Arriving in Yellowstone: National Parks Vacation, Day 7
We’re back home from our National Parks Vacation! I decided to share my travel journal with y’all so you can relive the glory of our family vacationing with me…Enjoy!
DAY 7, August 15
We left the hotel in Billings, Montana later in the morning. It felt so heavenly to sleep in a real bed with air conditioning and bed linens. Like a real person.
All showered with everything (and everyone!) cleaned, charged, and laundered, we set off for our next leg of our adventure…Yellowstone!
We first stopped at Walmart and got the rest of the food that we needed for our time in Yellowstone. We had been to Costco but let's face it, we simply do not have the room for all food to be jumbo sized. We had heard from friends and blogs that food in the park was slim pickings. Pair that knowledge with all the covid business and we knew there would be hardly anything.
From Billings we back tracked a bit and went to the Little Bighorn National War Monument. Here was where Custer’s Last Stand took place. Where Chief Crazy Horse and his fellow men defeated the U.S. army. It was amazing to drive the route that the two-day battle took place and see the vastness of the land that encompassed the fighting. Markers honored the men whose lives where lost there. It was a sobering trip for us.
After about an hour and a half at Little Bighorn we drove on. We wanted to stay longer but knew we had a drive ahead of us and needed to make it to Yellowstone before dark to make camp.
We stopped at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming. This was an encampment of barracks where they drove 14,000 Japanese Americans to live during World War II. These buildings are in such very poor condition and were boarded up. However, there were a few windows covered with plexiglass and wire that made it possible to see into the building. While of course time has taken their toll on the buildings, it was clear to see how poor the living conditions were at the time. Such a sad part of our nation’s history. And poor Emma had to go to the bathroom there and the little thing couldn't go because they didn't have any restrooms! There was a museum there but they were very unkind when we went in and didn't let poor Emma go to the bathroom. We'll remember this museum, you big meanies!
Two hours later and we were arriving at our main destination…Yellowstone National Park! The sheer joy I felt about finally arriving at Yellowstone is unparalleled. I never thought we would be able to visit this…it had felt like a pipe dream for so long and finally we had arrived. We were actually there! Swoon.
We arrived at Bridge Bay, our campground within the park, around 7 pm. We checked in (which took forever! FOREVER! Like a park ranger came and made me move our car because we were there so long), set up camp, and made some dinner at the campsite…steak with baked potatoes! We cooked the potatoes in the coals and they were so yummy and creamy. I highly recommend making potatoes in the coals and yet I always forget to do this...so easy to do!
After dinner we basically collapsed into bed while also being terrified about bears. The rules of bears are stringent and serious here. There are so many rules that I was so scared we hadn’t followed some and we would end up with a bear in our tent with us. They told us we could have NOTHING in our tent because they can smell laundry detergent. And they said you can't even wear chapstick or take water into your tent. Not even WATER!!!
Thankfully, we didn’t have that problem and we weren't eaten by bears!
What We Spent:
Walmart $21.27
Firewood $7.00
What I'm Grateful for:
No bears in our tent
An amazing camp site in Yellowstone
Safely arriving
The beauty of Yellowstone Lake
See you for Day 8!
On Day 5 we visited Devil’s Tower!
Read about our time in Badlands sleeping in a teepee
You can read all about our time on the Ingalls Homestead here
We went to a Spam Museum and spent the night on the banks of a Minnesota lake!