Yellowstone. The nation’s first National Park. The world’s first national park. The quintissential national park. Established in 1872, Yellowstone is a mix of forests, canyons, geothermal features, and wildlife. It takes up a decent chunk of Wyoming, as well as small parts of Idaho and Montana, in its nearly 3.5 thousand square mile area. Many of the geological features were created by the supervolcano on which the park sits, although erosion caused by rivers has contributed to other features like the canyons. It has a long and storied history that includes volcanic activity, native american inhabitation, and recreation. Yellowstone is a national park that everyone should see in their life if they’re able.
Joe hadn’t yet visited Yellowstone. Even if it didn’t turn out to be his favorite (since Yosemite was so easy to access from San Francisco that he’d gone multiple times), it was still something I was excited to get to experience with him.
My family had two memorable Yellowstone trips when I was younger, one in 2006 when I was in middle school and one im 2017, right after I’d graduated college.
The first trip, we’d stayed just outside the park. We kept track of all the animals we saw, and we caught sight of a baby bear and two wolves interacting with each other (from a great distance, borrowing some nice person’s binoculars) on our very last exit from the park. During the trip, we’d hiked and seen old faithful and did a guided stargazing experience at night.
The second trip, we flew into and out of Jackson and did a couple days in the park before I left for my master’s degree in Ireland. It was the last family vacation we went on while my dad was still fully healthy. I think because I had just graduated college, nostalgia for vacations like that permiated the trip even before we knew what the next few years would bring.
Joe and I had vaguely planned out the things we wanted to see up until that point in the trip. But we genuinely didn’t know how long we’d want to spend in Yellowstone, so the remainder of our trip was extremely up in the air. In the end, we spent three full days in the park, arriving on the night of the 17th and leaving the morning of the 21st.
August 18th began with a 9AM boat ride. When Joe and I had booked our campsite, we considered the add-ons offered and thought it would be cool to take a boat ride on Yellowstone Lake, the largest high-elevation lake in North America. It sits right on the south-eastern part of the Yellowstone Caldera, the circular depression into which the volcano collapsed after it erupted. Luckily, our campsite was located right next to the boat’s departure location, so we were there in plenty of time. With the size of the park and the layout of the roads, it can take multiple hours to get to a location if you’re on the complete opposite side of the park.
The boat ride was great. I love a boat, and this guided tour started our trip to the park off with plenty of base-line information that gave us context to understand all the rest of the things we saw. The tour guide talked about geology, but also about the history of the park and lake, lakeside architecture, and the efforts to control an invasive species of trout. We saw a shipwreck on an island, geysers in the distance, and caught sight of our first new species of the trip, a Bald Eagle.
After the boat ride, we returned to our campsite to make sure everything was settled. Since we were staying in the same place the entire time, we left our tent set up. But we still needed to ensure that we’d properly packed everything away in the bear boxes and that we had the layers we might need for the changing temperatures throughout the day.
Then we set off on our adventure. First, we drove a short way to a pebble beach called Pumice Point.
We continued on our drive until reaching the first geothermal stop of the day: West Thumb Geyser Basin. We walked on the boardwalks thorugh the geyser basin, Joe’s first hint at the craziness that is Yellowstone. This particular geothermal area is situated right next to the lake, so we were also able to see the features that were right beside, or even sometimes within, the lake.
After wrapping up at West Thumb Geyser Basin, we turned onto the path toward Old Faithful. The geyser really earns its name. Old Faithful Geyser is one of six geysers that the rangers can predict. It is so consistent that the geyser goes off on average every 102 minutes (+/- 10 minutes). We rushed past some of the stops that we could’ve took along the drive because we were running up on the early end of the prediction.
And we were luckly to have rushed. We’d just found parking, grabbed our lunch from the car, and settled down to wait when the geyser began erruption. It averages 130 feet, and a massive viewing area has been built between the lodging structures in the area for people to watch. We finished watching the geyser and settled down to eat. But I saw what looked like Old Faithful errupting again. We stood up and relocated and realized that it was not, in fact, Old Faithful, but another one of the geysers in the geothermal complex behind it. We finished watching the eruption, then finally ate our lunch, then started on a hike through the area.
We ran into quite a few geysers during our hike, but we also found colorful pools, steam vents, and the beginnings of some steeped terraces.
As we walked, it started to rain. After the previous day’s lightening-filled storms, we were nervous about the possibility of lightening, so we walked faster. But by that point, we were far enough into the hike that continuing on would’ve made as much sense and taken as much time as turning back, so we pushed forward. Thankfully, lightening never came. But the rain did. I’d had the foresight to bring two ponchos, so we eventually threw those on. Not, however, before seeing the eruption of a different geyser, one of the other six that the rangers can somewhat accurately predict.
We finished off the hike wet, but we’d taken just enough time that it was almost time for Old Faithful to errupt once more. We waited in the rain, almost giving up a few times. Joe protected my legs, and he was significantly wetter than I was. But, right as we were about to give up, a rainbow appeared. Then a second. And, if you really squinted, a third. We were seeing a triple rainbow. And then, before the rainbows had fully faded, Old Faithful began to errupt.
This trip was full of frustrations. High stress from getting places just before they closed, meals at odd times to prioritize the activities, driving a car that I’m not fully comfortable with. But, just like with the meteror showers, there were also these little moments of absolute magic. The rainbow aliging with the erruption could not have occurred if the storm hadn’t passed through and gotten everyone and everything really wet.
Afterwards, we dried off and got ice cream. Because when things are going good, you make them better with ice cream. That’s just the rule!
We caught a beautiful view of the sunset on the lake, arguably one of the better ones on the trip.
Then we went back to the campsite, cooked a meal on the portable stove, and played more Magic: The Gathering.
The next day, Joe’s priorities was getting access to wifi so he could sign up for his classes. But first, we stopped at a general store, concidentally a location that the tour guide had talked about on the boat. In particular, the guide spoke about the chandelier.
From there, we drove toward Canyon Village through Hayden Valley, which is the location of a heard of up to 1,300 bison. This first time we passed through and stumbled onto the buffalo crossing the road, it was charming. I’d warned Joe that if there were a bunch of cars slowed down, it probably meant wildlife of some sort. In this instance, the cars were completely stopped on the road as the buffalo crossed from one side to the other. Some of them crossed exceedingly close to our car, nearly too close for my comfort even protected within the metal box.
We finally managed to pass the bison, stopping at the Mud Volcano hike and Sulphur Caldron turnout. This was the first area in Yellowstone where we saw mudpots, an entirely different manifestation of geothermal activity. During our walk, a couple of the buffalo crossed the road ahead of us. We could hear them and see their shadows as they rushed over the ridge to our left. Then, we saw them peaking out of the trees as they ran forward past us. We checked with all the hikers coming toward us, making sure they were okay, and they said that they’d all been startled because the buffalo had from their vantage point seemingly come up out of nowhere and ran across the path. Later, we came upon a few of them by the geyers up above, but we weren’t sure if they were the same buffalo who had been running or another set entirely.
The Sulphur Caldron was a shorter stop, on the other side of the road. This was the most acidic hot springs in Yellowstone, and as it was right off the road it was well worth the short stop. We marvelled at how different the features could be, even just from across the road to where we were.
At that point, it was nearly lunch time, so Joe and I decided to postpone our arrival at Canyon Village until lunchtime. We instead turned right before the exit, choosing to see the south side of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The Yellowstone river carved out the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone hundreds of thousands of years ago. The canyon has steep walls, and we were able to see both the upper and lower falls during our drive and short walks around the viewpoints. We parked first at the Upper Falls View and walked down to a secondary viewpoint. On the walk back up, we stumbled onto a pair of marmots. We were enamored, and we spent more time than anticipated just watching them.
From there, we drove to Artist Point. We could see more views of the canyon from this point, as well as catching views of the lower falls. But by then we were getting hungry, so we finally headed towards Canyon Village.
The location had multiple resturants, shops, and a visitor’s center. First, we ate. Then, we went on a mission to find wifi. I walked to the visitor’s center while Joe tried to get connected at the resturant. Unfortunately, the wifi wasn’t great at either place, so after a bit of trying, we gave up.
