Wapiti Campground in the Shoshone National Forest near Wapiti, WY.
Hello, my name is Sandra and I’m a vacation over doer.
I’ve been the primary vacation planner in my family my entire adult life. While other family members often gave input on where we went and what we did, I was the one who did the careful research to plan out the details of the trip.
While I’m not known as an organized person in most parts of my life – just take a look at my closet – I tap into some deep well of energy and focus (some might say obsession) when it comes to vacation planning.
I spend hours over the course of weeks looking at VRBO or Campendium to find optimal places to lay our heads. I look at all the top-rated attractions and museums on Tripadvisor, the best trails on Alltrails, and scour YouTube videos for little nuggets of information.
For instance, on our recent trip to Yellowstone, we took a really great hike from Biscuit Basin to an overlook of the main geyser area and to Mystic Falls. This was, without a doubt, my favorite hike in the four times I’ve visited Yellowstone.
And I found it on YouTube via Frugal Fit Mom and Frugal Fit Dad. They live not too far from Yellowstone and go often. They recommended this 3.5 mile moderate hike. We had lunch under a tree on the side of a rather steep hill overlooking the waterfall.
Yellowstone National Park overlook on the trail from Biscuit Basin to Mystic Falls.
It was magical.
This post contains affiliate links, which means when you click on the link, go to Amazon and purchase ANY product, I get a small commission. The product does not cost you any more to buy, but it helps support Plum Prairie Ranch.
Quick side note, if you like to hike and haven’t tried trekking poles, get some. You won’t be sorry. We didn’t need them on the flat, even Yellowstone boardwalks, but they made a huge difference climbing up and down the dirt and rock trails.
I’m overly cautious on steep terrain because I’m scared of slipping and falling and getting hurt. But these helped me have much more stability and confidence while stepping on or over rocks, roots, and gravel.
I got these TrailBuddy Trekking Poles on Amazon for hubby Shawn and me. We’re both fans after our first hike. It took a few minutes to get used to them, but we soon decided we liked them.
Not only do they help with your footing, but they also transfer some of the load to your arms, taking weight off your legs (especially on your knees going downhill).
They can help you hike longer and stronger, or just be more comfortable and confident on a steep or uneven trail.
Now granted most of the people we saw using them on the trails were over 50, but even younger, hard-core backpackers use them because they make it easier to carry a heavy pack over many miles.
I have a pair of Columbia waterproof hiking boots that I adore. I ordered them online because they run small, and I needed a 10 ½, which most stores don’t carry.
View from the brink of the lower falls at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Photos of the canyon look like an oil painting masterpiece.
It’s a ‘ME’ problem
Now back to our vacation and my realization.
I used to say that my hubby and I vacationed like Sherman’s march to the sea, but he recently informed me that our hectic pace is a ME problem, not an US problem.
A few days before our trip, he urged me to simplify things as much as possible. I decided to change our reservations so that we stayed in just two campgrounds instead of three over the course of five days in the Yellowstone region.
Once we were there, I scaled back my hiking suggestions. No, we won’t do morning AND afternoon hikes. Instead, we will hike in the morning and take a scenic drive in the afternoon.
My hubby did all the driving to get us and our camper to the campgrounds. Once our camper was parked, my daughter and I shared most of the driving duties. She’s our outdoor adventure girl and game for just about anything.
This daughter lives in Montana and is a professional hiker. I’m not kidding. She gets paid to hike.
The hiking is a key part of her job as an archaeology technician for the Bureau of Land Management. She walks many miles up in the mountains, mostly off trails, with her eyes glued to the ground looking for antiquities and signs of ancient (and not so ancient) civilizations.
While driving around the lower loop of Yellowstone, I wanted to stop and see the Brink of the Upper Falls and the Lower Falls, neither of which I’d visited on previous trips.
Oops. I forgot to mention to hubby about the hike down to the brink of the Lower Falls at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. It’s short and paved but steep like a hard setting on the Stairmaster. There’s even a sign at the beginning warning those with heart issues to avoid this trail.
I assured him that I wasn’t trying to kill him.
It would not be the only time I made this promise on our vacation.
We got back to West Yellowstone tired and hangry. It was Friday night, which is pizza night in our family, so we stopped at a delicious pizza restaurant, Pete’s Rocky Mountain Pizza. So good!
If you’re in West Yellowstone, be sure to try it!
We raced the setting sun to get back to our campground and soon went to bed exhausted.
From dirty little and not-so-little signs to majestic mountains
The next day, we had reservations to go horseback riding at Colter Bay Village in Grand Teton National Park, a 2-and-a-half-hour drive from our campground, plus we were moving to another campground that evening 30 minutes east of Yellowstone.
That meant packing up and hooking up and parking the truck and trailer rig at a predetermined spot in Yellowstone where later we could dump the gray and black tanks before we headed east.
We drove with our daughter in her Subaru to our horseback riding engagement only to find it was canceled due to weather. Cue my sad face.
I REALLY wanted Shawn and Rebekah to experience the joys of trail riding. Oh well.
Instead, we had lunch sitting on the riverbank at Oxbow Bend, a famous wildlife viewing spot at GTNP. While we didn’t spy any bears or moose, we did enjoy the antics of ducks cruising for snacks and the reflections of the mountains in the slow-moving water.
Majestic Mount Moran is reflected in the Snake River at Oxbow Bend at Grand Teton National Park.
Then we wanted to drive up Signal Mountain. Road closed. Another option was to try a four-wheel road to a little lake. Also closed. But we were able to go far enough to see a trailhead for a short but rather overgrown trail to a small lake. We only saw one pair of hikers on the two-mile trip and no animals but plenty of signs.
And by signs I mean poop. Deer poop, elk poop, moose poop and bear poop. Never have I ever written poop so many times.
Then it was time to head back to Yellowstone to dump our gray and black tanks (I will refrain from writing about the poop slinky at this time because there’s been enough poop talk in this blog post). Shawn was a trooper and took care of the dirty work while Rebekah and I picked up a few groceries and souvenirs at the campground’s store.
I drove Rebekah’s Subaru from West Thumb out the East Entrance of Yellowstone on the North Fork Highway toward Cody with Shawn driving the pickup towing the camper behind us.
It’s a windy mountain road with epic views of mountains, rock formations and lodgepole pines. If you’re anywhere around Yellowstone, you should take that drive. I’ve been through all the major entry points to the park with the exception of Lamar Valley, and that drive is the most scenic.
Once again, though, we were racing the sun to get to our campground and set up before nightfall.
‘Really, I’m not trying to kill you’
Rock Formation in Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming resembles Woody the Woodpecker.
Rock formation in Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming: WALL-E the robot or ET?
We stayed at Wapiti Campground in the Shoshone National Forest, which is the nation’s first national forest. It’s about 30 miles west of Cody along the Shoshone River with towering rock obelisks and boulders artfully scattered around sheer cliffs and pine-covered mountains. Many of the boulders and rocks rest in mind-boggling stacks.
I enjoyed playing “What does that pile of rocks resemble?”
One looked like Woody the Woodpecker and another I thought looked like E.T. while Rebekah said WALL-E. What do you think?
Anyway, it was GORGEOUS.
On Sunday morning, Shawn wanted to slow down our pace, and we did… for a few hours.
We took a short walk over the bridge across the river, and we glimpsed a few more fantastical rock shapes, but Rebekah made a special request of her dad: his special camping breakfast.
Shawn fixed pancakes, eggs, bacon and hashbrowns on the Blackstone Griddle. Delish!
Why is it that my hubby can cook nice meals if they involve fire outdoors, but inside he’d be hard pressed to move beyond canned tomato soup?
Anyway, I digress.
We lingered over breakfast, and then we needed to decide what to do with the rest of our day. Shawn wanted to stay and hang out at the campground, but Rebekah and I lobbied to drive the Beartooth Highway. Why? Because some people say it’s America’s most scenic byway. It runs from Red Lodge, Montana, to Cooke City, Montana, dipping down into Nevada as it crosses the Beartooth Pass at just under 11,000 feet.
The road is packed with hairpin curves and sheer dropoffs. We drove in and out of the clouds and at times, you could see only a few feet in front of you. At the top of the pass, the wind was blowing a fierce 50 mph that threatened to knock you off your feet.
The wind on Beartooth Pass on the Beartooth Highway blew so hard it almost knocked me over. Notice how low the clouds are. This was after driving through the clouds with very little visibility.
Alpine lake on the Beartooth Highway
A juvenile grizzly looking for food in an alpine meadow on the Beartooth Highway.
The payoff when we drove down the other side was a beautiful alpine meadow dotted with lakes and wildflowers. We even stopped to watch a playful bear digging for a snack, at a safe distance, of course.
Our compromise with Shawn was that we wouldn’t drive the last few miles of the Beartooth and instead turn off on Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, going back toward Cody.
But we spent all afternoon and into the evening driving, making many stops for photos, and, once again, got back to our campsite with darkness falling.
Our last full day in Wyoming, we spent the day at the excellent Buffalo Bill Cody Center of the West. Rebekah left after a lunch at the historic Hotel Irene (built by Cody and named for his daughter) to return to Missoula.
Shawn and I’d planned to take in the Nite Rodeo in Cody, but we were exhausted. We were leaving to drive back to Kansas the next morning and opted to get back to our camper for dinner.
Pretty much every night we got back to our campsite too late to do much of anything. We didn’t have a campfire and didn’t make s’mores. We didn’t take real advantage of the trails behind our campground.
And we did more sightseeing in Nebraska on our way back to Plum Prairie Ranch. Yet another hike, this one at Scottsbluff National Monument, where I again swore to Shawn that I wasn’t trying to kill him. This trail was pretty steep in spots and even included a tunnel through the rocky mesa.
How to slow down on vacation
I have a problem, y’all. Because of my rather intense vacation mode, we need a vacation after our vacation. But I enjoyed all the big activities and wouldn’t eliminate any of them. Instead, I would add a few extra days with lots of down time at the campground.
To do that, I must resist the urge to fill every waking moment with hiking, museum visits, and action. Sit in the shade and read, embrace the afternoon nap, watch the sun dip below the rocky ridge, and swap stories by the campfire.
Here are some areas I need to address:
1. Plan relaxation
When left to my own devices, I tend to stay busy.
But there’s such a thing as busyness overload when the days are so crammed full that your head starts to whirl and you find a sort of frantic overwhelm and exhaustion start to creep in.
I need to plan relaxation as a regular feature in my schedule and especially ON VACATION! I need to give my body, mind and soul time to rest and reflect.
Roadside waterfall on Beartooth Highway
2. Give up control
This might be the hardest one for me. I truly enjoy planning vacations and finding great experiences that make for special memories.
I need to allow others to choose activities and learn to enjoy spending low key times together. To do this, I need to let go of the idea of “The Perfect Vacation” and realize that we are not human doings but human beings.
Which brings me to my next point…
3. Choose contentment
Sometimes I get really excited about vacation plans and might push too hard to get that 5-star experience. If I don’t do one of the top items on my list, I might regret it. This is known as FOMO, or Fear Of Missing Out, if you’ve been living under a rock.
I need to focus on what I have and enjoy the little things, like sitting around the campfire.
4. Practice Gratitude
Thanking God for all His many blessings is always appropriate. I can thank Him for the little wildflowers growing in the roadside ditch, just as I thank Him for the powerful rush of a mountain waterfall.
Practicing gratitude is one of the best ways to boost our enjoyment of life, whether we’re on vacation or smack dab in the middle of a challenging season at work or home.
5. Embrace the calm
I can choose to enjoy the quiet moments on vacation, like sitting in a camp chair and watching the sun slip below the horizon or sitting around the dinette in the camper and doing a puzzle with my daughter.
I need more relaxation in my vacation to truly experience restoration. Like many things in life, balance is the key. I can take an exhilarating hike AND spend a few hours reading or talking with someone I love.
Sometimes stillness is just what my soul craves.
How do you vacation?
Shoshone National Forest Little Jerusalem