3-week Wyoming/Montana Experiment

jhmoore

Well-known member
Am recently home from a solo 3-week experiment traveling in Wyoming & Montana. Was it an "expedition"? -- definitely not by the definition in this forum! Was it "overlanding"? -- I'm really not sure, but probably not! It was my first experiment in traveling & living out of my new 4Runner for multiple weeks... and I loved it!

I'm a long-time nature photographer and traveler around mostly the western United States for photography, but have never had a good offroad vehicle. So where I can get to has been limited. I've often driven non-offroad vehicles places that I probably shouldn't have, but haven't pushed my luck too too far! I bought a 2018 Toyota 4Runner TRPORP this summer and noow I can start pushing my luck. :)

I live in San Diego and have come to love Wyoming--particularly the Jackson Hole / Grand Teton area. In August 2017, I was there for two weeks--week 1 with my family and staying in a hotel during the total solar eclipse, then for week 2 my family flew home, I kept the family minivan, camped, and tried my hand at photographing some of the big animals found in that area. I tend to say that I'm not an animal photographer, but that's not true--I'm not a terrestrial animal photographer. I've been an underwater photographer for years--photographing marine animals--as well as a landscape photographer, but have never focused on land animals. After last year's week trying big-animal photography, I set my sights on spending a month in Wyoming and Montana in 2018 around the fall rut. As fall got closer, that was unfortunately trimmed to 3 weeks, but it was still a great trip.

I bought my 4Runner in June and have not made any modifications to it at this point. I'm doing a lot of reading and thinking about how I want to use it, and will start making changes sometime next year. For this trip, the vehicle was stock. I lived out of the 4Runner for 21 nights and put 4,700 miles on it during this trip. From San Diego up to Jackson, many miles around Grand Teton National Park (where I explored as many unpaved roads as I could find!) & Yellowstone NP, then up to Flathead Lake in Montana, back to Wyoming, then back to San Diego. Skalkaho Pass in Montana was just gorgeous. I had hoped to take several more passes, including Beartooth Highway, but literally the night before that part of the trip was to start the weather changed and snow started in the mountain passes. One of the passes I wanted to take was closed; I don't think that Beartooth was closed, but I decided to play it safe and save it for next time.

For the 4Runner,
- Sleeping: I bought a 3-inch memory foam mattress topper at Costco (queen size), folded it in half lengthwise over itself to make it 6 inches thick, and slept on that. I brought my winter sleeping bag as well as a heavy down comforter. The down comforter was used during the day to cover camera gear and keep it out of sight, and on the colder nights I added it on top of the winter sleeping bag. Coldest night was 22 degrees. The mattress topper was quite comfortable.
- Navigation: When out of cell service, mapping was a Garmin Inreach tied to Gaia GPS on an iPad. This generally worked well, though I've got a couple beefs with Gaia's map download system. I also used the Inreach every night to send an "I'm OK and at [coordinates]" back to my wife & kids--just so that they knew that I'd gone to bed and where I was.
- Food: I don't have a fancy overlanding refrigerator and stove setup (though it's high on the list of things I'm thinking about for before next year's adventure). Ultimately, as I prepared for this trip, I decided that between my bed inside the 4Runner, emergency gear, and all my photography gear (and there was a lot of it!), there really wasn't room for cooking & the food and equipment that require. So I pared the food part of the trip down to dehydrated meals and a very compact JetBoil stove. I ate 2/3rds of the meals on the trip from my car, but the food only took up the second-row footwell where I had removed the 4Runner seat bottom (so that the rear bed of the vehicle was long enough for me to sleep). I put a plastic bin in that footwell to provide support for the head end of my mattress/bed and managed to fit all the dehydrated meals into that bin--which then was completely out of sight and out of the main area in the back of the vehicle

In the back of the 4Runner, the bed area took up the passenger side. On the driver's side, I had
- Back: Flat bin with emergency gear (tire repair, compressor, first aid, tools, etc); larger bin with assorted photography and travel items (e.g., binoculars, LED light panels, spare batteries... and a whole lot of other stuff!); three tripods and a camp chair between the big bin and the outer wall of the vehicle.
- Next was six 1-gallon waters that were my emergency supply--not opened for regular use; I had other waters elsewhere that I used and refilled as I went
- Next my duffel with clothes. I used pay showers and did laundry twice a week.
- Next my big camera bag with all the lenses, camera bodies, etc. And my backpack with laptop and notebooks.

The vehicle felt to me like it ended up with just the right amount of stuff. If I'd tried to bring cooking gear and more food, it would have been too much. So I was happy with my choice for dehydrated food.

Overall it was a great experiment. I loved being able to explore down bad roads and I slept pretty well for the 21 nights. I did end up rigging up some curtains to hang on either side in the back--more for a combination of my peace of mind (I'd rather not see the bear looking in at me!) as well as blocking the light from the full moon that occurred during my trip.

