What a great trip and report. Glad you and family enjoyed my "backyard".
Don't forget I live in Cody.
There are still people who wonder why I live in Wyoming.

PC

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Originally posted by CPD SIG:
Beautiful country out there!
The brutal part is getting from here to there... Driving across I-80 through In, Il, Wi, Mn, SD up to the Black Hills / Badlands area is like driving across a pool table. Everything after that is gorgeous country! I've driven that a few times in a car & on a motorcycle.

"Plan A" after retirement is Black Hills, S/E Wyoming area. (fingers crossed)

Honestly, the worst part is usually Chicago. I've had traffic up there add three hours to the trip before. Once you get through that little section of I-80, you're typically home free. We got lucky on the way out and didn't have any backups, and solved it on the way home by going through at 4am.

For some reason I don't mind I90 so much. West of the Missouri river, the rolling prairie has a beauty of its own, and the stark change in the landscape as you cross the river in Chamberlain is cool. I80 through Nebraska is definitely boring. When I have the time I like to get off and take Rt 2 diagonally through the Sand Hills up to the Black Hills. It's a much nicer drive, but on this trip it was all about making time.

You and I have the same retirement plans...maybe some day we'll be neighbors!

quote:

Originally posted by PCWyoming:

There are still people who wonder why I live in Wyoming.

PC

Clearly those people have never been there!

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Originally posted by 92fstech:

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Originally posted by 6guns:
Thanks for taking us all along for the ride!

Great pictures, great commentary!

You drove right through my old neck of the woods...Hobart, IN.

Ah, "The Region" as we call it around here. I've worked with a couple of guys who were from up that way. Good dudes. We're outside of Warsaw, so a little over an hour east of there.

Yep, The Region. I relocated out there for my job in Gary and when that ended, got out.

I remember some guys out your way making the trip to Chesterton, IN; Buchanan, MI and Berrien Springs, MI to shoot IDPA.

quote:

I remember some guys out your way making the trip to Chesterton, IN; Buchanan, MI and Berrien Springs, MI to shoot IDPA.

Yeah, or local club used to have a big group of practical competitive shooters who ran the regional circuits, and they even hosted regular matches here, but sadly that seems to have slowed down in recent years. My work schedule has me working every other weekend, so I never got formally involved, but I did get to run some of their stages in informal local matches when work permitted. It was a good group of people and a fun time.

^^^ One particular guy I remember was named Brett something. I think he was a heavy truck mechanic.

Didn't know a Brett, but again, I only shot some of the local matches, so I didn't know everybody.

Awesome trip report with great pictures. What do you do for a rest room for the ladies? Mine can't or won't live without something.

Glad you didn't have any breakdowns or issues too.

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Originally posted by coloradohunter44:
Awesome trip report with great pictures. What do you do for a rest room for the ladies? Mine can't or won't live without something.

Glad you didn't have any breakdowns or issues too.

The women use the outhouse just the same as the rest of us...equality and all that, lol. Honestly, most NFS campgrounds have very clean and nicely maintained pit toilets. Even if we had space for it, I have zero desire to deal with a dump station and all that goes with that. My wife and daughter are pretty tolerant, too, so that helps.

We do have a portable shower that I can heat water for outdoor swimsuit showers, but it's kinda a pain as you can imagine. We're out in the woods, so if I can get by with just jumping in a creek or lake every now and then, I much prefer that. It's hard to keep my kids out of the water, so they're no problem.

As to vehicle problems...the Suburban turned 427,000 miles on this trip, so I was also quite happy we had no issues. I've done roadside surgery on it more than once in the past. I went over it thoroughly before we left, but we put 4k pretty hard miles on it in two weeks, and especially at that age you just never know. In 2020 we lost the fuel pump on the highway outside of Gilette on the way home, and that wasn't an experience I'd like to repeat. I was definitely holding my breath as we went through that area this year, lol. That thing is still more reliable than my 2018 work Durango!

Great trip, good photos.

Thank you - great trip report! I'm hoping to do something similar soon. Was planning later this year but things a kind of sketchy at work so vacation plans are put on hold.

Dumb question: trout fishing - was that the plan for food? Or catch and release? If I don't fish, is buying food convenient? Or am I to bring my own? Wanting to visit Glacier, Yellowstone, Badlands, Tetons, Black Hills and other NP/NF in the MT/ID/WY/SD general region. And maybe CO/UT on the way back.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
Thank you - great trip report! I'm hoping to do something similar soon. Was planning later this year but things a kind of sketchy at work so vacation plans are put on hold.

Dumb question: trout fishing - was that the plan for food? Or catch and release? If I don't fish, is buying food convenient? Or am I to bring my own? Wanting to visit Glacier, Yellowstone, Badlands, Tetons, Black Hills and other NP/NF in the MT/ID/WY/SD general region. And maybe CO/UT on the way back.

Your trip itinerary sounds awesome, you should absolutely do that! We love all of those areas.

Fishing for us is more of a recreational activity...we almost exclusively catch and release, and we did that with all the trout on this trip. Back home we'll keep the occasional bass or big panfish, but it's gotta be big enough to make cleaning it worthwhile, and the time of year is a factor as I won't keep them during or pre-spawn. There's no way we could have kept six people fed with what we caught on this trip, either, especially with Wyoming's creel limits. If I was backpack camping in the backcountry and caught a good one I might supplement my diet with some fish, but I wouldn't count on it as there are plenty of times where you don't catch anything.


