Snake River whitewater rafting

While staying in Alpine, Wyoming, we did a whitewater rafting experience on the Snake River. My first time.

The rafting trip was between West Table Boat Ramp and Sheep Gulch Boat Ramp:

A nice thing about staying at Alpine Valley RV Resort was a van to take us to the starting point, instead of having to go all the way to Jackson. We had the van to ourselves:

Van

Everyone else arrived by bus from Jackson:

Bus

Boats:

Boats

Jenn with a life vest:

Jenn with life vest

Ready to go:

Jenn and David

On the river:

On the river

Selfie:

Selfie

Rafting

Swimming stop:

Swimming stop

Our guide:

Our guide

Pulling people back in:

Pulling people back in

Rafting

Rapids

GIFs:

GIF

Beaver den:

Beaver den

A slo-mo video of going over some rapids:

Professional pictures; Jenn and I are at the back:

Rafting

Finishing:

Finishing

Us afterwards:

Jenn and David afterwards

Grand Teton National Park

We visited Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on three days while staying in Alpine, about an hour south of the park.

Passing through Jackson with its antler arches:

Jackson

A stop at the National Elk Refuge visitor center just north of Jackson (where we didn’t see any live elk):

National Elk Refuge

Entering Grand Teton National Park:

Grand Teton National Park

Park map:

Map

Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitor Center:

Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitor Center

Grand Teton National Park

Colter Bay Visitor Center:

Colter Bay Visitor Center

Grand Teton National Park

Mormon Row, and the iconic barn:

Mormon Row

Bison:

Bison

Grand Teton National Park

Rockefeller Parkway Visitor Information Station:

Rockerfeller Parkway Visitor Information Station

Flagg Ranch:

Flagg Ranch

Jackson Lake dam:

Jackson Lake dam

Grand Teton National Park

Jenny Lake:

Jenny Lake

Grand Teton National Park

A scenic national park.

Craters of the Moon National Monument

A first for us: we visited Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho with our coach on a travel day. We parked our coach at the visitor center, unhooked our truck, and drove around the park, plus walked around a bit.

Craters of the Moon National Monument

Info sign

Visitor center:

Visotr center

Relief map; the red circle lights show the moving magma hot spot that is currently under Yellowstone:

Visotr center

Old lava:

Old lava

Tree

Path

Old lava

Tree

Old lava

Tree

Old lava

Crater:

Crater

Snow in the crater:

Snow in the crater

Old lava

Selfie

Old lava

Alpine Valley RV Resort

We stayed at Alpine Valley RV Resort in Alpine, Wyoming. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A new RV resort at 5,670 feet elevation, where we stayed to visit Grand Teton National Park, an hour north.

Dates:

Check in: 2023-07-13
Check out: 2023-07-22
9 nights

Weather:

Sunny
High temps ranging between 79-88°F, lows around 50-58°F
Some wind, 26 MPH gusts

Noise:

Some road noise
No train noise
Some neighbor noise (kids)

Site:

#20, pull-through, concrete
Kinda needed to disconnect toad; parked in front of coach
Level
Asphalt driveway and concrete pad about 70 feet long by about 10 feet wide (rather narrow)
Grass between sites about 12 feet wide
Young trees
Concrete patio with table and chairs
Fire pit

Utilities:

50 amp power, conveniently located
75 PSI water, conveniently located
Good sewer connection, somewhat conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

Campground Wi-Fi: 80 Mbps down, 90 Mbps up, 5 ms ping
T-Mobile: 21-40 Mbps down, 7-16 Mbps up, 80 ms ping
Verizon: 3 Mbps down, 1-5 Mbps up, 200-1000 ms ping
AT&T: negligible service (phones work, MiFi didn’t)
Starlink: not used

Amenities:

Garbage pickup from site
Package delivery to site
Coffee shop and grocery store in walking distance

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Beautiful new park, beautiful mountain views

This is a very nice, new park that definitely has had a lot of care and attention put into it. Sites were immaculate, with spacious grassy areas and concrete patios. When the trees grow up a bit, they’ll provide nice shade, but for now, you get really nice views of the surrounding mountains. At check-in, we were escorted to our site and guided in, which is always a nice touch. When folks checked out, each site was cleaned and prepped for the next arrival. Not every place does this, but the best ones do. Another small thing that makes a huge difference is the frequent trash pickup from your site. My only regret was not getting a back-in site so we’d have fewer neighbors and better views, but that gives me something to aspire to for next time. We camped at Alpine Valley RV Resort in a Motorhome.

