Beaks and Bills
by Joe Meche
Ten Days on the Road
Last year’s eastbound getaway ran into a few obstacles that forced us to rein in our planned destinations and keep it closer to home. In fact, we didn’t leave the state. Even though our annual fall road trip fell short of our expectations, we had a great visit to the northeastern part of the state and found our way home by way of a couple of past favorite campgrounds. After a year of thought, we decided to give it another try in 2024 … and so we did. Earlier plans were to include Glacier National Park to start the trip, but we decided to spend more time and focus on the dynamic duo of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.
We set our Day One goal on an overnight stay in Missoula, Montana, with an early departure for Yellowstone on Day Two. This worked out perfectly since we rolled into the north entrance at Gardiner in early afternoon. This is when the plot thickened significantly. After a month’s worth of research and attempts to secure campsites for our stay, the gatekeeper at the entrance to Yellowstone informed us that ALL campgrounds were FULL and that we’d have to look elsewhere for another place. This was a bit of a shock, especially after I assumed this would be the slow time of year and that official websites had actually stated that seven campgrounds in Yellowstone were on a first-come-first-served basis. So much for online accuracy and updated websites!
Disappointed but undeterred, we immediately backtracked to search for a place to set up for a couple of nights. As it turned out, we found a perfect campground at the Yellowstone Hot Springs, eight miles north of Gardiner and the north entrance. This campground was right on the Yellowstone River and had the best perk that any campground can offer … FREE showers. So this became our base for three days in America’s first national park. On our first night there, we were surprised by delightful thunder, lightning, heavy rain, and wind … obviously celebrating our arrival. The second night there featured heavy rain all night long! I loved the sound but Cindy needed earplugs. Three days of Yellowstone rain had no adverse effect on our journey, though it was a bit damper than we expected. Weather is as weather does, so what can you do?
Yellowstone National Park is located in the northwestern corner of Wyoming and was established as the country’s first national park in 1872. It is well known for its wildlife and geothermal activity, especially witnessed at the popular attractions of Old Faithful and the Mammoth Hot Springs. The park encompasses an area of 3,472 square miles, or 2,221,766 acres! It would take numerous trips to see everything, but we were happy with the small slices we experienced. This is a truly vast area to explore with rivers, canyons, and lakes, including Yellowstone Lake, one of the highest elevation lakes in North America. The lake is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest super volcano on the continent.
Native Americans lived in the region for 11,000 years, and, aside from visits by mountain men, exploration didn’t begin until the late 1860s. Management and control of the park changed hands several times until 1917, when it was handed over to the newly created National Park Service. The park stands as the centerpiece for the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. The park is rich in natural history and scenic wonders while the diversity of wildlife often lures many people into the less-traveled areas.
photo: Joe Meche
Rocky mountain elk
Our first priority in touring Yellowstone took us to the Lamar Valley in search of American bison, one of the park’s iconic attractions. We were not disappointed. Since the larger mammals were high on my list, I enjoyed time not only with numerous bison, but also Rocky Mountain elk and pronghorn antelopes. We had no sightings of grizzly bears even though warnings were posted everywhere and all campgrounds were equipped with metal, bear-proof boxes at each campsite. After two mostly soggy days and 20-30 minute waits at construction sites, we decided to adjust our original plans and head down the road to nearby Grand Teton National Park a day early. We needed to dry out and find a bit of sunshine.
This park lies just south of Yellowstone and is connected by the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Parkway. While sharing much of the same history of human activity with Yellowstone, Grand Teton is smaller and lacks the geothermal features and diversity of wildlife. It is, however, unique in its own right, with the spectacular Teton Mountain Range rising abruptly from the surrounding plain to almost 14,000 feet above sea level. One large loop road offers outstanding views and examples of the local history of this park which was established in 1929. The southern part of the park, south of the Gros Ventre River, abuts the National Elk Refuge where thousands of migratory elk spend the winter.
While we carried a bit of rain and breaking clouds with us, we could sense that the weather was certain to change, and it did. However, we entered Grand Teton National Park and found the same situation we had experienced in Yellowstone … all campgrounds were FULL! We cast our traveling fate to the wind and ended our search with success at the Gros Ventre Campground on the very south end of the park on the Gros Ventre River. This campground is one of the largest, yet quietest I’ve ever experienced. This is more than likely due to the fact that there are no electric hookups and minimal perks in a huge grove of mature cottonwoods. And, like all the campgrounds in both parks, every site has a bear box to store food or anything that might attract bears.
photo: Joe Meche
Bull moose
On our first morning came the highlight of the 10-day road trip! While I was tending to morning coffee, Cindy got my attention by yelling to me that a moose was running through the campground. To make a long story a bit shorter, I abandoned the camp stove and grabbed my camera and took off in pursuit of a handsome and huge bull moose! While other campers fell behind to tend to other chores, I stayed with the moose until it slowly ambled into the sagebrush flats north of the campground. It tolerated my presence enough to lie down for a bit before deciding to move on. It was just the moose and me for a good while and one of my personal best wildlife encounters.
Gros Ventre (French for big belly) served us well as a base of operations for two days and nights. From there we explored the back roads up Atherton Creek, a tributary of the Gros Ventre River, and across the Antelope Flats for spectacular clear-sky views of the Tetons and an old Mormon community site. The sunshine and warmer temps were welcome to everyone who had been around for the rainy days.
We left Gros Ventre on Day Six and stopped in Jackson, Wyoming, to top off the tank and take our coffee and scones to go. On our first night of heading home, we discovered a unique campground at Spring Gulch, on the East Fork of the Bitterroot River in western Montana. This small campground is nestled in a grove of mature Ponderosa pines and has only 10 perfectly-spaced campsites … a far cry from our previous campground’s 325! We arose to warm sunshine for crossing the Idaho panhandle and a return to Washington state. We aimed for familiar turf and stopped at an old favorite campground at Alta Lake State Park. This is the same campground we left under Level 3 evacuation orders in 2014 due to the devastating Carlton Complex fire.
We spent our last two nights on the road at what has become a second home for us at a very peaceful Pearrygin Lake State Park. From my sleeping bag, I could see the moon and Jupiter overhead while listening to great horned owls calling from the willows along the lakeshore. There was a time when we considered Pearrygin to be a bit tame for us, but I guess time has a way of changing one’s perspective. There’s also the fact that we’re older now and our needs are different. Either way, we had two wonderful nights in a mostly-empty campground to help us decompress before heading home on Day Ten.
I have to add that the bird life we encountered along the way was minimal, due primarily to the changing seasons and the weather, and possibly because the rate of travel didn’t allow for even a semblance of serious birding. It was more of a trip to encounter large mammals in the spectacular natural settings where they roam freely and excite the visiting humans. One bird that I was excited to find was a lone American white pelican on the Snake River, in the shadow of the Tetons.
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Joe Meche is a past president of the North Cascades Audubon Society and was a member of the board of directors for 20 years. He has been watching birds for more than 60 years and photographing birds and landscapes for more than 40 years. He has written over 200 columns for Whatcom Watch.
