The motivation for "The Loop" began over a year ago, at a less happy time. Edna, Robert & I had been on our way back from visiting Edna's family in the Rio Grande Valley. Something was seriously wrong with Edna, although we didn't know it at the time; we just knew she was badly constipated or something. When we go back to Houston, we stopped in at MD Anderson to get her checked out. They checked her in instead: she needed major surgery and a long convalescence while learning to live life with some unpleasant adjustments.
I tried to inspire her with plans of visiting Yellowstone "someday," a place that seemed impossibly far off in space and time. In an effort to make such an implausible idea more plausible, she (and I) added other stops to our dream trek. While Edna slept, I planned and executed a remodel of the Hawk that would allow us to be more comfortable on the trip, as if it might actually happen one day. After missed opportunities, e.g., the Pigfest, we would hope all the harder for the trip we'd make "someday."
Slowly, hesitantly, Edna's health returned once more. We started spending time away from the security of MD Anderson in the Spring. Returning from one such trip, even though Edna spent two days in the hospital while Robert and I had to sleep without her in the Hawk, Edna began to draw the map of her mondo loop.
Being called to Salt Lake City for work made it real, but Yellowstone was always the inspiration point.
Edna wanted to come in from the South and go out through the North. She wanted to come up through Wyoming to get there, passing through Jackson Hole and the Tetons to make our approach.
En route I spotted the first of many Four Wheel Campers parked along the way and stopped to snap a shot.
We hadn't risen too early that morning at Antelope Island and we'd taken our time getting underway so by the time we finally made Yellowstone it was after nightfall. The camp grounds at the South end of the park were all full. Our back-up plan was to camp outside the park in Bridger-Teton National Forest, but construction delays put the last camping area I saw more than an hour's drive back South (with another hour or more the next day to get back into the park). We decided to activate "Plan C": We would stay in a rented lodge in Lake Village and then camp two more nights at a reserved campsite in Grant Village.
The first thing we wanted to see Wednesday morning was (of course) Old Faithful.
We immediately noticed two things:
1. A lot of people had the same ideas we did.
2. It was very cold.
Our new plan was to spend Wednesday travelling around the West Thumb || Canyon Village || Fishing Bridge loop, Thursday travelling the Norris || Mammoth Hot Springs || Roosevelt loop and then spend Friday catching anything we might have missed.
But I made the following journal entries...
(I prefer camping in the woods, while Edna prefers camping at campsites. Edna's idea of 'boondocking' is a Wal-Mart parking lot.)29-Jul
Old Faithful
Predicted high temp: 59
Predicted low temp: 32 - 39
YS is all tore up with construction. It's packed also. Edna's getting frustrated with all the driving. (We can't get out and hike.) She's going to cancel the two nights' reservation we made for the Grant Village campground. Then we'll go see the Mud Volcano and backtrack to the North Entrance.
It looks like we'll be sleeping in the [Gallatin] National Forest tonight. (whoo! hoo!) On to Mud Volcano
Even that didn't work out. The noxious "Mud Volcano" made Edna sick to her stomach, and then she had to walk all the way back around to the truck to sit down. Edna was too tired and sick for me to even think about trying to take her where bears might be, so we camped close to the highway that night in Montana.
It was also stinkin' cold outside. We used our catalytic heater that night for the only time the whole trip. When we started (and ended) the trip we also used the Window A/C in stinkin'-hot-outside-Texas. Talk about extremes! Inside the Hawk we stayed snug-ly smug!
Here is some video I shot: Fire Hole Lake