Building The New Igloo: Western Trip 2024

All the pictures are uploaded. I haven't quite finished annotating them and sorting out duplicates and bad ones yet (I am in Yellowstone for that effort), but I hope to finish this all up today.

I have switched away from Google Photos and am now using Photobucket. All the pictures can be found here: https://photobucket.com/share/e3c79d24-84ce-496c-a741-966de65d023c

A note about the Photobucket UI - if you want to see the comments and descriptions on the pictures, you need to press the details button in the upper right.

Here is the basic itinerary of my trip. Last minute modifications are in red.

9/1 - KY - Leave after dinner. Hope to reach Evansville IN (~4hr) before stopping.

9/2 - Drive to Valentine Nebraska

9/3 - Nebraska - ~~Visit Smith Falls State Park~~ Visited the Borman Bridge Landing, the road was closed.

9/4 - Nebraska - ~~AM - Visit Niobrara Valley Preserve -~~ PM - Drive to Scotsbluff (4hr). Visit Scottsbluff National Monument. Stop at Chimney Rock and Carhenge on the way.

9/5 - Drive to Kearney WY. Visit Toadstool Geological park on the way. I did stop there, but couldn't stay/explore because I was working a half day and there wasn't enough cell signal to work.

9/6 - ~~Kearney and Oregon Trail stuff.~~ Visit Devil's Tower; didn't really see much in Kearney that looked interesting.

9/7 - Drive to Bannack (staying in Dillon). Stop at Battle of Little Bighorn National Monument and Pictograph Cave State Park on the way.

9/8 - Bannack Ghost town.

9/9 - Drive to Glacier National Park. Lake Five Resort

9/10 - Glacier National Park. Going to the Sun road.

9/11 - Glacier National Park. Visit Two Medicine area.

9/12 - Glacier National Park. Visit Apgar Area (Going to the Sun Road closed for snow)

9/13 - Glacier National Park. Visit Many Glacier area.

9/14 - Drive to Hardin MT. ~~Visit Museum of the Rockies.~~ Didn't get to the museum because of a forced really late checkout.

9/15 - Drive to Yellowstone via Beartooth Scenic Highway.

9/16 - Yellowstone. East Side

9/17 - Yellowstone. West Side

9/18 - Yellowstone. Park was closed for wind and snow, went and visited Cody.

9/19 - Drive to Grand Teton National Park

9/20 - Grand Teton National Park. Scenic Loop drive.

9/21 - Grand Teton National Park. Hidden Falls Hike, drive Teton Pass to Idaho.

9/22 - Grand Teton National Park. Scenic boat cruise.

9/23 - Drive back to KY

9/24 - Drive back to KY. Late arrival.

9/25 - (working) - KY

9/26 - (working) - KY

9/27 - (working) - KY

9/28 - Leave for NH. Stop in Delaware to see Mike

9/29 - Drive to NH

From the previous post, the total cost of the trip was approximately $6304 (hotels $2979, fuel $1408, food $662, souvenirs $753, other $502). The trip was around 8k miles, and I got surprisingly good mileage (22-23mpg) until Helene hit.

For those curious, I would have to say my favorite park was actually Grand Teton; it was the most peaceful and the types of attractions there are right up my alley. All this despite the fact that as a park Grand Teton is nice, but there really isn't anything unique about the park.

The best views were in Glacier and the views are amazing enough I would classify them as unique, but even in September the number of people there made it frustrating to visit. I thought Yellowstone was a bit of a letdown, the scenery was poor, half the park was dead, it was also very busy (it handles people better than Glacier though), and it is kind of large being several hours to drive across. Geysers are interesting and the fact that you are driving across an active supervolcano is really cool, but I didn't find anything soothing/relaxing; geysers aren't the kind of thing that I could sit and watch for hours. Most of the park also has a strong sulfur smell which I don't like. Grand Teton had amazing views, lots of lakes and waterfalls, lots of postcard worthy scenery, but as noted, there really isn't anything unique about the park. Most parks out west have alpine lakes, waterfalls, and cool mountain views (though Grand Teton's mountain views are better than most). That said however, I was able to do what I wanted, I didn't have to deal with crowds (outside of Jenny Lake which was still absurdly busy), and I found the experience there a lot more peaceful. If I saw something cool on a map, I could just go there and check it out. I never had trouble finding a spot with no people. That does a lot for the experience visiting a park.

Here are some highlights from the trip:

Carhenge