Week 59: Yellowstone to Wind Cave National Park
Adventures from Wyoming to Montana to South Dakota!
Hi, hello, and welcome back! It’s been 59 weeks since we sold our house in Austin, Texas to travel full time in our converted camper van named Walter — and what a week it’s been!
Before I jump in to the recap, I wanted to send out a special welcome all the new subscribers who found me via the Art Toolkit interview! I’m so glad you’re here. My goal each week is to put out a magazine-like post so you can ride along with us on our advantures — it’s great having you along for the ride.
Art Toolkit Interview
In case you haven’t seen it yet, Art Toolkit did an interview with each member of the Ambassador Team where we share our kits and answer some fun questions. Check mine out here.
Art Toolkit has given me a coupon code to share with you: use code LISAFAN10 for 10% off your purchase of an ArtToolkit, palette, or mixing pans.
Now let’s get to the recap! Note: we always seem to cram too many adventures in a week, and if you’re reading this via email it will probably get cut off. If that happens, just click on over to the web version.
Travel Map
Here’s an overview map so you could see our travel route for the week:
We started out the week in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, then we bounced around between Montana and Wyoming on the Beartooth Highway, then back to Wyoming for Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area and Devils Tower National Monument, then over to South Dakota to Jewel Cave National Monument. Whew!
We’re heading to Ohio in a very roundabout way to visit family — can’t wait to see everyone!
Monday: Last Full Day at Yellowstone National Park
Monday was our last full day at Yellowstone — and we started missing it before we even left. Do you ever feel like that? (Catch up on our Yellowstone adventures: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3!)
We were lucky enough to score several nights at Slough Creek Campground, and our site was right beside the creek. It was so peaceful, and the sound of the water sang us to sleep.
Mule Train
We decided to take a slow morning since we had some big travel days coming up and I was glad we did because we got to see the mule train again.
A mule train had been coming through the campground almost every day — crossing the creek right behind our campsite — and today’s train was the biggest one yet:
If anyone out there knows where these guys go to/from we’d love to hear!
Camp Bison
We also had another visit from “our” camp bison. We’re pretty sure the same bison crossed the creek behind our campsite each day, and it was so cool to get to see him closer — from a safe distance.
This time I happened to have my sketchbook out on the picnic table so I did a quick sketch:
The sketch is kinda wonky, but it was a magical moment that I’ll treasure forever. I could hear him wading through the water — and getting closer with each step.
They’re so huge!
Trout Lake
One of our Yellowstone goals was to see river otters, and since we hadn’t seen any yet we decided to give it one last shot! Jason checked iNaturalist and there were several sightings at Trout Lake — so off we went.
Spoiler alert: we didn’t see any river otters, darn.
But we did see some amazing paintbrush!
The colors were so vibrant and saturated with the approaching storm clouds that I couldn’t help but take a bunch of photos — even though the wind was blowing them all around.
Lamar Valley
Since we were out and about we decided to check the Lamar River for otters, too!
We soon ran into another bison jam — I wish all traffic jams were this amazing:
The sage smelled so good from the recent rain, and it was a joy to see them — especially the young ones:
We stopped to look for otters at the confluence of the Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek — still didn’t find any, but that didn’t keep us from soaking in the view:
On the way back to camp we stopped by the overlook to Slough Creek — we still didn’t find any otters, but we did spot some ducks:
What a great last day!
Tuesday: Leaving Yellowstone
Tuesday we got up around 5 am, and after walking down to the creek to say goodbye we hopped in the van and headed to Lamar Valley to see what we could see…
…and we were lucky enough to see a black wolf!
Black Wolf
We’d seen wolves before during our time in Yellowstone, but this was the first time we ever saw one this close with our naked eyes:
She loped along through the sage without a care in the world. It was awe inspiring. So good to see one wild and free with our own eyes.
I felt so lucky and grateful.
Last Bison Jams
We encountered three more bison jams before leaving the park — my kinda jam! This tender moment of a mama nursing was by far our favorite, though:
Heading east through Lamar Valley meant that we had multiple sunrises — just so darn beautiful:
We’re already plotting another trip to Yellowstone. Really miss this special place.
Tuesday: Beartooth Highway
Next it was on to the Beartooth Highway! Several people had recommended doing it — thanks so much to all of you!
