Golden, Colorado was our last stop on a fabulous family trip. Our itinerary was Wisconsin-South Dakota-Wyoming-Utah-Colorado, so we were ready for spending some leisure time with family. We have family that lives in Golden, so we were really happy our journeys brought us through for a visit. Most of our time was spent catching up, relaxing, and enjoying some amazing hospitality from our Uncle! The kids spent hours making a zipline in the backyard. We did take an adventure to see Jess' cousin who works for the ski resort in Keystone. The drive offers some amazing vistas. ​It was so fun to see him in his element at work and we were able to take a ride on a ski lift. We love our Colorado family and cherish every chance we can visit! 

​From 32 degrees and snowing in Yellowstone our trip continued on to Moab, Utah which was 108 degrees as we drove into town. Major weather change, but luckily we were prepared for it! That is one of the reasons why I love traveling with our camper, we have the space to be prepared for all weather! It was so scorching hot in Moab, that our camper air conditioner struggled to cool down to 80 degrees. Our Wisconsin blood is not used to this kind of heat so we did all of our sightseeing early in the mornings before the major heat of the day.

​Some of our Favorites

• Dan Micks Jeep Tours-Absolutely amazing experience!! This is something we still talk about to this day! This is a must do experience, you will not regret it! We loved the thrill of going on Hells Revenge and the Slick Rock. Our tour stopped on a cliff for a spectacular sunset. After enjoying some snacks and taking photos of the sunset we finished the tour in the dark. The entire tour, from start to finish, was a once in a lifetime experience! Highly recommended! 
• Arches National Park-SPECTACULAR!
  • My husband met someone at the pool who recommended a sunset hike up to Delicate Arch. It was the last night it would be allowed because of construction that was starting the next day. We instantly packed up our things and got prepared for hiking in the dark. We packed our backpacks and flashlights and headed out. It was such a last minute decision, that we didn't prepare for the distance of the hike. I quickly looked at the map (this was before I had All Trails downloaded) and thought I saw a one mile hike...well I was wrong. It ended up being a 3.4 mile hike, yikes. Needless to say, we did a little trail running to make sure we didn't miss sunset. I'm so proud of us for sticking with it because it definitely made for a memorable experience. 
  • Landscape Arch-we were told a story about how Delicate Arch and Landscape Arch got their names switched. I'm not sure if this is true, but it totally made sense to us since Landscape Arch looks very delicate and Delicate Arch has an amazing landscape background! 
• Canyonlands National Park ($30 entrance fee)-This park is huge. It is separated into 3 land districts. We didn't have a lot of time to explore this park, we only ventured to Island in the Sky. Our favorite hike was to Mesa Arch, it offered a breathtaking view. 
• Dead Horse Point State Park ($20 entrance fee)-This park is right next to Island in the Sky in Canyonlands National Park. There is an impressive view of the Colorado River with the background of Canyonlands National Park!
• The Moab Recreation and Aquatic Center-this is a great escape from the heat! It has an indoor pool with high dives and a waterslide. It also has an outdoor pool with a lazy river, splash pad, and bubble pool. This was perfect after a warm morning hiking and the price for our family was very reasonable and definitely worth every penny! 

​The beautiful Teton Mountains, here we come again! Yes, I said again. Jess and I drove out to Jackson Hole for our 5th year wedding anniversary. We had an awesome time and always said we’d go back and we are this time with the kids! On our first trip out, we stopped at Jenny Lake and hiked to hidden falls. The fresh bear scat on the trail was unnerving, but we were able to make it without running into wildlife. The hike was well worth the risk. The falls at the end were fabulous.  These were things we would love to do again when our kids get bigger, but we were unable to do these on this trip with the age of our kids. 

The Town Square
The town of Jackson Hole is a little tourist town that is very cute. The center of town is filled with arches of elk shed antlers which is collected when the elk come down in the valley.

The National Elk Refuge
The National Elk Refuge is a must visit! If you visit the right time of the year, you may get lucky and see the elk grazing in the fields. In the winter months they offer sleigh rides. 

Teton Village
In the Teton Village, we took a gondola ride up the mountain, and also were able to have a snow ball fight on top of the mountain when we took the Jackson Hole Tram.
           