Things I definitely want to change before the next adventure:
- Better curtains all around
- Better tires

Other things that I am thinking about:
- building a platform for the mattress so that I can store things underneath the platform
- refrigerator and stove

Well, I hope this was mildly interesting! Call it poor man's overlanding... Or the first step in a process... as I learn how to use my vehicle for adventures and live in it...

Photos to follow.
 

ITTOG

Well-known member
Thanks for the trip report and great pictures. How far away was the bear when it was walking towards you. What lens did you use? I love the animal pictures. You got some good ones. How long where you in the fields before the animals came. Or did you see them and was able to walk up to them?

So where do you go to find the showers? Is it just truck stops? I have always wondered this when reading peoples trip reports. I have never overlanded so I have never done this.
 

jhmoore

Well-known member
Thanks for the trip report and great pictures. How far away was the bear when it was walking towards you. What lens did you use?

The grizzly sow walking a log straight towards me probably 50-75 feet away. These were the last shots I (rapidly) took before getting out of Dodge! The lens was the Nikon 200-500/5.6. Nice lens, very sharp out at 500 and a whole lot less money than the 500 prime.

I love the animal pictures. You got some good ones. How long where you in the fields before the animals came. Or did you see them and was able to walk up to them?

In my limited experience, these types of animals are a relatively random thing. You learn where they might be more common and look there, and drive around a LOT, but at both common places and less common places, it's just luck. And putting in the time. Sometimes you arrive at an area and there's a big animal out and about. Other times you spend a whole day looking and find nothing.

And I would add that I never "walked up to them." I might have gotten a little closer, and on several occasions they walked up to me, but I never walked up to any of these animals. The most humorous of the "they walked up to me" was a black bear momma that I was photographing across a road and down a bit from me. Except that she rapidly walked down the road towards me and decided to cross right where I was. Fortunately, a car had pulled over right there (my 4Runner was 100 feet behind me at this point), so I rapidly invited myself into the backseat of these random but nice people! "Hi, sorry, but I'm getting in your car now, thanks!" and jumped in!!

So where do you go to find the showers? Is it just truck stops? I have always wondered this when reading peoples trip reports. I have never overlanded so I have never done this.

Campgrounds. Though at this time of year many of them had closed or closed during my three weeks. I didn't sleep in campgrounds--I slept on NFS or BLM lands--but campgrounds were good for showers and laundry.
 
Wow those are geogeous pictures. I use cannon stuff It is out dated now (d-40 and original 5d) my self but I am curious were you shooting with a tripod. My son uses a soni a-7 and frankly his eye is far better than mine. Any close callwith bears other than that 50 -75 feet for a sow ? Did she have cubs? That would indeed be scary. How about at night sleeping in th etruck. I have a new JLUR soft top> Replacing my 10 year old JKU and hope some day to have some type of rtt. or something up top to sleep in . Did you uuse bear cannisters while camping?
Pictures like that inspire me to get out of the office and just go! The fall foliage pictures are really really nice, espeically as I sit here in Carlsbad and there is a fire weather warning or some such up. Thanks for sharing those.
 

jhmoore

Well-known member
I am curious were you shooting with a tripod.

The pictures were a mix of tripod and not... the early/late stuff was generally on a tripod, as were some of the midday longer shots.

Any close callwith bears other than that 50 -75 feet for a sow ? Did she have cubs? That would indeed be scary.

I wasn't lucky enough to encounter any grizzly sows with cubs. Saw plenty of black bear mommas with cubs. Including the one that was in the news recently after the Grand Teton NP service killed her and sent her cubs to a horrible tourist farm. That angered me a lot; I don't agree with their decision.

How about at night sleeping in th etruck. I have a new JLUR soft top> Replacing my 10 year old JKU and hope some day to have some type of rtt. or something up top to sleep in . Did you uuse bear cannisters while camping?

I get you about worrying about sleeping in the vehicle with smells. Those of us from California are well trained to never, ever do that around bears. But the bears up there haven't learned to rip cars open like Yosemite bears. I had heard that and before I went up there I contacted both Grand Teton NP and Yellowstone NP and asked, and both services told me that it would be just fine to sleep in my car with smells.

Pictures like that inspire me to get out of the office and just go! The fall foliage pictures are really really nice, espeically as I sit here in Carlsbad and there is a fire weather warning or some such up. Thanks for sharing those.

Hello, Carlsbad! I'm down in University City (San Diego). Yeah, it's stupid hot. You should get up and go. There should be good fall color in still in the Sierra!
 

Blackdawg

Dr. Frankenstein
Great photos. As a Wyo Native and current MT resident you came at a good time. Best time is usually late August though. Though is snowed then too..but was gone in a day.

Also doing it right with the rig. Take it out and use it as is. Learn what you like to do with it. Go from there.
 

DetroitDarin

Scratching a 10 year Itch
John Moore - you have a gift. Very good work with the photos especially under competing lighting situations. Well done, sir. Thank you for sharing
 

Forum statistics

Threads
185,527
Messages
2,875,540
Members
224,922
Latest member
Randy Towles
Top