We forewent the north rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone for the moment, instead opting to get all the way up to the north end of the park to see if the wifi was any better there. We did make a few stops at viewpoints along the way, both to catch sight of more animals and to appreciate the view. One stop was at the Calcite Springs Overlook, where we could see some more volcanic and geologic features alongside a farther north section of the Yellowstone river. Another was to see a petrified redwood tree. A third time, we stopped to watch a moose and her baby in a field. But we really prioritized reaching Mammoth, where the north gate and another visitor center were.
We managed to get there with plenty of time for Joe to complete his tasks. Unfortunately, the wifi in the visitor’s center was temporarily unavailable, but there was good enough service that his hotspot did the trick. While he worked, I first visited the visitor’s center and then dragged him along with me so I could eat more ice cream (the priority) and dinner (less of a priority, but I was running up on capacity for the camping foods Joe brought). We watched some magpies from out the window and I was able to call my sister while Joe finished up.
From there, we headed to the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces. These travertine terraces were formed from limestone Our timing coincided with a ranger talk, so we stayed for a bit of that before wandering through the terraces.
By then, it was 7:30PM, and we knew we’d have to drive back to our campsite, a nearly two-hour drive. The second time we were stopped by the buffalo that day in Hayden Valley was less charming. It was close to 9PM by then, and we still wanted to have a campfire that night because it was the first day it had been fully dry and despite the backpacking trips we’ve gone on, we’ve never stayed in areas that allow campfires. We got back eventually, though, and had our fire going by 9:30PM. Another night of games, and we now had a clear plan of how much more time we’d need in the park.
Our third day was essentially catching all the stuff we’d missed in our first two. Between rushing to Old Faithful and Rushing to Mammoth, we’d skipped a few things along the way. Our goal was to finish the lower left side of the driving route, the one section we hadn’t yet driven through, in addition to hitting any of those stops we’d missed. In particular, our goal was the Great Prysmatic Spring that, along with Old Faithful, really visually represents the park.
We woke and started our day, catching view of the same boat out on the water that we’d taken a few days prior.
We crossed the continental dive, then drove to a different set of falls, the Kepler Cascades, on the way to Old Faithful.
After that, we made our way past Old Faithful to Black Sand Basin. This area, close to the Upper Geyser Basin housing the geysers we’d seen a few days ago, was a quick stop containing just a few geysers, including the Emerald Pool, Green Spring, Whistle Geyser, Rainbow Pool, Handkerchief Pool, and Pentagonal Spring. One of the geysers went off every few minutes, and we were able to see it spouting on both entrance and exit.
Finally, we arrived at the Midway Geyser Basin, where the Great Prysmatic Spring and other geothermal features were congregated. It was the first time we really ran into the caliber of crouds I remembered from my first trip. We had to park a decent distance away and walk. There were rivulets of hot spring water flowing down into the large river at the base of the trail. Once we reached the trailhead, we continued on the boardwalk past the multiple pools in the area. We stopped first at the crystal-clear blue water of the Excelsior Geyser.
Then we proceeded to the Grand Prismatic Spring. The Grand Prismatic Spring is Yellowstone’s largest hot spring, and one of its most colorful. Blues, yellows, and oranges give the hydrothermal pool its name.
We stopped at the remaining features before completing the trail.
At this point, we were worn down from the travel. We drove a bit farther, then stopped at Fountain Flats Drive. Joe lay down for a rest in a field overlooking the river, and I spent the time watching the birds in the area.
From there, we decided to take a hike at the trailhead not far from the field. The trail only went to a campsite, but we figured it was a good length and it would be good to stretch our legs. It was the first true hike we’d done in Yellowstone just for the sake of hiking, and we wandered through grassy fields. Along the way, we ran across a geothermal site right next to a river. We also caught sight of some geese and a heron.
After the hike was finished, we hopped back in the car and continued our loop around the lower half of the loop. Some of the stops to round out the lower-left segmetn were visiting two separate waterfalls on scenic drives, two seemingly semi-dormant hot springs on a short boardwalk-paved stroll, and walking through the mudpots at the Artist’s Paintpot trail.
Although we’d driven on the Norris Canyon Road, the road that cuts through the center of the larger loop and connects Canyon Village to the west side of the park, it had been getting late the night before and we’d opted not to stop. We made those stops now, stopping to take photos periodically. We grabbed dinner at Canyon Village and headed back to our tent. We planned to pack up and leave the next morning, continuing on our journey eastward.
