If you know us, we aren't good in a guided tour. We move quickly. We planned on spending 3 days, but were able to experience Yellowstone in 2 days. We might've stayed longer if it weren't so cold. Night temperatures drop into the teens in late September. Fun fact- the heat pump in the RV doesn't work below 40 degrees! Luckily the furnace, which runs on propane, does. Thank goodness for Google helping us figure this out!
Yellowstone National Park spans 3 states (Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho) and has 5 entrances. If you're into hiking you could definitely spend many days here. It is NOT a dog friendly park with good reason. All of the geothermal features could be very dangerous for a dog, not to mention the wildlife. Poor Lucy had a long two days stuck in the car.
The Grand Loop forms a figure 8. There's the North Loop and the South Loop with the 5 entrance/exit roads branching off of it. Unfortunately, one of the roads in the North Loop that connects the Northeast entrance to the East entrance is closed, so that meant we had to backtrack a bit on the first day.
Day 1 North Loop: We stayed just outside of the West Entrance and headed into the park by 9 am and headed toward the North Loop. The first thing we saw were a lot of geysers!
Beryl Spring- I couldn't find a lot of information on this in the book I had or in the literature they hand out at the entrance, but it was pretty cool looking and one of the only friendly features, but judging by her face, I am not sure she enjoyed it.
Norris Geyser Basin-This is the oldest and hottest thermal basin in Yellowstone. Once you park here, there's a boardwalk that loops through the area where you'll see a ton of thermal features. There's smoke everywhere and there's definitely the smell of sulfur in the air. It's unlike anything I've ever seen before. Probably the coolest thing we saw was Steamboat Geyser. I read that it's the world's tallest active geyser and can shoot water as high as 380 ft. We were lucky enough to be there the day after an active eruption and got to see tons of steam pouring out. Active eruptions can take up to 50 years to happen.
Heading to Mammoth Hot Springs we drove through:
The Hoodoos which are just odd shaped travertine boulders
The Golden Gate Bridge which is a bridge right on the edge of the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff (a 2 million years old sheet of volcanic rock)
Obsidian Cliff which is a 200 foot cliff. Native Americans made arrowhead and spears out of the obsidian.
Roaring Mountain which is a mountain with steam vents along it. They used to be so loud you could hear them several miles away.
Mammoth Hot Springs- there's tons of boardwalks to allow you to see the hot springs. The mountain is constantly changing forcing the boardwalks to be constantly re-routed.
Liberty Cap- an extinct hot spring
Some beautiful fall leaves
The last thing we saw on the North Loop was Artist Point and Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. (See sign for description.) Artist Point was my favorite landscape we saw.
We started to drive through Lamar Valley, but it was quite a few miles with no sign of any animals due to the time of the day, so we turned around and headed back.
Day 2: South Loop
Entering through the West entrance again, we headed out on the South Loop. This is the one I was most looking forward to seeing. The day started with this guy cutting us off.
Once the road cleared, we could again see geysers shooting steam into the morning air. It’s pretty wild to see.
I really wanted to see the Grand Prismatic Spring, but due to the cold morning temperature outside and the heat from the spring all you could see was steam, and you couldn’t really see the colors. I believe there’s a hike up a nearby mountain to get an overhead view, but … yeah… no thanks. Back to the car.
No trip to Yellowstone is complete without seeing Old Faithful. It’s not the biggest geyser, but it’s the most predictable- hence the name. It spouts about every 90 minutes, and Park Rangers can predict its next eruption within 10 minutes. We got there at 11:11 and the sign said next eruption at 11:09. A little worried we missed it, we waited about 5 minutes and got to see it! So, we couldn’t have timed that any better. Then, we took a quick tour of Old Faithful Inn. It’s a huge log cabin type building. Pretty neat looking.
Driving around Yellowstone Lake you’ll see tons of mini pools. My favorite was the Fishing Cone. Legend says that fishermen would catch a fish in the lake and dip it in the hole to cook the fish. You could catch and cook without ever taking it off the line. It’s obviously no longer allowed IF it was even true.
We headed out the South Entrance and within 10 miles you’re in Grand Teton National Park!
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