Found the crowds ... Hand-cranked and cranky

Found the crowds ... Hand-cranked and cranky

We left the Grand Tetons and headed north to Yellowstone National Park.  We had been successful in reserving an RV campground site at the only reservable RV campground in Yellowstone National Park at Fishing Bridge RV Campground.  Fishing Bridge is along the Yellowstone River, just north of Yellowstone Lake, near the spawning ground for the only native fish in Yellowstone, the cutthroat trout.

We arrived and checked in ... checked into a densely-packed RV "ghetto" ... RVs and travel trailers neck to rear packed into long rows with long walks between the few free-standing restrooms and huge pressure on the registration building which also serves as the laundry and offers the few available showers.  Surely for such relatively high rates, Xanterra (manager of the RV park) could have provided fewer potholes in the roads, more space between camping sites and a few more restrooms and showers?  There are no picnic tables, no grill sites, no campfires allowed ... and no tents or soft-sided camping vehicles (we're in bear country, but this is just Xanterra's effort to offer as few amenities as possible).

We had our first difficulty with Bambi ... the crank that lifts the trailer off of Fritz refused to work.  The crank is powered electrically off of the battery.  Paul was successful in using the alternative hand crank to lift the trailer off of the trailer hitch (much manual labor) and worked on the wiring, hypothesizing that a wire was loose or failing to make a good connection.  Unfortunately, in the process of testing the connection, we blew a fuse ... of course, a rare type of fuse ... and the local RV parts store at Fishing Bridge did not have the required fuse.  We also lost a connector from the bike rack at the rear of Bambi.  Paul was able to locate a nut and washer at the RV parts store that will secure the bike rack together.  One problem solved, one problem needing a new (and seemingly rare) 30 amp slow blow fuse.

We then decided to begin our sight-seeing of Yellowstone, and headed north from Fishing Bridge to see an area called Mud Volcanoes, basically thermal mud pots belching sulphuric acid steam.  In the process, we managed to see a few buffalo alongside the road in the Hayden Valley (the Yellowstone River runs through the Hayden Valley).  A few trumpeter swans lounged in the river ... too far for good camera sighting.

And, we went to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, south rim to Artist's Point only to discover bus loads of tourists, most of them Chinese tourists, pushing and shoving their way to ideal "selfie" poses in front of the overlooks for the river and falls below.  Two bathrooms for this mass of humanity lent a comic air to the scene (and an ammonia soaked air to the pit toilets).  We did take a trail and walked alongside the south rim of the canyon, but dealing with the crowds just made it all feel wearisome.  We drove along the north rim of the canyon for a bit, but discovered the same level of crowding.

Deciding that we were both rather cranky ... we returned to our campground ghetto, along with hordes of mosquitoes.  We tried our local General Store for food ... discovered only junk food (but it didn't stop us from buying ice cream).  We also discovered that ATT has no cell service and Verizon only limited cell service ... feeling cut off from the world ... feeling even crankier ...

Bambi told us to quit for the day ... go to sleep and try to find our way tomorrow.