Our Drive to Yellowstone (because the whole trip is too long)

    My family has gone on a lot of vacations across the country, but one thing my parents hate doing is flying on an airplane. With four children and a ton of luggage, it was chaotic and financially inefficient. For as long as I can remember, we would drive to wherever we were going: 12 hours to Florida, 8 hours to Tennessee, 10 hours to Atlanta, 12 hours to New York, 5 hours to Michigan, 10 hours to Toronto. Even though we have gone on all of these road trips, my parents have always wanted to take us on what is known as the "Great American Road Trip" to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park. To be honest, I didn't even know that it was called that until my dad continued to say it the entire trip so at this point it's engrained in my brain. My parents both grew up in immigrant families and this specific road trip was all the craze among the Korean families in America when they were younger. My parents never got to go themselves, so they have been wanting to take us for a while now. My mom said that she didn't take us when we were younger because she didn't think we could appreciate the beauty of nature...but I think it's because she didn't want to watch four elementary school children around hot geysers.

    With the pandemic causing all summer vacation plans to be up in the air, what a better time to go on a road trip to the middle of nowhere. One week, over 42 hours of driving, 8 states, 4 national parks, 7 Harry Potter audiobooks. The most jam-packed part of our trip was not even in Yellowstone itself, but the drive there. We started the trip with a long stretch over an entire day. We left early in the morning and drove through Iowa and most of South Dakota to a city called Sioux Falls. My dad tired from driving and us tired from sleeping didn't get much of a break before going straight to Falls Park, a park full of rocks and boulders surrounding the Big Sioux River and its infamous waterfalls. We spent the evening taking pictures and doing parkour. I was not thinking that we would be climbing so I was wearing slides. Turns out that was not a good idea and my feet hurt substantially afterward.

    The next day was another day-long drive, but this time we stopped every few hours or so to visit three extremely different national parks. First, was the Badlands National Park in southwest South Dakota, filled with canyons and pinnacles. As my brother put it: "The Grand Canyon, but hotter and with grass." This was our first hike of the trip and I'm sure it would be enjoyable if it was not for the 90-degree weather. The trail went over many mounds, along cliff edges, and even a rope ladder up the side of one of the canyon walls. One hour of complaining later, my parents realized that we have no more hiking energy so we spent the rest of the time there driving to different viewpoints. As a national park fanatic, my brother was the most excited, but not going to lie, the views were impressive coming from Illinois.

  

Mount Rushmore was the most anticlimactic landmark I have ever seen. I thought it would be like how it is in movies where you are right next to the rock carvings. No...it was a big sidewalk to an open area where you can look at the faces from what seemed like a mile away. What was even more disappointing was how crowded it was and how many people had the American flag on their clothes and were unmasked even though this was during the height of the pandemic. I don't think I've ever left a famous place so fast.

Our last national park visit before Yellowstone was Devil's Tower in Wyoming. I have never seen anything like it before. It was a wide flat-topped mountain that looked like there were "Mcdonald's french fries" surrounding the sides according to my youngest brother. I learned that day that this was the first national monument in the United States and it was probably made by volcanoes as its indigenous rock. We were planning to do a longer hike, but at this time of day, we are all drained from the heat, driving, and walking that we only went up a mile along the base of the mountain. 

On the drive to the hotel from the Devil's tower, my mom told my dad to pull over. "STOP THE CAR THERE IS A PRARIE DOG WALK!" I look over to my right and all I see is a prarie full of little mounds. My dad pulls over and we all get out of the car. My little brother and sister jump out of the car and run over to the thin trail excitedly looking for prarie dogs. My mom shushed us and told us to walk quietly so that they won't be scared. All of a sudden, we hear a high-pitched squeak that set of a chain of more high-pitched squeaks. A little prarie dog head popped out of the mound next to us and I took out my camera and started snapping. However, my brother took one step towards it and it popped back into the hole. After a few more times of this happening, we found a prarie dog that wouldn't run away and I was able to get a good picture of it.

Even though the drive to Yellowstone only took two days, I was able to see and do so much. Although not as exciting as a bustling city, spending time with family and being around the beauty of nature made me happy and I would do it again. I recommend seeing some of these places if you drive to Yellowstone too!