BOONDOCKING!

Tea and View from Boondocking site

Friday, Aug. 10, 2018

This will be another combined blog for yesterday and today, because we have had very limited internet connections and phone connections for two days. And unfortunately this may keep up for a while. [Note: Photos of our boondocking view and Fountain of Youth hot springs pool will be uploaded later--the connection here is terrible and my phone is still trying to upload more photos.][Click http://debandjoeontheroad.blogspot.com/2007/09/wild-wonderful-wyoming.html for a link to my 2007 entry about the journey over the Bighorn Mountains, some more photos, and a photo of the pool here at Fountain of Youth RV Park.]

Yesterday we got a fairly late start from Angostura, because besides getting up a little late, we had to fill the water tank, dump the waste tank, and stop someplace to top off the propane (just playing it safe--the tank was half full still). Then we drove through the southern part of the Black Hills, from Hot Springs up to Custer, and then turned west. By then it was probably noon, on a VERY hot day. We drove through northeastern Wyoming, until we got to Gilette at about 4pm, when we stopped at Walmart for groceries and, more importantly, drinking water. We always like to make sure we have plenty of that, and we were down to our last 2 gallons (we seem to go through approximately 1 gallon/day, because we use only bottled water for drinking--both us and Cassie--and cooking. The fresh water tank in the RV is used for doing the dishes and flushing.)

View from our site in the Bighorn Mountains

The route I’d HOPED to take was to Buffalo, WY, and then to turn south and drive up into the Bighorn Mountains on Route 16. This was a road we took back in 2007, and I’ve never forgotten it. Primarily, what I remembered (other than the fog!) was that there were signs to forest service campgrounds all along the route through the mountains, and I wanted to camp up there last night. I knew that it was national forest land, and I had the idea that even if the campgrounds were full, we could just “boondock.” This is generally understood to mean simply finding a location, usually in some kind of “wildnerness” area, which is not set up for camping, and stay there. And I’ve been dreaming about doing that on the top of the mountains in Wyoming since 2007!

Coming out of the Bighorn Mts

But I was concerned, because of the time of day (after 5pm) and the fact that we were still an hour’s drive from Buffalo, and then it would probably be a 30 minute drive up into the mountains to the first campground run by the forest service. And if we could NOT find a campsite, I had no concrete idea about how easy it might be to find a boondocking space, since we’d never done it before. So I found a campground on a lake near Buffalo, instead, which sounded okay, and only cost $10 for no services, and figured I’d have to give up my dream.

When we got to Buffalo, however, Joey encouraged me to just “let’s TRY it!” So we headed up the mountain, hoping for the best, at about 6:15pm (sunset was about 8:15, so we knew at least we had a couple of hours in the daylight and we could always come back down to Buffalo, where there were several campgrounds, if worse came to worst.) We trundled on up the very steep road (the billboards on I-90 were calling it “The most Scenic Route to Yellowstone”, and it IS pretty!), and came to the first campground sign. As soon as we left the road, we realized that a forest service campground with pit toilets also does not have paved roads-- it was gravel/dirt. The campground wasn’t TOO far from the roadway, and was pretty, with a lovely little brook. But every one of the 16 or so camp sites was either taken or had a “reserved” tag on it. Sadly, it occurred to me that these were not going to be “First come, first served”, as they used to be. Also, they cost $17.00/night ($8.50 for us, because we have a senior pass, but still! There’s no “improvements”, just pit toilets and a place with water.) We came back to the main road and decided to try the next campground down the pike.

Before we got to it, we came to another road just saying “Circle Drive Road.” It wasn’t marked on our map, but it had a campground icon, so we decided to drive down it anyway. As soon as we got off the main road, we felt hopeful-- we saw a camper off in a field next to some trees. Boondockers! The road was much longer than the previous road had been, and fairly soon we saw another road branching off the one we were on. It led across another field toward trees, and tucked along the trees were 3 or 4 more campers. YES! We paused, considered going down that road (it disappeared into the trees--remember, this entire area is National Forest), but stuck to the main road instead. We passed two other campers in the trees right on that road-- although they appeared to be in what could be considered “camp sites”, they had no numbers and were not part of any identifiable campground.

