On the Road in 2000

Thursday, Aug 10 - Wednesday, Aug 16 - Thermopolis, Wyoming area (Cont'd):
On the 10th, we made another circle trip, mostly on dirt roads, and had a flat, out in the middle of nowhere. Harry changed the tire and we realized the treads were pretty thin on all of them, so when we got to the paved road at Ten Sleep, we went back through Worland and Joe bought 4 new tires, two sizes bigger to give us more road clearance. The "town" of Ten Sleep was so named by the indians because it was 10 "sleeps" from the next village. The 11th, Joe and Harry went to the Health Dept. in town to get some tests. Sue and Donna went to the beauty shop. On the 12th, we drove down Wind River Canyon, now on fire, and explored some of the side roads. There are prairie fires all around and the canyon was burning up on the mountains. We enjoyed watching a fire fighter helicopter picking up water from the river and dumping it on the fires up on the mountain. They evacuated the Forest Service campgrounds in the canyon and closed them but our campground is surrounded by acres of open fields, some plowed, so we are in no danger from the fire. For the next several days we were surrounded by the smoke from fires. The next few days were "routine". We went to the grocery store, sat out, read, went to the pool and watched the fires..
Thursday, Aug 17 - Monday, August 21 - Grand Teton National Park:
On Thursday, August 17th, we departed Thermopolis for Grand Teton NP. We stayed in the campground at Coulter Bay visitor center. It is very nice, no hookups but lots of squirrels and chipmunks. We sat outside with jackets and at 10:30 PM the temp was 49. The road is closed into Yellowstone, due to fires. On the 18th we went to the Coulter Bay Museum and drove up to the top of Signal Mtn., where there was a great view. On the 19th, we made a long excursion on the Forest Service roads and saw a lot of scenery, antelope, chipmunks, a moose and elk. On the 20th, we drove the 8 miles toward Yellowstone to where the road was closed. There were fires across the lake. We went to the old ferry on Snake River, to the town of Teton and to Jackson Hole. After lunch at Wendy's we drove up into the national forest to where there was an earthquake slide which dammed up the river and formed a large lake. On the way back to camp, we passed the Teton Buffalo herd and 1 old bison was in the road and not inclined to move. We didn't want to make him mad because he was almost as big as the Honda. The morning of the 21st, the temp was 29 outside and 45 inside. We slept under 5 covers. We stayed in camp most of the day. The road is now open to Yellowstone so we'll go there, tomorrow.