Equipo Williams

We’ve just finished seven nights of camping and it was absolutely amazing! After a two-day stop in Rapid City, SD, to do laundry and see Mount Rushmore, we headed out. The first day, we drove through Custer State Park in SD. We hiked the Lovers Leap Loop, which was around four miles. Sydney was particularly interested in the rocks we saw on the hike. He discovered mica, and once he knew what he was looking for we saw plenty of muscovite everywhere.

The other big attraction in Custer State Park was the Wildlife Loop Drive. We saw a herd of bison streaming across a road and stopped with all the other tourists to take pictures and marvel at how big and graceful they are. A few miles further on, we stopped to interact with the very tame “wild” donkeys. Audrey approached them as she would a horse, very slowly with hand outstretched for them to sniff. Once she saw they would let her come closer, she patted them on the nose and neck. Sydney particularly loved a little baby donkey and got to snuggle it! The mama was right there too and didn’t allow any other people (including cautious Audrey) to get close enough to touch her baby. Only Sydney was small enough to be allowed in.

After that, we drove several hours across South Dakota and Wyoming, and found a walk-in campsite in Bighorn National Forest, just west of Cody WY. Middle Fork Campground had only eight spots, and two were still available when we arrived around dinner time. The kids explored along a small stream and gathered some firewood while Marcus and I set up camp. In the morning, Marcus and the kids went for a little explore while I played radio for a bit. After that, we had about a four-hour drive to Yellowstone National Park.

On entering Yellowstone, we immediately began to see wildlife. From the East Entrance of the park to our campsite in Madison on the other side, it was about an hour and a half of driving. In that time, we saw bighorn sheep, bison (including some on the road), and either deer or elk (couldn’t quite tell through the trees). Overnight, Marcus heard wolves howling on two sides of the campground.

We stayed in Madison Campground 4 nights and explored different areas of the park each day. The first day we drove up to Mammoth Hot Springs. The travertine terraces were really impressive and the kids didn’t even complain too much when we marched them around miles of boardwalks over the thermal landscape. After that, we decided we had earned ice cream for lunch. The afternoon drive was fairly adventurous. We drove a one-way dirt track that I was chided for taking at about 30 mph. I definitely passed a handful of cars that pulled into turnouts to let me by. But I saw rain coming and wanted to be back on the pavement before it hit. Turns out, it was not just rain but hail. Eventually the hail became an issue (bigger than pea size and plentiful enough it looked like snow on the ground), and we pulled over on a turnout to wait it out for 10 minutes or so before pressing on. On the way back to the campsite we stopped in Canyon Village for showers, which were worth every penny (about $5 per person).

The evening was a bit eventful when the kids, goofing around, butted heads. Hard. Audrey almost immediately got a big golfball-sized goose egg that turned blue. Syd didn’t seem too bad off, but Audrey was complaining of pain in different areas of her head, so we decided that she and Marcus should immediately head towards a clinic and try to get there before they closed, just in case. Due to road construction delays, they didn’t make it in time. However, they were able to use the wifi there to consult with Dr. Google (there was cell service in only a few major centers in the whole park and our campsite wasn’t one of them). By that point, her head wasn’t feeling as bad and she didn’t have any symptoms that called for emergency treatment, so they drove back to camp. I reheated the cornbread and chili which they were pretty happy to scarf down.

The second day, we headed south to see some of the thermal features including the Grand Prismatic Pool. As rain was heading in from the south, we decided to come back to Old Faithful another time and take the other way around the big loop drive. We saw the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and did several hikes down into the canyon, and back up of course, for fantastic canyon and waterfall views. Back at camp, we went on an evening walk and saw some bison along the river, including a mama bison nursing her baby. We stayed well back but took a few photos.

The third day, we made a beeline for Old Faithful and walked around the boardwalks there for about an hour while waiting for the famous geyser to erupt. The actual eruption was only a few minutes and maybe 15-20 feet high, which we all found a bit underwhelming after reading about some of the other geysers that erupt tens to hundreds of feet into the air. At least Old Faithful is predictable, though. We then rented bear spray and headed on our way.

Later that afternoon, we stopped by Yellowstone Lake so the kids and Marcus could do some fishing and I could play radio. Both the fishing and radio were moderately successful (a few bites and about 30 radio contacts). Then we stopped again for showers and to buy beer. By the time we got back to camp it was after seven p.m. and everyone was ready for dinner. Since that was our last night at Madison Campground, we also packed up our campsite as much as possible to make the morning easier.

Our last day in Yellowstone we explored Norris Geyser Basin and walked about two miles on boardwalks, seeing all the hot springs, geysers, and fumaroles. After that we drove to a trailhead and hiked up to Cascade Lake, about 2.5 miles each way. Based on the bear safety video we watched, Sydney knew to clap his hands and call out “here, bear!” if the group was ever too quiet. Thankfully, Audrey regaled us with her current favorite vacation fantasy nearly the whole way there and back, so there was plenty of noise to avoid surprising bears.

After driving about 4 hours and a quick stop for groceries (and beer), we made it to Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho and found a walk-in campsite available at the Lava Flow Campground, which is exactly as cool as it sounds. Stay tuned for more about Craters of the Moon in the next post!