Attractions and other places we visit.
We seem to visit Yellowstone National Park every couple of years: we stayed in a rental trailer in 2021, stayed for a couple of weeks in our coach in 2023, and here we are visiting for nine days in 2025.
This time, we just concentrated on our favorite locations, for the most part, visiting different areas each day, or more accurately each evening after work during the week.
On our first evening, we visited the Canyon area. Here’s our route:
Grand Canyon of Yellowstone:
Another scenic drive: the Custer Wildlife Loop drive, where we saw hundreds of buffalo aka bison.
An interactive map of our route, starting from the campground (and including the visit to Wind Cave, which we did first):
A coyote:
Lots of buffalo:
One-lane bridge:
Another one-lane bridge:
Bridge:
Prairie dogs:
Buffalo hiding behind a sign:
Dirt road:
Sun rays:
More buffalo:
We visited Wind Cave National Park again; the previous time, back in 2023, the elevator to the cave was broken, so we were unable to do a tour (but the surface stuff is good too).
This time we were able to do a cave tour: the Garden of Eden tour. This is a one-hour, quarter mile tour (their easiest option), featuring boxwork, frostwork, flowstone and cave popcorn.
Cave tours:
Cave map:
Heading into the elevator, about seven people at a time:
Waiting for everyone in an airlock at the bottom of the elevator:
Exploring the cave:
Back to the elevator:
Model of the cave tours in the visitor center:
Conditions at the cave mouth; neglegible wind:
The little hole of wind:
Not the most impressive cave, but still more interesting than Mammoth Cave.
Our campground is near an entrance of Custer State Park. Just before the entrance is the historic area of Gordon Stockade.
Info signs:
The town of Custer, South Dakota.
An interactive map of the town:
We did one of our all-time favorite scenic drives, along Iron Mountain and Needles Highway.
An interactive map of our route, starting from the campground, and going counter-clockwise:
A buffalo on the road:
Tunnel clearances:
Scovel Johnson Tunnel:
A peek of Mount Rushmore through the trees:
More tunnels:
Tunnel to spiral bridge:
Another tunnel:
Another peek of Mount Rushmore from the tunnel:
Another pigtail spiral bridge:
Passing Mount Rushmore:
Mount Rushmore side view:
Interesting rocks:
Hood Tunnel:
Sylvan Lake:
Popular jumping spot for kids:
Needle Eye:
Needle Eye Tunnel:
Sun over rocks:
Another tunnel:
Such a fun drive.
A heads-up: we will be visiting my family and exploring New Zealand for 30 days from November 7th to December 7th.
Blog posts will continue while away, since the posts are a couple of months behind real-time. Though I may not cross-post to Facebook during this time, since that has to be done manually, so if you read the posts via Facebook, you’ll need to visit the Sinclair Trails website directly if you don’t want to miss my thrilling content.
We’ll continue the RV lifestyle in NZ: we are renting a campervan and driving around the country. Here’s our route, starting in Auckland, and finishing in Christchurch (the southern loop is in a clockwise direction):
Not sure yet if I’ll have blog posts about our NZ adventure; no doubt I’ll take lots of photos, so I probably will. Stay tuned!
With our visit to Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota, we have now visited all 52 of the National Parks in the contiguous US and the US Virgin Islands! Quite an achievement.
The only remaining parks are in Hawaii, Alaska, and American Samoa. Those ones are harder, but we’ll get to them in due course.
Here are the stickers on the side of our coach:
We visited the Rainy Lake visitor center, and did the Grand Tour guided boat trip in Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota.
Our boat:
A stop at Little American Island, a former mining area:
Mine:
Back on the boat:
There are a number of houseboats that people can rent; a fun way to explore the lake:
Exhibits handed around:
Bald eagle:
A houseboat docked:
Back at the visitor center, Jenn with her last passport page of parks in the contiguous 48 states:
Exhibits:
We visited the Lake Kabetogama and Ash River visitor centers in Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota. Our last National Park in the contiguous US!
The Lake Kabetogama Visitor Center:
Jenn got her passport stamp:
Exhibits:
Ash River Visitor Center:
Lilies:
A short walk along Beaver Pond Overlook Trail:
