Category: National Park

Summer 2017 - California, Oregon, and Washington

1/5/2018

May - August 2017

Map of MOTM Summer 2017 travel through California Oregon and Washington

Our summer was jam-packed with new places. We hit 7 National Parks and 1 National Monument over three states. While they were not new states—we’d hit them all coming south the previous fall—we hit new regions of these states with only minor overlap.

From Lake Isabella in May, we put on about 2,000 miles in about 3 months, with the longest stay in any one place being 2 weeks in Lake Tahoe, and then about 3 weeks on Whidbey Island when we reached our northern terminus.

This was an incredible summer with lots of activities, beautiful sights, and good people. Here are some of the highlights!

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Joshua Tree National Park

8/28/2017

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Travel Stage: After Sedona, before San Diego area
Date Range: February 24 – March 1, 2017
Summary: We boondock just outside of the south entrance to Joshua Tree National Park. From here we explore the park and rendezvous with our good RVing friends the Stampers again!

Interestingly, Joshua Tree National Park was going to be called Desert Plants National Park. While maybe not as “fun” of a name, we learned during our time here that the latter would have been a very fitting name for the number of interesting desert plants we did find here. But it was the widely publicized and popular U2 album “Joshua Tree” that help decide the park's name.

Mortons on the Move go to Joshua Tree National Park and boondock at the south entrance

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Glacier National Park

11/27/2016

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Travel Stage: After Yellowstone, before heading to Washington
Date Range: August 22 - 28, 2016
Summary: Exploring Glacier National Park: Going-to-the-Sun Road, Logan Pass, Hidden Lake, Highline Trail, St. Mary's Falls, Grinnell Glacier, and lots of amazing mountains!

Our Summer 2016 route was largely dictated by 4 National Park visits: Theodore Roosevelt, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier National Parks. We were on to the 4th of the four, and based on our fabulous experiences at the other three coupled with our western Montana travels so far, we were very excited to visit Glacier National Park!

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Yellowstone National Park - West & Overall

11/18/2016

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Travel Stage: After Idaho Falls, before heading north towards Glacier National Park
Date Range: August 10 - 12, 2016
Summary: West Yellowstone, Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic Spring, Great Fountain Geyser, Mammoth Hot Springs, Norris Geyser Basin, Paint Pots, and then we share our thoughts on the most popular National Park overall.

After our first visit to Yellowstone Park a few weeks earlier, we realized the park was so big that it made more sense to break our visit up into two separate visits. We originally entered from the East Entrance, exited through the South Entrance to Grand Teton National Park, looped around through Idaho Falls, and then found ourselves in West Yellowstone ready to hit the attractions we didn’t see the first time.

mortons on the move, map, yellowstone, grand teton, idaho falls, loop, how to do yellowstone and grand teton

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Grand Teton National Park

10/11/2016

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Travel Stage: Entered from the North via Yellowstone National Park
Date Range: July 24-30, 2016
Summary: We spend a week in Grand Teton National Park!

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Yellowstone National Park - East

10/7/2016

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Travel Stage: Entered the Park via Cody, WY
Date Range: July 21-24, 2016
Summary: We finally made it to Yellowstone! We explore the east side of the park, including Mud Volcano, the Grand Canyon, West Thumb Geyser Basin, and more.

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Grizzly Bears of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

9/13/2016

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While staying in Cody, Wyoming prior to visiting Yellowstone from the East Entrance, we had the opportunity to attend a free Public Talk at the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum. The talk was given by Dan Tyers, the Forest Service GYE Grizzly Bear Management Coordinator for the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, about the Grizzly Bear Management Program in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Before I explain what that means and what the study team does, we have to go back in time a bit.

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Getting to Yellowstone - Which Entrance Should I Take?

9/10/2016

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Travel Stage: In Billings, MT on way to Yellowstone
Date Range: July 19-20, 2016
Summary: From Billings we have to decide how we are to enter Yellowstone National Park.

There are 5 entrances to Yellowstone National Park:

North Entrance – thru Gardiner, Montana. Original entrance to the park, has the Roosevelt Arch entryway
Northeast Entrance – thru the Beartooth Mountains
East Entrance – thru Cody, Wyoming
South Entrance – thru Grand Teton National Park via the John Rockfeller Memorial Highway
West Entrance – thru the town of West Yellowstone

Now before actually getting out here and studying the lay of the land, we hadn’t fully grasped how HUGE Yellowstone was. It’s larger than the state of Rhode Island! On top of that, how far apart all the roads to the different entrances were.

Rhode Island vs. Yellowstone National Park

And each entrance takes you through completely different terrain with different views. Once into the park, each entrance gets you closer to different attractions. So how do you decide?

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Why You Should Go To Theodore Roosevelt National Park

8/31/2016

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Travel Stage: First major stop out west
Date Range: July 14-17, 2016
Summary: We camp at Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s North Unit and get our first taste of the Badlands, bison, and the beauty of the west.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park is located in the badlands of western North Dakota. It is made up of 3 geographically separated parcels: the North Unit, the South Unit, and the Elkhorn Ranch Unit to total 70,446 acres. All three units are surrounded by the Little Missouri National Grassland, which is the largest grassland in the country at 1,033,271 acres.

Map of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Unit, South Unit, Elkhorn Ranch, Little Missouri National Grasslands, North Dakota

Theodore Roosevelt started coming out to the North Dakota badlands long before he was president. This area was special to him, and he even tried his own hand at ranching here. The Elkhorn Ranch Unit was the site of his personal ranch. He loved this area and credits it with shaping him into the man and president he was, as well as inspiring his work with the National Parks and conservation.

Mortons on the move, north dakota, badlands

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THE Travel BLOG

Summer 2017 - California, Oregon, and Washington

May - August 2017

Joshua Tree National Park

Glacier National Park

Yellowstone National Park - West & Overall

Grand Teton National Park

Yellowstone National Park - East

Grizzly Bears of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

Getting to Yellowstone - Which Entrance Should I Take?

Why You Should Go To Theodore Roosevelt National Park

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