Tip for Other Campers: Book a whitewater rafting trip with Dave Hansen with pickup from the resort. You basically get concierge service between the resort and the river, which makes for a fantastic experience. Broulim’s is a nice grocery store within walking distance from the resort. Good coffee at Punkins, also within walking distance.

The campground map:

Map

Our site:

Our site

Interesting water faucet; looks like they can remove the tap for winterizing:

Interesting water faucet

Adding the Teton sticker to our coach:

Adding Teton sticker

Other sites:

Other sites

A path to a river overlook:

Path

Snake River (no access from the campground; there’s a steep bank):

Snake River

The park is still under construction; they have a temporary building for the office currently:

Office

A white-water rafting water feature also under construction:

Water feature under construction

Playground:

Playground

Bathrooms:

Bathrooms

Nearby gas station:

Nearby gas station

A nice nearby grocery store; it was very convenient to walk to get groceries:

Nearby grocery store

Nearby Subway etc, also in walking distance:

Nearby Subway etc

Nearby mercantile:

Nearby mercantile

Nearby coffee shop:

Nearby coffee shop

A nice park. We’d stay here again, though would choose a back-in site next time, for an un-obstructed view over the river to the mountains.

Video

Video: Glenns Ferry, Idaho to Alpine, Wyoming motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 270 miles from Glenns Ferry, Idaho to Alpine, Wyoming.

Travel from Glenns Ferry, Idaho to Alpine, Wyoming

We drove our coach 270 miles, over four hours of driving, from Glenns Ferry, Idaho to Alpine, Wyoming.

Here’s the map route, heading east:

Route

An interactive map, with potential stops marked:

Our actual stops:

Preparing to leave:

Preparing to leave

Mural:

Mural

Snake River:

Snake River

Love’s travel centers have been adding RV parks; this looks like a decent one, with pull-through sites:

Love's RV park

Wide load:

Wide load

Shoshone:

Shoshone

Zoomed perspective of the road (highway 26):

Zoomed perspective of road

Another wide load:

Another wide load

We chose this route so we could visit Craters of the Moon National Monument:

Craters of the Moon

It has some RV parking, which barely fits us, so we were able to visit on a travel day — a first for us:

Craters of the Moon RV parking

We unhooked our truck, and drove around the park (see a forthcoming post about that):

Craters of the Moon RV parking

When we got back, the RV parking was full:

Craters of the Moon RV parking

Onward on US-20:

US-20

Arco, Idaho, the first city in the world to be lit by atomic power:

Arco, Idaho

We made an unplanned stop at a rest area, to take a break from unnervingly high wind gusts:

Rest area

Peaks:

Peaks

Fuel stop:

Fuel stop

We had to wait for a long time due to an inconsiderate truck driver that had parked and gone inside; the convention at truck stops is after fueling you can pull forward and stop for up to 15 minutes, but this driver was gone much longer than that:

Inconsiderate truck

Potato fields:

Potato fields

Snake River:

Snake River

Palisades Dam:

Palisades Dam

Palisades Reservoir:

Palisades Reservoir

“Welcome to Wyoming”:

Welcome to Wyoming

Our destination:

Our destination

Basement subwoofer

In a basement compartment of our coach was a subwoofer, presumably synced with the outside TV. We hardly ever use that TV, and wouldn’t want to be booming loud bass sounds when we do, so I’ve had the subwoofer unplugged for ages, and recently removed it and put it into storage.

Here’s the subwoofer, nicely mounted on a shelf:

Subwoofer

It is a wireless subwoofer, so the only attachment is a power cord:

Subwoofer

The empty shelf:

Shelf

That seemed like a good place to put a fire extinguisher and first aid kit, so they’re out of the way, but always reachable:

First aid kit on the shelf

A much better use of that space!

Y Knot Winery RV Park

We stayed at Y Knot Winery RV Park in Glenns Ferry, Idaho. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A brand-new RV park, still installing landscaping, plus a winery and restaurant.

