Road Trip June 2026 - Yellowstone to Boise

Driving through Yellowstone National Park is a combination of somewhat annoying (vehicles, people) and, at the same time, so interesting. You never know for sure what animals you're going to see. This time, we saw more bison than we ever had. In addition to quite a few close to the road, there was a very large herd (guessing about a hundred of them) off in the distance. Also in the distance were lots of elk and sandhill cranes.

Humorously, this bird was sitting on the bison's back for quite some time. I don't think the bison even noticed. 

Just west of West Yellowstone, there's a campground near the Henry's Fork River where we often stop to camp. The pelicans are a mainstay although they were a bit further from the campground this year than they've been in the past. They're also usually more active and we try to take photos of them in flight but this time, they were content to just float along. Or stand, as the water was so shallow. 

 

When in huckleberry country, we have to try out the local flavours. 

This was the sunset from our van. 

The next day we made it to Craters of the Moon National Monument which has a campground there as well. It's been a very windy trip and this, along with some rain, kept both of us awake much of the night. 

We had a short driving day so we decided to go into Boise for lunch. I excitedly told Andrew that Boise is home to 2x CrossFit Games Champion Justin Medeiros. He'd didn't seem too impressed. LOL! 

While at lunch, we realized we were close to the Zoo Boise so put that on our agenda as well. It was a bit disappointing in that there was so much wire on the cages that it was hard to see the animal and virtually impossible to take photos.  I managed to get a couple photos through glass. 

We h

Boise is so much bigger than either of us imagined and it then took us what seemed like forever to get out of the city! We were much later to our campsite for the night and a bit grumpy and tired. Speaking for myself at least! 

Road Trip June 2026 - Wyoming - Part 2

In Sheridan, we stay at the historic Sheridan Inn and enjoy going to the Sam Mavrakis fishing pond. There are always birds and other interesting creatures to see. Whether or not I get any good photos is another question! 

On the way back to Five Springs, the Burgess Junction Visitor Center has a short hiking trail nearby with great spring flowers and, with luck, a few other creatures. 

We often see moose along this stretch of road, close enough to get a few acceptable photos.  

Back at Five Springs, the wind was still not cooperating but we held out hope and, in the meantime, drove further into Big Horn Canyon. On the Rangers Delight Trail, these sheep were pretty chill as we carefully approached for photos. 

This area is well known for wild horses and the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center is located in Lovell.  In all our trips here, we'd never seen them until now! These ones were fairly close to the road so we stopped and admired them. So beautiful! 

After finally giving up on the wind allowing Andrew to paraglide, we took one last short hike up Five Spring Canyon.

And got one last view of this colourful vista. 

Road Trip June 2026 - Wyoming - Part 1

We arrived at our final destination of Five Springs Campground near Lovell, Wyoming, where Andrew likes to paraglide. I love the terrain around here with the variety of colours, the mountains and looking out onto the flatlands. 

This notch in the distant ridge is a unique feature called a superimposition. "It refers to the Bighorn River cutting directly across the apex of the Sheep Mountain Anticline...effectively slicing the mountain in two. Millions of years ago, a meandering river established its path across a flat landscape. As regional uplift pushed the massive Sheep Mountain Anticline upward from deep below, the river maintained its original course, acting like a saw cutting through the rising rock. The river carved a steep, ~2,000-foot-wide gorge directly through the center of the anticline." (Nevada Bureau of Mining and Geology)

There were a lot of cow pies in the paragliding launch area. Luckily they weren't fresh so we were able to move them fairly easily using sticks and rocks. Good use of time while we waited and hoped the wind would cooperate. It was totally the wrong direction and quite strong. 

In the meantime, there are lots of short hikes in the area to keep us occupied. Rainbow Canyon is one of my favourites. Again, I love the varied colours. 

Cottonwood Canyon is another favourite. 

With the wind forecasted to continue to be too strong and wrong direction for paragliding, we decided to take a couple days and drive around to the other end of the Big Horn mountains, a route we hadn't been before. Ten Sleep is a well known rock climbing area and with these beautiful spires so close to the road, you can see why. 

A little further along, we hiked up to a fire lookout tower where we could see some of the higher peaks in the area, including Cloud Peak at 13,000+ feet. 

It was definitely full-on lupine season. So many of these colourful flowers to be seen. 

Tie Hack Lake was a great lunch spot and the butterflies liked it too.