Jackson Lake, Yellowstone, Apostle Islands

W

Will-C

New member
Left Pa. Friday 5:15 am made to Elkhart, In. 659 miles averaged 14 mpg. Towed between 60 to 75 mph towing Will-C through the Allegheny mts . The Carlisle radials on the trailer ride much nicer and seemed to holding up very well so far. Running in 85 to 88 degree heat I can still use my hands to feel he tires for excess heat, so they seem to run cooler than the old bias ply . Stayed at a decent campground for 25 dollars just outside of Elkhart. Joined Good Sam's club saved 10% woopie. Left early (3:30 am) to get thru Chicago while it slept hit some rain, road construction everywhere. Lots of green things growing still in Iowa con etc. Made it to a campground just north of Lincoln Ne. today over 600 miles again today. Diesel cost anywhere between 3.75 and 4.00 dollars Motorcycles of all shapes, on trailers behind pick ups , motor homes and sizes all over heading to Sturgis S. Dakota for the big motorcycle rally. We are over half way to Jackson Lake will stop at North Platte or Ogallala, Ne, tomorrow. Can't wait to get up into hills so the temp cools off. We would have died with out the a.c. while sleeping on the boat. Will start with some pictures when the scenery changes. The plan is to hit Jackson Lake, then Yellowstone Lake and take the northern route home and hit the Apostles Islands on Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin to break up the trip home.
D.D. :D
 
D.D., If you are coming through Wisconsin on the weekend of the 9-12 September, don't forget the C-Brat Gathering at Guttenberg, Iowa on the Mississippi River. We have 20 boats expected to begin arriving mid-week. It will be a casual event at a very historic riverside community that is certain to impress!
 
D.D Great to see your really using your venture 23 . Wow 14 mpg thats Great .The most I get is 12mpg and mostly 10mpg with our Sequoia. Our summer plans for tennessee and NC got all messed up so our cc23 will be florida bound this summer . I need to make plans for next year and use my boat more often . I just have to talk the Admiral into more boating . Take care and safe driving hope to see you this winter JIm
 
Take lots of Deet with you for your Jackson and Yellowstone visit. My wife and I cut out Jackson Lake trip short by two days because of the mosquitos. however, they tend to die out as the summer progresses so you may not have as much trouble.

The views are going to be incredible, and never as incredible as they are from a C-dory. Try a very early morning cruise on Jackson. You may see a wonderful mist above the water. The wildlife will be abundant.
 
Barry,
We probably be home by the time of the gathering on the Mississippi in G. Iowa. Thanks for the invite but I have to work some of the time.
Jim,
We look forward to catching up with you and yours in Florida. I wanted to put a couple miles on the truck before the warranty runs out. Had a tail wind for the last two days.
El and Bill,
We are running a little early for our reservations at Couter Bay in Grand Teton, so we are detouring tomorrow down to Flaming Gorge as we are not scheduled to be in Grand Teton until the 13th. So we are going down to Utah to the Luzerne Valley marina to launch and check out the Flaming Gorge reservoir for a couple days. We are currently camped out at Country View Campgrounds in Ogallala,Ne. doing some laundry and kicking back a little early. Early get up in the am as we have to burn another 400 miles tomorrow. I slacked off today less than 300 miles.
D.D.
 
D.D., We just got home from a few days on Yellowstone Lake. The mosquitoes have really died off this week and we hardly used bug spray. I don’t think you will need the boat AC here. We are using winter sleeping bags and heat in the AM to dry out the condensation. Lots of wildlife, we have seen grizzlies and wolfs in the last 2 weeks, weather has been dry and sunny, a few showers in the late afternoon, the usual wind. This weekend we met Jody with Voyager, we had B-dock pretty much to ourselves, although the park is pretty busy right not with a lot of motorcycle traffic passing thru on the way to Sturgis. Traffic should let up, and with school starting soon things should calm a bit and the rest of August should be perfect. See you in YS.

Kevin and Laura
 
Hope our paths cross when you make it to Jackson Lake! The mosquitoes are still pretty nasty here... and with no temps below freezing predicted in the next 10 days, it may stay like that. Bug spray with plenty of DEET does the trick for those of us who work here. With that issue out of the way, the views are spectacular, the weather has been near perfect, and Jackson Lake has lots of great places to explore.

There are 3 marinas on Jackson Lake; Colter Bay Marina is the only one with transient slips (only 6 of those), the other two have only mooring balls. Fuel and pump-out at Colter Bay. There are plenty of great places to anchor in protected coves. Lots to do off the boat, as well.

