391 miles driven.

We we’re lucky enough to continue our journey through more of Zion National Park.

We decided that we didn’t want to take the highways to Moab, so we headed south for a bit and traveled through Arizona seeing Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Monument Valley.

We got a taste of what we will see in Arches National Park back in Utah and it was delicious.

❤️ – ShooKy

356 miles driven.

We woke up early and booked it south to Zion National Park.

The only way to see the canyon is to take a bus that has nine stops to let you out and explore. We took the opportunity for mom to actually get a break on driving and just take it all in.

I have a history with wild turkeys antagonizing me at bus stops and today in Zion was no different. F@!*en turkeys.

Our hotel had beautiful vistas and deer.

And we we’re lucky to meet Bo the bloodhound on the way to dinner.

❤️ – ShooKy

332 miles.

We made a detour to check out Craters of the Moon National Monument and Reserve.

We played with a thunderstorm on our way to Utah and had some stunning landscapes along the way.

We made it to Utah!!!

For the first time on this trip, we made it to our hotel before dark. It’s tucked into a canyon with a lovely river and made for a wonderful environment to talk and play card games.

❤️ – ShooKy

Miles traveled: 324

First sight of the day was the Smith Mansion. Details here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/smith-mansion

Back in Yellowstone, we found some hoodoos for Shoo Shoo’s enjoyment.

Yellowstone Lake choppy from high winds.

Just another bison. No big deal.

No mom, you can’t but your feet in the boiling pit.

One of the Continental Divides we crossed, Isa Lake and a waterfall.

Here we see the infamous and vicious Yellowstone Corgi in his natural habitat.

OLD FAITHFUL!!!!!!!placeholder://

The Grand Teton National Park is now Mom’s favorite mountain.

We made it to Idaho and the Grand Teton followed us for a bit.

This sums up why we road trip together.

❤️ -ShooKy

350 miles exactly.

Yellowstone did not disappoint. Thank you for this park Teddy Roosevelt.

We started the day at the North entrance.

Mammoth Hot Springs? Yes, please.

Mammoth Geyser just chilling.

What is that in the trees? A bison chewing some food. We named him Bill.

Every corner we turned made our jaws drop.

A stunning waterfall and columnar basalt.

The employees at the stores in the park celebrate Christmas on August 25th.

Kyleen may have cried with happiness at more columnar basalt.

Presented without comment.

Wait! Is that another bison!?! We named him Number 2.

Antelope with not a care in the world.

We hoped to just see even one bison and then we got to see a family!!!

A stunning valley with even more bison!

What is happening?

We will take that sunset and love it forever.

We continue our tour of animals of Wyoming with some elk.

Which of course we stumble on Pride Rock.

❤️ – ShooKy

Yesterday – 419 miles!

Today – 543 miles!

We woke up, got breakfast and headed straight to Badlands National Park.

We got to the Visitor Center and collected our National Park stamps and had to take a pass on the Red Ass Rhubarb wine.

Driving through the Badlands Loop Road was magnificent. Every overlook was more impressive than the previous one.

We didn’t see a sign welcoming us to South Dakota but got it on the way into Wyoming.

And because columnar jointing can’t keep us away, we had to visit the Devil’s Tower National Monument. The smoke from western fires may have muted the view (and many of our views along the way) but it didn’t take away from how shocked we were at its presence on the landscape.

We also made some friends with some Prairie Dogs.

Presented without comment.

We finally made it to Montana and understood why they call it Big Sky Country and it gave us a killer sunset.

And as we were ready to hit the hay, we got to say good night to this sweet fella.

❤️ – ShooKy

We met up at Denver Airport and headed to the rental car pick up to be disappointed that the didn’t have the Cadillac we requested so we had to settle for this beat up old thing.

We like old crumbling houses and barns.

And horses (All animals actually).

We also liked National Grasslands (especially ones Leslie Knope probably established).

We then made it to Nebraska where we had a lunch of iceberg lettuce and saw more pretty things than we expected. Also, so much corn.

We finally made it to South Dakota and the highlight of the day, Mount Rushmore.

We then had a lovely dinner at our hotel.

❤️ – ShooKy

My mom plopped me in the car at an early age, handed me a map, stocked up on jerky and hit the road and we haven’t stopped since. We are now ready to meet in the middle of the country and visit some of our most beloved National Parks and also maybe see if the Denver Airport conspiracy theories are true (they sooooo are!)

Here is our general agenda*

*subject to change

We’ll update when we can but thanks a bunch for joining us on the ride.

❤ – Ky