From June 12th through the 26th my beautiful wife and I took a huge trip out west to take a look at our national parks. Our trip on an Amtrak train started in East Lansing, Michigan and traveled to Chicago, then we took another Amtrak train from Chicago to Flagstaff, Arizona. A 36 hour long train ride that would get us to a car that we rented which would eventually clock well over 2,000 miles North to Montana and back down to Arizona. All along the way we would constantly experience incredible scenery. This would be a great opportunity to practice my landscape photography skills. The trip did not disappoint.

After spending a night in the Hotel Monte Vista, we picked up our INCREDIBLY under powered Toyota Camry, packed it full with heavy camping equipment and set off to the nearest breakfast place. I got the pancakes with eggs and potatoes and Emily got an omelette. Anyway, right after breakfast we took off for the great north west.

First stop was a campsite at Pink Coral Sand Dune State Park in Utah. An incredible place that the sand is literally pink in color due to the degrading mountains surrounding the area. There were plenty of things to do including ATV tours and sand boarding. There were very few times that we needed our blankets due to a heatwave that decided to visit us on this trip. The next day were were headed to Bear Lake State Park.

Bear Lake State Park in Utah. A lake on top of a bunch of mountains, it had incredibly clear water and nice people. There were a bunch of campsites around the lake and it took the better half of the afternoon finding the proper one. However, once we settled in I found a nice spot to take a sunset photo. I don’t know what it is about my ears that bugs like, but I was satisfied with the image I got. A Few dozen mosquito bites and a home made bean dip for dinner, we were off to sleep.

The next morning, we went to find some coffee that ended up being way too sweet and an egg sandwich that contained very little substance. Before we knew it, we were off to Yellowstone National Park. After a full day of driving we found our campsite that rested just outside of Yellowstone, on the southern border of Montana. When we were entering our first national park I underestimated just how crowded the park was and how much driving there was to be done. Driving a tiny four cylinder engine car up thousands of feet of mountains is something everyone should not experience. The park alone was amazing. Although the heat drove much of the wildlife into the forests, we were able to see Bison, elk, a black bear and wolves. Yellowstone might be the smelliest park I’ve ever been to, but the geysers were awesome to observe and there were many other things to see including Yellowstone Lake and streams so clear you could see right to the bottom and the sky reflecting off the surface. We ended up spending 2.5 days at Yellowstone.

Grand Teton had the best scenery in my opinion. Emily and I took a 4 hour hike up and down one of the mountains to see Hidden Falls. It was cool to see this large waterfall hidden in the corner of a mountain pass.

On the way back to Flagstaff, Emily and I visited the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. A very impressive amount of wilderness, the hike involved walking on a very narrow pathway out onto a small lookout while people were walking by you on the way back out.

Overall, this was a really great trip and Emily agrees with me that we both did not want to leave. Two weeks of camping with a total of four days on a train was a lot to deal with, it was a great way to spend the majority of the month of June.