Stop in the marina store and ask for Captain Jim; it will be nice to meet face to face.

About 6 more weeks here for us, and we plan to get to Wild Blue.

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
Potter, thanks for the heads up on the bugs

Miles, thanks for the Apostle Islands info

Kev, thanks see you at Y.S. the 16th or 17th if the bugs don't eat me first

Jim we will try and sneak up on you

Made it to Flaming Gorge 500 + miles today. Staying in a Campground in Manila, Utah Will launch in the am we are beat. Will start a new photo album tomorrow. Kind of hilly in these parts. Fuel mileage down to 11.4 in my Chebie truck. Thanks for all the info. Got the bug spray. Cooler nights here already.

Dave and Ginny
 
Dave and Ginny,

We are eagerly following your adventure. We spent a month in that part of the country last fall sans the boat. Beautiful.

Harper
 
Harper,
This trip reminded me a little of my younger days in trucking. We would be directed to go to the port of Wilmington,De. and load 40,000 pounds of bananas with the only direction to head west call me in the morning I'll tell you where you are going to deliver them. We launched the boat yesterday in Flaming Gorge res. The Lucerne Valley marina has a nice ramp, slips 20 dollars a day power water, bathrooms but no showers. Fishing licence 12 dollars a day some sort of use fee for the park at 5 dollars a day. The gorge has many arms and hidden entrances to channels. I sprung for a western lake chip from Garmin worth every penny. Lake temp about 68 degrees. We ran about thirty miles south and I was so taken by the scenery a small tear rolled down my cheek. The most beautiful part of the gorge is a no wake zone so you are forced to take it all in. Lots of ski bots here pulling tubes, skiers, knee boards but it's big water and people are respectful. Tomorrow we will try for some rainbow trout as the boat next to me does charters and felt pity on us and spilled his guts on the location, water depth and what to use. I mean what a nice gesture of western hospitality not often found with most fishing folks. I mean some are very tight on sharing info that they have learned the hard way over time. I'll try to get some pictures up now in a sub album titled Flaming Gorge where do I come up with this stuff?
D.D. :D
 
DD, there is a guy at Flaming Gorge that runs charters out of his CDory. I think there many be a thread or mention of him. If I remember correctly he is "Captain Steve". I think he is pretty generous with the info, so it might be beneficial to google a bit.

Go for the kokanee!

Steve
 
DD

Thought you would enjoy Flaming Gorge. It's the first place in our home boating area the ice melts, so it's the first place we launched the Hunkydory in 2003 & before that in a RIB. It gets to busy for us this time of year.

When you get to Jackson Lake be careful around the shoreline especially where the Snake river enters & the western shore. When the dam was built and prior to the water raising many trees were cut leaving some very high stumps.

As the saying goes "on this adventure you ain't seen nothing yet" & I know that's hard to believe with beauty of Flaming Gorge.

See you in Yellowstone,

Jay
 
What a day tried to load some pictures last night internet is a little slow through my Verizon cell modem. I have a bunch to load. I caught an 18 inch rainbow trout. We anchored by swimming beach near state line cove went swimming. It started to get warm we headed back to the marina. If anyone does come out here the grocery store in Manila has showers available for 6.95 a person no group rates, you can shower with your wife or significant other,but it will be 13.90. The owner is a wealth of info only groceries for 50 miles, good spot as he also sell fishing tackle and he will put you on the fish and sell what you need to do it. I can't understand why they don't have showers in the parks campground or at the marina?? The marina has a beautiful fish cleaning station with cutting boards about six hand held spray nozzles and a huge disposal type grinder to put your fish waste into. Had to cost big bucks. The campground also had no power. Seemed odd that in the prime time of the season they were redoing the electrical. Not bitching just seemed odd. The fishing licence thing is a little strange if one person wants to fish with two rods you have to buy a permit for the second rod. bag limits are the same :shock: Tomorrow I'll load up the boat and head north towards Jackson Lake. Thinking about stopping in Bondurant and get a campground site, do some laundry. We are going to go up route 191 towards Jackson.We will be getting ready to do battle with the skeeters on Jackson Lake. It looks like Harper is in the land development business check the picture when I get them posted. The adventure continues. This lake is at 7000' above sea level. 52 degrees this morning. Shiver me timbers.
D.D.
 
52º?? It stays that warm at night?? :wink: The next couple nights here are supposed to be 39º. Lake level is around 6,800'. Maybe the cool nights will help with the mosquitoes? Tough little buggers.

When you come through Jackson, stock up on groceries at Smith's. They usually have the best price on gas/diesel, too (if you can fit your rig in the station). Jackson is a fun TOURIST town... expect plenty of traffic as you go through town. There is a great visitor's center on the north end of town. We had lunch at Bubba's BBQ in Jackson today - not Texas BBQ, but not bad.

When you get to Jackson Lake, Signal Mountain Lodge has great nachos and Leek's Marina has the best pizza in the park. I'm told the fishing is good right now on Jackson Lake... I get steak and trout 5 nights a week on our dinner cruise, so I'm generally in the market for a good burger instead of fish. 8)

The next 10 days in this area are supposed to be nice... temps in the mid-70s, a chance of afternoon thunderstorms (always a chance, even when the weather weasels say "zero"), cool nights (usually around 40º this time of year).

Coming home this evening, the campground and RV park were full. But, there are always decent places to anchor out on this lake... nice coves just outside of Colter Bay Marina. I didn't catch if you have a transient slip reserved (there are only 6 transient slips).

I'll be working Friday through Tuesday if you find your way to the marina.

Travel safe, have fun!
Jim B.

Oh, and no showers at the marina... but there are public showers a couple hundred yards north of us, by the laundromat and grocery store.
 
Jim,
As always you are a wealth of information. THANK YOU!!! I think we might stop along the way in Pinedale or some place along rt.191. We have a slip reserved for three nights starting Saturday at Coulter Bay. Then on to Yellowstone till the 25th. Then the road for a couple days to the Apostles. We are going to call tomorrow to see if we might get in a day early at Coulter Bay. I know that is probably a joke. No matter we will anchor out probably on Friday. I left the dink at home but did bring the generator. No matter we are ejecting from the the Flaming tomorrow and will see (pun) where we end up tomorrow. I didn't want to play to many games too close to Jackson as I can imagine it's a nut house this time of year. Can't load any pic's yet the hamsters are not spinning the wheels fast enough. It's ok, I'm developing a taste for reggae music. :smiled I'll see you Saturday at the latest. I can't imagine you working so hard. You must be almost evergreen and be ready to open your own bank pretty soon.
:mrgreen:
 
Hey, Dave. You'll be fine without the dinghy here and Yellowstone. Rocky shoreline, but some great walks/hikes right from the Colter Bay Marina area. Since we are off again today, I can't say if there's a transient slip available for Friday, but Joan will be in on Friday and will know. If not, get with me and I'll show you a nearby protected cove. The lake is over 25,000 acres (nearly 80 sq miles), so you can do a lot of exploring in 3 days. Plus, I'm sure you'll want to do some driving tours, as well. You can anchor right at the base of Mt. Moran... odds are pretty good you will have that all to yourself.

When you get to Yellowstone, there should be no issue getting a transient slip. Again, no showers at Bridge Bay Marina there. Yellowstone has restrictions regarding anchoring and where "powered" boats can go, so be sure to get their pamphlet on the lake rules. Plus, their fishing rules are different from the Tetons. (You can keep one cutthroat per day here, catch and release only for the cutthroat at Yellowstone. You can keep 5 other fish per day here. If you don't want to keep a lake trout, you can release it without killing it here. Just the highlights of some of the differences.)

You'll need an NPS boat permit and a Wyoming Invasive Species sticker in the Tetons. The park permit is good in both parks. Get the park permit at the Visitors Center (just north of the marina) and the Invasive Species sticker at the marina store. If you were in the Wyoming part of Flaming Gorge and got the sticker there, that works for Jackson Lake, too. There will probably be an Invasive Species check point just north of Jackson as you drive this way.

The two lakes (Jackson and Yellowstone) are not that far apart, but the experience at each is very unique. Time in both parks is the best way to do it... Yellowstone has some of the most amazing diversity, Grand Teton National Park has those spectacular mountains that rise right up out of the water. No doubt you will enjoy both! Plenty of wildlife, hiking, and exploring to be had at both. You might find more crowds at Yellowstone; even though the park is much larger, people seem to get concentrated around their "attractions." Get off the beaten path a bit, and you can find solitude at either. Yellowstone gets more visitors each year, GTNP gets more return visitors. World class Visitors Centers at both parks (Moose is my favorite here, Old Faithful and Canyon are my favorites up north). The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone gets my vote for the most beautiful place in that park; sunrise at Colter Bay Marina is pretty spectacular here (as are all the views in this park). Photo ops abound at both!

Looking forward to meeting you.

Best wishes,
Jim

Sunrise2e_005.jpg
 
Back
Top