Log 016: Yellowstone Road Trip
This post has been a long time coming, and well… I’ve been very lazy getting it put together. So here I am in January 2022 writing about Mariah and my first big trip after the 2020 sabbatical in August 2021. It took us a while to figure out where we wanted to go, but - after some time - we settled on driving out to Wyoming to see Yellowstone National Park. Obviously, driving ~2,300 mi. there was much to see on the way there and back.
Badlands
After driving for two days straight, we made it to Badlands National Park. This was Mariah’s first time in the park, and my first time there in the heat of summer. We stayed the night at Sage Creek campground, and it was a this point we found the first thing we forgot to pack (i.e. A Fry Pan). Given this, our first night not on the road ended with us enjoying some soy hotdogs and sunset views over the prairie. The next morning, we started slow explored the park loop the following day.
It was a hot day in Badlands - nearly 105 F, but still as always it was just as enchanting. I’m not sure what it is about Badlands, but it always draws me back to the beautiful alien scenery. Additionally, the prairie is a grand expanse that is in some ways unparalleled.
In the future, I know Mariah and I need to go back, but this time to spend more time there. There’s a whole world in the backcountry that still needs to be explored by us.
Black Hills
After the Badlands, we headed up to Rapid City to restock on supplies we forgot (i.e. A Fry Pan) from Target. Restocked, we finally made our way into the Black Hills. Mariah and I stayed the night in a campsite outside of Custer, SD.
Early that next morning, we made our way to Custer State Park to hike Black Elk Peak. At 7.1 miles round trip and 1400 feet of elevation gain, it was the perfect easy warm up for our hikes later in the Tetons.
After coming back down to the car in the early afternoon, Custer State Park was busy. We decided to skip town, and get a head start on our drive over to Devils Tower.
Devils Tower
After getting a head start out, we were only an hour out to Devils Tower. It was a long line to get into the National Monument. The Sturgis, SD bike festival was an hour or two back East, and Devils Tower was a popular day trip for the festival goers. We didn’t stay very long, but just long enough to take a walk around the entire monument to take it in, in all it’s glory!
By this time, it had been quite a few days since out last shower, and Mariah and I decided it was time to get a hotel to clean ourselves off for a night. We drove on to Cody, WY, and stayed at a great family owned hotel walking distance to the downtown.
Yellowstone
Feeling refreshed from our stay in Cody, WY, we found our way onward to to Yellowstone. We did the Yellowstone loop coming into the park from the East entrance. It was Mariah’s first time seeing a Geyser or hot spring. While I had seen the park before, this experience was just as fantastic. We didn’t get the time we wanted to in the park. Our itinerary unfortunately didn’t allow for more than one day to be spent in their magical place.
Grand Teton
The Tetons were the next stop on our trip, and we made the most of our short time in the park. The best way to do so was a hike that gave us as much of a Teton experience as we could imagine. I had done the Lake Solitude day hike once prior, but it was Mariah’s first time. She was pretty taken aback by the views, and the magnitude of the hike. I can say, the siren sound of Mexican Food in Jackson, WY kept her alive for the trip down.
Montana
After our adventures in Yellowstone & the Tetons, Montana was our next destination. Truly our expected next stop was Glacier National Park; however, we were sadly unable to find our way up to the park. On our way up, we were smoked out due to the wildfires in the area. After finding our way to Missoula, MT with the air at a 350 AQI, we decided we were not going to be able to camp, and turned around to head East.
Theodore Roosevelt
On our way east, we made a few detours. We stopped for a night in Billings, MT to check out the downtime. We turned off to Theodore Roosevelt Nation Park when we got to North Dakota. It was truly a sight to behold. The prairie of the United States is in many ways the unsung beauty of the country.
Michigan’s UP
Our final leg of our trip was through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. An area that Mariah and I are quite familiar, having had many weekenders up to the UP in our days living in Detroit, MI. One key bit of fun compared to the rest of our trip was how much this leg revolved around checking out some of the major cities in the UP. I had been to Houghton and Marquette prior, but it had been years, and it was beyond exciting to experience them both with new eyes.
Beyond the cities, heading out to the Lake Superior Coastline never disappoints. Mariah and I had been to Pictured Rocks and Whitefish Bay multiple times prior, but stepping back into the familiar territory was wonderful.
This roadtrip was our longest so far, culminating in over 5,000 miles of driving in two weeks. It was our first vacation after the craziness of 2020, and it couldn’t have felt better to get out.
