7 States + 6 National Parks in 6 Days

Took Duckie and my daughter on a tour of Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota before returning home to Wisconsin. The first 8 pictures were taken near the northern Nebraska cattle ranch of Ted Turner, this one being about 52,000 acres. The next 3 are around Wall Drug. Pictures 12-15 Were taken near Crazyhorse. Pictures 17-18 are our trip on the needle’s highway. Picture 19 is Mount Rushmore and 20 is Mount Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood. Pictures 21-22 are around Sturgis, and 23-24 are taken at sunset at Devils Tower. 25 is Custer’s last stand at Little Bighorn. 26-38 were our ascent up the Beartooth Highway through beartooth pass into Yellowstone National Park, and it was here that my 2022 JL turned over 30,000 miles. We saw bison, foxes, grizzlies and a few nice beavers. Pictures 39-50 were taken on the going to the sun road in Glacier National park. To travel this you will need a 3-day vehicle registration which is only $2. The problem is that they are very limited in quantity and will sell out within 5 minutes, so you need to get to their website the morning before at 8 am exactly to have a chance to get one. We also had the national Park annual pass, which cost us $90, so that we wouldn’t need to pay $35 at each one of the national parks to get in. I highly recommend this. The final picture, number 51, is taken right outside of Theodore Roosevelt National park in North Dakota. This state is every bit as exciting as the photo would seem to indicate. Hope you enjoy!

Nice trip! I know those places. It was nice to see them again. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

?? great pics!!

? at including the requisite “What MPGs did you get!?”pic.

This looks amazing!

Whoop whoop. How many trails did you do? How many Jeep Badges of Honor did you get? Looks like you just want to show off your ducks you have collected.

Bear Tooth Pass has some amazing views. Never saw any bears back when I went in 2002, but saw plenty of signs warning about them! Glad you were able to get that in as part of your journey ?

Crazy, you drive way too much and too fast. I was at Yellowstone for a whole week.

HK1s said:

Crazy, you drive way too much and too fast. I was at Yellowstone for a whole week.

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A whole week ain’t nearly long enough in Yellowstone.

What engine are you running to get 29mpg????

Looks like a great trip! Some of those places are in my backyard! If you’re ever in the area again, I recommend adding Iron Mountain Road and Badlands National Park.

John Benoit said:

Whoop whoop. How many trails did you do? How many Jeep Badges of Honor did you get? Looks like you just want to show off your ducks you have collected.

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My daughter is very much into the ducks thing; her nickname is "Ducky" and has been since before she was born, and that's why I named the Jeep Ducky. I didn't get any official badges, but went off road between Custer state park (Needles highway) and the Badlands to the East of there. Went off road (actually almost mudding) on that Nebraska ranch, and short off-road paths near bear tooth pass. Overall I was really happy with the Jeep's performance, but the Michelin tires, though certainly adequate for the task, are no KO2's or Falken Wildpeak AT3's. One of those two will be my next tire option when it's time to replace them. I will say that if off roading isn't really a big deal for some drivers, and they mostly do highway miles, these stock Michelin tires really are the way to go.

HK1s said:

Crazy, you drive way too much and too fast. I was at Yellowstone for a whole week.

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Guilty as charged. My daughter had a blast. We could have stayed longer at Yellowstone and did more, but I was on a more limited budget, and we did all of this in the 10 days I had off from work. Most of the mileage I am putting on is to and from work, as my daily commute is near 100 miles, round trip.

KCSgtMaj said:

A whole week ain’t nearly long enough in Yellowstone.

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True, but we only had 10 days total to see what we did see, and I had a somewhat limited budget. I actually let my daughter pick the destination for this vacation, and she loved it. Our next trip will have a much larger budget and time window.

bcupton said:

What engine are you running to get 29mpg????

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The 3.0 liter ecodiesel. I really love this engine! I wish that the newer models still had it as an option. On my work commute I can push it to 34-36 mpg on flatter terrain. I get 29 mpg in town, or apparently on bear tooth pass, lol.

Very nice! A couple of years ago I hiked around Devils Tower twice, both the inner and outer trails.

That annual pass certainly paid off in your case. Note that Veterans, disabled people and old geezers can purchase lifetime passes at no or little cost. There was no cost for my veterans pass, but they do charge about $10 as a processing fee if purchasing by mail or internet.