Yellowstone!
This is the third post in the Yellowstone | Tetons trip series. It's a long one, I hope you enjoy.
We left Billings in heavy rain, part of a large weather system descending upon Montana and Wyoming from the northwest. Instead of taking the shorter route west to Bozeman and then south, we headed south at Livingston on 89 to try to avoid the incoming weather and driving in snow with the trailer. While the drive through this valley into the North entrance is beautiful, NOTHING is set up for parking with a trailer. We had to drive right by Mammoth Hot Springs continuing on the Grand Loop road to West Yellowstone, then north to drop off Minnie at the campground on the shores of Hebgen Lake. Beautiful spot, with large sites. After setting up we went back into the park to see a few sights before nightfall.
As I was researching for our trip I must have read that Yellowstone is big about 30 times. It's not big - it's huge. One thing that helped with planning our sightseeing was to take the three days in Yellowstone and break up the Roadtrippers route by day. This helped us make sure we had plenty of time at the sites that warranted it, as well as ensure we hit all of the spots along the way.
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| Drive from Billings, first day of sightseeing (bunched up around #5) |
Driving back into Yellowstone from the campground via the west entrance to one of the first features we targeted for the day, Gibbon Falls is 33 miles, but took over an hour to drive. Gibbon Falls is beautiful set of gently cascading falls right off the Grand Loop road. Parking was limited (a common occurrence in the park!) but we did find a spot. The wind was 25-30 MPH with gusts much higher, helped by the canyons that surround the falls. We also witnessed a coyote holding up traffic to 'relieve' himself on the road.
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| Gibbon Falls, from above |
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Gibbon Falls, looking up the falls
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| When you gotta go... |
Next up, Beryl Springs, again right off Grand Loop. It was our first experience with a spring - it's not a huge feature but interesting not only to look at but also to hear and smell the sulfur of course!
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| Beryl Spring |
We then made a stop at the Artists Paint Pots and took a leisurely stroll. The features here again are not large - but the variety of colors and bubbling, burping, rumbling and gurgling from the paint pots was definitely interesting. During our stroll in this area, the snowflakes began to fall. Mind you this was Labor Day weekend!
The weather front we attempted to outrun had caught up to us, and the winds howled and rocked our trailer that first night in the Yellowstone area. They also prevented us from grilling, so we decided to grab a bite at Bullwinkle's Saloon - highly recommend! At night we stayed nice and warm, with the built in furnace and a space heater we picked up in Billings just in case, and a few extra blankets. FYI if you're in an RV and you expect freezing overnight, either shut off the water and detach your hoses or leave the grey line open and allow your water to drip overnight. This maintains a continuous water stream and avoids freezing, unless it gets really cold then best to unplug.
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| Labor Day storm impacting MT, WY, and CO from weather.com |
We awoke to a light dusting of snow, cranked up space heater before taking our showers, and took off on our first first full day of driving, starting with the Norris Geyser Basin. Once again, I created a Roadtrippers route for the day, helping us with planning. The further we drove into the park the more snow we saw - they received about 5" overnight. This made for some amazing sights as we strolled through the basin - normally you'd have to brave the park in the winter to see such wonder!
We then headed to the Grand Canyon of The Yellowstone, including the Upper and Lower Falls and Artist Point. Artist Point was originally named in 1883 by Frank Jay Haynes who improperly believed that the point was the place at which painter Thomas Moran sketched his 1872 depictions of the falls. Later work determined that the sketches were made from the north rim, but the name Artist Point stuck. Regardless, the view is simply stunning. It took work to maneuver around the crowds of people trying to see the same view.
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| Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone cliffs |
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| Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone falls |
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| Artist Point |
We continued south through Hayden Valley, a broad sweeping valley where we saw hundreds of bison. After cruising along the shores of Yellowstone Lake, we stopped at West Thumb Geyser Basin. Here we found springs with some of the deepest blues in Yellowstone. Heading back to our campground, looping back west we stopped just in time to see Old Faithful erupt (the Yellowstone NP app provides eruption time estimates). Along the way we encountered two Bison backups...remember to take a bio break before you hit the road!
Our goal on our third day was the Midway and Upper Geyser basins. This route included Old Faithful, but my main target for the day was the Giant Prismatic Spring, which I had been thinking of ever since we started planning this trip. Shortly after entering the west gate of the park, traffic stopped dead. The line of cars in front of us was at least a mile, and went around the corner to the left so no way to even see what was going on. Once traffic finally started moving we figured out what caused it - a large RV that was clearly in an accident was being hauled out of the park past us. Turns out the accident and one hour delay was at Madison Junction - and I can't imagine a worse place for a wreck. But the sights of the day were well worth the wait!
We first took a slight detour off the Grand Loop to view Firehole Canyon Drive - we had passed it during our drive the previous day. The drive is a 2-mile, one-way road (southbound) off the Grand Loop south of Madison. The drive has a beautiful waterfall overlook and swimming area.
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| Firehole Canyon |
Next, Midway Geyser , and again very limited parking. As soon as I saw cars parked off the side of the road, I knew we should just take the first viable spot. The view as you approach a footbridge across Firehole River is of Excelsior Geyser, with a gentle waterfall of orange and green colored rock glistening with hot water. A boardwalk is provided to access and view the area, which includes Giant Prismatic Spring, the Opal Pool, and the Turquoise Pool. In some of the photos of the Giant Prismatic you can see the rainbow of colors in the steam rising from the Spring.
However, you need to drive south a bit to the parking lot for the Fairy Falls hike and take a short 20-min hike to actually view the Giant Prismatic properly (for Fairy Falls you need to continue another hour or so). THIS is what I had been waiting for!
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| View from the Grand Prismatic Overlook Trail |
According to other hikers we talked to that the day, we were there during the best viewing they had seen all week. Depending on the temperature there may be so much steam rising off the water that getting a good look is nearly impossible. We continued south along the Grand Loop to the Upper Geyser Basin, home to 60% of the world's geysers, including of course, Old Faithful. The area around Upper Geyser is the 'hub' of Yellowstone, with a Visitor Center, several shops, Old Faithful Lodge and Old Faithful Inn as well as pools with unbelievable colors. Five of the largest geysers in the Upper Basin are predicted by the Park Rangers. All of these geysers, Castle, Daisy, Grand, Old Faithful and Riverside, are worth seeing but if you can only see one, try to see Grand. In addition to the park ranger predictions, if you see a bunch of people gathered around a geyser - it's a pretty good sign it's about to go, as was the case as we approached Grand Geyser. As with most of the eruptions, it starts with a few blurbs and bubbles, then BOOM water shooting 30-50 feet in the air! Just a few minutes later, as we walked towards Old Faithful, we knew it was about to erupt so set up a classic Tim jump shot...didn't mean to make it look like it was him erupting.
That evening we took a short drive from our campsite to the Happy Hour Bar & Grill for a drink. Beautiful setting off Hebgen Lake, and temps were just right for an outdoor cocktail. Turns out it was "crabby night "and of course we had to partake. We highly recommend, not only for the food but also for the fun atmosphere. What a great way to wrap up our Yellowstone experience!
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| We enjoyed our shrimp and crab dinner on the deck. |
Next up - a short drive to Grand Tetons National Park and a new set of amazing sights.
Have you been to Yellowstone? If not - why not? If yes - what was your favorite memory? Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us.
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