Let’s just get one thing out in the open. For most of my life, I thought Wyoming was super boring and flat. Like if I had to pick a state to kill, it would’ve been Wyoming. I blame driving through Eastern Wyoming on our way back to Minnesota on family trips. But I would like to publicly apologize to the great state of Wyoming. You are beautiful. No matter what I say. Words can’t bring you down. Thanks, Christina Aguilera. After this trip, I’m whistling a different Wyoming tune.

From Bozeman, we drove straight to Yellowstone National Park. We booked our campsite months in advance because let’s face it, national parks in the summer are a big ol’ clusterfuck. So if you want to explore national parks, do yourself a favor and find campsites you can reserve in advance.

On our way to our campground, we drove through some big tourist attractions and decided to stop in at a few (even though it was rush hour). Yellowstone is unique in that it’s filled with some hot things to see. No really, it has tons of geothermal pools and geysers. I don’t want to build it all up, because it may just explode in my face, but Yellowstone is really awesome (even with the shit-ton of people). I mean, who knew Wyoming had sweet pools like this Grand Prismatic wonder…

We saw a bunch of elk, which BTW, I’m so over. See Banff post for background on that. What I was really excited to see was the massive bison. Or are they buffalo? I’m so confused. But names aside, they are bomb to see. It’s like you are watching a goddamn dinosaur roam the earth millions of years ago.

Back on the road, we reached a bit of a standstill during the last 15-minutes to our campground. But as it turns out, it wasn’t tourists checking out roadside wildlife. It was a rollover accident. And a really terrifying one. I’ve never seen anything like it. A car was practically tossed 15 feet into the woods, wrapped around a tree. I have goosebumps even thinking about it. I really hope everyone was ok. But it didn’t look too good.

With a slower, more cautious driving speed, we headed to Grant Village Campground. It’s a massive campground right near a big ol’ lake. But I’m going to be 100% honest, it was my least favorite campground. Our site was tiny. Like studio-apartment-in-San-Francisco tiny. Not to mention it was like 20 feet from another tent…and the bathrooms. Oh the power of angles on photos…

Here’s a little tip. When booking campgrounds and they ask for your tent size, lie. I think because we had a tiny two-person tent, they gave us the little site.

Another tip? Don’t let the daytime temps in Yellowstone fool you. It may have been in the 80s during the day, but at night, that shit got to freezing. Thank you, elevation. Go to bed with appropriate layers and be prepared to wake up in the morning and see your breath.

For our first full day in Yellowstone, we decided to wake up really early (my kinda style) and hit up the attractions before the crowds.

So at 6am we ventured to Old Faithful. But due to the freezing temps, the erupting left us feeling a bit underwhelmed. So much steam, so little shooting water. The true definition of a grower, not a shower. Instead, we decided to venture around Old Faithful because there are tons of other thermal pools and geysers that get neglected because of the big shooter up front. And honestly, I liked them better. There, I said it. Some of these geysers erupt 200 feet into the air. Suck on that, Old Faithful.

After exploring the less-popular geysers, we got to catch Old Faithful erupt again (it goes off about every 90 minutes) AND we got to see a bison/buffalo. Let’s just say I was more excited for the animal. But like all touristy things, you have to see Old Faithful and when you do, don’t go in the middle of the day. Park rangers told us they have thousands of people all crowded in to watch it during peak times, we only had a hundred or so…and it’s a massive viewing platform.

Our big hike of Yellowstone was recommended to us by a friendly park ranger. The 6-mile roundtrip hike up to the summit of Mount Washburn (aka the highest point in Yellowstone) was one of the highlights of our park visit.

It’s a pretty popular hike, but not overcrowded, but enough people to scare off any bears. It provided some great views of Yellowstone. Heck, we even saw some mama bighorn sheeps and their baaa-bies.

Standing at over 10,000 feet, you truly feel on top of the world.

The next morning, we woke up early (again) to head to Grand Teton National Park. I was giddy like a damn schoolgirl for this park. I’ve always wanted to visit it. Maybe it had something to do with those Ansel Adams calendars my sister always got for Christmas? Any hoo, I highly recommend if you do Yellowstone, you should do the Tetons. They are practically neighbors and couldn’t be more different. Plus, you can get a discount on entrance fees (or you should just get an annual park pass like us).

We had no camping, except for two backcountry permits, booked in the Tetons. And most of the campgrounds in the park are first come, first served. We heard they book out by early afternoon, so we wanted to get there ASAP. Going on recommendations from Mr. Richardson, we decided to check out Colter Bay. Again, a massive campground, but this time I was so very impressed. We had tons of space between the sites and we were surrounded by trees.

Not to mention it was a short walk to the lake where you could eat, drink…and rent a motorboat. And motorboat we did.

It was so much fun to be on the water for two hours in the baking sun. You felt like you were the only person visiting the park. So add that to your Teton bucket list.

We had booked a backcountry permit for the Tetons, so we headed to ranger station to pick up our permit for Holly Lake and ask some questions. Turns out, our backcountry campground (which sits at over 10,000 feet) still had snow on the ground. This worried us. While temps were hot, hot, hot on the ground, it was mighty chilly up a mountain. We definitely didn’t have the gear in place to be camping on snow. They even advised ice picks. Um…about that. So we decided to play it safe and not do our backcountry trip. Instead, we stayed another night at Colter Bay (it’s nice that they give you until 11am to decide if you want to keep your site for another night).

Instead of doing our big backcountry hike, we did a big lake hike around the popular Jenny Lake. We parked at String Lake, which added another mile onto the overall hike, but it was way easier to find parking. Everyone and their mom parks at Jenny Lake. This hike is an equal opportunity explorer.

Meaning everyone can do it since it has barely any elevation gain and you have gorgeous views of the lake and the Tetons. Just carry bear spray. In fact, in all these parks you should be carrying bear spray. As terrifying as it is, it’s much scarier to run into a goddamn grizzly and have it attack you. Which, BTW, happened in Glacier a few days after we left, and the dude died. Granted he was a cyclist and ran into the bear, but still. Bears are serious out here. Ok, rant over.

Our third and final night in the Tetons we had another backcountry permit booked for Spalding Bay. Do yourself a favor and write that name down. It’s gorgeous. And not really backcountry. You drive to it (and have views like this).

Granted it’s on a a bumpy-ass gravel road which you need an SUV for, but still. There are only two sites down on Spalding Bay. You take the said bumpy-ass gravel road off the main road which you could blink and miss the turnoff, drive for two miles and then BAM. Solitude.

The other campsite was occupied by an off-duty park ranger, so we felt uber safe if a bear were to attack.

After we set up our tent, we headed to the Jackson Hole Mountain Gondola. Again, can’t recommend this enough. Oh and book your tickets online because you save $10 per ticket. Jackpot! The great thing about this place is you get access to not one, but THREE gondolas. The main one takes you to the top of Rendezvous Mountain and they have a little chalet you can order delicious waffles…and drink.

You can even hike back down the mountain, if you feel so inclined. Pun intended.

One gondola down, two more to go. The second one we went up had an awesome restaurant with a huge patio that opens at 4. Well, would you look at the time…

We sat outside and soaked up the view and the alcohol. The made our way to the final gondola, which is really just ski lift chairs, but still lots of fun.

After we got oh-so high (on nature), we headed back to our remote campsite to make dinner and just chill since we had two long days of driving ahead of us.

From Wyoming we were heading to Colorado, but decided to break up the driving a bit by stopping at random towns and Airbnbs along the way.

Our first on-our-way-to-Colorado stop was in the town of Riverton. Oh, Riverton. You were a bit snoozy, but our Airbnb was JUST what we needed after camping for six nights in a row. It had a shower (so I could stop looking like this)…

A comfy bed, wifi, and an adorable porch.

Our final night in the great state of Wyoming was in Saratoga. Not to be confused with New York or California’s Saratoga. This small and mighty town catered to the tourists. They even have free hot pools, which we stopped by and I’m pretty sure was filled with the entire town of Saratoga. So we passed. We had a sheep wagon to get to. You read that right. Craig found this Airbnb.

It was adorable. The most unique Airbnb I’ve stayed in to date. Just keep in mind if you are over 6 ft. tall, you may have trouble sleeping in the bed.

Our Airbnb host even surprised us the next day by bring us down a basket filled with breakfast goodies.

Why you got to be so good to us, Wyoming? Especially after I was such a judgmental dick my entire childhood. Well, thanks anyways. I’ll never forget you. Time now to rock our way to the Rockies and explore/drink the great cities of Denver and Boulder.