Custer state park is basically next door to us, and gave us two extra opportunities: 1- Needles Highway (separate post) and 2- Wildlife loop road. We were not disappointed, as we saw additional bison herds roaming, and we visited an excellent display about bisons in the visitor center Claudette took the pictures, so I will… Continue reading Custer State Park – Wildlife Loop Road, South Dakota
Jewel Cave National Monument
We were double unlucky with Jewel Cave National Monument. Due to budget cuts, it is open Monday to Saturday, so it was closed when we drove by it on Sunday the 7th. We went back to the visitor center on Tuesday the 9th, knowing that cave tours would not be available, due to “No Cave… Continue reading Jewel Cave National Monument
Mount Rushmore, South Dakota
After visiting the Crazy Horse Memorial the day before, Mount Rushmore felt small-ish… Mount Rushmore National Memorial was created with the intent of being a tourist attraction to the Black Hills area. It honors four presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. The information in the visitor center is very interesting, because… Continue reading Mount Rushmore, South Dakota
Custer State Park – Needles Highway, South Dakota
After leaving from Mount Rushmore, we moved on this afternoon to drive the Needles Highway within Custer State Park. This was an unplanned addition to our trip, and a very rewarding drive. That drive includes six narrow tunnels, the narrowest of them being the “Needles Eye Tunnel” which is 8’0″ wide, and 9’9″ high, and… Continue reading Custer State Park – Needles Highway, South Dakota
Crazy Horse Memorial, South Dakota
We drove right in front of the Crazy Horse Memorial on our way to our campground, so we decided to visit that first after we were checked-in to our campsite. (for scale, spot the three pieces of heavy machinery on the shelf right below the pointing hand) They charge an admission fee, but that is… Continue reading Crazy Horse Memorial, South Dakota
Devil’s Tower National Monument, Wyoming
Today we drove to a recognizable landmark, Devil’s Tower, which was made famous when it appeared in Steven Spielberg’s 1977 movie “Close encounter of the third kind” A great trail actually allows visitors to walk all around the formation, while observing mountain climbers working their way to the top.
Cody, Wyoming – Buffalo Bill Center of the west
This was a fantastic place. It is in fact a 5 museums for the price of one type of place, all within the same structure. We visited them in this order: 1-Whitney Western Art Museum 2-Plains Indian Museum 3-Buffalo Bill Museum 4-Draper Natural History Museum 5-Cody Firearms Museum It was well worth the price of… Continue reading Cody, Wyoming – Buffalo Bill Center of the west
Yellowstone National Park – summary
In many ways, our entire trip was planned around visiting Yellowstone National Park. The park did not dissapoint. We had a 5-night stay scheduled, which gave us 4 full days of exploring, and that was barely enough. We were camped just outside the park, in West Yellowstone, Montana. The bulk of the park is just… Continue reading Yellowstone National Park – summary
Grand Teton National Park
Grand Teton National Park was just a short drive from Jacson hole, in fact, the Jackson Hole airport appear to be on the edge of National Park land. For our visit, we had to deal with three challenges that impacted visibility of the nearby mountains: smoke from nearby wildfires; heavy rain; low clouds. In fact,… Continue reading Grand Teton National Park
Jackson Hole
All the advance information we had suggested that Jackson Hole was an area where a lot of affluent people live. We visited the downtown area and it certainly has a cowboy-chic vibe. But before we headed out there, we stopped to visit the Mama Mimi Sculpture by Thomas Dambo. It did not disappoint. This is… Continue reading Jackson Hole