Adventures in Wyoming (& some of Montana)

Sorry for all those interested in our journey, it’s been awhile. Between our adventures and lack of cell signal on our down days, it has left a large gap since my last post.

After leaving the Black Hill of South Dakota we made our way to Devil’s Tower National Monument in Wyoming, arriving on Monday 22 May 2023. Between Monday and Tuesday we hiked the Tower Trail a couple of different times (get different lighting), hiked around the prairie dog town, and chilled at the Belle Fourche River Campground.

Wednesday (24May2023) after a long than planned hike around the prairie dog town again we headed out to Bighorn National Forest. We stopped just outside the national forest at Tongue River Campground. It was really cool public lands spot right next to the river in a beautiful canyon. Thursday (25May2023) we headed to Lovell, Wyoming just outside Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. Along the way we drove through the National Forest/mountains and made a short stop at Shell Falls. We posted up at free spot with showers, Lovell Camper Park.

Tongue River Canyon (Top Left), Bighorn National Forest Drive (Top Right), Shell Falls (Bottom)

Friday and Saturday (26-27May2023) we spent at Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. We hiked Barry’s Island Trail, Lower Layout Creek Trail, and Sullivan’s Knob Trail for some different views of the park. We also stopped at Ewing Snell Historical Ranch, Two Eagle Interpretative Site (Native American Tipi Rings), and Devil’s Canyon Overlook. We also had a wild horse siting both days.

After our hiking on Saturday we then drove to Cody, Wyoming, checking out the Main Street’s shops before spending the night at Walmart.

Sunday (28May2023) we stocked up at Walmart, got coffee and tea at Cody Coffee Roasters and then headed to Eagle Creek Campground in Shoshone National Forest, just outside of Yellowstone. Monday (29May2023) we headed into Yellowstone National Park on our way to Grand Tetons National Park. We made a few pit stops in Yellowstone to stretch our legs and take in some views but basically just drove through to Grand Tetons.

We spent a full week in Grand Tetons (29May2023-05Jun2023), so I’m break down the highlights of our time in the park. We hopped around campsites (to make the most of our time), staying at Colter Bay, Signal Mountain, and Gros Ventre throughout the week.

Hiking in the part was phenomenal and I don’t think there was a hike we didn’t enjoy. Over the week we hiked the following trails:

• Colter Bay & Heron Pond

• String Lake & Leigh Lake

• Taggart & Bradley Lake Loop

• Phelps Lake Loop

• Lakeshore Loop (Colter Bay)

• Cascade Canyon (Hidden Falls & Inspiration Point)

Both driving and hiking we spotted a lot of wildlife. Some of the highlights of the week were the following:

• Coming up on a cinnamon black bear on at end of String Lake

• Mamma and cubs (cinnamon black bears again) at Colter Bay Visitor Center. We ended up seeing them three times over the course of the week

• Moose on our Cascade Canyon hike

• A lot of elk and bison throughout the week

• Eagle and Osprey on our Colter Bay & Heron Pond hike & at Oxbow Bend

We stopped at most of the overlooks and historical sites along both the inner and outer park roads with the highlights being:

• Jackson Dam (great mountain views)

• Oxbow Bend (lots of wildlife)

• Mormon Row

• Schwabacher Landing

Here is some pictures highlighting what I talked about above:

After the Tetons we headed into Yellowstone and are currently still exploring it now and probably have its own post to capture everything we are doing.

Also we are going to have to start deleting pictures from our post to keep this free as we are already running out of storage. So if you see a post with pictures missing you know why.

Until next time!