Drives, bikes, hikes...and a cold plunge?! Summer to Remember 2023

From Memorial Day through Labor Day, we set out to complete 20 summer goals in order to keep excitement and adventure at the forefront of our season. Some goals were easy to check off, while others met some adversity, usually in the form of hot weather. A few of our goals turned out to be more like quests. We're lucky to have ample opportunities for making fantastic memories, such as having multiple campsites with a view and getting to see some very cute wildlife. When we designated goals of scenic drives and bike rides, we weren't exactly harboring the foresight that, in our life of travel, even a random drive day can turn into one of the most epic scenic drives we've ever had. Even a short ebike ride could be a story we're telling for years to come.

One goal we knew would be a quest, however, was hiking 100 miles in 3 months. It sounded easy; we'd need to cover just over a mile a day. Time got away from us, though, when we went weeks without being able to step outside for more than 15 minutes without feeling the effects of the heat. Accomplishing 100 miles turned into our most arduous task on the list.

Lastly, we had the goal to "try something new," with no actual idea of what that would entail. These goals are fun because they inspire us to get outside our comfort zone when the opportunity arises. It wasn't quite a quest, per se, but we were able to check off a few new adventures, which we're really proud of.

Because these goals turned out to be more in-depth than some of the others we recapped in the last post, we needed to share them in their own post, to give them the attention they deserve. So let's dive right in!

...Literally!

Try something new:

Our last stop in Montana brought us to the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park. We weren't initially going to venture in that direction, but we wanted to visit as much of that massive national park as possible. We put ourselves on a notification list for a campsite inside the park boundaries, but nothing opened up. Instead, we booked a site at Yellowstone Hot Springs and decided to have a unique experience. We had a beautiful water and electric site right by the Yellowstone River, and across the street, a lovely little hot spring-fed spa. One morning, we headed over for a soak.

We've been to hot springs and similar "soaking" experiences before, but this one was special. We noticed that everyone took the holistic aspect very seriously. Even children seemed eager to understand that these pools are not just fun swimming areas. There is more to them.

Fed by the naturally heated mineral waters from the Yellowstone caldera, the hot springs have three pools: the main pool, heated to 102ºF, the hot pool, heated to 104ºF, and the cold plunge pool, kept at a brisk 60-65ºF. All of these temperatures are average, with the actual temperatures falling in a range and being monitored by staff. The water is free-flowing through these pools, meaning that the fresh mineral water is constantly getting replenished.

You're more than welcome to go and enjoy a dip or lounge by the main pool. However, the vast majority of the visitors were testing out various versions of the Kneipp walk. This is a form of water therapy where you alternate submerging yourself in waters of various temperatures. It's supposed to aid in vascular health and also provide relaxing benefits. The hot springs had a sign with the steps of a classic Kneipp walk, and the hot pool also listed some variations. Our fellow soakers convinced us to give it a go, and we seldom shy away from forms of holistic healing. Only, I have Raynaud's Disease, which affects the circulation to my extremities. I wasn't sure if a Kneipp walk would be terrible for me, or if I could use a bit of vascular training.

We opted for the classic walk, which included approximately 5 minutes of hot soak, followed by about 7 walks back and forth in the foot pools, which have one row of cold water and one of warm, and then a quick plunge in the cold pool. This allows for just enough shock to stimulate the system, cushioned by the walking portion that gives just enough temperature variation to start adjusting your body before total immersion in the next pool.

Never in a million years would I have ever thought I'd voluntarily take a cold plunge, but we did several rounds of our Kneipp walk, and I have to say, it felt fantastic! My hands ended up swelling a tad, but no more than they do on a normal day when I go from one extreme temperature to another. As for lasting benefits? Perhaps if I was able to take consistent Kneipp walks, my circulation would improve. If not, then there's still the relaxation factor!

The Kneipp walk wasn't the only new adventure we had this summer. My two big birthday purchases to enhance my life of camping were my floaty and a new, elevated tent. The tent would mostly be used as extra space on nice days, but I felt like I needed to really get a feel for it. So, on our first night at Lolo National Forest, I decided to spend the night in the tent. It wasn't pleasant, mainly because I didn't have all the proper gear, but it did help me get an idea of what to buy. Since then, I've purchased a better sleeping pad, a sleeping bag, and a large sherpa-lined camping blanket. Nothing too extreme since I don't plan on sleeping in the tent in below-freezing temperatures, but I feel like I earned a few camping stripes by slumming it without my usual RV luxuries.

We also attended our first rodeo this summer, in West Yellowstone on the 4th of July! Not only was that a fun check off the "try something new" box, but we also felt like it was an American rite of passage.

Scenic bike ride:

The obvious check mark on this goal was our East Glacier ebike ride, where we biked Going to the Sun Road as far as we could from the St. Mary entrance. We had also ebiked from the West side, but this was before Memorial Day Weekend, so it didn't count towards our Summer to Remember. We found the east side more scenic, even though we weren't able to go as far due to some of the road still being closed for the early part of the season. We drove from St. Mary to Jackson Glacier Overlook and then biked as far as we could, which was to Lunch Creek.

A much less expected scenic bike ride happened when we were at Medicine Lodge State Archeological Site. Our campsite was located right at the end of the back campground loop, and the road leading through the campground became an OHV trail. We thought it would be fun to explore on our ebikes, and it was...except we definitely bit off more than we could chew, with the rocks, ruts, mud, and streams. Now we affectionately call it our riparian outback ride. Safe to say we built some cycling skills that day, but we got to see some beautiful views too.

