Life Of 2 Snowbirds

Check out this post before your trip to Grand Teton National Park, WY for things to do in this area.

If you are taking a road trip to Grand Teton, this post Healthier Food And Snack Choices For Our Road Trips will give you some great ideas for what to pack in your cooler.

(1) Sometimes on a road trip, and what makes road trips so fun, you unexpectedly find things that make you stop the car and pull over. While on our way to Grand Teton we made a totally unplanned stop at Bighorn National Forest. We didn't realize, when we were planning our trip, that we would be driving through this forest until we were in it. We were so happy that we stopped. The things we saw here took our breath away. Things like this waterfall.

And this marmot posing for us on his rock.

And views like these.

(2) After spending a good hour in the forest, we were on the road again to our next campground Headwaters Campground at Flagg Ranch. The campground had a lodge with a restaurant and bar and a sitting area that worked out great for the guys to relax in while me and Sandie shopped in the gift shop.

The campground also had a a couple of trails. After dinner we took our coffee down to the trail that led to Snake River. It was a nice, easy and relaxing trail. (Read more about Headwaters Campground here.)

(3) The schedule that worked for us for this part of our cross country trip was to spend 2 days near Grand Teton then 2 days near Yellowstone Park, which is only a couple of hours away. Because we only had a small amount of time at this stop, we got up very early, and headed to Grand Teton National Park. We were only a short 26 minute drive from the Colter Bay Visitors Center where we got all the information we needed to start exploring Grand Teton National Park.

After looking through the Grand Teton Guide to the Park, we found a trail to hike. The entrance of the Lakeshore Trail was just outside the visitor's center.

It was an easy trail that followed Colter Bay shoreline.

Soko is a good sport about carrying my backpack for me when I get tired of carrying it!

The view of the Jackson Lake with it's brilliant blue color and the jagged mountain peaks of the Teton Range in the background made for a breathtaking view.

After the hike and a picnic lunch, we headed over to a nearby trail for another hike but half of the trail was closed because of nesting and the other half of the trail was closed because it was undergoing some kind of renovation. We were a little disappointed that we were only able to do one hike but we knew there was a trail back at our campground that we thought we might do if we had time and now we had the time.

The Flagg Canyon Trail was further away from our campsite than we thought. We must have walked at least a mile before we even got to the entrance. We wound up going halfway around the trail and then backtracked back. We met an Australian couple on the trail who said they were going to do the entire trail.

After we had dinner we went to the lodge to buy a couple of souvenirs in the gift shop before they closed. As we were leaving the lodge we passed the Australian couple just getting back, about 2 hours after us, from the Flagg Canyon Trail. We were so glad we decided not to hike the second half of the trail.

After shopping it was time to get back to the campsite to start the packing up process. We were heading to Yellowstone National Park the next day. This park has been on all of our bucket lists for so long and we were very excited to finally get there.

Read about our stop at Badlands National Park.

Things To Do In And Around Badlands National Park, SD

Have you been to Grand Teton National Park? What "things to do" did you find? Please tell us in comments. We would love to hear all about it!

Check out these things to do in and around Badlands National Park before your trip to South Dakota.

If you are traveling here with your RV, take a look at our list of 10 Items You Should Have On Your RV Camping List before you hit the road.

As we made our way to Stop 5 of our cross country road trip, as always we looked for the closest Walmart to the campground we were staying at. There were none! We tried to find another grocery store. We found People's Market in Kadoka. Kadoka was one of the smallest small towns we have ever been in. It was about 2 blocks long with a handful of stores, with lots of them closed down.. The cashier told us that many people had left and more people are leaving Kadoka and that it was almost a ghost town. Luckily there was space along the side of the supermarket where we could park our RV.

The store was small and we couldn't find the ingredients we needed to make the dinners we wanted to make for the next couple of days so we had to work with what we did find here and change our menu. It took us awhile but we figured it out and were happy with ourselves for being able to work this predicament out without stressing! We were happy to find out that we could work very well as a team! It helps when you are traveling for 2 months in close quarters like we were this trip.

(1) We arrived at our campground early enough take a quick run to the Ben Reifel Visitor's Center in Badlands National Park after we prepped for dinner. Our campground was conveniently located only 8 minutes from the the visitor's center. If we can, we like to pick up trail maps ahead of time, and any other information we need, so we don't have to waste time trying to decide what to do when we get to the parks.

Good To Know: You can get an annual park pass for only $80 a year. If you are a senior, 62 and older, you can get a lifetime pass for $80. It is so worth it if you plan to go to any park this year. We went in and out of Badlands NP a number of times while we were here and showed our pass and never had to pay the $25 entrance fee! You can order a pass before you head out to the parks here: US Park Pass.