Dates:

Check in: 2023-07-11
Check out: 2023-07-13
2 nights

Weather:

Sunny
High temps ranging between 94-99°F, lows around 58-63°F
Some evening wind, 23 MPH gusts

Noise:

No road noise
Train horn noise (didn’t hear it overnight, fortunately)
No neighbor noise (no neighbors!)
A little construction noise

Site:

#24, pull-through, gravel
Didn’t need to disconnect toad; left it connected
Fairly level
Gravel about 60 feet long by about 12 feet wide
Grass between sites about 15 feet wide
Young trees
No picnic table etc yet

Utilities:

50 amp power, somewhat conveniently located
80 PSI water, somewhat conveniently located
Good sewer connection, very inconveniently located (4 10-foot pipes needed; could have managed with 2 if parked the truck in front of the coach)

Internet (in usage priority order):

T-Mobile: 17-22 Mbps down, 26-32 Mbps up, 52-115 ms ping
Verizon: 11-27 Mbps down, 16 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
AT&T: 120 Mbps down, 8-20 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
Starlink: not used
Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

Winery and restaurant

Our review on Campground Reviews:

So new, still under construction

We stayed here for two nights on our way through Idaho on I-84. We were in the new section, which was being landscaped as we arrived. We were originally in site 31, but they hadn’t finished landscaping it yet, and I could tell from a distance that it was going to be far too short and sloped for us. Since we had the place to ourselves, we pulled into site 24 and called the lovely ladies at the winery to explain the situation. They were more than happy to swap our site and also noticed that I had (like another reviewer) accidentally selected 3 nights, instead of 2, through the online booking site, so she gave me a refund for the extra night. This place is going to be really nice when they finish the landscaping, and I look forward to coming through in the future. The restaurant at the winery was also very nice and worth a visit. We camped at Y Knot Winery RV Park in a Motorhome.

The campground map; we had booked site #31, but ended up in site #24 (read on for why):

Map

This was site 31, occupied by sod pallets:

Site 31

I asked them to move them, but we then realized that the site was very unlevel (several inches front to back, and some side-to-side), plus they were still working on it. So we decided to take one of the sites that already had sod, and was much more level:

Our site

Our site:

Our site

The sewer hookup was super inconvenient; good thing I have 40 feet of hoses:

Our site

Sometimes I think we could offer an RV park design consulting service, to help people avoid mistakes like this.

Sod cleanup:

Sod cleanup

Other sites; there were only two other RVs in the park:

Other sites

A truck with a load of trees:

Truck with trees

They took a corner a bit too sharp, and broke the sewer cap (another reason that’s a stupid place for it, though to be fair RVs wouldn’t normally be going that way around the corner):

Broken sewer cap

Unloading the trees:

Truck of trees

Distributing trees

This RV park is across the road (and part of) the Y Knot Winery; we went there for dinner:

Y Knot Winery

The finest wines of Idaho (video clip):

Wine

Bread:

Bread

Charcuterie board:

Charcuterie board

My steak and baked spud:

Steak and baked spud

Jenn’s dessert:

Dessert

Vines:

Vines

The old campground; we wouldn’t fit in most of those sites:

Old campground

The new campground:

New campground

Video

Video: La Grande, Oregon to Glenns Ferry, Idaho motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 242 miles from La Grande, Oregon to Glenns Ferry, Idaho.

Travel from La Grande, Oregon to Glenns Ferry, Idaho

We drove our coach 242 miles, about four hours of driving, from La Grande, Oregon to Glenns Ferry, Idaho.

Here’s the map route, heading southeast:

Route

Interactive map, with potential stops marked:

Another interactive map, with the places we actually stopped:

I-84:

I-84

Cementworks:

Cementworks

Rest area stop:

Rest area

Snuggling with Paladin:

David and Paladin

A video from our internal security cam while our coach was driving down the road; it’s a rolling earthquake, but much more stable than a trailer. If you look closely, you may notice Paladin asleep on the stacked dining chairs in the lower-right corner:

River:

River

I-84:

I-84

“Oregon Thanks You, Come Back Soon”; yep, we’ll be back every year, as we tour around the country and return to Washington each year for health checkups etc:

Oregon Thanks You