Epic "Social" Distance Road Trip

With our plans to go to Mexico over Spring Break cancelled because of COVID and no end in sight as far as travel opening back up, we decided to take advantage of the soft opening of the National Park system and plan an epic social distance road trip! With only 3 days of planning, we mapped out our route, asked the neighbor to watch the fur babies and packed the car for a summer vacation that we would not soon forget! Our first stop was in Ouray, CO. We hiked the waterfall, the kids got to swim in the hotel pool (Colorado has less restrictions than New Mexico) and had an excellent dinner with Mimi and Papa.

The next day we drove to Dinosaur, Utah where we explored Dinosaur National Monument. While we were not able to go inside the momument to explore, we were able to walk around and we were able to see many old fish fossils and dinosaur bones!

Then we were off to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to see the Grand Teton National Park, do some shopping and head into Yellowstone. I had never heard of Grand Teton before this trip and I am amazed that I had not consdering how beautiful it was. We spent the day hiking around a lake, having a picnic lunch and shopping in the (expensive) stores!

The Grand Tetons

My Favorite Shirt

Jackson Hole We then headed into Yellowstone National Park and Yellowstone, Montana and boy it did not disappoint! Within 5 minutes of entering the park we saw a grizzly bear with 3 cubs (albiet from a far distance which was just fine with us) and then a beaver, followed by several elk and buffalo! And our timing seemed perfect to see Old Faithful explode!

Welcome To Yellowstone. May I Take Your Order?

Then the disappointments began. First, it SNOWED in June at the park which caused us to have to modify our plan of driving to North Dakota via the Beartooth Pass. Because we could not drive the pass we had to cut our time short in the park and take an early exit so that we could get to Deadwood before midnight. On our way, we blew out our back tire on the truck which just happened to be on a 2 lane freeway with a speed limit of 85 MPH in a snow / rain storm!

We are so lucky that we did not crash and no one crashed into us! After replacing the flat with a spare we realized that the spare was flat! We limped along the highway to the next exit and then drove around trying to find air with no luck because of COVID. Finally we drove up to a farm and cornered some poor lady by telling her about our desperation to get to Billings to get the tire changed and she allowed us to use her shop air. Thank God! After a pitstop in Billings we were on the road again and headed to Mt. Rushmore!

I am upset to say that Mt. Rushmore did not live up to my history book expectations. I was underwhelmed. But it was nice to see it up close and personal and with many less tourists than there would typically be in the summer. We then went to the Crazy Horse monument and all I can say is...don't bother!

Next stop was Gillette, Wyoming followed by Estes Park, CO where we stopped by The Stanley Hotel so the kids could see the hotel used in The Shining. Not only was it closed for updating but it looked NOTHING like it did in the movie. Oh well! At least we can say we went!

Last stop was Silverthorne, CO to visist Auntie Jenny and Uncle Justin to do some vacation outlet shopping and to decompress. 12 days on the road and we made it back alive! It was a great time.