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.
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 260 miles from Buffalo to Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
There are currently 63 National Parks in the US. Of those, 51 are in the 48 contiguous states, plus eight in Alaska, two in Hawaii, one in American Samoa, and one in US Virgin Islands. We have now visited 52 parks; the 51 contiguous plus Virgin Islands; the remaining 11 will be more tricky to visit, but we do want to get to them in due course.
This is a good occasion to consider how we feel about the 52 parks. And what better way to evaluate them than as a tier list, which rates things as S (super), A, B, C, D, and F (fail).
Here’s how we rated the parks:
Or in text (click or tap the links to see my blog posts about each park):
S tier: Arches, Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Olympic, and Yellowstone. Best of the best.
A tier: Badlands, Big Bend, Bryce Canyon, Death Valley, Dry Tortugas, Everglades, Grand Teton, Isle Royale, Virgin Islands, Yosemite, Zion. All very good parks.
B tier: Acadia, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Carlsbad Caverns, Crater Lake, Glacier, Kings Canyon, Mesa Verde, Mount Rainier, North Cascades, Petrified Forest, Pinnacles, Redwood, Saguaro, Sequoia, Theodore Roosevelt, Voyageurs, Wind Cave. Still pretty good, but not overly remarkable.
C tier: Biscayne, Channel Islands, Great Basin, Great Sand Dunes, Great Smoky Mountains, Guadalupe Mountains, Hot Springs, Lassen Volcanic, Rocky Mountain, Shenandoah, White Sands. Fine parks, but mostly one-trick-ponies.
D tier: Congaree, Gateway Arch, Mammoth Cave, New River Gorge. Kinda boring, not really worthy of being National Parks.
F tier: Cuyahoga Valley, Indiana Dunes. Lame, shouldn’t be National Parks.
Of course, these rankings are very subjective, and may change as we explore them more. But that’s how we currently rate them.
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:
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.
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:
