I started this trip cutting it dangerously close. I texted a friend from the jet bridge: "I'm not on my plane yet, but I'm on the jet bridge, so I should be good. Literally 3 minutes before the doors close." Boarded with maybe 90 seconds to spare.
A road trip through Wyoming and Montana with Yellowstone as the centerpiece. Started in Denver, drove up through Estes Park, into the Bighorn National Forest, across into Montana, and back south.
Yellowstone is the kind of place where 'I'll just see what's at the next pullout' becomes the entire schedule. Bison on the road, geysers on a timer, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, a thermal basin every few miles. One morning I hiked to a waterfall before sunrise, then drove towards Bozeman and stopped at a reservoir and hiked around it for two hours.
Driving the long highways out there does something to your sense of distance. "If I drove on that for 32 hours I would be in Boston." Towns where the only two things open were a bar on the road into town and a bar on the road out of it. Biggest US trip of 2025 by photo count.
River winding through Yellowstone
Geothermal pools at Yellowstone Lake
Steam vent near Yellowstone Lake
Geothermal trail