RV Wanderlust

Full-time Living in Our Diesel RV

Buried in South Dakota’s Black Hills for Weeks

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Exploring Black Hills of South Dakota by RV

South Dakota’s Black Hills have magic in them. This wonderland of nature is at once mysterious and easy to access. The old, towering trees will give you strength. The wildlife will charm you.

Quite unlike our norm of arriving in a new place and parking there for two weeks, we bounced around the Rapid City area for nearly a month, camping at a total of five spots.

If I were to structure this travel log like I normally do-campground, activities, food-then I might as well publish it as a book. This time, I’m going to try a shorter form that traces our movements in each area. If you have a question about a specific place, don’t hesitate to leave a comment and I can elaborate for you.

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Inspired by Lewistown, Montana to Always Give Tiny Towns a Chance

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Lewistown Montana RV Trip

With over 600 miles to travel from Glacier National Park (Montana) to Theodore Roosevelt National Park (North Dakota), we needed to stop somewhere in between. When first glancing at a map, the Montana novice might feel rather discouraged. I-87 appears to be a stretch of nothingness for hours.

Undeterred, I zoomed to the mid-way point on the map and started looking up all those tiny towns on Campendium. I was sold by the reviews for a city park in the 6,000-person town of Lewistown, Montana.

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Dry Camping Just Outside Glacier National Park

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Growing up, I knew about national parks like Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, but for some reason Glacier National Park wasn’t on my radar until adulthood. Once we started traveling full-time, stunning photos from fellow nomads became impossible to ignore.

Established in 1910, Glacier National Park is located in Montana on the Canadian border. In fact, it continues right into Canada, where it becomes Waterton Lakes National Park.

This amazing stop was on our itinerary for 2016, but we had to cancel when I became pregnant and plans changed. Life happened again this year when we detoured from our Glacier route for an emergency trip to Seattle.

But nothing was going to stand in our way! With stops in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, we were able to get back on course to see Glacier National Park.

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Strangest Visit Ever to Hometown of Seattle

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Spontaneous Seattle Trip With RV

On Sunday, we were settled in Bozeman. Six days later, we were making an emergency 700-mile drive to Seattle to be with Eric’s mother. Thus began three of the strangest weeks we’ve ever spent in Seattle.

Picture this if you dare: Eric and I are playing a game in bed. (It’s more innocent than it sounds.) He says to me, “You name one place you want to go while we’re in Seattle. We’ll switch back and forth.”

The game lasted a while. Eric grew up in Seattle. We lived there together from 2010-2011, during which time we were engaged, married, and began newlywed life together. It was a sweet time, and we have lots of memories there.

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West Yellowstone, Base Camp for National Park Exploration

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West Yellowstone Base Camp for National Park

Our first visit to Yellowstone National Park was back in 2015, and it was only over a long weekend. This year, we knew we wanted to spend dedicated time in Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park, and go back to Yellowstone to explore the areas we didn’t get to in 2015.

We accomplished that first goal over two weeks at Upper Teton View. Then, as base camp for Yellowstone, we decided to stay in the town of West Yellowstone. [Read more…]

Our Most Beautiful RV Camping Spot Ever: Upper Teton View

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Upper Teton View Dry Camping

About two years ago, I saw a photo of Alyssa Padgett drinking a cup of coffee in her RV, as the Grand Tetons towered in the background. We had just taken a weekend trip to Yellowstone and I had fallen for the Grand Tetons while driving past them in the early morning from Jackson Hole. I told myself I would go back and recreate Alyssa’s coffee moment in that stunningly beautiful spot, known as Upper Teton View.

It took two years, but we made it back. In that time, we decided we weren’t “doing it right,” and wild camping was one of the missing pieces. Now armed with AGM batteries, portable solar panel, and experience, I was thrilled to finally be heading to Upper Teton View. It was the place I was looking forward to most of our entire 2018 West Mountain Loop trip.

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Lakeside Dry Camping on the Idaho/Wyoming Border

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Snake River Dry Camping in IdahoIf we don’t spend at least one night within a state’s borders in our RV, then we can’t add it to our state map. That’s our rule. So while we traveled through Idaho in 2016, we didn’t get to claim it as conquered. No matter what it took, that was going to change this year.

It wasn’t much of an inconvenience. We left Jordanelle State Park after work on Friday of Memorial Day weekend and drove a beautiful 227 miles to Indian Creek. This dry camping area in Caribou-Targhee National Forest is free, with a 5-day stay limit.

We chose to get as close to the water-Palisades Reservoir on the Snake River-as we could. The road towards the water has some unpleasant potholes, but the distance isn’t long. We turned off on the last path to the right, and pulled onto the grass just off the road. [Read more…]

3 Straight Weeks of RV Dry Camping in Moab, Utah

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Dry Camping in Moab, UtahOff-roading and Jeep culture are a huge part of our lives. Ever since we bought a Jeep Rubicon in summer 2016, we’ve gotten really into meeting people in the Jeep community, modifying our Jeep, and challenging ourselves with harder and harder trails. Jeeping is definitely Eric’s #1 hobby (though he’d probably use a more intense word).

For my part, I enjoy 4×4 trails that combine beautiful scenery with interesting obstacles. (I’m not super into jolting over rocks for hours.) I do appreciate the places our Jeep allows us to access, that we’d never be able to get to otherwise.

Though my passion for Jeep life may not be as strong as Eric’s, we were both looking forward to staying in Moab, Utah. Moab is an international destination [Read more…]

One Day in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah’s Hidden Wonder

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Capitol Reef National ParkZion National Park. Bryce Canyon National Park. On to our third in Utah: Capitol Reef National Park.

This one required some special doing. We left Toquerville after work on a Friday, and drove 200 miles through Fishlake National Forest and along the edge of Manti-La Sal National Forest. We traveled through beautiful farm land bordered by grass-covered hills. I had no idea there was a place in the United States that looked like this. It reminded me of photos I’ve seen of the Scottish Highlands.

And then the grassy hills gave way to brilliantly colored, jagged rock. Through the small town of Torrey, with its inviting restaurants, outdoor adventure companies, and local motels. We used the Jeep to scout our dry camping options and ended up in Capitol Reef Overflow, about half a mile outside the boundary of the park. [Read more…]

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Welcome to RV Wanderlust! We're Eric and Brittany Highland and we're on a pretty amazing adventure. As of 2019, we're starting our sixth year as fulltime RVers and we've been transparently documenting the journey all along the way. In December 2016 we … Keep reading

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