On our second full day in Yellowstone we took the Upper Loop tour from the same tour company that we did on our Lower Loop of Yellowstone.

This time Gretchen’s friend Allison, and her clan, rode with us for another exciting day. The snow that fell the night before (yes, in June!) and our TERRIBLE DRIVER, Cheryl, almost killed us all so many times. We saw once in a lifetime sites, but it was NOT fun seeing our lives flashing before us!

The day was full of Wildlife, Landscapes, Thermal Features, and Waterfalls , so let’s see some pictures!!

Wildlife

The day started AND ENDED with Buffalo Jams.

There were buffalo everywhere.

Here are a few more critters

Look closely below and see if you can spot the family of four below.

And, finally, we got to see a bear which made my day.

Landscapes

So many beautiful and different landscapes in Yellowstone.

Thermal Features

What do people want to see in Yellowstone? YES, more and more thermal features such as Roaring Mountain.

Some very cool features at Mammoth Hot Springs, too, such as these next two pictures.

Thermal features galore in the park.

Waterfalls

But, for me… I love Waterfalls and can never get enough of them.

Rustic Falls

This is a nice 47 ft fan that all you have to do is get out of your vehicle to see.

Undine Falls

Super short walk to see this pretty 60 ft plunge.

Tower Fall

While the picture below isn’t necessarily the best, this 132 ft plunge was the highlight of the ones we saw today.

Lower Falls

Like on the Lower Loop of Yellowstone tour, we saw the Lower Falls again.

Yellowstone NP has so many waterfalls and I only just touched the surface. This was due to the short time frame I was on and the fact I was in the park on group tours. I’d love the opportunity to return some day and check all of them out (even the ones I was able to see this time!).

If at all possible, make sure Yellowstone NP is your short list of places in America you hope to see at some point in your life. I’m not sure if I will get to go again, but I am blessed I was able to see this great slice of the United States of America.

The primary goal of this day was to see the beauty of the Grand Teton National Park with a secondary goal of seeing some Waterfalls. We stopped for the night in Jackson Hole after we finished our Devils Tower to the Continental Divide drive yesterday which is at the southern tip of the park.

Grand Teton National Park

We entered from the side entrance just north of Teton Village and work our way up the unpaved roads to the more mainstream entrance at Moose.

Speaking of moose, it was further down this stream that we saw our first pile-up of cars pulled over and they said the saw a couple of moose in the water. Gretchen was able to spot them, but I missed them. I figured we would be seeing moose all darn day, but… those were the only ones we saw the whole day!

Yes, I missed them!! As you’ll see, it seems to be the pattern of the day.

We did get beautiful views of the Teton Range on the drive!!

We then made it up to Jenny Lake.

Great time for a selfie!!

We decided to take the boat trip to the trail for Hidden Falls. More incredible views looking up to the mountains.

We got off the boat and started down the Hidden Falls Trail with more beautiful landscapes.

The water was rushing so fast and hard today heading to the waterfall.

I finally hit the footbridge and I guess I thought the hype was a bit too much for the waterfall above.

Of course, I found out later that I still needed to walk just a bit more to see the actual waterfall.

Yes, missed seeing the moose and then this incredible waterfall as I wish I was able to take a beautiful picture like that one. We then headed back down to the lake for the boat ride back to our car where we explored the park some more.

Yellowstone National Park

When then headed north and went into Yellowstone National Park via the south entrance with the goal of seeing more Waterfalls and then making it to our hotel for the night.

First up was Lewis Falls; a 30 ft cascading waterfall. It easy very easy to reach and can be seen from the bridge just downstream.

We then saw our first buffalo and pulled over for a few photos.

On our focused drive to the hotel, we also did a little detour to Old Faithful, but we found out it was over an hour before it was to erupt. We decided we would see it tomorrow on our tour of the south loop.

Last thing to see for the day was Gibbon Falls; a beautiful 84 foot cascade.

We then got caught in our first buffalo jam which took about 90 minutes to clear and then had a quick drive out to West Yellowstone, MT, to stay at for the rest of the trip and to be the home base for further adventures in Yellowstone.

After Visiting Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills in the Rain we had a day on the road. First up, was a visit to Devils Tower National Monument up in the northeast corner of Wyoming. I remember watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind as a kid and never expected to actually see this place. What a treat when I saw it from a distant.

The plan was to take the walking trail around the base of the tower, but then we saw the line to drive in …

… and knowing how long of a drive we had for the day, we opted to visit the trading post just outside the entrance for souvenirs and selfies!

What a funky and cool freak of nature – so glad I got to see it!!

That long drive was all the way across Wyoming! What do you see in most of Wyoming? Well… scattered antelopes to start with.

You also see a LOT of rocks.

