I didn’t think we had much to say about yesterday – we just spent it driving further east through Wyoming. Quite varied landscape – a high mountain pass that reminded me of ‘Brokeback Mountain’ country, then dry, flat plains. We camped at a nice little campground in a state forest, and just after midnight the fun really began.

A huge, bright, loud thunderstorm that woke us up and had us scuttling to take shelter in the car .. twice! The first storm went for about 90 minutes, with lightning flashes that lit up the whole sky. We kept listening to, and counting for the thunder to work out how far away the storm was, and when it got close we got in the car, figuring it was safer in a large tin box than out in the open near tall trees that could get struck by lightning. It rained a bit, but that didn’t last anywhere near as long as the lightning. We headed back to bed at around 1.30am, then it all started again at 3am!

So we’re feeling pretty wiped out this morning. We visited the Devil’s Tower National Monument, which Greg will write about soon. An amazing rock formation. Heading to the Black Hills to see some things and have an afternoon sleep! The locals are delighted with the weather – high 20s, fine. We just overheard someone comment that they wait 8 months for this weather.

Powder River Pass at 9666 feet, with snow still on some of the mountains in the background

A small RV (caravan) at a roadside stop on the I-90 in Wyoming

We did get to see West Yellowstone at the height of the season – last time we were there it was mid-April, there was still snow everywhere, the Park had only just opened and very little in the town was open apart from the hotel we stayed at and a pizza place where we had dinner – this time we had bison burgers for lunch, but we didn’t get to the Yellowstone entrance until 4pm, by which time all the available campsites in the park were taken.

So we went to a campground in a nearby national forest and headed to Yellowstone early the next morning.  As we’d seen Old Faithful last time, we gave it a miss this time and visited other geysers, sulphur pool, hot springs and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. There were a few ‘wildlife jams’ on roads because people kept slowing down to look at bison grazing in meadows, but then we saw a whole herd a bit further south. We drove south beside Yellowstone Lake to Lewis Lake campground and were lucky enough to get one of the last sites. Not so lucky this morning at Jenny Lake campground in Grand Teton National Park – we missed out by a minute, unfortunately. All the campsites were taken by 9.30am!

The Teton Range is magnificent – tall, jagged peaks still dusted with snow here and there at the top, with a dozen glaciers spread across the 5 peaks.

And now we’re heading further east, to the Black Hills in South Dakota. Motelling it tonight in Worland, Wyoming and will spend the next few days camping.

Lower falls in Grand Canyon Yellowstone. It was a 200 metre descent which is a bit harder when you are already at 2,500 metres altitude

A fumarole in Yellowstone

Boiling sulphur pool in Yellowstone National Park

Camped at Lewis Lake in Yellowstone. We got there at 1pm just in time to get a campsite at one of the most remote campsites in Yellowstone

The Grand Tetons 12,000 ft high mountain range. In the foreground is the dry sagebrush that grows in the dry rainshadow of the Tetons.