Quintessential Camping … what it’s all about!

There could not be a better end to a breathtaking day of taking in God’s creation, than a true, camping style dinner under the sky.  We stayed at a nice campground in Rock Springs, Wyoming nestled in the barren mountains typical of this area.  Tomorrow we will part ways.  The Hudlow’s will continue on with another week of travels through Arches National Park, the Grand Canyon and Carlsbad Caverns.  The King’s will hit it home so Connor can start weight training for high school football on Monday, and Kris can prepare as one of the leaders for our upcoming mission trip to the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia.

The (very) Grand Tetons

Grand Teton National Park protects stunning mountain scenery and is unique because these grand, peaked mountains protrude up from an otherwise flat landscape.  The Teton Range is the focal point of the park, the youngest range in the Rocky Mountains. An active normal fault, the Teton Fault, lies on the 40-mile long mountain front. Rock is jetted into the sky some 7,000 feet from the flat plains, with the highest peak at 13,770 feet, the Grand Teton.

I was not aware that when you leave Yellowstone Park through the south entrance, you drive right in to Grand Teton National Park.  Road construction gave us a long delay (and an RV driver's challenge) as we inched our way across it's landscape.

Houston ... we have a problem!

At any given time, there are between 2,300 and 4,500 bison at Yellowstone Park.  Since we are considered trespassers on their land, they always have the right-of-way.  As we headed out of Montana, through the park, we saw first hand what a traffic jam can occur when the bison decide to take the road.  This bison herd, calves and all, travelled down the main road to cross the river via the bridge (they need to thank us for that one!).  We could look down from the bus and see these massive creatures up close.  Our dog Pepe was just not too sure what to think of these things walking so closely!

The Hudlow RV Going Through the Roosevelt Arch

"The Yellowstone Park is something absolutely unique in the world...This Park was created and is now administered for the benefit and enjoyment of the people...it is the property of Uncle Sam and therefore of us all. "President Theodore Roosevelt
- April 24, 1903 - at the Gardiner, Montana Speech dedicating the North Entrance Arch

 

To President Theodore Roosevelt Yellowstone’s, uniqueness was not the geysers or wildlife he had observed during his visit. Its uniqueness was being the first national park anywhere in the world. You see Yellowstone is not entirely in any one state. Although the majority of it is in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho enjoy some of the park within their boarders too.  This meant that Yellowstone could not be a State Park like all before its time.  It was a new symbol of democracy - land that the federal government set aside from development or settlement, land that belonged to all the people. President Roosevelt recognized this would be Yellowstone National Park's legacy.  Many other national parks followed in the United States, Canada and Mexico as a direct result of Yellowstone Park.  This arch marks what used to be the only entrance to the park, the North Entrance.