At Yellowstone National Park

Today, Friday, we went to see the geysers and the first one we saw erupt was Beehive. It was a very impressive site seeing all this water and steam shoot up a couple of hundred feet into the air. The cone itself must have been 4 feet in diameter. This particular geyser erupts every 7 to 8 hours. Then we saw Old Faithful do its thing and we hiked around the area looking at other geysers erupting. Finally we drove to Biscuit Basin and hiked around the geysers in that area. Before heading back we took a two mile hike to see Mystic Falls. By then I was pretty tired so we headed back to camp for dinner and afterwards ice cream at the General Store. Tomorrow we are doing some more exploring around Yellowstone and on Sunday we are going to Grand Teton National Park.

At Yellowstone National Park

We arrived on Thurs 6/26 at around 5:30pm after driving from Mountain Home, ID.
Right away we started seeing wildlife as we entered the park. There were baby Elk near the entrance and Bison on the road to the campground. We even saw a Marmot in one of our hikes.

From Mountain Home, Idaho

We pulled out of Diamond Lake on Tuesday at 6:30am, 31 degrees outside and 50 inside, Brrrr. We couldn’t get out of there fast enough so that we could find warmer weather. The highway was a two lane road all the way to the Oregon-Idaho border. Beautiful road with straight stretches thru forests and high deserts. For miles we saw no one but scrub brush and a couple of deserted towns. We stopped at a rest stop next to Brothers, OR. The population there was probably no more than 20. At the entrance to the town, we laughed at seeing a sing that said CONGESTION. The town had a school, a Post Office, a Bar, a Jail (boarded up) and a gas pump that at one time was selling Diesel for $8.99 a gallon (they were sold out of Diesel). We arrived at Mountain Home around 7:30pm losing 1 hour as we crossed into Mountain Time.
Our intention was to see Craters of the Moon National Park the next day. When we checked in we found out that the park is over 150 miles away from here. After giving it careful consideration we decided we didn’t want to do a 300 mile trip to the park and back.
Today we took a drive to Hagerman, ID (population 656) to see the Thousand Springs flowing from the gorge walls into the Snake River. We expected to go on a leisurely scenic boat ride along the Snake River Canyon and the Thousand Springs area. Lynn made a phone call to the tour outfit were she was informed that the tours are not in operation yet. Upon hearing that, plan C came into operation. We looked at our tour book and found the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument. We took a 10.5 mile drive thru the hills where markers gave insights into the area geology and geography (fun stuff). We also saw spots where the Oregon Trail came thru the area. There were wagon train ruts which the signs said to stay out of. On the way back to camp Lynn (the tour guide) took us to Malad Gorge State Park. From a foot bridge we saw the bottom of a 250 foot deep gorge which was very impressive. Then we drove a 3.5 mile loop along the gorge. We took the rest of the day to pick up supplies for our stay at Yellowstone National Park, wash the truck and rest. We’ll talk to you again after Yellowstone. By the way, the weather warmed up quite nicely in ID. It has been in the mid 80’s.

Emigrant Lake, Oregon

On Thursday 6/19, our two and a half year old grandson Isaiah was dropped off at our house so we could take him and our 6 year old grandson Elisha on the first weekend of our trip. We left Livermore on Friday at 4 am so that we could pick up Elisha in Sacramento on the way to Ashland Oregon. We made frequent stops at rest stops so the kids could stretch and run around for a while. We are meeting about 25 other Bongiornos in Ashland for our first Bongiorno Family reunion. We arrived at our camp site at around 4 in the afternoon ready for some fun and “relaxation”.
We stayed at Emigrant Lake Campground about 5 miles out of Ashland. It was a beautiful place to camp overlooking the lake. Besides the lake for boating and swimming, the campground has a nice play area for the kids and a water slide which the older kids and adults enjoyed very much. Being the camp director and keeping an eye the kids has taken a lot more time than I thought it would. I haven't had time to do any Geocaching even though there are about 4 caches hidden around the park that I would love to find.
Everyone wants to come back to this spot again next year.

June 12, 2008

Four more work days then begins the final preparations of the RV. We have it pretty much loaded already except for the last minute things such as food and some misc. clothes.

We are traveling on 32 foot 5th Wheel which we pull with our 2500 Dodge Diesel truck. Our first stop will be Emigrant Lake Campground near Ashland, Oregon. We are meeting with a bunch of other Bongiornos for what we call our first family reunion. At last count there will be about 30 of us there.