Bucket list Road Trip Out West

Who wants to know more about the epic road trip my sister and I went on this past July!?

- 7 days

- 4000 miles driven

- 60 approx. hours in the car (excluding sleeping in the car)

- 10 states driven through

- 100's of bison, a grizzly bear, moose, elk

- 4 National Parks

- 2 showers (dry shampoo was a savor and LOTS of deodorant)

I've always wanted to visit Yellowstone National Park. The wildlife, the nature, the vibes, all made me crave to get out there. FINALLY, after planning this trip for years, I MADE IT. I was determined to head out west this past summer and no one was stopping me. Even if that meant I had to go alone, I was still going to go. Thankfully, my sister said she'd go with me and do whatever I had planned to do. YES! We went to Southern Cali last October so now we are making it a tradition to go on a sisters trip at least once a year. Where to next???

My awesome travel buddy

I'm the type of traveler who likes to see as much as possible! Whenever I plan a trip, I try to do and see everything there is around wherever I'm going. Even if that means driving 2 to 4 hours out of the way (or more). If I'm that far from home, I might as well do everything I can because who knows the next time I'll be out there.

Anyways...

Our sisters road trip begin from home in St. Joe, MI, and worked our way through Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and then back through Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, and HOME. Did I mention we did this in SEVEN days?? It was supposed to be a 10-12 day trip, but we wanted to get home to our animals and fam. A lot of the time, we didn't do much hiking or venturing off because its as just us two girls and we wanted to be safe obvi. We heard it from about everyone that it was dangerous for us to go by ourselves, over and over and over.

I definitely want to go back to a couple of these places to explore more of their beauty a little longer.

Side story: we were a few hours into South Dakota when my low tire pressure came on in my car. Great. We kept driving, but finally pulled over to check it out. Of course, A FREAKIN NAIL was in my tire (insert rolling eyes emoji). We stopped at a nearest gas station to ask where we could go to get this fixed on a Sunday at 5 pm. Ten minutes the opposite way, Walmart was our savior. An hour and half later, our car was back on the road. I think we know every single thing that's inside Walmart now. So back on the road, 20 minutes in, construction zone, semi in front of us, Hannah driving, semi's tire pops, hits the construction orange barrel, the barrel comes FLYING at us and thankfully only hits the side bumper of my car and took some paint off. It could have been a lot worse. Yikes.

So back to all the amazing places we were privileged to experience and see with our own two eyes.

Badlands National Park

Seriously we felt like we were on Mars or some other planet.

If you're driving through South Dakota, you definitely need to stop here. We spent a couple hours checking out this place.

I wish so badly I could have flew my drone here and gotten some SWEET shots, but drones are prohibited at all National Parks.

Custer State Park

This place was beautiful. We spent most of the time driving the Wildlife Road looking for animals. We didn't see too much, but I know usually there are a ton of wildlife here. We saw bison, antelope, deer, and burros.

Mount Rushmore

This was so cool! Way cooler in person than reading it our of your history book in class. I couldn't believe how someone carved faces into rocks with so much detail and accuracy. You don't need to plan a whole day here, though. I think we were there for 10 minutes or so. Very cool to stop by and see!

We made our way to Rapid City where we stayed in our first shared home Airbnb. The family was wonderful and the bedroom was perfect for a rest day. The next day we drove into Wyoming.

Grand Tetons National Park

WOW WOW WOW. The drive into this park was incredible. The mountains are just massive and beautiful and lovely. I felt like I was in a movie or in a national geographic photograph. See it for yourself. I definitely need to go back there and spend a few more days.

We explored Jenny Lake and then camped there for a night at Colter Bay Campground. This was my first time camping. Hannah brought the smallest tent ever so it was hard to sleep, but I loved the campground. We went for a short walk from our tent and came across the most beautiful scene, a lake with The Tetons behind it. You couldn't see this without walking into the woods a few steps, so I'm glad we checked it out!

Yellowstone National Park

This place is HUGE, with so many awesome places to go and see! It's a pretty short and easy drive (compared to all the other driving we've done) from Grand Tetons. A road connects to the two parks to each other. We stayed at Bay Bridge Campground here. When we got there, a bison was just chilling in a camp site a couple down from ours. It came back later in the evening and was just roaming around peoples campsites!