For food, we have a big cooler and prep ahead of time. We freeze salt water in gallon jugs for the cooler, because it keeps cold longer, and doesn't melt and make a mess. That usually last us about a week and then we have to start buying ice.

My wife cooks the meat for our dinner entrees ahead of time and freezes them in ziplock bags (one bag per meal), and we re-heat it on the camp stove. We usually take fresh veggies from our garden, canned goods to eat once those are gone, and cold cuts, condiments, etc. for wraps or sandwiches for lunch, plus chips and snacks and such.

Prepping the meals ahead of time serves several purposes.

1. It's much cheaper than eating out or even buying stuff at remote grocery stores. Even though we've been hit by inflation just like everybody else, Indiana grocery prices are still cheaper than most places. Eating out is crazy expensive with four kids, so that's not even really an option.

2. It's convenient when we're on the road, as it can take forever to even just hit up a fast food place, but my wife can have sandwiches for six whipped up in a gas station parking lot by the time I've got the truck fueled up and everybody's gone to the bathroom.

3. We like the National Forest Service campgrounds, which are pretty remote, and sometimes you may be driving 50 miles or more to the nearest store or restaurant. Having all of our food (and everything else we need, including a full tank of gas) pre-packed with us avoids getting into situations where we have to make long unwanted trips for supplies or do without.

For longer, multi-week trips we sometimes have to resupply at a grocery store midway through, but we try to start with as much from home as possible.

If you don't want to pack in all your food, you can get away without by staying in more developed places, but you'll also deal with higher prices and more people.

Thanks! Looking forward to the trip. Hoping the roads will be passable and the places aren't too crowded when we do - fine balance it seems.

Will plan for a big cooler then - will need to buy one but seems like a good way to go. Even if we need to replenish along the way (when convenient). Finding restaurants doesn't sound ideal. Deli sandwiches, frozen steaks, frozen fish and potatoes for a few weeks it is. I have a Iwatani butane burner and carbon steel pan itching to take a trip.

Still need to figure out lodging. I'm not much a camper (can sleep in the truck here and there though). Haven't camped since boy scouts - never really enjoyed it much so don't have any equipment.

We've stayed in KOA cabins before, which were pretty reasonably priced at the time (it's been more than 10 years, so I can't say how that's changed) and a good alternative to a hotel if you don't want to camp. The one we were at was outside of Badlands NP, and it was clean, comfortable, and even had A/C, which is a must in that area in the summer. The areas around most of the parks have all kinds of lodging available, but be prepared to pay for it.

You mentioned the roads being open...what time of year are you planning to take your trip? We've run into snowstorms and closed mountain passes as early as late September before...just something to consider as you plan.

Never tried KOA - I'll look into them. Sounds like it might be perfect for this type of trip.

Trying to go when school is in session and also off-peak tourist season (international in particular I guess). I'm guessing this means Sept/Oct or Apr/May/June.

At this point, likely the latter given some personal life volatility at the moment. But we'll see; if lodging works out, could leave w/in a week of moments notice.

thanks for sharing

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Originally posted by konata88:
Never tried KOA - I'll look into them. Sounds like it might be perfect for this type of trip.

Trying to go when school is in session and also off-peak tourist season (international in particular I guess). I'm guessing this means Sept/Oct or Apr/May/June.

At this point, likely the latter given some personal life volatility at the moment. But we'll see; if lodging works out, could leave w/in a week of moments notice.

If you can go off-peak season and when everybody's kids are in school, it can definitely make the trip more enjoyable, and even save you money. But you have to hit the sweet spot for weather. We nailed it on our trip to Alaska at the end of May...no crowds, awesome weather, and we saved a bundle on plane tickets by not waiting until June.

One year we went to Colorado in October. I'd made reservations and pre-paid (which I rarely ever do because I want more flexibility) for five nights at a privately run campground at 10,500 feet outside of Ouray. We got to the bottom of the mountain and it was a rainstorm...snow storm at the top. It got down into the 20s that night. We were in the trailer so we were safe, but it was definitely cold. The next morning my middle son refused to get out of his sleeping bag until we promised to leave and never come back, lol. Ultimately, we left (took a hit on the other four nights that I'd paid for) and went to Mesa Verde NP, which we ended up really enjoying, so it wasn't a wasted trip.

Yea, that sounds like the fine balance I'm trying to thread.

Not sure if it's better to shoot for fall or late spring. I'm not feeling very lucky these days.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
Yea, that sounds like the fine balance I'm trying to thread.

Not sure if it's better to shoot for fall or late spring. I'm not feeling very lucky these days.

You can look at the national weather service averages and kind of make a plan off of that, but at some point it's just rolling the dice. My best advice is to just be flexible, and if the weather ends up sucking where you were planning to go, switch to plan B and go somewhere else that day and maybe hit the plan A location on another trip or on your way back. We were in tents for a good portion of our AK trip this spring and did end up switching some stuff up last minute on the fly due to weather and road conditions. As a result, there were a few places we didn't get to, but that just leaves us some new stuff to see on our next trip.

Well, it looks like the area where we stayed is about to burn . I heard they evacuated the lodge at Brooks Lake, and US26 is closed between Dubois and Moran Junction. Such a beautiful area, what a shame . At least it was lightning, so it's nature doing it's thing, not some asshole who chucked a cigarette butt or something like that.

https://wildfiretoday.com/2024...ton-national-forest/