Tagmoon's Yellowstone www.tagsmoon.com 

The Planning

The economy in the Summer of 2001 was not doing so well. My employer, Philips Semiconductor required that everyone  take 18 days of forced vacation. So in the middle of the summer without warning I was forced to take a vacation.  There was not enough time to arrange for my wife, Anne, to come with us so it  was  just  me and the kids, Tiffany (14), Samuel (12) and cousin Andy (13).  

Several vacation ideas occurred to me.  My first  thought was San Diego --- I love San Diego, but I always go to San Diego on vacation,  so I ruled out Americas finest city.  Next I thought about visiting  the beautiful Olympic Ran Forest in Washington State, but I decided I did not want it to rain on my Vacation. The Grand Canyon was another idea of mine,  but  that would be too hot in August and none of us were in good enough shape for a Canyon Hike. 

We decided on Yellowstone for several reasons. One reason, I believe as an American Child you are required as a rite of passage to take a long road trip.  I did one when I was a child, my road trip was from Sacramento, California to Liberty,  Missouri in the back of a a small F-85 station wagon  and by gosh my kids would take one too!   We logged 2500 miles on our trip from Cupertino, California  to Yellowstone and Back.  I think about 500 of those miles were spent driving around Yellowstone park itself.   We would spend two days at the over priced Cabins in the Canyon Village, two days at the over priced cabins by  Lake Yellowstone, and three days in the campground without showers at Madison.   Click here for a Map of Yellowstone.

I want to thank my father for providing the Camping List.  This is the original Camping list that has been refined over many years.  If you follow this list there is no way you will forget anything. I was so smirk when a saw a fellow camper eating in the dark and I gave him  mantels for his Lantern.   Didn't this guy have a list??