Wildlife
Jackson Hole is also filled with lots of wildlife. This is where we saw our first moose. Our first sighting with the kids was a mother and two calves. We saw some vehicles pulled over on the side of the road and in someone’s yard, there they were! Our second sighting was a giant bull moose on a walking trail. Once again we saw a lot of cars pulled over and this time there was a ranger trying to keep people away. It surprises me how close people are willing to get to wild animals. Crazy what people will do to get a good picture! Always respect the wild animals! 

Teton National Park
Just stunning! There are so many hikes and tours you can take. We really enjoyed the Jenny Lake hike. There is an option to take the boat across the lake to shorten the hike to the waterfall. 

Snake River
Jess and I whitewater rafted down the Snake River. It was the first time for both of us to try this adventure. It was absolutely thrilling! We also hired a fishing guide and went trout fishing on the Snake River. We were able to catch and release a lot of trout and Jess was able to give fly fishing a try for the first time. 

Nearing Yellowstone, we were getting winter storm warnings on the radio. As we got closer the clouds were getting darker. Arriving at the gates on the eastside of Yellowstone, it was 32 degrees and the snowing. Being from Wisconsin, were weren’t nervous of driving in snow, however the twisty turning roads in the mountains of Yellowstone was a bit alarming. We were watching the temperature closely and driving at a safe speed as we had 20 more miles before we arrived at our campground. My husband, with white knuckles, was able to safely get us to our campground. I'm so thankful my husband is willing to do all this driving even when the weather doesn't cooperate. Although, it was a stressful arrival, this trip was an incredible!

We took one day and did the north loop and then another day to do the south. You need at least a day for each loop. There are so many stops and so much to see in Yellowstone. The wildlife was one of our highlights. We would call them buffalo jams, you’d be driving and then all the cars would be at a stand still or pulled over to the side of the road. That usually meant there was wildlife near. We saw bears and their cubs, bison, elk, fox, goats, deer, and antelope.

South Loop Highlights-There are so many more stops along the way, but these were our favorites!

• Old Faithful-check out Old Faithfuls eruption times to plan your stop 
• West Thumb Geyser Basin
• Midway Geyser Basin
• Grand Canyon of Yellowstone Upper and Lower Falls-this is one of our favorite stops, definitely don't skip it!
• Yellowstone Lake

North Loop Highlights

• Grand Canyon of Yellowstone-I put this on the South Loop as well because it is in the middle of the loops. You could make it a stop either day.
• Mammoth Hot Springs
• Mount Washburn
• Wildlife-this was where we saw a lot of wildlife, including a mama black bear and cubs (from a distance), a red fox decided to walk right past us while we stopped picnic lunch, elk, deer, goats, antelope, and lots of bison. 

Camping
Rafter J Bar Ranch was the perfect campground for our family. The campsites were spacious and private. There was a big pool, playground, and lots of open space to play. It was not too far from our excursions as well. We stayed for three nights and wish we had more time. We will definitely be back to this campground! During our stay, we enjoyed visiting Mount Rushmore, Badlands, Custer State Park, and gold mining. 
Mount Rushmore-has a nice little trail you can walk to get away from the crowds. We went during the day, but someday would like to see it at night when it is all lit up. 
Badlands National Park-was like walking into a different planet. The land formations were like nothing we have ever seen. It was really neat to see some wildlife as well. 
Gold Mining-Wades Gold Mine was a hit with the kids. Although we didn't leave with pockets full of gold, we had a great time trying our hand at mining. The instructor was kind and patient with us. We were the only family there so they really spent time with us working on technique. We even put our feet in the freezing cold stream to get the real experience! 
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There are a few sites that we would like to see next time if we are ever in the area. The first is Needles Highway. We tried to take this ride, however, when we were next in line we were informed that the road was blocked. Apparently a truck and trailer got jammed in one of the tunnels. Unfortunately for us we were not able to wait for the jam to be cleared and had to put that off for next time. Custer State Park looked like a great place to camp, it was filled with wildlife and we'd love to stay there someday. Other places in the area that we'd like to explore are Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave.