Tag: YouTube video

Posted in: Exploring Montana, Exploring Wyoming, Hiking, National Parks, Sightseeing, YouTube Video Link

July 21, 2020: Exploring Town, Bison Burgers, Old Faithful & Grand Prismatic Spring

Written by tepetravels 5 Comments on July 21, 2020: Exploring Town, Bison Burgers, Old Faithful & Grand Prismatic Spring

The boys and I took it easy this morning and explored the town of Gardiner, MT a little bit.

We found an amazing T-shirt shop (OutWest T’s) that carried socks, t-shirts, pajamas, hoodies, hats… I bought a keychain and a small jar of Huckleberry jam. There is a T-Shirt there that I may go back and buy for Nick. They had so many funny designs. They were really nice and explained huckleberries to the boys. Huckleberries are similar in shape to blueberries, but a little smaller. They grow wild, cannot be cultivated, and do not last long once picked. Which is why you see more products with huckleberry in them, than fresh huckleberries for sale. We tried a hard candy and ice cream sandwiches for the boys. Both were a big success.

We mailed some postcards, stopped at a bookstore/coffee shop, and got some groceries before heading home. The bookstore looked like it had nice breakfast sandwiches and they had a frozen coffee (they call it blended). Not a lot of kid books for the boys though, mostly adult and some little kid books.

We grabbed bison burgers for dinner, which the kids enjoyed trying. After cleaning up dinner, we headed back into Yellowstone. Ben drove so I could get pictures out the window! Yay for awesome husbands! 🙂

We went to Old Faithful and it was the most congested with cars we had seen so far. There had also been a wreck and construction, which slowed down the drive to a snail’s pace at times. We rushed through the parking lot to get to the geyser and saw a few small spurts and a lot of steam. We waited maybe 10 minutes or so, until the big eruption. It was great! The wind was blowing towards us, so we did get a few misty drops on us.

Ben’s photo of the boys and I. He caught me taking video and photos. 🙂

Next stop was the Grand Prismatic Spring. This was what I had been looking forward to. It was amazing. The colors are just amazing to think that nature can produce such vibrant colors. We parked at Fairy Falls Trail and took the trail over to Prismatic Spring. There is a fork in the trail: straight goes to Fairy Falls Trail, left goes up a hill to Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook. Take the extra 1/4 mile and go up the hill. It gives you a greater vantage point to look down on the colorful spring. There were a lot less people up there too!

We stopped at a waterfall and a few more hot springs on the way back.

Video: Geysers and Hot Springs we’ve seen soon so far. Old Faithful is in it too!

Posted in: Campground Review, Exploring South Dakota

Rafter J Bar Ranch Campground: Campground Review

Written by tepetravels 3 Comments on Rafter J Bar Ranch Campground: Campground Review

For our week in South Dakota (for Mount Rushmore), we stayed at the Rafter J Bar Ranch.

They offer full hookups, RV and tent camping, and cabin rentals. There is swimming pool, bathhouses (open!), laundry facilities (washer and dryer by quarters), a small store, and a pancake breakfast (for a fee, Monday-Thursday, Memorial Day to Labor Day). Unfortunately, when we went to reserve a spot for the pancakes, we were told they were not doing them this year due to Covid-19.

It is a beautiful campground and seems well maintained. RV spots are pull through or back in and are on gravel spaces. A lot of the spots are in the shade. It is really well spaced out so you don’t feel cramped in. The beginning drive is paved and has street lights lining it. They do (as of our booking) take a discount for Good Sam members.

It backs into The Black Hills National Forrest for hiking activities.

It is a bit of a drive to get to other places. There is the small town of Hill City about 10-15 minutes drive and a Walmart about 30-40 minutes away. Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore, and Crazy Horse Memorial are 20-30 minutes away.

The laundry room closest to our camp site had 3 washers (although one was broken), which costs $3.00 to do a load of laundry. They were regular sized washers. The driers (there were 2) were much larger and cost $0.25 initially. I think each load of our laundry used about 2 quarters to dry (on medium heat).

The pool was a nice size and there were tables with umbrellas. The camp store had souvenirs, beer, ice, basic camping and first aid supplies, and ice cream sandwiches! There is also a small parking area just for pool parking, if you are in a further away camp spot and want to drive up.

I felt very happy with our campground selection . If we would ever come back to this area again, I would definitely stay here! Everything was well maintained and we didn’t feel crowded. When we drive around and see other campgrounds where they are packed in like sardines, I am so grateful we found this site.

The boys made a video tour of the campground, if you would like to see it.

