Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!: Conclusion of our Yellowstone Trip (Part 2 of 2)

Here was "part one" of our road trip which was our first 3 days out there, and this post will be the final 3 days as we wrap up in Yellowstone, head through Grand Teton, and work our way through the Badlands towards home.

I got up early on Friday morning (day 4 of our trip) to go for a solo run doing many laps around Old Faithful - that was amazing!! Then I came back to our Lodge, stretched in the hallway for a few minutes, and then came inside to this:

Some movies in bed waking up in the Snow Lodge in Yellowstone.

The snow was JUST enough to close the south entrance of Yellowstone, so we had to
add about 2 hours to our drive to Jackson by going through West Yellowstone and around.

Pretty drive.

More elk!

Elk in the distance.

We paused to watch 3-4 wolves stalk 2 elk!

Two wolves in this shot.

This was after they gave up and turned around.

High in the mountains!

A few hours later we were at the base of the Tetons!

We decided to drive up to Lake Jenny and do a hike to Hidden Falls and then see if we had enough energy to get up to Inspiration Point. We were happy with how the boys had handled the last day of hiking in Yellowstone, and we were ready to do more in the Tetons!

A little ways into our hike.

Always views like this.

Son #2.

Son #1.

See my family in there?

Nearing Hidden Falls!

On a BIG ole' rock slide.

Hidden Falls!

Us in front of the falls. We had this area to ourselves!

Climbing higher! (Making my wife nervous!)

Higher!

High above Lake Jenny!

See Charlie to the left?

Self timer with my phone held on a sign by a clothespin. :)

We started across the lake in the middle of the frame!

The route down/up!

Heading back a slightly different way... wary of bears among all the boulders.

Sarah's pic of us boys.

Charlie took 2 photos with my old 35mm camera.

Me giving instruction during another film exposure.

Warmth from a setting sun.

Back near where we started.

Family shot!

Close-up!

We drove back into town (maybe only about 20-30 minutes to get back into Jackson) and the boys hit the swimming pool as I walked to get a few pizzas:

The boys loved this tiny ledge along the long/narrow pool.

View my wife had from the hot tub of the boys jumping.

They owned the pool.

Messy hotel room for 1 night.

Charlie was sleeping on that pull-out couch in the background of that photo, and Henry shared a bedroom with my wife and I (two beds). We got up in time to load the car and be all packed up once breakfast started (on day 5), so that way we could eat and hit the road. We drove back through part of Grand Teton on our way to South Dakota:

Frosty morning...

... and foggy too!

We spotted a moose just off the road!...

... and then we spotted a handful more just down the road on the other side!

This was amazing!

Big ole bull in the distance.

Sun now cutting through some of the fog.

A final 2 moose: a mama and baby another few miles down the road.

Goodbye Tetons!

It suddenly got foggy 30 minutes later!

... and then the fog broke, but it was still boring.

Arbys on the road. Still making use of my homemade "car table."

The eastern edge of Wyoming.

Getting closer to home!

We were driving through Custer, SD, on our way to Sylvan Lake and Custer State Park, and suddenly Charlie told me to turn around. So I flipped a uey and pulled up to an amazingly wacky store:

This would be a wise $1200 investment.

SWEET!

I told my wife to use this photo in my obituary if I die soon.

Charlie bought an antler for $7.

Love this.

Not too much farther down the road was Sylvan Lake.

On the far side of the lake.

On Needles Highway a few miles later!

Selfie just off Needles Highway.

The needle!

Dadmobile along the road.

The 2nd of 2 tunnels (the first one was longer).

We saw LOTS of deer through the twists and turns of Needles Highway. We kept track, and Sarah was annoyed by the end because she was tallying so many. We ended up in Rapid City at a Golden Corral buffet for supper...

... but Charlie went to the bathroom and threw up 4 times just after I took that photo. He got a little carsick from all the twists on Needles Highway. And Sarah was depressed at the sea of humanity at the buffet. Henry just said "Well, it's a LOT of food... but none of it is that great..." Yep. The 45 minutes at Golden Corral was Sarah's worst moments of this trip.

Charlie felt better pretty quickly (it was clearly just carsickness), so the boys hit the waterslide at our hotel for a good hour before bed:

Henry coming down like Gollum.

Charlie coming down on his knees and then diving off.

POOPED.

Our final breakfast before hitting the road (day 6).

We drove an hour to the Badlands to first show Sarah where the boys and I got stormed out on a camping trip 3.5 years ago! Here are 2 bison on the ridge above that campgrounds:

Above the campgrounds.

Walking toward some bison on that ridge.

Me and Charlie.

Henry managed to fall in this...

... and get a super muddy butt and hands. Oops!
(No running water at the campgrounds either!)

Henry and I looking for rocks.

Bison moving in around us as we left.

A few miles down the road, on the "ridge!"

Sarah's picture of us boys climbing around.

These guys. :)

A selfie on the way out. We couldn't stay long.

On our way out of the Badlands...

... headed toward Wall, SD.

Yep, we HAD to stop at Wall Drug.

We won't talk about the Cousins' jersey back there.

What an odd bear to the right.

Classic Wall Drug.

Compare that last photo to THIS one from June of 2021!!

In case you've been a LONG time reader, my wife used to go by the
blogger handle of "Pharmie" because she's a pharmacist. So I had
to get her photo at the actual DRUG STORE section of Wall Drug.

We stopped for burgers in a small town about an hour east of Wall. They were good!

Greasy burger while driving!

Burgers and fries.

Passed out after the heavy meal.

FINALLY! The 3+ hours back through MN to home took FOR-EV-ER.

In the driveway at 9 pm. Nearly 2500 miles over 6 days, which was 40+ hrs in the car!

Our "wildlife tally" which was started a few days into the trip.

Even after ALL that driving, the boys both said it was a great trip. And going in mid-October meant the crowds were NON-EXISTENT! We had so many hikes to ourselves when it would have otherwise been crowded. With all of the wildlife encounters, Charlie called it the BEST trip ever. We're trying another long road trip this winter, so we'll see if that one holds up as well...

Like I did in my first post about this trip, here are a few pics from my 35mm camera on some long-expired film. The first 2 are the 2 shots that Charlie took in Grand Teton: