I just love Road Tripping in the USA. It is so easy to drive around and there is so much to see, especially if you schedule in a few National Parks. During our incredible Go West Road Trip, we were very impressed with the National Parks in the USA. All parks are so beautiful, grand and diverse. We promised ourselves that we would return one day to visit more of these stunning National Parks. In June 2011 we finally made it back and did our fabulous Midwest Road Trip. Our Go West Road Trip included San Francisco, Yosemite NP, Sequoia NP, Kings Canyon NP, Death Valley NP, Las Vegas, Zion NP, Lake Powell NP, Grand Canyon NP, Lake Havasu and Los Angeles. This time we wanted to see different National Parks and included in our Midwest Road Trip Yellowstone National Park, Salt Lake City, Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park and Rocky Mountains NP.
Yellowstone National Park
We started our Road Trip in Billings where we rented a car and took the US212 South to Red Lodge, a very nice historical mountain town. From there we wanted to take the beautiful scenic Beartooth Highway to Yellowstone. Unfortunately this was not possible as the Beartooth pass was closed, so we had to drive around direction Cody and then took the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway - which was also very beautiful and scenic - to Cooke City.
We stayed in the Alpine Motel in Cooke City which is really close to the Northeast entrance of the park. With Cooke City as our base, we explored the Lamar Valley, Mammoth hot springs area and the Tower Falls area. It is very impressive to drive for the first time into Yellowstone. There are Buffaloes everywhere: on the road, next to the road ... it was a great experience. Lamar Valley is also a great place to watch wildlife in the early morning.
