Driving away from our little cabin in the woods we saw a group of deer, ten in total, on the side of the road. We’ve never seen so many together like that. It was a beautiful send off from Montana.

Our next destination was Yellowstone National Park. We didn’t plan on spending much time there but wanted to see the main attractions, including Old Faithful of course.

Enough said.

Beehive Geyser

While waiting for Old Faithful to live up to its name we visited the Visitors Center. There was an announcement for the Beehive Geyser that was about to erupt. This not so famous geyser shoots higher into the air than Old Faithful and sounds like a jet engine when it does. It was quite a show!

Old Faithful

While our pictures of Old Faithful don’t really do it justice (I was filming for the best part of it), we were still more impressed by the Beehive Geyser.

From Yellowstone it was on to Grand Tetons National Park. Our drive through was gorgeous but the sky didn’t want to cooperate, it was very hazy and difficult to really see the grand peaks.

We made our way South through Wyoming which in of itself was worth the drive. With sparkling rivers around every turn and open land for miles, a song came to mind, “Home, home on the range…”

In the quaint town of Pinedale we stopped at the Ranger Station for the Bridger National Forest and learned of a little campground not far off the main drag. Fremont Lake Campground is made up of a big beautifully shaded area on the shores of the gorgeous, crystal clear Fremont Lake. All for $12 a night, this campground definitely made the list of places to which we will return.

 We spent the very warm Wyoming afternoons soaking up some rays and snorkeling in the ocean-like coves of Fremont Lake, and cooling off with some over-sized ice cream sundaes and chocolate malts.

 

Marc fought me on including this picture, but how could I deny you the pleasure of seeing this?

So I was forced to add this ungraceful picture of me as payback.

On our way into the campground the day before, I saw a sign for the Wind River Rodeo Series. I knew my Texas boy couldn’t resist a good old fashioned Rodeo. So off we went to my very first Rodeo!

It was a thrilling night of bull riding and barrel racing. I’ve never seen so many real life cowboys. We loved it! If only we had the type of camera made for capturing the action of a 2,000 pound bucking bull. This is truly the way to experience the real Wyoming.

After our wonderful stay in Pinedale (really all the civilization you need!) we dropped down into Colorado.

Along with all the beautiful places in the U.S. we've also realized that there are a lot of places that look like this...

fortunately there is always someone selling fireworks nearby... and a sign restricting the use of fireworks.

We stayed just outside of Steamboat Springs in the small campground of Dumont Lake, which was more a large hole than a lake as it was being drained for maintenance.

This is very beautiful country, exactly how I pictured Colorado to be. Our campsite was nestled in a pine forest next to a field of colorful wildflowers. 

We got ourselves cleaned up and ready for our last National Park of the trip. (sigh) 

Laundry day.

                          Rocky Mountains here we come.