Last Updated: May 4, 2026
We don’t always take the direct route home from Yellowstone, and this trip was proof of it. After one of our latest-season stays in Gardiner — businesses closing, temperatures dropping well below freezing each night, and several surprise snowfalls reminding us that late autumn in Montana is not the time to linger — we mapped a route south through Wyoming and into Colorado to visit as much of Michael’s family as we could reach. Jake was a good sport through the cold weather and ready to move again. From Colorado we continued east across the plains to Amarillo before cutting west through Albuquerque, stopping in the Arizona high country, and finishing the winter migration at Yuma for the drive home to San Diego.
