The Ultimate Guide To Yellowstone National Park
Hi everyone! As our first post, we wanted to make sure we write about a place which is very close to our hearts. Yellowstone National Park was the first national park we visited together. It also played a big part in bringing us closer to nature, making us outdoor enthusiasts that we are today!
Our Top Picks
Did You Know?
Yellowstone National Park is the world’s first national park established on March 1, 1872.
Major part of the Park is located in northwestern Wyoming and is over 2 million acres in size.
There are approximately 10,000 geothermal features inside the park, with some 300 Geysers.
Ready to plan your trip - Check out these details!
Day 1
Entering the park from West entrance, we immediately felt transported to a completely different serene world. The Madison River flows alongside the road, encompassing the vast lush green trees around it. There are quite a few turnouts as you drive towards Madison Information Center. We highly recommend stopping at some of them to enjoy great views of the Madison River and you never know who’s waiting to welcome you!
Firehole Falls
Firehole Falls is located on the one-way Firehole Canyon Drive. The falls is very picturesque and spectacular with bright and spouting water flow.
Lower Geyser Basin
The first thing you will notice as you arrive towards the geyser area is the “rotten egg odor“. Geyser emits this stench due to the sulphuric acid and hydrogen sulphide gas present in the geyser themselves. But in some odd way, it just adds to your experience at the park. Even though Lower Geyser Basin had less concentration of geothermal activities, the Fountain Paint Pots and the Leather Pool are geothermal features not to be missed. We easily spent an hour exploring this area, reading about the know-how of geysers, springs and bacteria mat.
Midway Geyser Basin
Park’s popular attraction – Grand Prismatic Spring is located here. Grand Prismatic Spring is the largest hot spring in the Park. Boardwalk around this area includes Turquoise Pool, Opal Pool, and the noteworthy Excelsior Geyser which continuously pours ~4000 gallons of hot water per minute into the Firehole River.
Grand Prismatic Spring Overview Trail
The views of Grand Prismatic Spring from the boardwalk is obscured due to its sheer size. So, we recommend everyone to hike Grand Prismatic Spring Overview trail. The hike is 1.2 miles out and back. We parked at the Fairy Falls parking lot which is 1 mile south of Midway Geyser. The views of the Grand Prismatic Spring from the overlook point is totally breathtaking. We will let the below picture to speak for itself!
Mesmerizing and dramatic views of the spring atop a hill
Biscuit Basin
After the jaw-dropping Grand prismatic Spring Overlook trail, we headed towards the Biscuit Basin. Board walking along this basin, we saw a couple of pools – Black Opal Pool and Sapphire Pool. The colors at Sapphire Pool are intensely blue and yet so vibrant.
Upper Geyser Basin
Home to the most visited and one of the best attraction of the park – Old Faithful Geyser.
As part of the Upper Geyser Basin tour, the first thing we did was to grab some good seats to view the Old Faithful Geyser eruption. We had to wait roughly 30 minutes to view the Old Faithful Geyser Eruption, but it was worth the wait.
Old Faithful Geyser in action
We spent some time inside the Old Faithful Education Visitor Center, learning about the different facets of the Park. After gathering some information from the visitor center, we decided to walk the Continental Divide Trail and catch the Grand Geyser, Castle Geyser and Grotto Geysers in action before calling it a day.
Grand Geyser in action
Day 2
As early birds, we started our Day 2 at the break of the dawn. To get a bird’s-eye view of the Old Faithful geyser’s massive steam engine, we began with a hike of “Observation Point Trail”.
Observation Point Trail
The trailhead is about 0.3 miles along the Old Faithful boardwalk from the visitor center in a counter-clockwise direction. Turn right on the Geyser hill sign and continue towards the bridge over the Firehole River. This trail is 1.6 miles out and back with few switchbacks up the hill. Once you reach the hill, you will see some spectacular distant views of Old Faithful Geyser eruptions.
On our way back we walked around the Upper Geyser Hill Trail catching more geysers in action like Vault Geyser, Depression Geyser, Plume Geyser before heading back towards Old Faithful viewing area via Upper Geyser Basin Trail.
Hayden Valley
Hayden Valley has beautiful grassland landscapes all around with some amazing wildlife to enjoy. At the south end of the Hayden Valley we made quick stops to view:
Hayden Valley grasslands with distant view of Geysers
Le Hardy’s Rapids: The dramatic and gushing flow of the Yellowstone River is marvelous to look at. We were also able to capture “Bald Eagle” soaring in the sky.
Mud Volcano: On the boardwalk here, you will notice an array of mud-pots, fumaroles, and hot springs. A special mention to an appropriately named The Dragon Mouth Spring which not only makes a roaring sound but also breathes smoke out.
Grand Canyon Of Yellowstone National Park
Yes, you read it right! Yellowstone is not only about geysers and hot springs, but it also has this entire canyon range with some amazing waterfalls and hikes. The canyon is twenty miles long, 4,000-feet wide and 1,200-feet deep in some places. The Lower Falls plunges steeply into the canyon 308 feet and the Upper Falls tumbles 109 feet.
We first took the South Rim Drive and made our stop for Upper Falls View. The next stop was at the Artist Point. This point has been aptly named since we saw one of the most spectacular views of the canyons and the waterfalls. This entire section of the park is uniquely different than the geothermal areas we visited the day before.
Tip: Get to the canyon early or late in the day to avoid crowds.
