Black Hills, Badlands, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons Trip

[MarkBarbieri]

I've been to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons. It's really hard to say how much time you should spend at each. You could easily spend weeks and weeks at each of them if you enjoy backpacking and exploring.

I would say that the bare minimum for Grand Tetons is one full day and it would be very easy to spend two days. One day could be used for hiking around the Jenny Lake area and the other day could be spent visiting all the drive-up sites.

Yellowstone is a big figure 8. To just see all the major drive-up spots requires about 3-4 days. It's a huge park. You can easily spend more time doing longer hikes or more activities.

Here are a few shots from our trip to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons last summer:

This was our campsite at Yellowstone

Here are my wife and kids toasting a few marshmallows

One of the many beautiful waterfalls at Yellowstone

An elk laying on the lawn in Mammoth Springs

Mammoth Hot Springs

The Boiling River - a place where hot springs flow into a cold river and you can enjoy a natural hot tub

One of the thermal basins at Yellowstone

The Grand Prismatic Spring

There was a lot of this kind of traffic in Yellowstone

Bighorn Sheep near the east entrance to Yellowstone

A grizzly bear wandering around the park

Sunset over Jackson Lake in the Grand Tetons

A moose in the Grand Tetons

The Snake River

Sunrise at Oxbow Lake

If you want to see more pictures from our trip, I have a video slideshow here. It includes pictures from Rocky Mountain National Park as well. If you are running Windows and want a better version of the same slideshow, you can download it here.

 

[Tumblwd501]

Those are some amazing photos, Mark! I especially love the first one with that beautiful starry night.

 

[RN4Babies]

Speaking from personal experience, a few words of advice:

1. Get your car tuned up (did that) and have your brakes checked (didn't do that) before you leave for your trip. Let's just say that having your brakes go out when you're descending the Black Hills (LOTS of hairpin turns) rivals many of the thrill rides at WDW!

2. If there's a cloud in the sky, don't go horseback riding when you're in Yellowstone. Thunderstorms come from out of nowhere, and getting thrown off a horse, rolling down a mountain and having two people in your traveling party end up with broken legs and on crutches/in a wheelchair for the rest of the trip does not make for a fun vacation.

3. Be alert. Watch for UFO's; we saw one in Nebraska.....it was a tire rim from a truck that blew a tire; it sailed through our front windshield, and exited out the back side window of my van, grazing my son's head. Thankfully he just needed some stitches and is alive to tell the story.

4. Do not think you'll be able to get a motel room without a reservation. You may end up in a small town in Wyoming with a choice between renting a room by the hour scared1 or sleeping in your car. Car sleeping is very uncomfortable; I still have a crick in my neck, 3 1/2 years later.

5. Have fun!!!

 

[MontanaZoo]

Speaking from personal experience, a few words of advice:

1. Get your car tuned up (did that) and have your brakes checked (didn't do that) before you leave for your trip. Let's just say that having your brakes go out when you're descending the Black Hills (LOTS of hairpin turns) rivals many of the thrill rides at WDW!

2. If there's a cloud in the sky, don't go horseback riding when you're in Yellowstone. Thunderstorms come from out of nowhere, and getting thrown off a horse, rolling down a mountain and having two people in your traveling party end up with broken legs and on crutches/in a wheelchair for the rest of the trip does not make for a fun vacation.

3. Be alert. Watch for UFO's; we saw one in Nebraska.....it was a tire rim from a truck that blew a tire; it sailed through our front windshield, and exited out the back side window of my van, grazing my son's head. Thankfully he just needed some stitches and is alive to tell the story.

4. Do not think you'll be able to get a motel room without a reservation. You may end up in a small town in Wyoming with a choice between renting a room by the hour scared1 or sleeping in your car. Car sleeping is very uncomfortable; I still have a crick in my neck, 3 1/2 years later.

5. Have fun!!!

Wow, was that all in one trip!

 

[MontanaZoo]

Speaking from personal experience, a few words of advice:


4. Do not think you'll be able to get a motel room without a reservation. You may end up in a small town in Wyoming with a choice between renting a room by the hour scared1 or sleeping in your car. Car sleeping is very uncomfortable; I still have a crick in my neck, 3 1/2 years later.

Which small town in Wyoming if you remember? I stayed in Hamilton (a small town in western MT) when attending my great-aunt's funeral and my aunt and one of my cousins ended up in the "bridal suite" that had red carpet covering the floor and the walls and mirrors on the ceiling....we all took turns touring through that room laughing hysterically.

 

[fun4me]

Gorgeous pics, Mark!! I need to learn to take better pics. A new camera might help me out too!

Speaking from personal experience, a few words of advice:


4. Do not think you'll be able to get a motel room without a reservation. You may end up in a small town in Wyoming with a choice between renting a room by the hour scared1 or sleeping in your car. Car sleeping is very uncomfortable; I still have a crick in my neck, 3 1/2 years later.

5. Have fun!!!

LOL I second getting reservation!! We had to drive 3 hours in the middle of the night to my sil's house with a screaming baby!! We couldn't find a hotel w/ any rooms available. We were in the south part of Wyoming on I-80.

 

[almburr]

Im in the planning stages of this trip also!

 

[crz4mm2]

FABULOUS pics Mark!! Thanks for sharing.

We did this trip (more or less ) in 03 also.
It was one of our BEST vacations ever.
We did 4500 miles in 12 days!

WE had no reservations before leaving home (first time I had EVER done that and BOY was I worried). Only place I regretted it was Jackson Hole. Paid the most I had ever paid for a room when we got there.... wow.

I would NOT MISS Crazy Horse memorial. It is WELL worth the price of admission. YOu learn so much about what the family went through to start building that monument. They receive NO government money and it is just incredible. I would go back just to visit Crazy Horse!