It was so beautiful — I couldn’t stop taking photos! (Are you surprised?)
According to Wikipedia, the approximate elevation rise is from 5,200 ft (1,580 m) to 10,947 ft (3,337 m) in just twelve miles (19 km) — whoa!
There are crystal clear alpine lakes:
Gorgeous views all around:
We loved the tundra flora and fauna, including marmots and pikas! I didn’t get a good pika photo, but here’s a happy marmot saying hello:
I took so many wildflower photos — here are just a few faves:
The highway is only open 5 months of the year and we could see why — there was still snow on some of the peaks. I sent a virtual snowball to family in Ohio — LOL!
On the way down the highway a storm rolled in and it started raining — it’s always a little crazy how fast the weather changes in the mountains. We stopped in Red Lodge, Montana to get groceries, and then it was on to…
Tuesday: Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area
We arrived at Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, Wyoming around sunset — the rain stopped for a bit and we were treated to some dramatic skies!
This was the view out the back of the van:
Later that evening the storm kicked up again and the wind shook the van all around. I told J it was like we were sleeping on a boat on a stormy sea!
Neither of us got much rest, but we decided to get back on the road after coffee and a quick shower in a parking area.
Wednesday: Boulder Park, Bighorn National Forest
We stopped in Lovell, Wyoming to do laundry and then were treated to more dramatic skies around Tensleep. Just look at the contrast between the red rocks and that sky:
So amazing! It started getting dark fast and looked like it would start storming again at any minute, so we made our home for the night at Boulder Park Campground of Bighorn National Forest. Luckily it didn’t start raining until we got the van set up, whew!
When we woke up the next morning the sun was out and the pines smelled so fresh and clean.
We wished we could stay longer, but we had a reservation waiting for us so off we went.
Thursday-Saturday: Devils Tower National Monument
J and I were both looking forward to going to Devils Tower National Monument — which we learned was petitioned to be renamed Bear Lodge by local tribes. I’m going to call it that for the rest of the post.
When we first saw the Bear Lodge rising up from the landscape our hearts lifted — what a sight:
I started getting nostalgic for Enchanted Rock State Park back in Central Texas — it was the same kind of feeling of seeing a cool rock formation suddenly rising up in the landscape.
We got to our campsite, parked the van, and then hiked up to the Visitor Center via the outer loop trail:
We started noticing all sorts of prairie plants from Central Texas which really surprised us, including purple prairie clover, echinacea, big bluestem, milkweeds, and more! (Random fact about me: I help with the website for Native Prairies Association of Texas, and I’ve been a prairie girl forever.)
It was like seeing long lost friends:
After stopping by the Visitor Center to stamp my sketchbook (more on that in a future post!) we hiked the inner loop around the tower and saw some sweet bunnies:
Then I got rattled at — eek!
This polite prairie rattlesnake was just off the trail curled up next to a rock and rattled a warning that sent me back in the opposite direction. I’d actually been scanning for snakes and didn’t even see it — thanks snek fren for not biting me, ha!
The next two days were pretty uneventful — we slept in, relaxed, and watched a storm roll in — all right from our campsite.
Stormy Sequence
Here’s a sequence of storm photos — which is your favorite? I couldn’t decide!
In case you were wondering — we did get rained on in camp, but it didn’t last long.
There are several prairie dog towns in the park and we walked by a few times to watch them. They’re so cute!
Each one seems to have its own personality. We were guessing these two were siblings:
Movie Fame
A friend (thanks, Marisela!) saw some photos I’d posted on Instagram and said “hey, that looks like the tower in Steven Spielberg’s 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind” — and she was right!
So then we started humming the tune over and over! :)
I found this little clip about it — worth watching as it captures the feeling of the place better than my photos can:
That’s a Wrap!
That’s a wrap for this week! I’m writing this from our campsite at Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota and I can’t wait to share more about it in my next post. And I’m wishing I had some of that snow from the Beartooth Highway because it’s in the upper 80s here!
Until then, hope you have a great week!
I like the amazing sky in the middle storm photo best
I had to skip down to the bottom to see what you had to say about South Dakota (I live here!) so now I'll start at the top and stay tuned for,ore next week! It's been hot and humid here this summer.