Uncle Tom’s Trail
A visit to this area of the park is not complete without Uncle Tom’s Trail. This trail leads you to the base of Lower Falls. The trail consists of over 300 steel steps and you get to see some electrifying views of the Lower falls in this roughly 1-mile round trip hike. The waterfall was pounding the rocks with its majestic flows and we were able to witness a rainbow as we were descending the steel staircase.
After the South Rim Drive, we headed towards North Rim Drive. In the North Rim Drive, we stopped at the Lookout Point, from where you can see both the Falls and some amazing views of the canyons.
Tower Roosevelt Area
The first point where we stopped was Washburn Hot Springs Overlook. From there as we were driving towards Tower falls, we made frequent stops to check out the Antelope Creek Valley which is the prime grizzly bear country. Though we were not able to spot any grizzly bears, we saw some more elks, bison and pronghorns grazing in the grasslands. We made a quick stop to check the Tower Fall.
Lamar Valley
This area is considered as the “Paradise for Wildlife Viewing” in the park. We spent some of our best times in the park at Lamar Valley. As we entered into Lamar Valley, we immediately came across the largest herd of Bisons and Pronghorns on both sides of the road in the vast green and yellow fields. We took our time to capture these majestic mammals in their natural habitats. Noticing people with huge telescopic lenses and scouting something far in the valley, we pulled over and to our surprise, we were able to catch a glimpse of a pack of five black wolves with our binoculars.
Majestic Bisons in Lamar Valley
As we drove towards Lake Village area, the sun was setting in the background painting the sky with beautiful colors near Hayden Valley. After an appetizing meal at the Lake Village area, we called it a day and took all the amazing moments especially gorgeous Lamar Valley with us to good night sleep.
Day 3
West Thumb Geyser Basin
Our Day started with the self-guiding boardwalk tour of the West Thumb Geyser Basin area. In the midst of the calm waters of the Yellowstone Lake, it was really fascinating to find geysers and springs bubbling around us. From this spot, one can experience the sheer size of Yellowstone Lake. We were also lucky to see some more elks in this area.
Striking, charming and pretty Yellowstone Lake Area
Norris Geyser Basin
Norris Geyser Basin is among the park’s hottest, most acidic hydrothermal areas. We spent two hours wandering through the boardwalk areas looking through the Porcelain Basin and Back Basin. We had a great time in this area looking at the blue pools surrounded by white rocks.
Mammoth Hot Springs
Located in the northwest part of the National Park, this area is home to more glacial hot springs in the Upper and Lower Terrace Area. The Upper Terrace Area is two miles from the Albright Visitor Center. We did an auto tour of the Upper Terrace Area with few stops along the way at White Elephant Back Springs & Terrace, Angel Terrace, and Bath Lake. Following which we did a boardwalk of the Lower Terrace Areas. This terrace area consists of a lot of Springs like Canary Spring, Cupid Spring, but the main highlight for us was Cleopatra Spring & Terrace and Minerva Spring & Terrace.
Day 4
We woke up to a chilled morning, due to heavy downpour throughout the previous night. With the sudden weather change, we noticed deepened hues, boldness to the scenes and refreshing landscape of the park.
When the rain gods eventually stopped, we continued on our exploration towards the south end of the park.
Lewis Falls
The Lewis Falls can be seen right from the side of the road almost halfway between the south entrance to the park and Grant Village. We stopped for some time admiring the gushing water flow of the falls which drops ~30 feet and the breathtaking scenery captivated us instantly.
Moose Falls & Snake River
We stopped at the turn-out right before the South Entrance of the park to look at the Moose Falls. Driving further we halted at the viewpoint for Snake River. Snake River is one of the largest tributaries of the Columbia River and it is 1078 miles long.
High peaks of Grand Teton National Park greeted us, as we exited the south entrance of the park. An adventure at Yellowstone can be augmented by adding two more days to your trip and experiencing, the Grand Teton National Park.
Stay Tuned for our next blog post, recounting our adventures at Grand Teton National Park!
Thank y’all for taking time out to read our first blog post. We hope this post makes you excited to take a trip to the World’s First National Park!
Please follow us on Instagram to keep getting updates on our latest adventures and blogs.
-
Yellowstone National Park is open all year.
To enjoy the Park to the fullest, plan your visit any time after 2nd week of July. July and August are often crowded. To skip the crowds but still enjoy the views September and early October is ideal.
-
Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC), UT is the closest airport from the West Entrance of the Park.
Yellowstone National Park is so huge that there are five different entrance stations for the Park.
Check out the Park's website for in depth detail about the Directions & Transportation for the Park.
-
Our recommendation is to book a lodge/campground inside the Park. Information for the same can be found here.
Plan and make reservations as far in advance as possible, especially if you are visiting between June-August.
Yellowstone has a good amount of food services in each of the areas of the park along with decent options for vegetarian meals
-
To avoid crowds, we suggest you start your day early.
Wildlife viewing is great during dawn and dusk time. In other words, plan your visits to Hayden and Lamar Valley accordingly.
Add Binoculars to your gear list during your visit to the park.
Spend at least 3-4 days in the Park to enjoy and explore the park’s beauty.
Make sure to stop by at least one of the visitor centers. This gives you a chance to chat with Park Ranger, discover parks resources, understand weather conditions and wildlife viewing areas.
Last but not the least take the Yellowstone Pledge.
