A place which I can call beautiful and bizarre at the same time is Yellowstone National park. The park is a volcanic hot-spot with hot springs, geysers, acidic pools, mud pots, fumaroles and others. It would be best to say that one can experience half of the world’s geothermal features in this park. Interestingly, the moment you feel that’s the only thing the park has to offer, it surprises you with impressive view of canyons, gushing rivers, breathtaking waterfalls, sub-alpine forests, larger than life lakes and lively meadows. That’s not all, Yellowstone is a home to many wildlife like Grizzly bears, Elk, Moose, Otters, Snakes, Big horns, Bison, wolves, coyotes and many many kind of birds.
Yellowstone and the Wild Life
Yellowstone national park is the first National park in the US. The park is located north of the Grand Teton National park in Wyoming, US and spreads into parts of Montana and Idaho, US. The park is huge and has approx 3,500 square miles of area.
We chose to follow the Yellowstone in anti clockwise manner based on weather forecast and that we wanted to include Beartooth pass in our trip. I started my trip to Yellowstone from Colter Bay village, Grand Teton National park on Memorial day of 2017. Here is my 4 day Itinerary of Yellowstone National Park –
Day 1 – Colter Bay Village – West thumb – Canyon Village
We stayed the earlier night at Canyon Village Campground at GTNP. Before wrapping up from here, I prepared a quick breakfast and packed it for to go. Once we were ready to begin our journey, our first stop was Lake view Picnic Area. This is a great place to have a breakfast along the Jackson Lake with stunning backdrop of Northern Range of Teton.
Northern Teton Range
The south entrance of Yellowstone still had snow covered mountains and frozen water bodies. Wonderful.
Lewis Lake
First thing what I do when I enter a national park is to visit its Visitor Center to get answers to all of my questions related to park roads, best hikes etc. The park rangers were very helpful and nice to answer my questions. If you missed to collect park map at the entrance then this the best place to ask for one. The West Thumb Visitor center is strategically located with a beautiful view of Yellowstone Lake.
Our first encounter with Geyser Basin could not be more scenic. West Thumb Geyser Basin is a small basin with in the park with little of all of the geothermal features that Yellowstone has to offer. The basin is situated by the Yellowstone lake which makes the boardwalk of the West Thumb Geyser Basin more interesting and scenic.
Abyss Pool
Gull Point Drive spurs off the Grand loop road for approx 2 miles and then joins back to the loop. This 2 mile drive is worth it for the views that it provides.
We stopped for lunch @ Lake General Store which again located at a very scenic area overlooking Yellowstone Lake from higher elevation.
Fishing Bay bridge area is another Great spot to sit and relax. We did not spend much time here and moved forward to Lehardys rapids. Lehardys rapids is the spot to look for impressive white water rush in Yellowstone River especially in late spring and early summer, when snow melts run off at its best. I have not spotted any wildlife in this area but they say during summer you can spot Bears catching Trouts.
Moving towards north, our next stop was mud volcano to the left. The first way in is the “exit only” from the mud Volcano Parking Area and the second one is the entrance. Be cautious while you take left to the entrance from the Grand loop road.
I have seen mud volcanoes before but honestly nothing like this huge. Begin the boardwalk from left of the parking lot which provide easy hike. The best attraction for me was the dragon’s Mouth spring. It looks like a small cave opening from where boiling water zaps out, steam flows upwards from within. It’s because of the bizarre noises that it emits from its small cave like opening which makes it sounds like dragon’s roar.
Left- Mud Volcano, Right- Dragon’s mouth spring
Sulphur caldron overlook is right across the road from mud volcano parking lot. This area stinks acidic :0) I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to look for, However it was a good place to spot bisons from above.
Now this was time when we needed heavenly natural landscape like artist point to calm down and absorb the natures wonder and knowledge that gained earlier 😀
Artist Point
We did a quick drive to Upper and lower falls before reaching to Canyon Village for a night stay. Its end of May and Canyon Village Campground has snow, a lot of snow. Carrying a shovel would be great at this season. Campsite rate was $34/Night including showers.
Day 2 – Canyon Village – Lamar Valley – Beartooth Pass
Lamar Valley is one of the gem of Yellowstone. This is the place with great photo opportunity to capture herd of Bison. We spotted an otter too while driving through the valley.
Lamar Valley
Our trip included scenic drive of Bear tooth Highway and to be honest that’s the surprise packet of the visit. I knew its one of the coolest scenic pass but didn’t imagine it to be so amazing at this time of the year when the pass has just opened from its winter sleep.
