Yellowstone National Park

We hit the road in 2020 on our Grand Glacier Stone road trip and the second stop was Yellowstone National Park. We spent three full days in Yellowstone, coming from Grand Teton and heading to Glacier National Park afterwards. Leaving Grand Teton, we drove north on scenic highway 191. This route offered some pretty amazing views and turnouts for pictures, but not a lot of signage to let us know what’s going on. We ended up in an hour-long traffic jam that actually was the line to get into Yellowstone.

Yellowstone national park

Yellowstone was the first and one of the best known national parks in the United States. Of all of the parks we’ve visited, this one required the least amount of research with so many of the attractions so well known. That doesn’t mean we didn’t put in the work to get the most out of our time there. The park is massive, so we spent a lot of time in the car and really needed to plan out our days to make sure we weren’t doing too much backtracking. Even in the offseason many of the attractions can get very busy. So we prioritized the things we absolutely wanted to see and ensured we were there early, then we planned around that. We arrived in late September, most of the roads were still open. Although they had gotten a freak snow storm earlier in the month, so that’s always a concern when picking visiting during the shoulder season. Most of the in-park accommodations were closed either for the season or because of COIVD so we stayed in West Yellowstone. This added an hour round trip drive each day, but we almost always saw things of interest on the road in.

Our first stop in the park was a Lewis River turnout. There are several of them along the way that offer looks down into the canyon the Lewis River has dugout for itself. The one we stopped at was dictated entirely by the availability of parking. After the long drive, it seemed like everyone was willing to jump out at the first stop they could find.

Because we had a little more time during this first day than we thought we would, we tried to figure out what we could squeeze in on our way to the hotel. The obvious, and most famous location in the Southwest corner of the park is Old Faithful, so we called the geyser hotline for times (307-344-2751 option 2) and we found that Old Faithful was scheduled to erupt in the next few hours, so away we went!

On the way, we stopped at the West Thumb Geyser Basin, a geothermal hotspot right on the banks of the West Thumb Lake.

With the predicted time approaching, we got back on the road to Old Faithful. Each geyser has a plus/minus to their predictions, Old Faithful is 10 minutes, which makes it one of the most consistent in the park. Parking wasn’t a problem, since there seems to be a whole village built around the geyser with hotel rooms, visitors center, lodge, and restaurants in the area. There is a smaller geyser not far called Castle Geyser. So we wandered over there to see if we’d get lucky while we waited, but it was not to be. The crowd will start to pickup once the time approaches. If you get close enough to a tour group, you can catch some tidbits about the geyser. According to one guide, Old Faithful usually has 7-8 false eruptions, but could be over a dozen. The eruption we watched lasted about 5 minutes, allowing for us to move around and get pictures from a few different spots.

On our way out of the park we got our first glimpse of a small buffalo herd. I almost lost the car key running out to get the picture, so thank you to the nice guy who saw them on the ground and called out. This herd was crossing a river. It all looked like a scene right out of a nature documentary with the exception of the 50 cars lined along the road and the hundred of people snapping pictures. There was also one idiot that went right up to one of the animals, you know, just like it says not to do in every piece of literature that the park service hands out.

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and lamar Valley

We had our hit list of places we wanted to visit, and we made sure to prioritize the popular attractions earliest in the day, so on our first full day we started with The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. To be clear, this is a pretty big canyon, but unlike THE Grand Canyon, you can see it all from four main vantage points, two on each side. We started with the Brink of the Lower Falls, which might sound unimpressive, but the Lower Falls are the best looking of the two. The Brink of the Lower Falls is on the north side of the canyon. The overlook is pretty amazing, but it’s a steep walk to get down and back up. Luckily there are switchbacks along the way to make the trail more manageable.

Our next stop was down river to Lookout Point. This again provided views from the north side of the canyon, but a couple of miles from the falls. There’s a lot of parking here, but the lookouts are fairly small. I’d imagine peak season gets pretty busy here.

Lower Falls from Lookout Point with the lower platform in view

Our final canyon stop of the morning was the West Overlook which gave us our best view of the canyon downriver from the falls.

West Overlook headed away from the falls

With the canyon behind us, we headed west, north, and then east out to Lamar Valley thanks to some closed roads. Lamar Valley is considered the best place to see wildlife in the entire park according to a number of articles we read, and it didn’t disappoint. The drive was long and we looked for every opportunity to stop to stretch our legs or get some good pictures. But we also didn’t want to be in the park well after dark. Our first stop was a possible animal spotting, but like so many times along this trip, it was just some great scenery. Our second stop was a turnout just past the Golden Gate, which is a mountain hugging stretch of road on the way to Mammoth Hot Springs. Our last stop before the turn on to the Northeast Entrance Rd was the Petrified Tree. This stop involved a short walk to see a 50 million year old redwood tree that was buried during an eruption.

We thought we saw something moving but got some great shots instead

Once we entered the Lamar Valley, we began to see signs of life: pronghorns, buffalo, and photographers (the last one being a sure sign of a show). We found a parking spot and started asking around, we were told that a buffalo carcass had been put out alongside the road to attract bears to the area, but still at a safe distance. Apparently if you’re local, you can find out about drops like this and be ready. By the time we came through, we were told that only small animals had been by, but without a bear to tear through the hide, they found very little to eat and left.

Pronghorn and a buffalo sharing the space

We waited for about 20 minutes before we realized that a bear sighting wasn’t worth the entire day, so we moved on. The Lamar Valley is where a number of small creeks and rivers including the Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek. Between the two of them, they’ve carved a tranquil track of plains land through the mountain range that’s home to many of the large animals in the area. We never struggled to find parking and stopped at a number of the turnouts along the way. First spotting a buffalo and calf, then a whole herd of buffalo, then one curious coyote, and finally a small group of wolf pups that were too far away for our cameras to capture. But it was still fun to watch the little dark fur balls run and tackle each other.

Can you spot the wolf pack? There’s at least eight of them in this picture.

Our first real hike of the afternoon was around Trout Lake. It’s a short uphill climb from the parking long, but once you reach the lake, you’re in a serene mountain valley with a lake in the middle.

Trout lake was our furthest stop of the day, we turned around and headed back through the park towards our hotel. We had a couple of unplanned stops to allow buffalo to cross the road, a very common occurrence in the park, and slow-rolled past the buffalo carcass again, but still no bear. We stopped and did the short Wraith Falls Trail followed by the Undine Falls.

Our last site of the day was driving through Mammoth Hot Springs and seeing our first big heard of Elk. Not only did we see them along the hillside heading into town, we saw them all through town, reminding visitors who is boss.

Elk along the road headed into Mammoth Hot Springs

Fairy Falls, The Grand prismatic springs, yellowstone lake, hayden valley, and more grand canyon of yellostone, oh my!

Today we had one thing on our minds and everything else was going to be gravy. Our first stop was one of the most recognizable sites in Yellowstone, The Grand Prismatic. There are two completely different ways to see this iconic hole in the ground. The first is up close and personal along the boardwalk. As appealing as this might sound, we’ve already seen springs like this up close and personal and we felt that the best way to capture it would be from afar. In 2017, an overlook was built along the Fairy Falls trail that provided an amazing view of the area, so that’s what we chose. Parking for this trail is very limited at the south end of the trail, closest to the overlook. We found a spot easy enough, but cars were pouring out on to the road when we got back. The hike in was something out of a sci-fi movie, it was still very early with the geothermal activity creating sulfuric fog all through the valley.

Since we arrived early enough, we hiked up to the Fairy Falls first to check it out before the crowds. The entire area had fallen timbers that kept the feeling of desolate alien landscape going.

On our way back to the parking lot, we trekked up the short trail to the Grand Prismatic Overlook. The crowd was still pretty lite, so it wasn’t a very long wait for the vantage point for which we were hoping. There are a number of trees in front of the overlook that it would be nice if the park service would trim. But we’re also just passing through, so we were thankful for the view we got.

With our top priority for the day accomplished, we turned our sites to Yellowstone lake. The lake itself is beautiful and seems to take up about ten percent of the park. We saw a number of boats, so it’s likely a popular boating destination during the peak season but it’s far too cold in September, that made the lake all that much more beautiful. Our route took us along the West Thumb and then up the coast towards the Bridge Bay Marina. We stopped at one turnout for a few pictures and then stopped for a short hike at Sand Point. This was a short little hike down to the dark sand beach with views that looked like they belonged in one of those lonely object paintings.

Our next stop was the Natural Bridge trailhead. This parking lot near the marina looks like it would be a bustling stop during the peak season; however with no boats, it was just another spot with a random buffalo wandering around. The hike up to the Natural Bridge was pleasant, not much elevation and good protection from the sun. The only wildlife we saw along the way was a really needy chipmunk that nearly crawled up a guys leg looking for food. This is why you don’t feed the animals folks. Once we reached the top of the trail we saw the Natural Bridge, which was yet another climb so on we went. The climb up required a break along the way, but wasn’t as bad as some we had done. You’re not actually allowed to cross the bridge itself, in order to try to preserve it for future generations, but it’s easy enough to cross behind it and get some pretty good views.

Our second to last stop of the day was a smelly one, and one that we pitied the rangers who regularly get stationed here. The Mud Volcano trail was an assortment of geothermal features that reeked of sulfur but each had an impressive showing along the trail.

Not sure this little peach has a name, but it sure looks nasty

The Yellowstone River, just because that’s a pretty picture

Our final stop of the day was the south rim of The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We thought we got some pretty amazing pictures from the north side two days ago, but we had no idea what we were missing. Under normal circumstances, you can head down Uncle Tom’s trail to a pretty amazing lookout, but because of COVID that was closed. Instead we had to settle for the lookout at Artist Point, which seemed to be a little further down the canyon from Lookout Point, so it offered a more expansive view of the falls.

Ice Lake, Virginia casscades, norris geyser basin, artists’ paintpots, gibbon falls

Our last full day at Yellowstone was a mix of things we hadn’t had time for yet, and things that at looked interesting as we passed them over the past three days. Our first stop was an early morning hike around Ice Lake. The trailhead has a small parking lot, but the options for hiking here are plenty, with several campgrounds and at least 5 loops. The only drawback is that each loop requires some amount of hiking along the road. We went with the short loop, which was a little over 3 miles and only required about a half mile uphill hike on/next to the road. Our hike took us along Ice Lake, in an area of the park that was destroyed in the 1988 fires that consumed a third of the park. The evidence is still everywhere of fallen timbers and bare chalky white trunks, but new growth there also abounds! The lake itself has no fish, and other wildlife was scant, but we did see a salamander along the way.

Not sure if it was the cold or what, but this little guy wouldn’t move, we had to help him off the trail.

Ice Lake with the old fire damaged logs all along the way but little new trees getting their day in the sun.

After the trail leaves Ice Lake, the next two points of interest were the pair of crossings over Gibbon River and Little Gibbon Falls. Seems there’s never been an interest in building a small bridge here, which was fine with us, as it added a little dare-deviling to our day.

The first crossing was very narrow and not much to write about, the second one near the falls was particularly fun, with fallen trees providing a ramp across the fast moving river. While not particularly challenging, one slip would have probably cost us a camera and a trip back to the hotel for dry clothes. After the river we came around the corner and got some great views of the Little Gibbon Falls.

Miranda posing at the cliff next to the Little Gibbon Falls

Scott trying to make his crossing but being stopped for pictures.

The next part of the hike levelled off into a tall grass valley, we made sure the bear bells were as loud as we could make them and carried on a loud conversation the whole way. This was one of two locations on our trip that could have hosted the land speed record for a bear and we were eager to not see one here. The final leg of this loop was about a half-mile hike along the road, all uphill. We were offered a ride the rest of the way at one point, but we were nearly done, and you know… that’s kind of scary anyways. (Apparently asking someone if they need a ride while hiking is called “hiker’s magic”. Who knew?)

View of the Virginia Cascades from the overlook down the road

Our next stop was Virginia Cascades, an area that’s not easy to see and even harder to find parking. There aren’t actually any parking spots, but there’s just enough space on each side of the road for a small amount of cars to park, further down the road their are a few turnouts that are within walking distance. The cascades themselves aren’t overly impressive, but they are worth the effort because of how undisturbed the area is. It’s hard to get good pictures downstream from the fall unless you’re willing to climb down. The relative shallowness of the Gibbon River here gives the area it’s loud running water noise. Once parked, we trekked along the road to an overlook that had some construction going on to try to stabilize the road a bit.

We finally made it to the Norris Geyser Basin, home to some pretty impressive and dangerous sites. Steamboat Geyser spews water so acidic that it can burn the paint off of a car (park at your own risk). The Norris Basin Area is a barren landscape surrounded by forested area. There are multiple paths with boardwalks that took us through the area.

Next up was a spot we’d driven past several times but were finally making the stop, the Artists’ Paintpots. This area of Yellowstone has been colored by the bacteria in the scolding hot geothermal formations. A short hike from the parking area, and then a moderate climb to the top, and we were able to see the whole colorful valley. The formations included multicolor creek beds, gurgling mud pits, and warm hot springs.

With our last stop of the day, we visited Gibbon Falls… the larger of the two. We drove by this one on the way in and out each day and stopped at the upper lot to work our way down the trail. This was a nice little stop with plenty of parking and an amazing view. There was even a nice park ranger there who let us know we only had about a 25% chance of seeing a bear.

Gibbon Falls from the bottom of the trail

Roaring Mountains, Sheepeater cliff, mammoth Hot springs, roosevelt arch

Our time in Yellowstone has come to an end, our trip north to Glacier National Park was a full day affair with several stops in Yellowstone before leaving the park. On our way out of the park we managed to get a couple of the sunrise pictures we’d seen during the week. Although not as impressive as the really early morning pictures, they still were pretty amazing.

We made our way back towards Mammoth Hot Springs, this time we stopped to check the place out a bit. We also made stops at the Roaring Mountains, but they must have been asleep, and Sheepeater Cliff, which was more of a drive through, take pictures, and leave kind of site. The Roosevelt Arch signaled our departure.

Sheepeater Cliff… not really sure why it’s called that

Roosevelt Arch at the North Entrance to Yellowstone

west yellowstone

Staying in Yellowstone National Park wasn’t really an option. Accommodations in the park start to become scarce after Labor Day weekend and they’re pretty expensive anyways. There’s nothing to the south and the east entrance was closed, so that left us north and west. Since we were headed to Glacier National Park afterwards, West Yellowstone was the logical choice.

We stayed at the Grey Wolf Inn & Suites in West Yellowstone which ended up being a great choice. Just outside the gate, Grey Wolf was also within walking distance of everywhere in town. The facilities were very nice, the room was great, and they really did their best with breakfast, all things considered during the age of COVID.

For meals, we had a pretty good list of places we wanted to try, but lines and seasonal closures shortened our list a bit.

Wild West Pizzeria - We went here twice, once to dine in and once for take out, it was pretty darn good. They’ve got a pretty big menu that, sadly, we didn’t explore much beyond the pizza. Their wine and beer selection was pretty large. We also tried Rainier beer for the first time. We didn’t actually know that was a real beer, just thought it was made up for the show Longmire.

The Buffalo Bar - Seems like a solid local establishment, it wasn’t too long of a wait to be seated. The menu was pretty big, we had the Chicken Friend Steak and the Nachos. The beer menus was quite varied too and they offered flights which made it all the better.

Canyon Street Grill - We wanted to go to Firehole Bar-B-Que Co. but they were closed for the season. We tried to eat at Beartooth Barbecue instead, but it’s a small place and the front of the line never seemed to arrive. Our next choice was the 50’s era diner across the street that was a fun little stop. The food was good, they had hand made milk shakes, and the décor was a fun trip into an Elvis movie.

Running Bear Pancake House - We didn’t do breakfast all that often on this trip, but we wanted to try a few places, because this is vacation after all. Their seating was limited because of COVID, but the wait wasn’t that long. The food was great and the menu really made it hard to choose any one thing.

Overall, our experience in Yellowstone was pretty amazing. The park was everything we read about, the restaurants were very good, our hotel was great, all-in-all, this was an excellent experience. We think we saw all there was to see, and if we come back, it’ll be to take the slow route, spending entire days in certain areas of the park to see what we may have missed if we could’ve added a little patience.