The ROAMies Podcast

Beyond the Beaten Path: Lesser-Known National Parks Perfect for Summer with Jennifer Broome

The ROAMies with Jennifer Broome Season 7 Episode 257

Thank you to Jennifer Broome for being our guest and guide! Here's where you can connect with her!:

sweptawaytoday.com
* Instagram: @jenniferbroometravel
* Facebook: JenniferBroomeTV 
* TikTok: @jenniferbroometravel 
* X (Twitter): @jenniferbroome 
* YouTube: Channel named “Swept Away With Jennifer Broome” 

Dreaming of a national park adventure this summer but dreading the notorious crowds at Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon? Travel expert Jennifer Broom returns to share her insider knowledge on spectacular alternatives that offer unique summer experiences without the tourist crush.

Jennifer takes us first to Grand Tetons in early June, when wildflowers carpet the landscape beneath snow-capped peaks and wildlife viewing reaches its prime - including opportunities to spot mama bears with cubs (from a safe distance, of course). She shares practical safety tips, including the "thumb rule": if you can't cover the animal with your thumb at arm's length, you're standing too close.

We then journey to Isle Royale National Park, a remote paradise in Lake Superior accessible only during summer months by seaplane or ferry. Jennifer describes her personal experience hiking through fern-covered forests and enjoying the tranquility of this island wilderness. For late summer travelers, Theodore Roosevelt National Park emerges as a hidden gem, offering "Yellowstone without the crowds but blending in a little bit of Badlands." The park's wild horse population - one of few places in America to observe these majestic creatures in their natural habitat - provides unforgettable moments as their manes blow in the wind against painted rock landscapes.

Weather preparedness becomes a recurring theme as Jennifer (a meteorologist herself) advises on packing layers for temperature swings, rain gear for afternoon thunderstorms, and essential sun protection. Her suggested road trip combining Theodore Roosevelt with Badlands National Park creates the perfect late-summer itinerary, with opportunities to explore Wind Cave and Jewel Cave for underground wonders.

Beyond breathtaking scenery, these parks offer something increasingly precious: opportunities to disconnect from technology and connect with American history. As Jennifer shares from her experience visiting over 258 National Park Service units, these landscapes appear much as they did thousands of years ago, providing living history lessons spanning indigenous cultures to westward expansion.

Ready to discover America's natural treasures beyond the obvious choices? Subscribe to hear more from Jennifer in our next episode about fall national park adventures!

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Speaker 1:

Hi, I'm Alexa and I'm Rory, and together we are the Romies we are married To each other. Right, we are a touring musical duo.

Speaker 2:

And our music has taken us to all kinds of places all around the world and keeps us always on the go.

Speaker 1:

So we hope you enjoy our stories and adventures while running around working to keep all your plates spinning.

Speaker 2:

And we hope, to facilitate your busy lifestyle and feed your inner travel bug. Hi everyone, we are so excited to bring you Jennifer Broom again on this episode, and this month we are talking about national parks, and so on this episode, we're going to dive into which national parks should we visit in the summer. So, jennifer, thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate you being here. Let's dive in to where we should go in the summer.

Speaker 3:

Well, I also want to point out that summer is the time that you're going to see the most people in the national parks. So you kind of want to factor that in that July and August are going to be the busiest months of the year in national parks, especially in those highly popular ones, say, like Yellowstone, rocky Mountain National Park. Those are going to be some of the primary Yosemite, some of the prime ones that folks, and Grand Canyon, that folks are visiting during the summer. So let's talk about some alternatives that you can maybe add on to one of those trips, and ones that do have some special things that, by summer, makes them the prime ones to go to. And I'm going to start you first, like kind of like in the early summer, and take you to Grand Tetons, because that is the time kind of late May, early June, if you want to see the babies, if you want to see the mamas and the babies, of course from a safe distance. You know, make sure that you are really look, roll a thumb with your thumb. If you could put it up and you could see the animal outside of your thumb, then you're too close. It's just kind of a little tip, but you know it's it's you want to make sure you give the wildlife their space. But that is a time that you'll not only see incredible wildflowers, with the snow cap mountains, because they will still have snow at that point, you know, with the Grand Tetons and just that incredibly gorgeous mountain. Yeah, it is spectacularly beautiful, but it is a great time if you want to see potentially see, you know, a mama bear and her cubs in that late May, early June timeframe. I would also say, if you're going to go to Grand Teton, make sure that you do make a reservation to go.

Speaker 3:

Take the ferry boat on Jenny Lake. It makes for a little fun adventure to go out on the lake and then you can go across and do a little hike and come back. There are quite a few lakes that you can hike around and you know the hikes range from super easy enjoy the lakes to. Of course, if you want to scramble up in the Tetons, you can do that too. So that kind of kicks off your summer and then one that is truly accessible in the summertime. It does run from April 16th to October 31st. Prime time for summer is Isle Royale and that is in Lake Superior, and you can get there a couple of ways. So Isle Royale National Park it's one of the more remote national parks because of the difficulty in getting there, with it being in Lake Superior. But you can get there by plane, by seaplane or by or I guess I should say lake plane, since it is Lake Superior.

Speaker 1:

But you know what I?

Speaker 3:

mean you know, the planes that have the float things on the bottom of them.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there you go, but you just climbed Kilimanjaro, so like don't you think that you would be the one swimming across to get there?

Speaker 3:

No, no, no, no. Oh, yes, I did. I did summit Kilimanjaro on July 14th. 6.57 am was my summit time. Yeah, we had. We had wind gusts over 30 miles an hour, and we also had wind chills of minus 19 to minus 26 Fahrenheit. Ok, so brutal. But on saying that, as we're talking about national parks and visiting in the summer, I am also a meteorologist, so I do want to give you maybe a few weather tips too.

Speaker 3:

Love it. You're going to have wide range of temperatures. It can be quite chilly in the mornings and overnights if you are camping, so you definitely truly want to think about dressing in layers. That's kind of a key thing. Make sure, and include those things too At least some light gloves, some type of light beanie, something to keep you warm, because chances are, if you're going to get out and go do a little hike and you're going at 7 in the morning, you might want both of those. In addition to having some type of puffy jacket, even a windbreaker is a great idea to have as well. And then, of course, no adventure should be without sunscreen. So sun protection that includes sunscreen, including your sunglasses, your hat and the actual sunscreen, and then also rain gear, especially if you are in any of the national parks in the Rocky Mountains across the American Southwest. Weather conditions change quickly, the monsoon season in particular, so you can have those afternoon thunderstorms kind of fire up quickly. So always have rain gear in addition to always have water and make sure you have snacks too.

Speaker 3:

So let's talk about Isle Royale. It's just such a unique, beautiful place because the way that I did it was I took a ferry and you can get there from either the Michigan side or Minnesota, and I went to Grand Portage, minnesota, made a reservation well in advance to get on the ferry to ensure I had a spot with my friend Lisa and we went across and just enjoyed it. I mean, how many times do you get to go? If you don't live in one of the Great Lakes areas, do you get to go and just be out on a Great Lake which really truly does feel like an ocean and with Lake Superior being so spectacular and so special? So you take it's a couple of hours and then you get on the island and we had four hours. So we did a hike that kind of went right by the water's edge and then went up through this just beautiful, picturesque forest with everything covered with ferns and just overgrown ferns everywhere, and then you pop out to the spot where you're at an overlook and you can see the water in the surrounding areas, and then came back down and had enough time just to sit on the dock and just enjoy the quiet and the beauty. Now on the ferry you can do the day trip, as we did, but you can also go for an overnight so you can take your camping gear. You can even take canoes and kayaks. You make reservations for those in advance, but you can take those with you on the ferry. So I think that's kind of a cool way to experience that national park.

Speaker 3:

Another one that I really love to go to in the summertime and in particular the latter part of summer, even getting into early fall. So kind of looking at late August into September, if you notice, I tend to like to, you know, really take my time outside of kind of that busiest six weeks of the year. I truly do enjoy going to Theodore Roosevelt National Park up in North Dakota and it's to me it's Yellowstone without the crowds but also blending in a little bit of Badlands, because North Dakota, like South Dakota, does have Badlands and that makes up that super picturesque landscape that just seems to go in some spots for miles and miles of just the painted rock that extends the painted landscape. That's just incredibly beautiful. There is also a petrified forest that you could hike to so you can see these giant pieces of petrified wood.

Speaker 3:

Kind of similar to Petrified Forest National Park down in Arizona, which is also another great one, not necessarily to visit in summer because it could be quite hot, but maybe another time of the year, but when you go in that late August, early September, you could do that hike. You can see there's bison in both units. Theodore Roosevelt National Park has two units. One is in. Literally you can walk to it from town, at least walk to the visitor center from Medora that you can go in and do an incredibly beautiful scenic drive, the high chance that you will see in the South Unit and the North Unit. Better chance in the North Unit to see the bison. You know when I was there I got surrounded by bison. So you know, remember, stay in your car if you can, if you're going in the same direction as the bison, just keep on going you know, slowly.

Speaker 3:

Just act like you're one of them. Just keep going.

Speaker 1:

Remember they're on the road.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, if not, you know, just try to keep slowly nudging through and and you know it does make for a little bit of a nerve wracking experience with that. But again I do want to stress, stay in your car and then with Theodore Roosevelt, one of the most special things about that national park is that it is home to wild horses. It is one of the few places in the United States that you can see wild horse and you can ask at the visitor center where they've been sighted that day and that gives you some good indication where you can see the bands. And there's several bands of them. That's what a group of horses is called. It's called a band where you can see several bands of the wild horses and they truly are magical. And just when the wind picks up, if it's a beautiful day, they truly are magical. And just when the wind picks up, if it's a beautiful day, just watching their manes and tails just blow in the wind and I hope you're as lucky as I was and get to see a baby horse out there and just really take that moment to honor the indigenous cultures that do make up especially the American West. Honor those indigenous cultures, honor how the US was founded and just kind of take that moment to think back through history and think what it would be like, you know, for the pioneers coming across and the landscape that would be similar, you know, with the westward expansion of the United States would be similar to what they saw. It really is truly a beautiful, untouched landscape. So there's that one. And then, while you're in Medora, make sure that you also see the Medora musical. It is the 60th anniversary of it, just a spectacular fun thing. And Medora is a town that just comes alive during the summertime and, yes, their population swells, you know, for several months a year. But I think you will be surprised.

Speaker 3:

I get asked a lot like what's your favorite national park? It's really hard, that's like asking someone to pick their favorite child, but there's just so many of them that each one is unique and different. And I feel like our national parks truly share diverse landscapes that make up this incredible place that we get to call home. But Theodore Roosevelt, it's in my top three. It is one because I do feel like it's a little bit more remote, it's not nearly as crowded and the variety of landscapes that you can experience and see there really do make it a gem and it is so worth that effort to get there. You can also combine it with a trip, a really fun road trip, and combine it with Badlands National Park and as you get into the late summer again you start to lose some of those crowds.

Speaker 3:

But with that landscape you can get in there and it is possible to do Badlands National Park in a day, which does make that national park a little bit more unusual than some of the others, because I think sometimes you know these national parks. They are huge, but with Badlands National Park you can get in there whether you have a day or even a night. Even better, if you I mean I've spent a night at one of the properties you know, one of the national park properties within the park itself and it's kind of a fun way. If you've never done that, try to get on, get those reservations early and never not trying to get a last minute reservation. There are cancellations. So even the highly popular ones, if you happen to be in, it's sometimes worth to kind of keep checking in and looking to see do they have a cancellation that you can sneak in and get snag one of those, which is kind of what I did with a cousin.

Speaker 3:

We were on a really cool road trip and we did what I just told you to do, theodore Roosevelt. We added a few other sites, but coming down into Badlands, there in South Dakota, we kind of went in on the north side, great area on the north side, which would also be kind of like the northeast side, there's a wonderful area where you can go out and hike and it's kind of like a loosely marked trail. But you're connecting the numbers. There's numbers along it and I think it's like number 14 or 15. That's the final one and there's a big sign that says end of trail because there's a cliff.

Speaker 2:

You know there's a cliff that drops.

Speaker 3:

But it's a way to immerse yourself in the Badlands landscape, which does look otherworldly. The only other thing that I could possibly say that it's like. It's like it but it's different would be Bryce National Park over in Utah. But both of them are just such unique, different landscapes, where I mean the rocks are the stars and the landscapes and the striations and the rocks and the rock formations really truly make it unique and special. They do have a scenic drive.