Beartooth Lake
The pass was full of scenic overlooks, we stopped almost at all the overlooks and enjoyed the snow near top of the world. Initially our plan was to go back to the Yellowstone by evening but we enjoyed the snow here so stayed back at Parkside Campground, Custer Gallatin National Forest. Rate $17/Night, No showers.
Honestly, Its fairly easy to drive through the Beartooth pass and come back to the park the same day. It was our personal choice to stay back so as to get more time with Snow in clear weather. If I was to come back to the park same day then my alternate plan was to stay either at tower falls or Mammoth Springs.
Day 3 – Beartooth Pass – Mammoth Hot Springs – Norris – Madison
Our campsite at Parkside campground was right beside a river which made the stay amazingly peaceful and serene. In the morning, moose visited our campsite.
Parkside Campground, Custer Gallatin National Forest
We started at 9 AM and drove towards the park. Once we were done driving through the Lamar Valley, a small Detour from grand loop road will take you to parking lot of Petrified tree. If you really wish to see one petrified tree standing upright then its an OK stop. This is worth to note that parking area is abysmal and road is narrow to turn around.
The next stop was Forces of the Northern range, a trail of 0.7 miles with interpretive displays of how the forest fires, geothermal activities and glaciers has taken part to shape the landscape of Yellowstone with diverse and extreme features. It was too hot for a hike with no shades.
Once we were done with the trail we did a quick stop and short hike to Wraith falls and Undine falls.
The next big thing for me was to walk through lower and upper mammoth hot spring area. This is natures bizarre yet beautiful and crazy sight. I kept wondering how these extreme features are co existing with other heavenly and soft natural landscapes. This is one of the favorite spot in the park. The geology of this area is mind blowing and the beauty enhances with backdrop mountains. Go, see it yourself because no words can give you the idea of what to expect. Between we spotted a rattle snake here 😀
Upper Mammoth Spring
The day was long but full of scientific refresher of what we learned in schools. 🙂 Our next major stop was Porcelain basin in Norris Area, its an unparalleled world altogether. I am not sure how to describe it, You have to see it to actually believe it. It looked like an artists canvas with strange, soft and random combination of colors and thus the name Porcelain basin. The twist to the canvas is live fumes and steam vents with bizarre noises.
Porcelain Spring
We continued our Journey towards Madison campground and on the way we stopped at Artist paint pots, Monument Geyser Basin, Beryl Spring and Gibbon Falls. The campsite rate at Madison Campground, Yellowstone National Park is $27, No Shower. Nearest shower is at Old Faithful Inn @ 4.25 per person
Day 4 – Madison – Old faithful – Mesa Falls
I am already little sad that today is the last day of my wonderful journey. However I smiled and got ready to witness the Parks most famous Geyser “The Old Faithful”. We started from Madison, took the scenic drive towards the Old Faithful region via Fire-hole Falls. There is a spot where swimming is allowed so keep an eye. This drive is serene at this time of the morning hours.
We drove straight to the Midway Geyser Basin. The parking lot was of decent but very busy. We had to wait for a while to get a spot. The Grand Prismatic Spring was the highlight of this boardwalk. The colors that the pool imparts (because of the thermophiles) were absolute gorgeous. It was little hard for me to get that perfect picture but again no photo can do the justice either.
Grand Prismatic Springs
Another impressive attraction for me from this area was how awesomely spring water was flowing into the firehole river. Afterwards, we did quick stops at Biscuit and Black Sand Basin and then started the drive towards The Old Faithful Inn. When We reached to the Inn Parking lot, We noticed that people have already gathered around the area and realized the geyser is about to erupt. I took all my camera gear and captured a spot with clear view and started counting. In ten minutes here We go, witnessing the Iconic “The Old Faithful Geyser”
The geyser was discovered in 1870 and more than 1,000,000 eruptions have been recorded so far. Its Iconic so its definitely worth a visit.
The Old faithful Geyser
Afterwords we visited the famous Old Faithful Inn for a nice hot shower and then to the lunch buffet at the restaurant. Later we drove through fire hole lake road to view few more geyser eruption.
Finally it was time to say good Bye to the Beautiful and Bizarre Yellowstone. 🙂 We made sure to stop at Mesa falls on the way back to Salt Lake City.
*Each of these vista points has nicely maintained boardwalk, be prepared for a good walk. It was hot, so wear comfortable cloths, hat, sunglasses, apply suns cream and keep a water bottle in your bag.
I was totally satisfied with my Vacation, it was refreshing, exciting, adventurous and heavenly. I absolutely loved the park in this season, with a little planning and tracking the weather can make your trip wonderful.
Make the memories 🙂
Cheers!