Maps of travel routes and campgrounds.
On our second day in Yellowstone National Park we visited the Norris area. We had actually planned to visit the Madison area, but it was a bit busy still, so we continued up to Norris, with a picnic nearby then a walk around the Porcelain Basin of Norris. Here’s our route, going around the lower of the two main loops in a clockwise direction:
A bison on the side of the road:
Picnic dinner at the Norris Meadows Picnic Area:
Norris Geyser Basin:
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:
We stayed at Fishing Bridge RV Park in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Our fourth stay in Yellowstone, our second in our coach and at this campground. The only place we can stay inside the park in our coach. It’s definitely worthwhile to stay inside the park; it’s a huge place, and the entry lines can be long.
Dates:
Weather:
Noise:
Site:
Utilities:
Internet (in usage priority order):
Amenities:
See our previous review on Campground Reviews.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Disappointingly, there was lots of small garbage around the site. People are the worst:
Other sites:
Pretty basic, but the best (and only) place for us inside Yellowstone. We’ll definitely stay here again.
We drove our coach 260 miles, about five hours of driving, from Buffalo to Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading west:
Route with elevations:
An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:
Highway 16, west of Buffalo, Wyoming:
Signs indicated various rock strata, e.g. Granite Gneiss rocks:
Pull-off for a break:
Runaway truck ramp and interesting rocks:
Ten Sleep is a cute little town:
Rest area:
Wildlife:
Cody:
Shoshone River:
Buffalo Bill tunnels:
Buffalo Bill reservoir:
Shoshone River:
Rest area:
More interesting rocks:
Yellowstone National Park east entrance sign:
And entrance station:
Yellowstone Lake:
Fishing Bridge RV Park check-in area:
Our site:
We stayed at Buffalo KOA Journey in Buffalo, Wyoming. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Our third stay here, as it’s a convenient stop on the way home. See our first and second visits for more photos.
This time, we only stayed one night, so opted for one of the convenient (and cheaper) pull-through sites nearer the front of the campground.
Dates:
Weather:
Noise:
Site:
Utilities:
Internet (in usage priority order):
Amenities:
See our previous review on Campground Reviews.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Paw pen patio site (being worked on):
Other sites:
Cabins:
We’d be happy to stay here again.
We drove our coach 186 miles, about three hours of driving, from Custer, South Dakota to Buffalo, Wyoming.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading west:
An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:
Custer:
Bighorn Sheep Crossing:
6% grade:
Welcome to Wyoming:
Fun with zoom:
Ordering sandwiches for lunch at Heidi’s deli inside Coffee Cup Fuel Stop in Moorcroft:
Back to our coach:
Our step wasn’t working (an ongoing issue):
Lunch:
A Starlink dish on the roof of a trailer… hopefully well-secured, but not very aerodynamic:
Narrow roadworks:
Buffalo:
Fuel stop:
Filling DEF:
Arriving at Buffalo KOA:
Our site:
We stayed at Custer’s Gulch RV Park in Custer, South Dakota. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Last time in the area we stayed inside Custer State Park, in a campground without water or sewer hookups. This time we decided to stay a little outside the park, primarily so we could have full hookups. A nice, convenient campground.
Dates:
Weather:
Noise:
Site:
Utilities:
Internet (in usage priority order):
Amenities:
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Beautiful campground nestled in the Black Hills
We’ve visited the Black Hills several times, and this campground is now my new favorite place to stay in the area. It’s conveniently located near all the best things to do in the area, and the only way to get closer to Custer State Park is to stay within the park. However, none of the campgrounds in the state park have full hook-ups, so Custer’s Gulch clearly wins in that regard. We had a large back-in site that was tucked up against a hill and had a nice view of the other side of the gulch. Although the campground is situated off the main highway, it’s far enough away that we didn’t hear any road noise. All utilities worked well, and the site was in good condition. We will definitely stay here again when we visit the Black Hills in the future. We camped at Custer’s Gulch RV Park in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our (very long) site:
Other sites:
Pond:
We’d be happy to stay here again.
We drove our coach 324 miles, about five hours of driving, from Mitchell to Custer, South Dakota.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading west:
Here’s another variation of the map showing time zones (Mountain and Central) and elevations for the whole year, with a circle showing the highest elevation of this trip; a lot of climbing at the end of the trip, though not as much as ones coming up soon:
An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:
Wind turbines and corn fields:
Dignity of Earth and Sky sculpture at a rest area:
The aforementioned rest area:
Crossing Missouri River:
Fun with zoom:
Sunflowers:
There seems to be a Beetle crawling up that silo:
Paladin reaching out to touch my foot:
Fun with zoom:
Entering Mountain Time Zone:
Stagecoach art:
Rest area:
Narrow roadworks:
Passing Badlands:
More roadworks:
Exit:
Buffalo sculpture:
Interesting rocks:
Arriving at our campground:
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!
We stayed at Mitchell KOA Journey in Mitchell, South Dakota. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A convenient stop on our journey west. Our second stay here (see that post for more pictures). It was for sale last time, now under new management, with some welcome improvements.
Dates:
Weather:
Noise:
Site:
Utilities:
Internet (in usage priority order):
Amenities:
See our previous review on Campground Reviews.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site; very narrow, but fine for one night:
Some frozen pizza options mentioned on the check-in counter; we love not having to cook on a travel day, so picked up a “Mac n’ Cheese Louise” pizza:
Pre-cooking:
It was interesting and tasty, and most welcome on a long travel day.
Our second stay here, and we’d be happy to stay again.