Speaker 3:

So, like I said, we came in on the north side, spent the night and then kind of finished out and did the rest of the scenic loop. Just an incredible thing to do, but it is certainly a beautiful way. And then, while you're on that one, why not go on over to Custard and then you can cool off in the caves. You can go into Wind Cave, which has, I believe it's 90% of the boxwood formation in the world of that cave formation is right there. It's the highest concentration of it in the world and it's not a national park but it is a national monument. Jewel Cave is a national monument that you can see there too. So that's a fantastic road trip to do, especially late summer, heading into early fall.

Speaker 2:

Love it yeah.

Speaker 1:

I am.

Speaker 2:

Well, this sounds like a full itinerary to crack up your summer, yeah yeah, yeah, and I agree with her.

Speaker 1:

I've done the whole Medora and seeing those parks and it does feel not just otherworldly. But for me there was a you had mentioned it that keen connection to the people who live there. You feel a real connection to that because it looks just like it did when our people first saw it our people before the explorers discovered it.

Speaker 3:

No, no, no, I mean it's and I'm not really sure what it is about that landscape that triggered that feeling for me, but it obviously triggered it for you too. And there is something perhaps it's because it is a little bit more difficult to get to and it is in a part of the country that is not as traveled to as other areas.

Speaker 1:

And not heavily populated.

Speaker 3:

There's not like a.

Speaker 2:

Walmart in the center of it? No, there's not in medora no yeah, that's a great point too.

Speaker 1:

You, you have to travel sort of through the middle of nowhere to get to the middle of nowhere, and I think it helps set that, set the whole thing up for you too.

Speaker 3:

It's really you know, and and so many of us nowadays are craving the detox, the digital detox, the time away, and craving the trips where you know whether it's a solo traveler or a couple, or as a family or multi-generational craving the time to put away the technology and go and learn and experience. Experience the landscape, but learn the history, history too, because that part of the United States has a tremendous amount of history and it's worth it to learn about the different tribes in the area. You know, even as you're coming down into Badlands National Park, take the drive into the reservation that's right there, and if you've never been on a reservation, that is an easy way, an accessible way to see what it's like and to understand that part of our history and to truly, you know I mean, yeah see what it was like when the people lived thousands, thousands of years ago. Then, of course, the Spanish conquistadors were the ones who brought the horses over to you, to what is now the United States. So then you can learn a little bit about that, then learn a little bit about the Westward expansion.

Speaker 3:

I love it. It's like, you know, it's learning those American history lessons that I, you know, it's living history that you're experiencing, which, well, you're having fun too. I mean, there's nothing better than having a wonderful fun trip with a huge dose of education, whether you are a middle schooler or you're 80 years old, you know, and we can always learn and we should be always learning. And I think those opportunities are there in the national parks and then extending on to all the units that are in the National Park Service.

Speaker 1:

For sure.

Speaker 2:

With breathtaking scenery to boot. On top of all that, you got it, you got it.

Speaker 1:

I mean, if you're a fan of that kind of thing.

Speaker 3:

And I'm obviously a fan of it. You got it. I mean, if you're a fan of that kind of thing, and I'm obviously a fan of it. I'm trying to think I've now been to over Well, I'm over 255, 258 National Park Service units and that includes 48 of the national parks, so hopefully we knock it off more shortly, you're on your way.

Speaker 2:

I love it. Yes. Well, how can people follow you and where can they find you?

Speaker 3:

So I think it's easiest to find me on like Instagram or TikTok and it's Jennifer Broom Travel, so it's broom like a sweep with with an E on the end is the easiest way to find me on those or you connect can connect with me through my. That is sweptawaytodaycom.

Speaker 2:

Tying in that whole broom thing with your website Sweep, sweep, always sweeping around the world. I love it. Well, we will include all of that in the show notes. Thank you so much, jennifer. We really appreciate it and we will look forward to seeing you on the next episode when we talk about which national parks to visit in the fall. We hope we've inspired you this episode, so join us next time. Please subscribe to rate and share our podcast with your friends or you know whomever?

Speaker 2:

And please like and follow us on Instagram, youtube and Facebook.

Speaker 1:

We are also on X and on all social platforms. We are at TheRomies, that's T-H-E-R-O-A-M-I-E-S, and our main hub is our website.

Speaker 2:

At wwwTheRomiescom, that's right, that's. T-h-e-r-o-a-m-i-e-scom. We'll be there until next time. Yeah, thanks for listening, bye, no-transcript.