Roadside-- Bighorn Mountains

Then we came to the next fork, and the main road dipped down fairly suddenly so we couldn’t really see ahead, with a sign that said “Circle Road Camp 2“. There was also a fork off it just there, and right ahead of me, I could see a clearing between trees that was OBVIOUSLY just calling out for a camper to get into it. I said, “How about right here?” And so we stopped looking for the campground, and we backed ourselves into a quite spacious place that had obviously been used by campers before. There was a fire ring right there, and it was VERY cosy, with an awesome view of the mountains right behind us. We were giving ourselves the high-fives-- our very first boondocking site! Free for the night, and absolutely perfect.

There was only one small drawback-- a previous camper had been there with horses! As soon as we got out of the RV, we could smell them :) They hadn’t been there yesterday-- the “evidence” was pretty small, but enough of it remained that there was no doubt. Nevertheless, we were quite happy with our serendipitous find. I walked Cassie a little farther down “our” road, and realized that although it went farther, only brave people would have gone up the washed-out gulley that used to be the dirt road. In fact, the current “road” appears to be over the grass right next to it. There were several RVs and a tent up there, and then a loop that said “End of road.”

Hot Springs State Park roadside view

Anyway, we passed a perfectly lovely, quiet, COOL night at 8,000 feet in the Bighorn Mountains, for free (your tax money at work!) This morning, it was quite cool when we woke up, which was a pleasure. We made ourselves tea/coffee, and set up our chairs in the field behind our RV, and sat drinking and reading our books and looking at the mountains in the not-so-far distance. Finally, around 11 a.m., it was getting really hot in the sun, so we slowly got packed up and at about 12:30 or so, we pulled out. We decided to go down that main road a little farther to see the campground we’d passed up last night. The road went another 2 miles (as indicated by the sign), quite bumpy (as expected), and with several areas with “spur roads” leading off, all of them with several boondockers camping on them. But none were really as nice as OUR spot! The campground itself was fine-- shady, with water, and even had a site free for tonight! But no WAY would we have wanted to pay $8.50 instead of staying out on our own. We could REALLY get used to this!

Outside Thermopolis

So we turned around, came back up the long dirt road back to the main road, and headed southwest again through the mountains. The road really IS beautiful-- lots of trees and green, and then you get to the Ten Sleep Creek, which cuts into the rock. And then the scenery turns to canyons and rock layers and one very intense hairpin turn. Then after about 60 miles of this (Buffalo to Ten Sleep), comes some “Badlands"-type country plus irrigated farmland. All in all, the drive to Thermopolis took (i think) about 4 hours, which included a stop for lunch on a pullout (which, we discovered, did NOT say “camping”, but was obviously a place boondockers could find a place to drop anchor for the night.) And finally, we got to Thermopolis.

View of Hot Springs State Park

We were here in 2007, and had a FANTASTIC day, preceeded by an awesome evening in the hot springs-fed pool at our campground, the Fountain of Youth RV Park. This was our destination for tonight, too-- we’ve been dreaming about these pools for 11 years! The state park here in town is at the site of the world’s biggest hot springs pools, and we stopped very briefly at the park when we went into town to get gas. But it was hot and we didn’t feel like touring--we did that last time. So instead we came right to the RV park at about 4pm.

Pool at Fountain of Youth RV Park

The only problem was-- it was about 98 degrees!!! And we could NOT imagine getting into a 100 degree pool in 98 degree weather with the sun still beating on us! So we’ve been holed up in the RV, reading and relaxing with the air conditioning on, since we’ve gotten here. It’s now 8pm, and we are going to have a quick dinner and then go get in the tub. At least the sun is now lower than the mountains surrounding us.

The source of the hot pool--a little "volcano"

The RV park has a wifi, but our devices are not reaching it. And we’ve had no telephone connections since we left Buffalo on the other side of the mountain range. So none of our phones are getting wifi. We had a couple of momentary “bars” driving here, and I was able to send a couple of messages and upload an update to Facebook, but that was it. VERY frustrating! I hope to have some extra time tomorrow to upload this blog before we get to Yellowstone and again have no connections. Meanwhile, though, WE ARE NOW OFFICIALLY BOONDOCKERS!