~Sarah

SUMMARY OF CAMPGROUND:

Our rating: 4 out of 5 hitches

Cell Phone Reception: AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile

WiFi: Yes

Laundry: Yes

Bathrooms/Showers: Yes

RV Sites: Pull Through, Back-in

Pop Up Tents/Gazebos On-Site: Yes

Amenities: picnic table, fire pit/grill, playground, volleyball and basketball

Cabins: Yes

Tent Camping: Yes

Full Hook-ups: Yes. There are 30 and 50 amp sites.

Pool: Yes

Food On-Site: Camp store, pancake breakfast suspended due to Covid

Camp store: Yes

Fishing: Yes, need license

Posted in: Injuries, Sightseeing, YouTube Video Link

July 15: Injuries and Deadwood

Written by tepetravels 1 Comment on July 15: Injuries and Deadwood

The boys began the morning with riding their bikes. It’s been nice and cool in the mornings, low 50’s! We even turned the fireplace on. When we bought the RV, we thought we would never use it.

Will is not used to riding on gravel yet, or switching from grass to gravel, or something, because he took a rather large fall. He scrapped off a bunch of skin from his elbow, some from his hands. It’s rather large and took awhile to stop bleeding. Second day of new bikes. Seriously?! He is healing rather well, although the largest scrape is going to take awhile.

I applied window tint to the passenger window in the truck. The goal was to do both the driver and passenger because the sun can be intense when you are driving all day. After 4 attempts and out of tint film, I only got the passenger side done. It was extremely frustrating. The wind kept blowing, the film ripped twice while I was trying to smooth it out, and I couldn’t get rid of all the air bubbles. I’m done. Not doing the other window. It took hours, and it doesn’t even look good. It will keep Ben from burning in that seat, but that’s about all the positive I can say for it. It took the whole morning.

Before and After

So, after Ben was done with work, we were all ready to do something fun. Now, if you know Ben, you know he has horrible taste in movies and loves any kind of Western. (Just kidding, kind of. He really will watch almost any Western.) We decided to go see Deadwood. It was about an hour from our campsite.

I think we all had high expectations for poor Deadwood. It did not really live up to them. It was very touristy, not very kid friendly, and definitely relied on the famous names of the time to label everything. Main Street was cobblestone and there were a few historic buildings: the Franklin Hotel (great upper balcony), Salon No. 10 where Wild Bill Hickok was shot, and a few others seemed like they were older/original buildings. Most of the attractions seemed to be mini casinos and bars. There is a free gun show on Main Street daily (not Sunday) that was fun to see. The boys got a kick out of it. There is another show of the capture of Jack McCall, but you need to buy tickets for that one.

A lot of places seemed to close at 5:00pm. We missed seeing the Adams Museum, which included Potato Creek Johnny’s gold nugget that we had heard about at Buffalo Ridge 1880 Cowboy Town. There are trolley and horse drawn wagon rides as well.

One of my favorite finds in Deadwood was the Pump House. It is an old gas station that has been converted into a coffee house and glass blowing studio. The pieces on display were amazing. We arrived five minutes before closing (also 5:00pm), but they made us coffee anyway. She was extremely nice. We sat on the patio and enjoyed our drinks. I would definitely check this place out! The coffee and scone were tasty and the building is unique and adorable. I loved it and wished we could have spent more time there. It looks like you would be able to watch the glass blowing, which would be interesting to see.

There is a ton of history there, which I hope they incorporate more. Ben I think was very disappointed. He loves watching crappy Westerns and had high hopes for Deadwood. I would love for it be more historical and less cheesy/easy road. I love Gatlinburg for a lot of reasons, but Deadwood reminded me of a small Gatlinburg main street: a lot of bling, but not a lot of substance.

We took a couple of videos of Deadwood!

Walking Down Main Street

The Main Street Shootout

Our RV Tour

Written by tepetravels 2 Comments on Our RV Tour

When we first started planning this whole adventure back in the Fall of 2019, we had all kinds of plans. We started making RV Park/Campground reservations in January. Six months out and we still had a hard time finding reservations near the National Parks!

We had planned to have a RV tour and to have a going away party with our friends, family, and the kids’ school friends. The boys were going to finish out the school year strong, go to the ice cream party that happened after school on the last day, and we would leave a few days after that.

Plans of course changed. Covid-19 delayed getting the RV, delayed our leaving, had us stocking up on masks for the trip, and then we had to reschedule and reroute several stops and/or campgrounds we had wanted to see.

We still want to share this adventure with our family and friends, so instead of an in-person, IRL tour, we are going to do a quick virtual tour. Here is the link to YouTube! We are still making changes as we settle into the RV.

The dog is not adjusting quite as quickly as I had hoped. She was not a fan of the lack of carpet in the RV, even though her bed is super plush. To help her with the hard and slippery surface of the linoleum floor, we put down the foam mats that were originally in the kids area in basement of the house.

~Sarah

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