We took an epic road trip through the American West in May/June – just Ally, Doug, Lacey and Tony in a Ford Escape.
15 days, 13 states, 9 National Parks, national forests, visits with friends in multiple cities, 3 homes of United States presidents…. whew. It was AWESOME.
Ally doesn’t always bring her camera on our trips but she did on this one and took some landscape photos – a change of pace for her with the greatest outdoor subjects imaginable! America’s National Parks!
Landscape Photos In the National Parks Of The American West!
Now keep in mind she didn’t document the entire trip – we highly recommend you check out the companion piece to this post at Doug’s History blog at his M10 Social website for the entire story, tons of commentary, videos, tips and recommendations for your own roadtrip (you should definitely do it). Doug is a very good amateur iPhoneographer and we did a lot of hiking on this trip and Ally wasn’t about to take her bulky camera on strenuous hikes. But the photos Ally did take? Well….
Prairie Dogs at Badlands National Park
How awesome are those Prairie Dogs????? Roberts Prairie Dog Town at Badlands National Park is amazing. There are prairie dogs in several different locations at the Badlands but this one area is the “town” where you can just sit and watch them for as long as you like. It’s a totally natural habitat – just because they call it a “town” doesn’t mean they have an exhibit like at the zoo or anything – this is the real deal. And it’s not like you have to get lucky to see them – there are tons of them although you definitely have to get extremely lucky to get THREE of them to POSE like this crew, and Ally did! She just has that touch lol….
Here’s another photo from the Badlands…
Badlands National Park
Here’s a view of Mt. Rushmore.
Mt. Rushmore
The next several photos are from Yellowstone National Park with its wondrous thermal basins and wildlife…
Yellowstone National Park
Bison at Yellowstone
We saw bison everywhere at both Badlands and Yellowstone!
A furry friend at Yellowstone National Park
Obviously seeing a chipmunk isn’t unique to National Parks but we couldn’t resist this little furball having a snack.
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone Lake is really spectacular and we came across this elk hanging out too…
Yellowstone National Park
Love that photo.
Last one from Yellowstone – the Grand Prismatic Spring!
Yellowstone National Park
Here are a couple from the next day at Grand Teton National Park which borders Yellowstone to the South.
Grand Teton National Park
Such a majestic place….
Grand Teton National Park
Here’s one from the south rim of the Grand Canyon (the north rim opened just a few days after we were there).
Grand Canyon National Park
We also made a stop at Horseshoe Bend later on the same day we hit the Grand Canyon:
Horseshoe Bend
The next several photos we’ll leave you with are from 4 of the “Utah Mighty Five” but we did indeed get to all five of them!
Bryce Canyon National Park
Bryce Canyon National Park
Capitol Reef National Park
Arches National Park
Arches National Park
Arches National Park
A trip of a lifetime and we cannot wait to get back out there….
We hope you enjoyed these highlights from out west!