Trip: 5

(Some great scenery with a bit of history thrown in!)

Visited from Aug 2, 2022 to Aug 14, 2022

(Group 20)

A large majority of sites visited on my earlier trips emphasized some aspect of human history over natural beauty. For this trip, that is reversed. From Yellowstone and Grand Teton through the Black Hills and Theodore Roosevelt National Park, we were treated to stunning scenery and natural history. Only at the end of the trip did we visit a few sites featuring human history.

The trip itself almost didn't happen as I was diagnosed with COVID the day after flying to Iowa, our starting point. Fortunately, the quarantine period was just five days, so I was able to rearrange a few things and we were able to see 12 of the originally planned 15 sites.

We had mostly great weather, which is a plus when the sites were in outdoor, natural settings. Only one day - our day at Grand Teton National Park - was marred by steady rain and low-hanging clouds which mostly obscured the mountains. We did have on-and-off rain on our second day in Yellowstone, but it did not dampen the experience.

Read my blog entry about this trip.

Park units visited during this trip

Click on any of the parks listed below to see the page specific to that park.

The park page will have my comments about the site, photos and links to both the NPS official page and my blog entry for the park.

The interactive map in the top right of this page shows the location of each unit. You can zoom in and move around on the map. The rectangle icon in the top right will expand the map to full screen. Clicking on any unit in the map will open a small information window. The map and icons on it are based on the same information found in the Google Earth KML files, which you can create and download from the Home page.

• Aug 4, 2022: Yellowstone National Park    (Yellowstone National Park, WY)
• Aug 6, 2022: John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway    (Moose, WY)
• Aug 6, 2022: Grand Teton National Park    (Moose, WY)
• Aug 8, 2022: Wind Cave National Park    (Hot Springs, SD)
• Aug 8, 2022: Jewel Cave National Monument    (Custer, SD)
• Aug 9, 2022: Mount Rushmore National Memorial    (Keystone, SD)
• Aug 9, 2022: Devils Tower National Monument    (Devils Tower, WY)
• Aug 10, 2022: Badlands National Park    (Interior, SD)
• Aug 10, 2022: Minuteman Missile National Historic Site    (Philip, SD)
• Aug 11, 2022: Theodore Roosevelt National Park    (Medora, ND)
• Aug 12, 2022: Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site    (Buford, ND)
• Aug 12, 2022: Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site    (Stanton, ND)

Other parks visited during this trip

The places listed below are not part of the National Park Service's official 431 sites, but were visited during this trip.
Click on a line to see more information about that park along with a link to the park's official web page.

• Nov 15, 2024: Crazy Horse Memorial    (Crazy Horse, SD)
• Nov 15, 2024: Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence    (Buford, ND)