Fountain of Youth pool from the "source" end

Wild Wonderful Wyoming

After we left Devil's Tower, we headed back toward Interstate 90 to drive west and then south to Thermopolis. But we'd no sooner left the area of the visitor's center when we encountered some of the area wildlife--a parade of wild turkeys crossing the road in front of us! By the time I got my camera out, they'd taken refuge in the trees by the side of the road. Undaunted, I jumped out to try to photograph them, and then Joey pointed out that there were also mule deer resting under the trees too! I think you can see both in the photo below:

The turkey is in the center, and a deer, with antlers silhouetted, is lying on the other side of the tree.

I turned from chasing turkeys, and this scene was behind me!

It turned out our drive was longer than we'd expected, and we encountered some rain and a lot more fog and mist (which thankfully had lifted as we'd explored Devil's Tower in the morning.) By the time we left the Interstate and headed over the Bighorn Mountains, I was very concerned about both the visibility and the fog. Joey was doing the driving, and I was doing the worrying. I'd read in RV.net that this was the safer and easier road over the Bighorns, but that it was still a little scary. I'd also read that it was extremely beautiful, but we couldn't tell a thing--at times the visibility was only about 50 feet; and we could never see anything that resembled a view as we went up the mountain.

When we got to the peak, however (at 9,666 feet, no small height!), and started down the other side of the mountain, the visibility immediately improved and suddenly we could see! And it really WAS gorgeous! I was wishing we had the time and leisure to camp up there in the Bighorns--it is public land and as such, you can camp in any number of places for free. The land is also used for grazing, and we were warned by our books that we might encounter cattle on the road. Luckily, we only passed them once, right beside the road but not actually in the roadway. I must say that Joe did a great job driving in adverse circumstances on a scary road; and Mo did a great job too!

As we came down the mountain and just where it got especially steep, the valley opened up before us. It was so stunning that we utilized a large pullout so I could take some photos.

We drove for another 60 miles or so, and the terrain was simply amazing! First we continued down and through the Ten Sleep Valley, which was totally gorgeous (these photos were taken as we headed down toward the valley itself.) Then we drove through the Wyoming landscape. I can't even begin to describe it--it changed constantly. There are so many different rock landscapes, and colors, and shapes. We'd go over a hill, and on the other side was a totally different landscape! One great thing the state of Wyoming does is have signs on the side of the road telling you the type of rock you are seeing, the period (pre-Cambrian; Jurassic; etc) and how many millions of years ago they were formed. It was just stunning. And all of that was enhanced by the fact that for at least 30 miles or more, we saw NO ONE ELSE!! No one passed us, no one was in front of us, and we only passed about four or five cars going in the opposite direction. It was literally the middle of nowhere, and we were the only ones there. Just an astonishing experience for two kids from crowded, frantic New Jersey!

Not a single car ahead or behind us

Our destination campground was called Fountain of Youth RV Park, and that name, and the fact that it is in Thermopolis, might tell you why we are here. When we pulled in I wasn't so sure, because it is very unprepossessing in terms of the sites themselves (we are only about 15 feet from our neighbors on either side.) But the real attraction is that this campground has its own hot spring-fed pool! It is huge, about the size of 3-4 olympic pools, and is fed by a hot spring called the Sacajawea Well. The well was dug in 1918; the owner of the land and a friend were looking for oil, and struck a hot spring instead. The water wells up in a fountain on one end of the pool. Then there are 3 large sections: the first is too hot to swim in (the water comes out at 130 degrees). The middle one is probably about 104 degrees, and the last is about 100 degrees. Joe and I went into it after dinner, and it is 5 feet deep and absolutely wonderful! To show this is no fluke, at the far end of the campground, where we walked Roxy, there is a small spring just bubbling away all by itself. What a cool thing to have at a campground!!

Tomorrow we plan to go to Hot Springs State Park, here in Thermopolis, to the Dinosaur Center, and to Legend Rock to see the petroglyphs. A busy day!!

I forgot to take a photo of the pool at Fountain of Youth while we were there! But after we got home, I found this photo of Chris and Jim of "Geeks On Tour" soaking it up there, a few years ago. So thanks, Geeks, for the advice (how do you think I learned to upload photos to a blog in the first place??) and for the photo!