Take a scenic drive:

What actually constitutes a scenic drive when this whole area of the United States has breathtaking scenery at every turn? At first we thought that we would only count drives that were specifically designated as such, and that we planned to do as our main adventure. Typically on scenic drives, there are places to pull off and explore, but this is optional. The designation also becomes a bit muddled when we pull off for actual hikes or other excursions. Still, we see some drives as specifically "scenic" more than others. These types of drives would include:

Yellowstone's Grand Loop from Mammoth Springs to Artist's Point

The Mesa Falls Scenic Byway:

And our soon-to-be-told stories of our scenic drives on Iron Mountain Road and the Custer State Park Wildlife Loop in South Dakota's Black Hills:

But, just because we don't specifically set out for a scenic drive, doesn't mean the drive doesn't become one. We noticed this on our way to several of our other adventures. We just happened to take scenic routes to get there.

Like Highway 49 from East Glacier to the town of Kiowa. We took this road on our way to bike Going to the Sun Road from the east. It passes Two Medicine Lake and River, winds around curves with gorgeous views of the hills, and has picture-perfect pullouts.

Then there's Needles Highway in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It's a famous scenic drive - probably the most coveted of the big three: Iron Mountain Road, Wildlife Loop Road, and Needles Highway. We had planned to drive it the whole way through as a scenic drive, taking our time to pull off at the different overlooks, but we instead chose a hike whose trail begins on the highway. We decided to check off two astoundingly beautiful adventures at once. We'll talk more about Needles Highway in our Black Hills and Beyond series, but it's clear from the photos that this drive is extraordinary.

Sometimes, the scenic drives happen simply due to our life as full-time travelers. We had some outstanding travel days this summer, and we could probably list several as being scenic drives in themselves, but two stand out.

Teton Pass was our scariest road to tow over to date, but if we looked past the signs for 10% grades and overcame our fears of Clyde not being strong enough to haul Buggy over the mountains, we saw some incredible views.

But the real MVP for travel days was when we fled our dispersed camping site in Bridger-Teton National Forest and made our way over to Cody, WY. We traveled through Grand Teton, Yellowstone along the coast of Yellowstone Lake, and Shoshone National Forest. These are the drives that remind us why we RV. We literally hauled our home through these beautiful places.

US Route 191 through Grand Teton and Yellowstone, to US Route 20 past West Thumb and Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone East Entrance and Shoshone National Forest:

They say life is a highway, and ours sure has been a beauty so far.

100 miles of hiking (not all at once):

When we set out to hike 100 miles over the 3 months of summer, we had this idea that we'd have gorgeous weather and we'd hit the trails with the highest level of spiritedness. That's not what happened, and we had some weeks that were so hot, I couldn't even take my morning campground walk, let alone go for an actual hike. That's the kicker here. We had stipulations for our 100 miles:

1. They had to be on actual hiking trails or nature paths
2. We both had to be there

We expected to start strong, soaking in Glacier National Park hikes right after Memorial Day. Instead, Glacier soaked us. We had several days of rain that made it unsafe for us to do some of the hikes we wanted. Still, we put a dent in our miles with Rocky Point, Trail of the Cedars, Apgar Lookout, and St. Mary Falls (where I also put a dent in my leg and hand).

Of course we can't show all our hikes. 100 miles is far, man! But we did notice something important as we tackled our quest. We tended to hype up the big hikes - the ones where we had to pack our bags and actually go somewhere. Like these ones:

Grand Prismatic Overlook and Fairy Falls in Yellowstone:

Jenny Lake, Inspiration Point, Hidden Falls, and String Lake in Grand Teton:

Lake Louise, Whiskey Basin in Shoshone National Forest:

Tower Trail, Red Beds, and Joyner Ridge at Devils Tower:

This caused us to think of the more accessible hikes as less grand or important, but that's simply not true. We live in campgrounds, and so that means sometimes we will have trails just steps from our rig, and these can be wonderful too. Other people probably do pack bags and drive a reasonable distance to get to those same trails! Also, we sold our house because we had no choice but to pack our bags and drive to hikes. Are we really that jaded already that we'd start seeing campground hikes as inferior? No way. These trails might not be Grand Prismatic level, but we had some gorgeous scenery. They also sure helped us with our 100 mile goal.

As we made our way through Wyoming, we stayed at a lot of state parks that didn't have trails nearby. Either the state park simply didn't have any, or they were really far away because the park was so big. In the hot Wyoming heat, we couldn't take the time to drive many places and then do a sizeable hike because it would already be sweltering by the time we got there. This is why we were so thankful for campgrounds like Medicine Lodge Archaeological Site, where we had hiking trails directly from our site and could piece together even just a half-mile or mile each day. Then we also had the Deer Path, which gave us an opportunity to add on a little more distance. It wasn't anything that was going to jump us up towards our goal, but every little bit helped, especially after weeks of barely hitting any trails. Except T Hill in Thermopolis, in the desert sun. Ooph. That was rough.

Our campground hikes at Henrys Lake State Park should certainly not be discounted just because they were walking distance to our rig. Look at this beautiful scenery!

And if we hadn't made it very clear that campground hikes are some of the best hikes, we solidified our notion when we hit our 100th mile - at a trail right at the campground where we were staying! We came down the wire, clocking our final 4.5 miles on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend at Sheridan Lake in Black Hills National Forest. It was another hot day, but thankfully most of our hike was in the shade and we were able to get it done before temperatures reached their high for the day. We celebrated on a dam. We'd expect nothing less from us.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you'll have to tune into our Black Hills and Beyond Series to hear more about this hike, plus some others that we tackled while we were in the area...including our most epic hike all year! But the good news is, you won't need to wait long because that series will be released on the blog next! Sign up with your email below so you'll be notified of when that happens.

That's a wrap for our Summer to Remember 2023! Goals = accomplished!