Old Faithful

This was our first stop in the park. We walked the boardwalk around all the geysers and as we were about to walk back to our car, Old Faithful blew up! By that I mean it was shooting water SOO high up into the sky. It's so amazing how all of this is natural Earth.

Everywhere we walked here, it smelt like sulfur. It's a smell you get used to once you're there, but at first it was not a good smell. We also saw a little white fox here. It just sat down next to one of the geysers and watched people walk by!

Grand Prismatic Spring

How can Earth make something so beautiful!?! I've seen soon many pictures of this before, but to see it up close in person is just incredible! The colors are so real! I'm sure people filter their photographs of the spring, but it truly looks like bright rainbow colors.

We walked the boardwalk and got right next to it. Even the steam that comes off of it looks orange and blue. As we were on the boardwalk, we noticed people up high looking down at it. Obviously we HAD to get up there. It took us a while to figure out how, but it's just a parking lot that we passed right before the boardwalk. We walked up the hill and came across an even better view of Grand Prismatic Spring!

Artisan Point/Lower Falls

Biggest waterfall I've ever seen! This was Lower Falls of Yellowstone. This was the first waterfall we saw this trip and it's just massive!

This view of the waterfall we came across without meaning to. Definitely need to check out Artisan Point.

Lookout Point Lower Falls

This was another view we came across. This was a bit closer to Lower Falls than Artisan Point, and you could hike down to get even closer to the beautiful waterfall.

As we hiked down, there were a bunch of mini waterfalls. It was so peaceful. You will definitely get a work out in, though!

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

This is also the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone! The waterfalls/rivers flow through this massive canyon!

Brink of the Upper Falls

We stumbled across this waterfall, too! This was is really cool because it's like you're standing at the top of it! It's amazing how fast the water moves and just HOW much water that's falling! You could feel the mist, hear the water, and practically feel like you're in it. Personally, I thought this was a cooler experience than the Lower Falls, even though that was super cool, too. Ha.

Mammoth Hot Springs

This we hit on our way out of Yellowstone. It's at the most northern part of the park. I wasn't sure what to expect here, but it was pretty cool! These hot springs were everywhere. Again, it's amazing what our Earth can create naturally.

Once we left Yellowstone, we drove about 6.5 hours to Glacier National Park! We got here really late so we slept in a hotel for the first time in like 4 days. It was heavenly. We splurged and got a super nice hotel so we could finally shower and get a good nights rest because we knew we were going to be driving for over 24 hours the next day.

Glacier National Park

This was seriously the most beautiful place I've ever been to. Everywhere else we went on this trip was beautiful, but this place just gave me the best vibes and was just amazing!

When we first got there, we went to some cute shops, ate a delicious lunch and huckleberry cobbler at Eddie's Cafe, and explored around the little town. Side note: try huckleberry ANYTHING. You won't regret it.

Lake McDonald

This is a beautiful large lake in Glacier. Check it out! You can rent kayaks, boats, and paddle boards there. I wish we would have done this! Next time for sure. We just sat and admired the beautiful lake with mountains in the background.

Going to the Sun Road

This road goes all through the park. You basically are driving on the side of a mountain the entire time, seeing SO MANY WATERFALLS. Waterfalls were just flowing down the sides of the mountain and onto the roads.

There was a side of the mountain that was called "The Weeping Wall" because water was just gently flowing down the side of the wall. Incredible. We saw a little girl running under the water back and forth and if that doesn't make you feel happy I don't know what will.

Did I mention this road has the best views EVER!

Saint Mary's Lake

Unfortunetly we didn't have much time here to really explore this park. That's why I'll be back soon enough for a longer period of time. On our way out, we came across the prettiest blue lake. We looked for this lake and gave up because we thought it was a different way. Crazy how things work! We drove RIGHT by it before leaving the park!

Well, that was our trip! We saw SO many things in a short amount of time. Yes it was tiring, but I would do it all over again! And I will someday for a longer time.

If you're thinking about going out that way, definitely hit as much as these places as you can! They are so worth it. And definitely see some more spots, too!

You can see more of my pictures from this trip by clicking here.

Thanks for reading!

Harleigh