Yellowstone National Park
On Day 11 of our national park road trip, we left Grand Teton National Park and headed to Yellowstone. We arrived in Yellowstone National Park through the South Entrance.
We entered Yellowstone by using my America the Beautiful Pass. To read about the America the Beautiful Pass, click here.
We stopped at the Grant Village General Store to get a bite to eat. Even though it was June, we got our first glimpse of snow. The General Store had a wide selection of gifts, souvenirs, clothes, supplies, groceries and a restaurant called Grant Village Grill.
While driving on Grand Loop Road, we learned right away that when you see cars stopped on the road and cars pulled off along side the road, get your camera ready because you’re about to see some wildlife.
Once traffic started moving again, we saw our first buffalo at Yellowstone.
Right before we crossed into Montana, we got our fist glimpse of a buffalo herd.
We exited Yellowstone National Park and went to our hotel in West Yellowstone, Montana. We stayed in a cabin at Hibernation Station. It was a great place to stay.
After getting settled into our cabin, we went to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center, which was about 2 minutes from our cabin. Admission to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center is $16.50 for adults, $15.50 for seniors, $11.50 for children and children under the age of 4 are free. Admission is good for 2 days. This was an incredible place.
The Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center was incredible. It is a not-for-profit wildlife park with grizzly bears, wolves, ground squirrels, otters, and eagles. We loved it all, but the bears were majestic and entertaining. We could have watched them play for hours.
We left the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center and went to dinner at Wild West Pizzeria & Saloon in West Yellowstone. We had a great meal and enjoyed the atmosphere.
After dinner we walked around West Yellowstone and did some shopping. My favorite place was Rustic Candy Shop, where I picked up some great homemade fudge.
The next morning we headed back into Yellowstone National Park. Our cabin was about a 2 minute drive from the west entrance. Our fist stop was the Midway Geyser Basin Trail and the Excelsior Geyser Crater.
We followed the boardwalk trail to the Grand Prismatic Spring. It was a pretty chilly day so we saw more colored steam than the actual spring. It was beautiful.
We continued on the trail and saw the Opal Pool and Turquoise Pool.
Leaving the Midway Geyser Basin, we saw another solo buffalo by the road.
We headed to Old Faithful. Old Faithful erupts around 20 times a day, approximately once every 90 minutes. There are signs located throughout the park with the time estimates for that day. You can also go to geysertimes.org to get geyser predictions, you can call (307) 344-2751 where you will hear a recording of predicted times for the day, or you can download the NPS App. If you plan on using the NPS App, be sure to download the app and save for offline use since cell reception is unreliable within Yellowstone National Park.
We had some time before Old Faithful was due to erupt so we checked out the surrounding area. We went in the Old Faithful Snow Lodge and Gift Shop and then to the Old Faithful Visitor Center where I got my ink stamp for my National Park Passport Book. To read about the National Park Passport Book, click here. We also went inside the Old Faithful Lodge. I really wanted to stay at the Old Faithful Lodge, but even though I booked our trip abut 7 months in advance, there was no availability at the Lodge.
We headed out to the Old Faithful Observation Point to get a seat and wait for Old Faithful to erupt. There is a lot of seating available, but it fills up fast.
The eruption of Old Faithful was amazing. Since it was a chilly day, we saw more steam than water when it erupted.
Our next stop was Lower Geyser Basin, specifically the Fountain Paint Pot. There are 4 hydrothermal features in Yellowstone and all of them (mud pots, geysers, hot springs, and fumaroles) can be found in this area. The Fountain Paint Pot Trail is a half mile loop along a boardwalk.
We continued back on Grand Loop Road heading back to West Yellowstone when my favorite part of being in Yellowstone happened. We got an up-close view of the herd of buffalo when they crossed the road in front of us.
Most people stayed at a good distance away from the buffalo, but there’s always one idiot in the crowd.
It was time for us to head back to West Yellowstone after a long, awesome day in the park.
We went to dinner at Slippery Otter Pub in West Yellowstone. It was my favorite meal on the whole trip. We had elk burgers and huckleberry soda.
After dinner we went to the West Yellowstone Rodeo. It was our first rodeo and we loved it!
After the rodeo we grabbed some food and headed back to our cabin for our last night in West Yellowstone.
The next morning we loaded up and headed out of West Yellowstone. We could have spent a week or more in Yellowstone, but we saw everything we wanted to see (except a moose) in the short time we had.