Eventually you wander into the Wind River Reservation. If you didn’t see Wind River, it is a solid movie that brings light to terrible tragedies that happen to so many Native American women.

I was a bit excited to see we got on US Hwy 287 which is Main Street way back in Saginaw, TX, near where I grew up. After you see the river and the beautiful red clay cliffs, you start crawling your way up the Rocky Mountains.

It was a cool experience to drive over the Continental Divide on this trip.

Then we started our descent down the other side of the Rockies. Toward nightfall, we finally saw the Teton Range in the distance where we would spend the next day exploring.

We found out way to Jackson Hole and bedded down for the night.

Mount Rushmore

I know I never truly expected in my lifetime to get to see Mount Rushmore, but I have always wanted to. These pictures do NOT really explain how big these giant faces are – they are 60 feet tall.

What a national treasure and one I am blessed to have been able to see with my naked eye. I was lucky to get these pictures before the rain started.

Custer State Park

To the south of Rushmore was South Dakota’s Custer State Park. The rain was drizzling down and the clouds had settled in by this point. Sylvan Lake was our first stop.

Then through Needle Highway.

Which included some fun and TIGHT tunnels!!

Crazy Horse Memorial

I have to admit I knew nothing about the Crazy Horse Memorial, including that it is a work-in-progress. In fact, they’ll be at it for a very long time!

These next two pictures show where we are and what it will look like when finally completed.

Keep in mind, we are already a few decades into this effort.

There was also a nice heritage center / museum (plus obligatory gift shop) to visit.

The Mammoth Site

In the spirit of the Waco Mammoth National Monument, The Mammoth Site is even more expansive and a very interesting place to spend some time at.

A great day in the Black Hills!!

The Badlands National Park was just one of those places I never expected to get to visit, but you just never know where life takes you. Before rolling into the park, one must stop at The Ranch Store to see the colony of prairie dogs there as they are adorable!! And, of course, the giant prairie dog statue.

Just down the road is the entrance.

It is a quarter-million acre park, so you could spend days here, but we only budgeted hours. When you come into the park from the NE entrance you are blow away immediately at the Big Badlands Overlook.

We then drove a bit further to walk down the very short Door Trail and as the prior pictures were foreshadowing, we did get caught in some rain.

There are a bunch of hiking trails for those that are so inclined and have the time. For us, we were just doing a drive thru experience of the most well known part of the park. Here are some more photos from our drive and the multitude of overlooks you can park at along the way.

We were disturbed by the shocking lack of lots of wildlife and really pondered on the plundering we as Americans did when expanding west. Fortunately, we did see a few big horn sheep.

And, of course, some more prairie dogs (can you see the one whose head is barely showing?).

We saw some other critters, too.

Mostly we just saw more “bad lands” and these pictures truly do NOT do this place justice.

As fate would have it, we saw a final prairie dog as were leaving this beautiful national park.

The satellite view of the Falls Park did NOT do these cascading Waterfalls justice. It really does warrant a visit and it is a beautiful sight to see.

I told you it was beautiful. We had a WEIRD “small world” video while walking around the park. We ran into our regular waiter from our favorite Chinese restaurant back home; Lin’s.

We also were able to watch this cute chipmunk before we left.

As it has often done before, my traveling job has allowed me to visit yet another place I have never been to before. This time to Salt Lake City. Heck, I’ve never even been to Utah at all before this trip. The city itself look much like most other cities when you hotel is in the middle of downtown.

But… you also get to see snow-capped mountains!!

We don’t get to see things like that from metro Atlanta.

My hotel was only a couple of blocks from Temple Square where I was able to wander around and take some photos of this beautiful area.

From the size of these buildings, I assume this is the heart (and the administrative complex) of the LDS church.

The prettiest structure in Temple Square is the Salt Lake City Temple.

The Assembly Hall behind it was pretty nice, too.

There were more “administrative” buildings across the street.

I found this cool model in the visitors' center.

It was nice to see those snow-capped mountains among these beautiful structures.

I found the famous Tabernacle and was surprised I could go inside.

I decided I was churched-out for the day, so headed back to the hotel for a break and enjoyed the beautiful, and well-integrated, outdoor mall on the south side of Temple Square.

Back at the hotel, I grabbed my rental car and headed out of town towards the Great Salt Lake. I clearly could not get enough of the mountains in the distance.

I finally made it out to the Great Salt Lake State Park for some views of this incredibly salty body of water.

Yes, you see those mountains from every direction you go!!

That is really about I was able to do on my extra day on this trip and spent the rest of the week with a great client teaching them about Apache Hive and Apache Spark.

Rest assured, there were views from there, too!

This is probably not one of my “exciting” posts, but I am still very thrilled to have these opportunities to visit communities & sights I would not otherwise get to see first hand. Blessed indeed.