(2) After we got back from the visitor's center we needed some relief from the intense South Dakota heat, and luckily for us, Badlands Interior Motel & Campground, our home for the next 4 days, had a pool. The water was so cold but we were so hot that we didn't care. It was chilling but refreshing!

(You can read more about this campground here.)

(3) We got an early start on our visit to Badlands National Park the next day. We thought it would be a good idea to do some hiking in the morning, before it got too hot out. We picked 3 easy trails that were in the same area so that we didn't have to waste time driving around the park. We started at the Door Trail then did the Cliff Shelf Trail and ended at the Window Trail. We saw how the Window Trail got it's name.

We also found the door at the Door Trail.

And spotted a Bighorn Sheep as we hiked the Cliff Shelf Trail.

This park is home to desert rock formations and badlands is actually the geologic term that describes the type of terrain found here. You can find badlands in several other parks as well.

There is hardly any vegetation here so when we spotted this beautiful plant thriving in this rocky environment I had to take it's picture!

Badlands National Park was amazing but it was getting very hot out and we were all dreaming about being in the freezing cold pool. It was time to go but not before taking one last look around and one last picture.

(4) Our plans for Day 3 in South Dakota was spending the day at Mount Rushmore! We couldn't believe we were going to actually see it after all these years of having it on top of our bucket list.

This was the first view we had as we walked towards the monument.

Before we walked the Presidential Trail, we stopped into the Lincoln Borglum Visitor Center. We watched a 14 minute film and then looked at all interesting exhibits and learned all about how this massive sculpture was created under the direction of sculptor Gutzon Borglum and his son Lincoln.

Then we walked the Presidential Trail and enjoyed views like these.

It was incredible to see all the different angles of this historic sculpture. This view from in between two rocks was my favorite.

(5) The unfinished Crazy Horse sculpture was only a few minutes from Mount Rushmore so we took a ride over. When we got there, we found out that our National Park Pass would not work here and we would have to pay $35 per car to get in. We decided that maybe we will save our money and come back when the sculpture is done. We had a pretty good view of it from the parking lot anyway.

(6) Before we headed back to the campground, we made two stops. The first stop was to the small town of Keystone that was just 8 minutes from Mount Rushmore. With a population of just over 200 people, we estimated that there was one souvenir shop for every 20 people who lived here! The town was really cute and we wound up with a bagful of souvenirs each. Stop 2 was Walmart! We were so happy that we needed to drive through Rapid City to get back to the our campground. Now Sandie had all the ingredients she needed to make her crock pot lasagna tomorrow.

But tonight, after jumping in the pool, we had a quick dinner of leftover chicken and then once again walked the campground's short trail and enjoyed the beautiful sunset.

We had a couple of things on our to do list on our last day in South Dakota. Sandie and JT's list was a little more exciting than ours. They went back into Badlands NP to hike the Notch Trail.

The description of the Notch Trail, especially the part about climbing a rope ladder on this hike, convinced me to stay at the campground and get some wash done. Soko kept me company and cleaned the trailer's outside storage bin which really needed it.

(7) After Sandie and JT got back and we all had lunch, we took a drive on the very scenic Badlands Loop Drive. We were hoping to see animals and we did! We saw a number of bison. They were very large and we thought we should take pictures of them from inside the car.

And down the road, we didn't notice them at first, but there were prairie dogs all over the place. We stopped to watch them. They were so cute and one was barking his head off, probably warning his friends that there were four suspicious looking humans taking pictures of them.

After this very enjoyable ride, we made our way to the town of Hall. A friend told us that we needed to go to Hall Drug for their 5 cent coffee and delicious donuts.

(8) We checked out the rest of this cute, small town of Wall before looking for Wall Drug Store.

There were mostly souvenir shops on the couple of blocks that made up this town. We did notice a post office, tucked in between the stores, which made us very happy because we were out of postcard stamps.

(9) Wall Drug Store was a huge store.

We had a great time looking around in here and took lots of pictures of us posing with the many characters lining the halls of the building.

There was so much to look at and we were all going in different directions so we finally agreed to split up and meet up for coffee and donuts when we were finished looking around. The coffee really was 5 cents so we all had two cups and the donuts were so delicious that we bought extra to bring back with us.

After coffee it was time to head back to the RV. We were very excited to see how the crockpot lasagna was doing. It turned out great and it was delicious. As JT would say, "You did it again San".

The next morning it was time to hit the road. Stop 6 was a quick overnight hotel stop in Sheridan, WY. I noticed, when we were mapping out our cross-country trip, that we could pass by Devil's Tower National Monument very easily on our way to the hotel. We were hoping to walk the trail around it but unfortunately, we were not able to park the trailer near the tower.. It was pretty cool just to see it from a distance anyway.