OK, this is a big country with some very empty spaces. We drove north on Route 40, then to Route 125, to Route 230, to Route 130, West on I-80, then northwest on Route 287 to Route 26 to Yellowstone National Park.
In this part of Colorado and Wyoming, your nearest neighbor may be 20 miles away. Here is what that looks like:
The wind blows the bubbles for you out here! 
No need for a fancy rest stop- just pull way over 
Wyoming
We stopped for gas as we hit Route 80 in Wyoming. Always get gas when you are out West. Never get below a half a tank, because you can go 200 miles easy before the next one. That’s driving distance from Boston to NY, but out here, that’s driving distance from nowhere to nowhere.
Let me tell you a little story about Jeffrey City and Google Maps. I mentioned that Google Maps is great, because you can zoom in and see how many roads a place has. However, it can be misleading, as is the case with Jeffrey City. We had gas, but were looking for a comfort stop, and JC looked big enough to accomodate us. Check out The Google Maps graphic:
Jeffrey City was a prosperous uranium mining town starting in 1957. By the 70s, Western Nuclear had built a company town that was home to over 4,000 people. It had shops, churches, a clinic, a library, and schools (including a large high school with an Olympic-sized pool).
However, after the partial meltdown of a reactor at Three Mile Island, America lost its appetite for uranium, the market crashed, and the mine closed. With the mine closed, workers left; with the workers gone, the service industry left. Today, Jeffrey City is a ghost town with a population of 58. There is a church, a bar, (to serve nearby ranchers) and a pottery studio. There is an elementary school with one teacher and one student.
Trophy case in the unused school lobby 
We knew none of this at the time. We rolled in expecting to find a gas, station, maybe a coffee shop, or a convenience store, but we only saw empty buildings. We stopped at the main It is quiet. We stopped in the middle of the road where Route 287 met Crooks Gap Road and got out. We stood in the middle of the road and couldn’t hear a human noise. It was spooky and post-apocalyptic.
Since we still had gas, we peed where we stood and kept on going.
MY son had seemed under the weather, and suddenly felt carsick. That’s never happened before, so we stopped by a beautiful bluff overlooking the Wind River and he tossed his lunch. Poor kid had a fever, too. We hoped that it would pass, but knew we had to watch this.
That evening, we rolled into Dubois, WY (“pronounced like ‘cowboys'”) where we had a reservation at the Stagecoach Inn (our first actual reservation since Niagara Falls). Dubois is a tourist town with a lot to do, and is the southern gateway to Grant Teton NP and Yellowstone NP. Lovely little town, but we would not be staying long.
Into the Parks
When the sun came up, our son was feeling better, so we ate breakfast and rolled towards the parks. We had a reservation to make at the Days Inn in West Yellowstone. Not the cheapest (nothing is there) but it has an indoor water slide that I know would be a hit.
Did you know that Grand Teton NP is the southern border for Yellowstone NP? An embarrassment of riches! In one day, we got to drive through two of the premier parks in the US.
Even the road up to Grand Tetons NP is amazing. We turned onto a side road that led through a meadow toward a prominent bluff of granite peaks that would be a tourist attraction anywhere else. The sign said it led to a lake, but after a few miles we turned around.
As GTNP comes into view, it is hard to believe what I was seeing. It looks like the Swiss Alps.
Also, have you ever heard of the “Every Kid in Park” pass? This awesome program was started in 2015 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. Any family with a fourth grader (or the homeschool equivalent) can get a free pass to the national parks. We drove through Grant Tetons and Yellowstone, waved this pass, and saved $70!
We drove through GTNP and past Jackson Lake. I wish we could have stopped, but reservations in West Yellowstone were hard to get, and I didn’t want to miss it. We would have plenty of days to camp in the Parks.
Entering Yellowstone gave me a bit of a shiver- it is such a well-know place, and I could not believe that we were finally here! Today, we would drive in through the south, turn west to West Yellowstone, spend the night there, and them come back into the park to camp (if we were lucky enough to get a tentsite).
Here are some photos from our first swing through Yellowstone National Park (YNP).
Got to see Old Faithful!
We rolled into the Yellowstone Vistors Center, but my son was sleeping and did not want to get out. Bad sign. My daughter and I poked around for a few, bought some trinkets, and got back to the van. Our son has a fever, so we headed to the hotel.
Sickness
When we got to the hotel in West Yellowstone, my wife and son went to the hotel room and my daughter and I went to the cramped and crowded supermarket. We dropped our goods, and I brought my daughter to the pool. I went back to the hotel room to find that my son was having trouble breathing. Luckily, we were only one hours away from Big Sky Medical Center, so I packed him up and took off, while my wife and daughter stayed at the hotel.
The staff at Big Sky were superlative. They made him calm and asked me all the right questions. They gave him IV fluids and took a blood sample to see what they were dealing with. Turns out that Big Guy had bacterial pneumonia. He got both IV and oral antibiotics, a ton of fluids, and we spent the night in the hospital. my son loved the nurses, and they loved him back. My phone was almost dead, and my charger was at the hotel. My wife’s phone was almost dead, and here charger was in the van. We made very short calls with our 2% or power to keep each other updated and spent a fitful night apart.
The next morning, he was SO much better! We were cheerfully reunited with girls at the Day Inn, and had a good breakfast. We spent another night in Days Inn to rest and recover.
Glacier National Park lay ahead of us on the road, but this was a clear call that it was time to go home. We drove east into YNP, then headed north to the highway. On the way, we stopped to see elk in the river:
We had to drive right past the Geyser Basin, and he felt up to the trip. Parking in July can be tight, but we got lucky.
After that, we saddled up and headed out the park’s North Entrance and into Montana. This is a gorgeous road that takes you across the 45th Parallel.
But the most amazing thing, and one we still talk about today, is the place we stopped by on the way out:
The Boiling River of the Yellowstone
This is a lovely spot where superheated water overflowing from the geysers enters the chilly Gardner River. Near the shores, it is too hot to touch, near the center, it is numbingly cold; but there is thermocline in the middle, a sweet spot where it is a lovely warm bath. This was the best part for us. First, our son felt better. Next, it got us away from the van and down an achingly beautiful, short, easy trail.
But mostly it was the wild experience of it, and the amazing contrast between the two waters.
From here, we got a good dinner in Billings and turned relentlessly east.
Our National Park takeaways:
- It would have been better without the pneumonia.
- Yellowstone is crowded near the roads, but it is the size of Rhode Island. In order to see it, we would have needed to hike and even better, to camp.
- There will be buses of tourists from around the world, being shuffled through “The experience.” Get away from them and hike if you want The Experience.
- Old Faithful is less impressive than a lot of water fountains I have seen. Sorry, but it’s true. We’re jaded, sue me.
- Old Faithful LODGE is jawdropping.
- Grand Tetons is much grander than Yellowstone.
- West Yellowstone is a tourist trap, but in a good way. Go for the Bear and Wolf Discovery Center, but not for gear and supplies.