Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND

Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota is one of the least-visited national parks, but well worth the four-hour detour from Rapid City, SD. First, the drive up is perfectly straight and perfectly desolate; no towns, very few other cars, nothing but farmland and buttes as far as the eye can see. (Do be sure you pee first, as there are not many opportunities for it on that road.) Great driving, though not as scenic as Montana.

The park itself is like an older, rounder, more colorful version of the Badlands, with more greenery. And a resident buffalo herd and a few wild horses, all of which we saw.

Mt. Rushmore, Wind Cave National Park, and Badlands National Park, SD

We spent a full day exploring the Black Hills and Badlands of South Dakota. We started at Mt. Rushmore, first thing in the morning, largely so the boy could see it. The Black Hills area is generally the Gatlinburg of the West: crowded, tacky, and full of tourist traps. Mt. Rushmore doubly so. And it’s a shame, because the area is so pretty.

We continued to Wind Cave, which was a new national park for all of us. We took a quick tour underground, and the boy loved it. He ranks the geysers of Yellowstone and Wind Cave as a tie for his favorite experience of the trip. We drove through a bit of Custer State Park on our way out, and saw more buffalo and a herd of pronghorn antelope grazing by the side of the road.

I dropped the men off at the South Dakota Air and Space Museum, right outside Ellsworth Air Force Base, and loaded up on groceries at the nearest Target.

Then we headed to Badlands National Park, and during some road construction on the interstate, we took a rock to the windshield and had our first bad thing happen on the trip: a cracked windshield. We sat and watched it crack across the passenger side and I completely panicked. I’d never had a cracked windshield before, and despite my husband’s protestations that it was purely cosmetic damage and not anything to worry about, I had visions of the windshield popping out at high speed. I had to call our insurance guy, the local dealership, an auto glass specialist, and my dad before I could be convinced that we were in no immediate danger.

We cleared the Badlands and since it was crowded, we had a picnic dinner at the city park in Wall, SD, before browsing the infamous Wall Drug and returning to Rapid City for the night.

Devils Tower National Monument, WY

The posts of the road trip have been admittedly a little sparse up to now: I was generally posting something quick, with a few pictures, very early in the morning from a Motel 6 somewhere, in order to just get something up. Don’t let that fool you; we had an amazing time, and every day was a revelation. Amazing scenery, amazing driving, good family times, and all of it was pretty affordable.

After a couple of days spent in Yellowstone/Grand Teton/Jackson, WY, we headed out across Wyoming toward Devils Tower. The last time I drove across Wyoming, I remembered it being completely empty. Apparently everyone else has discovered Wyoming in the intervening four years, because it was definitely not empty. We drove across the Wind River plain and the canyons of US 16; I highly recommend both drives, especially US 16, but we were caught behind slow-moving RVs more times than I care to remember. Ditto Devils Tower: our nerves were so frazzled by the time we arrived that we had no patience for RVs, tour buses, or other people in general. We zipped in and out, got some pictures, and high-tailed it for Rapid City, SD, where we were planning to spend the night.

Verdict: neat to see, no need to stick around if you're not a climber. Cute prairie dog colony at the base, though.

At dinner that night in downtown Rapid City, we discovered yet another street fair. Not as exciting as a county fair and rodeo, of course, but still an unexpected bit of fun. We stopped into an old-timey candy store, bought a bunch of rock candy and Sioux City Sarsaparilla, and made sure the boy was loaded up with sugar right before bedtime.

A general observation: Wyoming and South Dakota have gotten very vacation-y in the summer. Everywhere we went, we were surrounded by other tourists (generally slow-driving ones). Granted, we were in the most vacation-y parts of both states. But still. Montana, on the other hand, was almost always empty-feeling and comparatively devoid of other tourists. Flathead Lake was a little touristy, but even on the interstates and inside Glacier National Park and in Livingston, gateway to Yellowstone, I never felt the kind of frustration I felt in Wyoming and South Dakota.

So. I officially revise my favorite national park to Glacier, and my favorite driving state to Montana.

Rodeo!

We just happened to hit Jackson, WY, at the same time as their County Fair. With rodeo.

Of course we had to go.

My stepson had never been--to either a county fair or a rodeo. It was exactly what you'd expect--a lot of rinky-dink rides, tons of junk food, livestock exhibitions. We ate cotton candy, rode the Ferris wheel (and watched the sun setting from the top), and bought tickets for the rodeo.

He was a little unsure ("People ride cows? What?") but he loved it. I loved it. We all loved it. I loved that the beer stand only sold Coors Light, and the guy apologized for charging me $5 for it.

Mountains, beer, AND a rodeo, all in one day!

Grand Teton National Park, WY

Grand Teton is like a breath of fresh air after Yellowstone (almost literally, given the sulfur fumes). It's less crowded, smaller, and involves only one thing: enormous mountains, jutting up from flat prairie.

It's breathtaking, as you can tell from the pictures. We stopped and had a picnic lunch overlooking Jackson Lake. The next morning, we took in the Snake River Overlook (where Ansel Adams took his famous picture) and ended the day by driving down through Idaho, on the other side of the Tetons, and back through a vertiginous mountain pass. It's a long drive (out West Yellowstone, down route 20, across the mountains on 26), but prettier and way less frustrating than sitting in all the park traffic.

Yellowstone National Park

Old Faithful

The first time I went to Yellowstone, I hated it. It was crowded, hot, full of dead burnt-out trees, and as far as I could tell was nothing but a monument to swamps and slow people.

However, I discovered the secret to liking Yellowstone this time around. First, go early. Very early. Even the remote parts will get crowded by lunchtime. Second, go to the eastern side of the park.

The western side is all geysers, fountains, burbling mud, and weird smells. Some of it is interesting--we saw Old Faithful erupt (and even got a little on us), but this is of course the most crowded part of the park. The eastern side contains the lake, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and all the bison/bison grazing fields.

Also, the drive from Livingston, MT down to the north entrance is spectacular. Especially at sunrise.

Mammoth Hot Springs

Highway 89, Montana

I just had the best drive of my life.

It was on 89, through central Montana.

89 is a two-lane road that cuts down from near Glacier National Park through Great Falls and the Lewis and Clark National Forest to Livingston. It skirts the Rockies almost all the way. The speed limit is 70. It passes through a few towns, but very few.

So it is a long, straight, high-speed road that has the Rocky Mountains on one side and plains on the other, with very few other cars. There are other cars, of course--but because the road is mostly long and straight, in a treeless country, it's very easy to pass them. To blow past them doing 95, perhaps, because what cop would sit out there to catch speeders?

And oh, it was gorgeous. Truly the best drive of my life. Beautiful, easy, fast, and clear. The topography changed going through the Lewis and Clark National Forest, of course, but then it opened back up in mountains and plains. The only problem was the relative lack of bathrooms, and the lack of good places to pull over and take pictures. It's probably just as well--I would have been taking pictures every mile or so.

And on a beautiful clear, sunny, hot day--we played the music loud, drove fast, and exclaimed over the scenery.

Spectacular. Just spectacular.