Let's just say that no one goes to national parks for the food. The food is rather reminiscent of my college cafeteria (and that was before they were making college cafeteria food good!). In addition, it's pricey. And we have lots of mouths to feed.
We opted, most days, to eat out of the back of my parent's truck. We practically had a small grocery store back there. Made to order sandwich buffet. We packed things like bread, tortillas, hummus, cut-up veggies, pb & j, an assortment of chips and pretzels. I also went to Costco before we left and stocked up on packs of almonds, cashews, and good-quality bars. Those were great to tide us over until mealtimes, which were often random.
To make it kinda special, we bought one of those styrofoam coolers and filled it with a 12 pack of soda and lots of ice every morning so we could have a "icy cold soda" with our lunch. There's something about having something cold and refreshing when you're in nature. I would start to think about that cold diet coke on the way down from our hikes. I know, lame.
Here we are, eating with a view of the Tetons isn't bad at all.
In Yellowstone, it was even more remote with less food. We made a big deal about our lunch stops. We sometimes drove far past our hunger to find a good spot to explore while we ate. Here they tried to get across the river without getting pulled in and drenched. Some fell in and we had some good laughs watching.
This particular lunch day was wooded, lots of exploring here.
Asher liked to hit little pebbles in the river with his whiffle bat.
This was quieter river, but fun just the same.
Also, lunch time seemed to be the place when most of us needed one of these. Not always the most pleasant experience ;)
In South Dakota on the way to the Black Hills, we stopped at a convenience store and bought peanut butter and jelly and bread and ate at a local park in a TINY town.
The day we visited Wind Cave, we actually ate at a real restaurant!! A local pizza place and it was delicious.
This was our first meal in civilization, after the Badlands. We drove for about six hours to find a dinner spot. There was NOTHING in between Badlands and Nebraska! So don't do what we did and leave hungry. We survived on peanuts until we finally made it to a city. This was at 9:45 PM at Panda Express. We were starving and I think we ordered about a million orders of orange chicken.
