We spent days 9-10 with a lot of steady driving from GNP through Montana, Wyoming and Colorado until we reached Fun Valley RV resort near South Fork, CO. Toward the end of the first day of driving, after literally all day of riding shotgun, I told Nick, “I have been so content to sit here all day.” The four full days of hiking that preceded that day had me wanting to be still! He said, “Well, I wondered when you would hit your breaking point.” 😂
We arrived at Fun Valley around 4pm Tuesday, which gave us time to wash all of our dirty laundry before dinner that night. My family alone took up four washers/dryers and it was all done in less than 2 hours. Amazing, lol. We do have a washer and dryer in our rig, and I had done one load already, but it’s not as user friendly as you would think. The gray tank has to be empty and open, and we’ve noticed you can’t run water elsewhere in the rig because all of the water pressure has to be directed to the washer when you run it, or it throws an error code. And we don’t like running it at night because the dryer is super loud, ha. So using the wash room at Fun Valley was super nice and quick!
We love ending our trips at Fun Valley, and we intentionally don’t make any plans whatsoever. Because our NP days are packed and planned from sunup to sundown, this is a great way to finish vacation at a slower, restful pace. We don’t leave the resort unless we need to run by a grocery or hardware store. Almost everything we need can be found at the general store in the resort, with the exception being meat (Nick went into South Fork for that).
Our breakfasts continued to be the frozen meals we prepped, which has been so smooth and simple for the entire two weeks. Our lunches were a combination of leftovers and one visit to the Valley Grill. For dinner Nick made burgers and fajitas. And don’t ask us how many of the local Amish fried pies we enjoyed!
We did have a first time experience this year out of all the places we have ever traveled. When we awoke Wednesday morning, I opened the shade to our bedroom window and saw that two of our car doors were open: passenger side front door and driver side back door. I immediately guessed what it was but Nick was skeptical, so he went outside to look- I watched from the window and as soon as I saw his expression, joined him outside.
Yup, a bear or bears visited our car the night before. We had been warned about locking our car doors and not keeping food inside. When we came in from the street dance the night before, I came inside first with the girls and Nick stayed sitting in the car for a moment. I had the keys and thought, “I need to be sure and lock the car when he comes in.” I never thought about it again!
I thought all the food was out of the car, but had forgotten that we had bags of dried fruit in the console. So that bear smelled and reached that dried fruit through a car door, the console and sealed plastic bags!
Thankfully, the only damage done appears to be where they pried the console open, and Nick thinks he can fix that. They removed my purse and wallet and dropped it on the floor in order to get to the fruit! 😳😂 Just another adventure and another lesson learned!
Other than the bear escapade, everything went pretty smoothly. We spent our time sitting outside our RV in the mountain air- cooler here than any other RV park we visited this summer, with rain showers almost every afternoon. We enjoyed a lot of fishing (Beau caught a massive trout!), played rounds of putt putt, pedal boated, and watched the girls playing on the various playgrounds and sandboxes. The boys ride bikes/scooters all over the place and easily made friends. They played pool and air hockey and other arcade games. We waded in the river a little. The evening activities included a street dance and karaoke, both nights loved by our girls. We went to bed late and slept late and I got a whole book read in two mornings of coffee in bed. As usual, it was the perfect ending to our trip.
We took our time leaving Friday, drove just east of Amarillo to boondock, and should be home by noon on Saturday.
We are so very grateful for the chance to go and make memories and solve problems with mountains in the background. 😉 Glacier is a place I could return to every summer. We’ve already booked Fun Valley for next year, and have been considering and planning where to go beforehand…the Redwoods, maybe? We shall see! Always an adventure. 🥰
jami lee gainey 
I sure have enjoyed “being on vacation with you” through your shared pictures!