Destination: Yellowstone National Park

It’s been awhile since we’ve shared pictures from our Wanderlust Adventures this year, so I’m remedy-ing that right now!! One of the highlights of our summer was our 2 week adventure out West. We called it our Wild West Adventure. Super creative, right? But it. was. amazing.

We explored as many state capitals and national parks as we could. This trip is what started our goal to visit every state capitol building in the US! Lofty goal, definitely, but one that we can’t wait to chip away at!

Today we’re sharing a glimpse of our trip into Yellowstone National Park.

But first we’re taking a stop in Billings, Montana. Because coffee, of course! We wanted to explore the Montana scene and get our latte fix before we headed to a coffee-barren land. This turned out to be a noteworthy stop on our way into Yellowstone because we found a #jacoffeefavorites coffee shop for our #jacoffeeadventures collection at Ebon Coffee Collective! Yay!!! I wish I could transport this adorable natural-light filled coffee shop and bring it home with me! We seriously loved this place. I actually took this glass jar around with me for the entire rest of our trip (camping and plane flights included!). Every once in awhile, I’ll break it out and make my latte in it. There’s just something exciting about drinking your latte from a glass jar! :)

We were planning to cut across southern Montana toward Bozeman and drop down through the north entrance, but some locals told us that we really didn’t want to miss the Beartooth Highway.

And boy, were they right!

This was one of the most beautiful things we saw on our entire 2 week trip out West. And we saw some pretty amazing things.

We really did try to remember to take selfies during the trip! Thankfully, Joel has a built-in selfie stick. Yay for super long arms! ;)

We made it!! Can you tell how excited I am?! :)

We were greeted by our first buffalo of the trip!! It’s a little blurry because we couldn’t stop to take a real picture of it, but this is definitely part of the Yellowstone Experience!!

So many buffalo! Does anybody really know the difference between buffalo and bison? I grew up in South Dakota and should know the difference! I’m pretty sure these are bison, but buffalo sounds more romantic. So buffalo it is!

I also really, really love this picture. This brings back so many South Dakota vibes for me. The late afternoon golden light spilling onto the scene with a shimmering glow. The buffalo wandering across the plains. I’m pretty sure there were pictures like this hanging in people’s living rooms!

The first thing we did the next morning was stop by Yellowstone Lake. We wandered along its dark, sandy beaches and stared in awe at the mountains the jutted up and stood towering between the blue sky and the blue lake. It wasn’t me with the fishing pole, but I wish it was! I can’t imagine a more serene way to start your morning. The beauty and quietness of this scene is still a vivid picture in my mind!

To be honest, I don’t remember where we stumbled across this gorgeous stream! We did so much driving and walking that day that I wish I had kept a journal about each individual place we stopped! But this place was beautiful.

And no trip to Yellowstone would be complete without the iconic Old Faithful picture! We dutifully waited among hundreds of other people to get our picture of this classic geyser! :) Even though it was a lot smaller than we thought it would be, it’s super fun to put “See Old Faithful” on our Already Adventured list. I remember reading about Old Faithful in school when I was really little. There was a picture of it, right next to a picture of a buffalo. I remember thinking that Yellowstone and Wyoming sounded so very far away. It was a dream to go and see it someday!

This stuff is so pretty! I can’t get over the amazing colors! Everything was so steamy and stinky like sulfur, but it was worth it just to see these vivid colors. I really loved the contrast of bright blue against the dull, sandy soil.

And so we explored our first National Park of our Wild West Adventure! Next stop: Grand Teton National Park. Get excited. :0

Thanks for adventuring with us!

*hugs*

Amber