State(s): Wyoming, Montana, Idaho
Link: https://www.nps.gov/yell/index.htm
Days: 3.5
Month: August
Hotel: https://www.vrbo.com/875127
Hikes: 14 = 16.3 miles
Ice Cream: City Creamery, Yellow Truck Canyon Street Courtyard
Yellowstone National Park is an awesome park with many geysers! We had a great time seeing this unique park come to life. As with several other parks, the #KohnEffect had other plans. About 3 weeks before we arrived, Biscuit Basin exploded: https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/news/240723.htm
Day 0
We (me, Colleen, and my parents) flew into Bozeman Airport. It’s a very cool looking airport with exposed wood beams. After picking up our bags, we headed to the rental counter to pick up our ride. The rental counter and car were both at the airport, which made things nice!
Next, we headed to Sidewinders for lunch. Everyone enjoyed their food.
We continued our journey to the Yellowstone area and stopped at West Yellowstone Visitor Information Center to get some park maps and check out Yellowstone swag. Across the street, we rented bear spray at Freeheel and Wheel so we were prepared for the next day.
City Creamery was next on our list. It was very good ice cream. You could watch them make it in the back! We purchased huckleberry and double chocolate orange.
After heading to our cabin and getting settled in, we went to The Parlor at Mack’s Inn for dinner, followed by Sam Patch for groceries.
Day 1
Just after entering the west entrance, we saw bison standing on the side of road. We’ve been to a few national parks, but this was not something we previously experienced. We were heading to Midway Geyser Basin, an easy 0.5-mile loop. On the way, we saw elk in the distance.
Next, we headed took Fairy Falls Trailhead to Grand Prismatic Overlook. The trail to the overlook is an easy 1.6 mile out and back with gravel and dirt. After staying at the overlook for a bit, we ended up walking a little past it and turned back.
Then we went to the Upper Geyser Basin where Old Faithful lives. It was cool but a lot of the water was blocked by mist and fog. Once we were done being amazed by Old Faithful, we took the Upper Geyser Basin Trail, an easy 4-mile loop that takes you through lots of geysers! We took the side path to Black Sand Pool too. The entire time the path is either paved or a boardwalk.
Morning Glory Pool is so cool, it’s hard to describe how unique it looks in person. Sawmill Geyser was spraying us a lot, right by the boardwalk it was very cool. On our way toward the end of the loop, we stopped to see Old Faithful again, this time from the side. From the side we were able to get a much better view of the water shooting up! It was incredible.
Our next stop was Black Sand Basin, an easy 0.25-mile boardwalk path that takes you through a few geysers. On the loop we saw Cliff Geyser, which was small, but it was very active. Then we saw Green Spring, which was very pretty. This short little boardwalk trail had several stunning feats of nature, Emerald Pool was another one.
Then we took Firehole Drive, a 3-mile driving loop, to the Lower Geyser Basin Trail. We stopped at Steady Geyser; a geyser that keeps shooting up pretty frequently. Hot Lake was another very cool area on this short boardwalk that was only around 0.25 miles.
On our way out of Yellowstone for the day, we saw bison laying on the side of the road and two elk playing in the water. Close to the exit we saw a wolf walking down the side of road! This was really cool.
For dinner, we stopped in West Yellowstone at La Jungla, which had awesome tacos. They make and serve the food out of a bus! We couldn’t forget about ice cream. Yellow Truck Canyon Street Courtyard had us covered with some delicious chocolate chip cookie-ice cream sandwiches!
Day 2
Traveling through the park, we saw deer in the grass. This was a nice way to start the morning.
We stopped at Gibbon Falls. It was a nice short walk with a pretty view of the falls.
Next up was Norris Geyser Basin. We took the Back Basin Loop, a 1.6-mile easy path; it was gravel or boardwalk the whole way. We saw Emerald Spring, a very pretty spring. Continuing our path, we came up to Steamboat Geyser. It’s the world’s tallest active geyser. Lots of cool geysers in this loop, we even saw a bunny on the path. Colloidal Pool was another cool thing to see.
Then we went to Mammoth Upper Terrace Drive. We walked the Upper Terraces Loop, plus did the out and back boardwalk to Canary Springs. The path was about 2.25 miles, easy.
We continued to Mammoth Lower Terrace, another boardwalk. We started with Liberty Cap, which was created by a hot spring. The map was a little confusing and there were a lot of people, so we walked around for about 0.5 miles then continued our journey.
Next up was Albright Visitor Center for another stamp and to see what they had to offer.
Since we were close to the north side of the park, we decided to check out the Roosevelt Arch & snag a picture of the North Entrance Sign.
Next, we went to Wraith Falls, a 1 mile out and back trail generally considered easy, although the end of the trail is a bit steep and rocky. On our way to the falls, we passed over a bridge with a stream underneath. Wraith Falls is a 79-foot waterfall at the end of the trail.
We then headed to Petrified Tree. It was a short stroll from the parking lot. It was cool but only one tree, it would have been nice to see more.
Next, we headed to Tower Fall parking area. It was about 0.25 mile out and back from the parking lot. Another nice waterfall that was tall.
We headed through Lamar Valley where there were a lot of bison crossing the road, many more in a field. We even saw baby bison! Overall, there were hundreds of bison.
On the way out of the park, we drove through Dunraven Pass to return to West Yellowstone. Lots of scenic views along the way!
Day 3
We started this day by driving through Hayden Valley. Along the way, we stopped at a couple pullouts to see elk and bison. There were hundreds of bison. While looking at other wildlife, we saw a bald eagle in the distance!
Next, we stopped at the Mud Volcano, an easy 0.6-mile loop over a boardwalk. Be on the lookout because bison do come on the boardwalk sometimes. Dragon’s Mouth Spring was very cool – it keeps emitting steam and the water was moving as if the dragon was opening its mouth. The Mud Volcano was really cool – it was similar to the other geysers, but it was muddy! After this we saw three coyotes up on a hill area! As we were getting ready to leave, we saw a bison strolling down the road, right by the parking lot!
On our way to Lake Yellowstone Hotel, it started raining. Behind this historic hotel, we checked out the lake. Lake Yellowstone is the largest high elevation lake in North America.
We pulled out our ponchos and started our hike to Natural Bridge, an easy 1.8-mile gravel and paved trail. Once to the nature bridge, there’s an optional moderate hike up the side that probably added a total of 0.5 miles.
Then we headed to Sulphur Caldron, which was a short walk from a parking lot. At this point it was raining quite a bit, so we quickly checked it out and ended up taking time to eat lunch in the car.
After lunch, we headed to the South Rim area, starting with Artist Point. This was a short walk from the parking lot. The views were awesome!
Continuing our South Rim journey, we headed to Uncle Toms parking area to see the Canyon Overlook. It was still raining but had awesome views of the waterfalls. We had to dodge lots of puddles!
On our way toward the North Rim, we stopped at Brink of the Upper Falls Overlook. This has more amazing views of the falls. It was still raining at this point. Had a short walk from the parking lot to the overlooks. Our favorite was the lower.
Then we headed to the North Rim. Our first stop was the Brink of the Lower Falls. Since it was still raining, we just checked out the overlook.
Next up was Lookout Point, yet another view of the falls and canyon. Colleen convinced me to go down the Red Rock Trail. It goes down 500 feet in about 0.38 miles. Going down wasn’t too bad, but going back uphill was not fun in this moderate 0.7 mile out and back trail.
Continuing the North Rim side, next up was Grand View. The view lives up to its name! We went to the lookout close to the parking lot.
Our second to last stop on the North Rim was Inspiration Point. More spectacular views of the canyon. We walked to the lower and west overlooks; we weren’t sure where the mid one was.
Our final stop was at Glacial Boulder on the right, on the way out of the loop.
At this point my brother, his wife, and their son came to join us for the rest of the trip. We all went to dinner at Firehole BBQ, which was very good. You can’t have dinner without dessert, right? We headed back to City Creamery to get some more yummy ice cream.
Day 4
Since this was the last planned day of Yellowstone, we packed up our stuff and headed for Firehole Canyon Drive. We stopped at Firehole Falls, a large waterfall you can park right by.
Next, we headed to Fountain Paint Pot trail. This is a 0.5-mile easy loop over a boardwalk. It has several geysers and springs. A couple of the ones that caught my attention were Silex Spring, Leather Pool, and Jet Geyser.
Our final destination in Yellowstone, before traveling through John D Rockefeller Jr Memorial Parkway to Grant Teton National Park, was the clinic in the Old Faithful area. Unfortunately, earlier in the week my mom had a knee injury, and it wasn’t getting better. The people at the clinic were very nice, did a basic evaluation and had crutches for her. Unfortunately, they didn’t have much more they were able to do but that did help her get through the rest of the trip.
