Travel from Buffalo to Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

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 map

Route with elevations:

Route with elevations

An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:

Highway 16, west of Buffalo, Wyoming:

Highway 16 west of Buffalo, Wyoming

Signs indicated various rock strata, e.g. Granite Gneiss rocks:

Granite Gneiss rocks

Pull-off for a break:

Pull-off for a break

Runaway truck ramp and interesting rocks:

Runaway truck ramp and interesting rocks

Interesting rocks

interesting rocks

Interesting rocks

Ten Sleep is a cute little town:

Ten Sleep

Rest area:

Rest area

Wildlife:

Wildlife

Cody:

Cody

Shoshone River:

Shoshone River

Buffalo Bill tunnels:

Buffalo Bill tunnels

Buffalo Bill reservoir:

Buffalo Bill reservoir

Shoshone River:

Shoshone River

Rest area:

Rest area

More interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

Yellowstone National Park east entrance sign:

Yellowstone National Park east entrance sign

And entrance station:

Yellowstone National Park east entrance

Yellowstone Lake:

Yellowstone Lake

Fishing Bridge RV Park check-in area:

Fishing Bridge RV Park check-in area

Fishing Bridge RV Park registration

Our site:

Our site

Buffalo KOA Journey

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:

Check in: 2025-08-23
Check out: 2025-08-24
1 night

Weather:

Sunny
High temp 79°F, low 51°F
Some wind, gusts to 18 MPH

Noise:

Some road noise
No train horn noise
Little neighbor noise

Site:

#60, back-in/pull-through, gravel
Didn’t need to disconnect toad, and didn’t, since only one night
Somewhat level site; used air leveling, since only one night
Gravel driveway about 70 feet long by 9 feet wide
14 feet to neighbors on both sides
Picnic table
Fire pit
A few tall trees
Clean site
Elevation 4,280 feet, front facing south

Utilities:

50 amp power, conveniently located
Didn’t connect to water, but conveniently located
Didn’t connect to sewer, but conveniently located

Internet (in usage priority order):

RoamLink: 8 Mbps down, 8 Mbps up, 145 ms ping (the RoamLink service picks the best network)
AT&T: 8-28 Mbps down, 0.5 Mbps up, 145-275 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
Starlink: not used
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters
Pool

See our previous review on Campground Reviews.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

Paw pen patio site (being worked on):

Paw pen patio site

Other sites:

Other sites

Cabins:

Cabins

We’d be happy to stay here again.

Video

Video: Custer, South Dakota to Buffalo, Wyoming motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 186 miles from Custer, South Dakota to Buffalo, Wyoming.

Travel from Custer, South Dakota to Buffalo, Wyoming

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:

Route map

An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:

Custer:

Custer

Bighorn Sheep Crossing:

Bighorn Sheep Crossing

6% grade:

6% grade

Welcome to Wyoming:

Welcome to Wyoming

Fun with zoom:

Fun with zoom

Ordering sandwiches for lunch at Heidi’s deli inside Coffee Cup Fuel Stop in Moorcroft:

Ordering lunch at Coffee Cup Fuel Stop

Back to our coach:

Back to our coach

Our step wasn’t working (an ongoing issue):

Our step wasn't working

Lunch:

Lunch

A Starlink dish on the roof of a trailer… hopefully well-secured, but not very aerodynamic:

Starlink dish, not very aerodynamic

Narrow roadworks:

Narrow roadworks

Buffalo:

Buffalo

Fuel stop:

Fuel stop

Filling DEF:

Filling DEF

Arriving at Buffalo KOA:

Arriving at Buffalo KOA

Our site:

Our site

Custer’s Gulch RV Park

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:

Check in: 2025-08-19
Check out: 2025-08-23
4 nights

Weather:

Sunny, a little rain
High temps 68-88°F, lows 52-65°F
Some wind, gusts to 21 MPH

Noise:

No road noise
No train horn noise
Little neighbor noise

Site:

#50, back-in, gravel
Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
Somewhat level site; a little high on passenger side and front; used hydraulic leveling
Gravel driveway about 90 feet long by 12 feet wide
26 feet to neighbor on passenger side
30 feet to neighbor on driver side
Just grass between sites
Picnic table
Fire pit
One tall tree towards the front of the site
Clean site
Elevation 5,240 feet, front facing NW

Utilities:

50 amp power, conveniently located; breaker was unreliable, cutting out a couple of times
60 PSI water, conveniently located
Good sewer connection, fairly conveniently located (1.5 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

Starlink: 180-230 Mbps down, 20 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
RoamLink: 24 Mbps down, 0.3 Mbps up, 170-1,500 ms ping (the RoamLink service picks the best network)
AT&T: 8-32 Mbps down, 0.05-0.2 Mbps up, 113-140 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters

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:

Map

An interactive map:

Our (very long) site:

Our site

Other sites:

Other sites

Pond:

Pond

We’d be happy to stay here again.

Video

Video: Mitchell to Custer, South Dakota motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 324 miles from Mitchell to Custer, South Dakota.

Travel from Mitchell to Custer, South Dakota

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:

Map

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:

Elevations

An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:

Wind turbines and corn fields:

Wind turbines and corn fields

Dignity of Earth and Sky sculpture at a rest area:

Dignity of Earth and Sky

The aforementioned rest area:

Rest area

Crossing Missouri River:

Crossing Missouri River

Fun with zoom:

Fun with zoom

Sunflowers:

Sunflowers

There seems to be a Beetle crawling up that silo:

There seems to be a Beetle crawling up that silo

Paladin reaching out to touch my foot:

Paladin reaching out to touch my foot

Fun with zoom:

Fun with zoom

Entering Mountain Time Zone:

Entering Mountain Time Zone

Stagecoach art:

Stagecoach art

Rest area:

Rest area

Narrow roadworks:

Narrow roadworks

Passing Badlands:

Passing Badlands

More roadworks:

More roadworks

Exit:

Exit

Buffalo sculpture:

Buffalo sculpture

Interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

Arriving at our campground:

Arriving at campground

Mitchell KOA Journey

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:

Check in: 2025-08-18
Check out: 2025-08-19
1 night

Weather:

Sunny
High temp 87°F, low 69°F
Negligible wind, gusts to 7 MPH

Noise:

Some freeway noise
Very occasional distant train horn noise
Little neighbor noise

Site:

#C-15, pull-through, gravel
Didn’t need to disconnect toad, and didn’t, since only one night
Somewhat level site; used air leveling, since only one night
Gravel driveway about 80 feet long by 10 feet wide
10 feet to neighbors on both sides
Picnic table
Fire pit
No trees
Clean site
Elevation 1,310 feet, front facing NE

Utilities:

50 amp power, conveniently located
55 PSI water, conveniently located
Good sewer connection, inconveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed); two sewer ports

Internet (in usage priority order):

RoamLink: 10-19 Mbps down, 16-19 Mbps up, 103 ms ping (the RoamLink service picks the best network)
AT&T: 26 Mbps down, 0.2 Mbps up, 105 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
Starlink: not used
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities: