If your inner cowboy (or cowgirl) is just hankering to get out, I know the perfect place for you to mosey off to — northwestern Wyoming. From the always awesome Yellowstone National Park down to the cute towns of Cody, Greybull and Lovell, Wyoming offers plenty to visitors.
June is an ideal time to visit, and it's when the little town of Lovell holds its annual Wild Mustang Days, which includes a week-long celebration throughout the town. Experience a small town celebrating at its best by joining in on the pancake breakfasts, Follies at the Hobart Theater and a fun parade down Main Street. Of course, what would a western town be without a rodeo on Saturday evening?
From Lovell, it's an easy drive to the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area and a view that will knock your socks off. With the river down below and the wildflowers up above, there is no doubt you will capture plenty of "Kodak moments."
The Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area features beautiful wildflowers.
If you continue up 14A, the road gets both winding and steep, so I suggest you limit this scenic drive to your vehicle and not your RV. Way up 14A you can turn off to the Wyoming High Country Lodge, which is at about 8,000 feet elevation. They offer trail rides as well as lodging.
Within the city limits of Lovell, you will find both the National Park Service Visitor Center and the Pryor Mountain Mustang Center. Both are well worth a visit. The Park Service Center will tell you about what you can find within and around the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, including the breathtaking Devil's Canyon Overlook — prepare to ooh and ahh.
Devil's Canyon overlook offers breathtaking views.
The folks at the Mustang Center will tell you about the herd of wild mustangs roaming these hills. (Hint: Driving to the Devil's Canyon Overlook means you might have an opportunity to view the mustangs in their natural environment.) The Mustang Center can also share the schedule of guided tours up in the Pryor Range with mustang-spotting always on the agenda. Unfortunately, our tour was cancelled due to thunderstorms, so be prepared.
One of the main reasons we chose to stay at a wonderful campground in Greybull was that we could do a variety of things in and near Lovell or drive about 45 minutes to the "big" city of Cody and all it offers visitors. Driving another half hour or so past Cody, you will enter one of the earliest U.S. national parks — Yellowstone. Our campground was close to everything.
June and July are good months to visit this area because spring has newly arrived and babies are being born. But a word of caution: Bears are also coming out of hibernation. On our recent visit, park rangers were quite busy due to bear sightings and tourists not following park guidelines.
If you have never been to Yellowstone, be prepared to be awed. The vastness alone is unbelievable. Add in a mix of forests, wildflowers, vistas, waterfalls, geothermal activity almost everywhere and then animals of all shapes and sizes. We definitely experienced a case of sensory overload.
Be prepared to see plenty of wildlife, including bison, in Yellowstone.
Just like us, other park visitors were also catching a glimpse of wildlife — a sure sign is when the traffic in front of your RV comes to a halt. On our visit we saw bison everywhere. There were herds, pairs and single critters. But I can't stress enough: Stay inside your vehicles and take your pictures from a safe distance. This is not a zoo or a park.
Yellowstone has a great map visitors receive at each of the three entrances. There are quite a few campgrounds within the park — some with and without hookups. But if you want to just visit the park like we did, you can drive down one side or the other or drive the whole circle route.