It is making me want to go back again!!!
Have a great time. we did not stay IN Yellowstone (but I would have if I had known how much there was to see). By the way, Old Faithful was late the day we were there LOL.
We had to wait on it to erupt.

 

[RN4Babies]

Wow, was that all in one trip!

Yep...lol....all in the same trip.

We call it our trip from heck.

 

[RN4Babies]

Which small town in Wyoming if you remember? I stayed in Hamilton (a small town in western MT) when attending my great-aunt's funeral and my aunt and one of my cousins ended up in the "bridal suite" that had red carpet covering the floor and the walls and mirrors on the ceiling....we all took turns touring through that room laughing hysterically.

We were in Gillette Wyoming. It looked scary at nighttime, so we parked outside of the police station and slep there, figuring no one would have the nerve to bother us.

 

[cristit14]

Those are great photos Mark!

 

[MontanaZoo]

We were in Gillette Wyoming. It looked scary at nighttime, so we parked outside of the police station and slep there, figuring no one would have the nerve to bother us.

Oh, hilarious, I have friends in Gillette. I don't even think for Wyoming that's considered a small town. The first question I ask if someone's from a small town is if they have a traffic light, then if the answer is no, I ask if they have a stop sign. I was going to say if the town was small enough like Cowley, WY or something, the farmhouses were probably unlocked and you could walk right in. They do that in case someone needs something (seriously).

 

[ZephyrHawk]

DH and I will be making a similar trip this September. We're making as few reservations as possible with the idea of being able to change where we want to go pretty much on the fly. We'll be taking my laptop with us and make reservations about 24 hours in advance when we know where we'll be, and we do have rooms booked at the Old Faithful Inn, because we know they're hard to get. Mind you, all of this 'we'll go where the road takes us' stuff is DH's idea. It's his turn to choose the trip. Anyways, here's the unplanned plan to date for our 17 day adventure:

MN- Spam museum
SD- Corn Palace, Badlands, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, that Mammoth place whose name I can't remember
WY- Devil's Tower, Bighorn Canyon (WILD HORSES!), Yellowstone, Tetons, Jackson Hole, Fossil Butte
Utah- Salt Lake City, Bryce, Zion, Arches, Monument Valley
Nevada- Las Vegas, Hoover Dam
Arizona- Grand Canyon, Antelope Cave
Colorado- Mesa Verde, Sand Dunes

A bit ambitious perhaps, but the idea is we don't have to stop anywhere (except Yellowstone, where we have the reservations). We already cut out a jaunt to Montana and several things in Utah.

 

[MontanaZoo]

DH and I will be making a similar trip this September. We're making as few reservations as possible with the idea of being able to change where we want to go pretty much on the fly. We'll be taking my laptop with us and make reservations about 24 hours in advance when we know where we'll be, and we do have rooms booked at the Old Faithful Inn, because we know they're hard to get. Mind you, all of this 'we'll go where the road takes us' stuff is DH's idea. It's his turn to choose the trip. Anyways, here's the unplanned plan to date for our 17 day adventure:

MN- Spam museum
SD- Corn Palace, Badlands, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, that Mammoth place whose name I can't remember
WY- Devil's Tower, Bighorn Canyon (WILD HORSES!), Yellowstone, Tetons, Jackson Hole, Fossil Butte
Utah- Salt Lake City, Bryce, Zion, Arches, Monument Valley
Nevada- Las Vegas, Hoover Dam
Arizona- Grand Canyon, Antelope Cave
Colorado- Mesa Verde, Sand Dunes

A bit ambitious perhaps, but the idea is we don't have to stop anywhere (except Yellowstone, where we have the reservations). We already cut out a jaunt to Montana and several things in Utah.

Just be careful of the weather, September can get nasty in Yellowstone. Do you have a plan on how to see the mustangs in the Pryors (Bighorn Canyon)? Just wondering, one of our conservation people at the zoo (there was just an article in national geographic about him) manages the contraception of the herd when they aren't doing roundups and I've heard it's hard to get out there. I've been trying to talk them into taking me when they go dart them but BLM decided to do a roundup this year instead of contraceptives.

BTW, early Sept is an excellent time to go to YNP if you can avoid the snow. It's late bison rut and early elk rut.

 

[jsmith]

just an observation ( i grew up in Cody and have lived in wyoming and colorado most of my life) but the likely hood that you will see "wild" horses in the pryors is slim -they are up in rough country thats hard to get to-as the PP poster said-and if you are expecting to see them from the road-not likely-your much more likely to see them in the Red Desert country down around Rock Springs-ive even seen herds along I-80 at times.
PP is also correct about fall weather-the reality is we only have about 4 months in the west (mid -May to mid-Sept) when snow is unlikely-and none when theres a garuntee it wont snow.

 

[iadis58]

I have not read all the posts so forgive me if I am repeating information but we have done Black Hills wild Horse Sanctuary in Hot Springs South Dakota, you will see horses there if you take the tour, we have been twice and loved it. Another option is Spahns Nest in Big Horn Wyoming, if you stay there they can arange a trip where he drives you deep into the Pryors to see the hoses and lots of wildlife, have never done the trip but Spahn's is a really nice place to stay. Just my two cents. Have anice trip

 

[Small Town Princess]

So glad I found this post! We are leaving Eastern Iowa June 12, through South Dakota headed toward Buffalo, WY to visit family. Hope to hit wall drug, rushmore, drive by crazy horse, do bear country & custer park. Mostly traveling I90. We have to be in Wisonsin Dells by June 20 for National Dance Competition before heading home. I'm tired all ready!