The West is the Best

I’ve always been a proponent of vacationing in the west, or more accurately the northwest.  I guess it comes down to personality, but I know I’m right about this!  Oregon, Washington, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana are simply wonderful.  I know from personal experience.  I look forward to adding Idaho and northern Montana to the list soon.  Why, you ask?

1) Badlands, hills, mountains, caves & volcanoes
2) Lakes, streams, rivers, waterfalls and springs
3) Astounding amounts of wildlife
4) Dunes and coastline
5) Islands, forests, deserts and plains
6) National Parks, National Monuments, National Recreation Areas, National Forests & Scenic Byways….these are endless in number
7) Oodles of tourist attractions based on all the History of the area
8) My favorite – stupendous Bed & Breakfast locations.

All of these details make for one huge vacation must: Opportunity!  Rain or Shine, Hot or Cold you have places to go.

Raining?  Hit a cave or a dense forest for a hike.  Take a look at some of the many visitor centers, museums or indoor attractions.  Easier yet, just…take…a…drive and enjoy nature’s museum.  Otherwise, put on a poncho and head out!

For me, these last two weeks were spent in SD, WY & MT.  We hit the Badlands and tried to walk 500 miles of tough terrain, okay, it just felt like it (you’ll need to watch my video of the rattlesnake). Next,we came to the Black Hills of SD for 5 days.  The Black Hills offer endless options as we toured Jewel Cave and Wind Cave, Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy Horse monument, Custer State Park, Needles Highway [see Camden pictured on top of a needle], Bear Country USA, rode an old 1880’s train, panned for gold and toured a mine, had fun with The Flintstones, went on a Chuckwagon supper tour, visited Hot Springs and stayed in a great Holiday Inn Express that had a waterfall right out our window in Custer, SD.  Did I mention the wildlife?  From there we came to Devil’s Tower and then off to the wonderful Big Horn Mountains.  There we hiked Tongue Canyon & River, as well as headed into a short cave.  Next, we drove into Montana to the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn (Custer’s Last Stand).  The town of Sheridan, WY offers some neat options as well, like King’s Saddlery where Camden got a chicken lasso.  Spahn’s Big Horn Mountain Bed & Breakfast took great care of us for three nights.  Thanks Ron and Bobbie!  The 100 mile view is still breathtaking.

The second half of our trip took us over the Big Horn Mountains to Big Horn Canyon National Recreation Area.  We hunted for wild horses, stood in awe of the canyon and checked out an abandoned ranch.  This area spans both WY & MT.  I almost stepped on a 4 ft Bull snake in the parking lot (WY).  I love excitement!  What’s up with snakes?  Now we were off to Yellowstone National Park.  We hopped around Yellowstone for two days and then headed to the Grand Teton National Park to stay in a Cabin a few nights.  Mountains, wildlife, hydrothermal features, canyons, rapids, cascades, buffalo and their calves, moose, elk, pronghorn deer, mule deer, white tail deer, prairie dogs and their babies, black bears and baby blacks bears, wild horses, wolves, coyotes, rabbits, three snakes and lots of family fun left us with great memories.  The only thing we could have done a lot more of was sitting by a rushing stream or creek and just hanging out in nature in the crisp mountain air.  The West is the Best.  “Kowboy Keith” says so!

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