extreme heat at the beginning of summer and the wild fires of July and August in the western states — much as we did. As well, more people know how great Yellowstone is in September — so more people come. There was also a lot of foreign tourists, as well.
Never-the-less, we are enjoying our visit to Yellowstone. I’ve disconnected the water hose to the camper because it is supposed to freeze tonight, but tomorrow is supposed to be a cool, but sunny, day.
Continue reading about There’s not supposed this many people in Yellowstone in September!
Our drive today was a relatively short one. We went from the Rushmore Shadows campground–about 9 miles south of Rapid City, South Dakota–to the KOA that sits just outside of the fence of Devil’s Tower National Monument in Wyoming.
Images from the I90 rest area at Sundance, Wyoming:
Silver Buffalo Berry (see reference) - silver refers to the color of the leaves of the plant
Devil’s Tower images
The camper in this image is ours, after we had set up and extended the slides. Excellent location.
This is the view from the campsite next to ours. We have a small tree across the drive that is slightly in the way of our view.
We see deer every time we go for a walk or go for a drive.
This is from the opposite side of the tower, from the parking lot at the head of one of the park’s trails.
Long before the official time for sundown, we were in the shadow of the tower.
The Devil’s Tower KOA is a very large campground with plenty of room for tenters and RVers. This is the “overflow area.”
A twilight image of the tower.
Critter count for the day (to be added later)
I’ve just completed updating and verifying links on the Tear Drop Trailer page. The following manufacturers’ links are current as of this evening:
- Adventure Teardrop Trailers: Full Size; Half Size
- Big Woody: Deluxe, Standard, Ultimate, U-Finish (more…)
If you’re looking for tips, hints, and ideas about anything to do with recreational vehicles, this blog and website is not the best place for it. While you’ll find some valuable information here, when I’m looking for RV related information, one of my first stops, and often my only stop, is the RV Forum at rvforum.net. As well, I often spend time at RV Forum reading the newest in discussions that interest me and posting when I have something to contribute.
RV Forum is also a community. While there is always a lot of new folks who come and go, the RV Forum claims to be the oldest online RV community and “the friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing.” While there is an occasional misunderstanding that requires clearing up, there seems to be a complete absence of flaming that I’ve seen on other forums. In fact, recently, I made a serious comment about something I had not realized had been said in jest. After a little clarification, the topic’s discussion continued.
The forum was originally formed on Compuserve and many of the paticipants of today have been on the forum since the Compuserve days. Some in the forum refer to themselves as framily - a made-up word derrived from friends and family.
After more than 10 years at the old location, in January 2005, attendees at a rally at Quartzsite, Arizona, voted to move to a new location because for many it was no longer usable at Compuserve, and there were excessive commercial ads, and far too frequent login difficulties. The forum “opened the doors” in its new location in March 2005. Since then, membership and participation has continued to climb. At the end of February, 2006, there was over 3500 members and there are 10, 362 members today, an increase of 2 just since I started writing this review.
The forum hosts, unpaid volunteers all, do what it takes to keep the forum operating smoothly and contribute significantly to the discussions. When new members first post on the forum, within a few hours there is generally a welcome from one or more of the staff. When I joined on February 7, 2006, there was a welcoming post from both Jim Dick and Ron Ruward within hours, and Carl Lundquist had some great advice for me that basically told me that our truck wasn’t big enough to tow what we wanted in a camper.
As a result of that and my further research, a great deal of it garnered from RV Forum, we traded in our Chevy Avalanche for a heavier duty vehicle that would tow a trailer that fit what we really wanted. We returned from our first relatively long trip just a few weeks ago and for the most part it was relatively trouble free, thanks in part to things I learned from reading articles from the forum’s library and disscussions on many of the boards.
And one of the best things about the forum - it’s free! You don’t have to pay anything if you don’t want to. The cost of the forum is largely supported by the Forum Administrator, Tom Jones. Tom is the person I was referring to having said something in jest that I responded to thinking it was serious - it had something to do with GPS and AdSense. Those who spend much time on the forum appreciate Tom and all that he does, especially now that he has the search feature figured out. Tom gives a lot of credit to others, “The staff here…, truly deserve the praise. Their tireless efforts, along with the wonderful members we have here, are what keeps us going.”
There is a feature that allows folks to help the forum out by contributing, but it’s not touted by the forum staff. I encourage anyone who is a member to fork over a few dollars. I contributed a little bit last year. I suppose it’s about time to do it again.
If you’re looking for information on RVs and the RV way of life, check out the RV Forum.
I’ve finished working on the page for 5th wheel manufacturers. The following were updated:
Keystone RVs
Models: Big Sky; Challenger; Copper Canyon; Cougar; Everest; Fuzion; Hornet; Laredo; Montana; Mountaineer; Raptor; Springdale; SydneyKing of the Road
Models: Crown Marquis; Royal Villa; Royalite (more…)Continue reading about Updated page - 5th wheel manufacturers
I’m working on updating this blog’s parent website, Haw Creek Outdoors. I’m currently working on the page for 5th wheel manufacturers.
I’ve tried to maintain links to the pages for all of the models of all of the manufacturers. However, this generally results in having dead links that need to be cleaned up in a relatively short period of time, which ends up being relatively time consumming.
Therefore, as I revise the RV manufacturer pages, I will be including just one link in most cases, with a list of all the models that manufacturer is currently listing on the site. This will improve the accuracy of the site and reduce the number of dead links. It will also make it easier to update pages in the future.
The manufacturers that I have gone through so far today, with their current models, are:
Alfa
models: See Ya!Gold; See Ya!; ToyhouseAmeri-Camp
models: Summit Ridge Fifth Wheel; Summit Ridge Reserve; Trail Boss Toy Hauler; Wrangler Fifth Wheel (more…)
Your electrical power will come from the battery or batteries on board your RV (if you’re not connected to AC power at the campground - MpG).
If you don’t have an isolator between the battery on your trailer and the one that starts your tow vehicle, you will have to unplug the two to prevent draining the truck battery, in which case you would not be able to drive away.
(”RV Independence,” Trailer Life, July 1996 )
With rising interest rates and fuel prices, the last two years have been difficult for the RV industry. With the looming crisis in the sub-prime mortgage rate and possibility of tightening of underwriting by lenders, the RV industry could be impacted by the housing slump and souring consumer confidence, according to Bruce Hertzke, CEO of the larges U.S. motor home company, Winnebago Industries Inc.
Though the current slump is not over, Hertzke remains confident about the RV industry’s fundamentals over the longer term.
For the full story, see the Reuters article: Winnebago CEO: this summer crucial for RV industry.
I’ve updated my web page for class C motorhomes in the RV manufacturers corner of Haw Creek Outdoors.
The current updated links for the page are included here: (more…)
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