Our US trip starts here.....

Mountain Bluebird

2017 Holiday to Denver and onwards to Yellowstone.

Thurs 1^st June

Flew BA from London Heathrow to Denver, Colorado USA.

Amazingly got an upgrade from BA to Club World, enabling us to make use of the BA lounge at Heathrow with all free food and drink.

Met with a glass of champagne onboard the Boeing 747 followed by superb service, food and drinks. A seat that was like a pod and went down to horizontal to form a bed.

Arrived in Denver and couldn’t get a shuttle to the hotel so ended up ordering a cab from Denver International airport to the Cambria Hotel and Suites which although classed as an airport hotel was about 25 miles from the airport!

Fri 2^nd June.

An early breakfast followed by a call to Cruise America RV Rental and a shuttle arrived at our hotel at 9:30 to take us to pick up the motorhome.

Less than an hour at the rental pick-up and we were on our way in a 25foot motorhome.

Headed straight for Walmart for food etc. and then Safeway for fuel.

By just after lunch we were very tired as our body clocks were 7 hours adrift but we hit the open road and headed due North toward Cheyenne in Wyoming as thunderstorms hammered around the Rockies.

We has pre-booked our campsite online a few months before at a site we know well and have used several times before, Tumbleweeds Campground in Curt Gowdy State Park between Cheyenne and Laramie.

Had our first barbecue and sat around an open log fire until sleep quickly beckoned. It was a fine & hot sunny day but turned quite cold by evening.

Favourites of our old days watching Westerns on the TV.

Curt Gowdy State Park

Sat 3^rd June.

Photographed a few birds first thing in the morning in the willows around the shore and a male bluebird defending its nest site against a tree swallow.

Left Curt Gowdy at 7:30 and headed West toward Laramie.

Drove through the town at Laramie as I needed to fill up with fuel for 2 days of driving and saw the older part of town but there were a lot of new buildings and it looked a go-ahead city.

We stopped a few times en-route before eventually arriving at Sleeping Bear Campground at Lander. We usually stay at Sink Canyon in Lander but I wasn’t able to book it and was concerned it may have been busy with it being the end of a holiday weekend.

Anyhow the campground was good, quiet and peaceful except for the church bells and clock which fortunately didn’t ring after about 6 pm.

There as a good walk along a fast flowing stream and I got to photograph some good birds along with an American Robin feeding a young one in the campground.

Massive rib-eye steaks on the BBQ and a few beers around the campfire before turning in for the night.

Typical landscape in the Wind River mountains.

Sun 4^th June

We left Lander at about 8:30 and drove across the Wind River Indian Reservation, through incredible scenery on the Chief Washakie Trail to Dubois.

We left Dubois and climbed ever upward into the Rockies until we hit the snow line at the Continental Divide and 9400 feet.

Down the other side of the mountains and into the plains and meadows of Grand Teton National Park with the snow-capped Teton mountains forming an incredible backdrop.

We heade straight to the Gros Ventre campground with the hope that there would be spaces. This is one of our favourite places to camp having stayed here many times in the autumn but rarely in summer.

Luckily there was vacancies so we booked for 4 nights which will then fit in with us going up into Yellowstone on Thursday as I’ve pre-booked for 4 nights there at Bridge Bay campground.

The Gros Ventre river is very high and running an absolute raging torrent, totally different to the last time we were here when I photographed moose walking across its pebbly riffles.

Crossing the Continental Divide in the Rockies.

The much photographed barn at Mormon Row in Grand Teton National Park.

The Snake River Overlook in Grand Teton NP.

Ground Squirrel on lookout duty on our campground.