Part 2
Mon:
Missed flight 8am/12pm
We woke up at 6:50am for a 7:50am flight, I didn't have strength to rush to the flight so I called alaska airlines got through to them with in a minute and in no time we were on the 12pm flight for no extra cost but thanks to alaska status.
The flight was delayed an hour and uneventful,
We arrived in Bozeman, went to the hertz counter paid a little more to upgrade to a Cadillac escalade and we were on our way to the north entrance of yellowstone, the drive was amazing itself with beautiful scenery as well as wildlife such as elk, bighorn, bald eagles and a owl.
Once we got into the park the wildlife got more abundant.
drive from bozeman to yellowstone
It was only a few minutes into lamar valley that there was a small jam for 3 grizzly bears not that far away, another few min was a black bear and a cub in very close proximity, we drove some a little more spotted another black bear in the mountains from far and a lot of bison and pronghorn antelope, when we turned around we saw one of the most beautiful sunsets.
On our way to our air b&b in island park idaho we watched another bear a few feet from our car & also saw some foxes along the way. Another moment was when the road around the Norris area was full of steam giving us very low visibility for a few seconds.
mammoth area
our 1st bison
elk
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lamar valley
grizzly with 2 cubs at blacktail ponds
black bear with cub
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bison in lamar
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pronghorn
bear from far
beautiful sunset in lamar
night drive
house
Tues:
We left to the west entrance at about 11:00 the weather was beet. 30-40
And some places it was snowing, I had watched videos online of crazy lines in the w entrance but surprisingly we were the only car there.
Our 1st stop was fountain paint pots
fountain paint pots
after we headed to an almost empty old faithful parking lot.
old faithful
We then hiked around the Biscuit basin the highlight was there was a little puddle (hot spring) in the parking lot that let off a cute little show, it's one of the amazing thing about yellowstone that I love that there is just so much going on everywhere you look there's more waiting to entertain you.
biscuit basin
We then went to the grand prismatic springs and walked around the boardwalk, when it's colder the steam is much heavier than in hotter weather, still spectacular but a lot of steam
grand prismatic springs
firehole river
osprey
excelsior geyser
grand prismatic spring
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We then went to the grand canyon of the yellowstone the drive there was uneventful we arrived at artist point for ourselves, it's about a 2 min walk on a paved trail to get to the lookout, the canyon and the falls took our breath away we stayed and enjoyed the beauty for some time we started heading back to the lot when we stopped as there was a loud noise coming our way, frozen we watched as a dozen bison stampede just feet away from us on the trail we were about to walk on, we were literally frozen in our place contemplating what to do next as we didn't want to get too close to them, it was about 2 minutes and sure enough they were back running on the trail, one even stopped and stared at us for a bit and than continued on with the others, when we couldn't hear them we ran for the parking lot, we met a group of people who said they watched the bison run around the lot and go back towards the trail, it was nature at its best.
grand canyon of yellowstone artist point
bison stampede
We then continued through hayden valley, the river, mountains and snow made a very pretty picture, a lot more bison, big birds of which I don't know what they were doing jumping up and down,
We stopped at the mud volcano again almost to ourselves,
hayden valley
mud volcano
some sort of birds
bison in hayden valley
We continued on our way and made a quick detour to Gibbon falls
gibbon falls
on our way out of the park we saw a jam along the Madison River it was a light brown black bear 🤔 across the river about 20 feet away, the bear was peacefully munching when someone screamed wolf on the right but it was false alarm 2 coyotes were sprinting in the direction of the bear at full speed,
But the bear was gone, it was high up in one of the trees, the coyotes hung around a bit and left, and then the bear came sliding down the tree.
The day was getting late, and once out of the park the snow was coming down heavy making the drive a little difficult but wasn't long before we were back at the air b&b
bear at the madison river
coyotes
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down from the tree
Wed- grand tetons:
We left the house late morning,
Normally after may 10th you can cut through yellowstone but It was only may 9th so we had to take the longer route, The drive from island park idaho to Jackson Wyoming was supposed to be a nice drive but for us it was just fog (we were nervous that the tetons would be the same but the weather said it was clear there) we reached the teton pass it started getting a little clearer there was still a lot of snow on the ground in the pass so we enjoyed watching people ski down the mountains it's not something you see everyday people zooming down the mountains right next to a highway, we hit Jackson hole at about early afternoon And passed through the city.
Our 1st stop was the elk refuge. We got to see many elk, and many bighorn sheep along with their newborns, at one point I stopped to take some pictures of them just beside the road when a bunch of them crowded around the car and started picking the tires, I couldn't drive away until a women came out of her car and showed them away from the car and then giving us a speech about how dangerous it was for the animals
national elk refuge
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From there we headed to the gros ventre wilderness entering the tetons for very short.
entering grand tetons
fox
We were turning onto the road to get into the wilderness when we spotted a moose not too far away in high grass, at that point the tetons were still submerged in the cloud.
moose near the entrance to gros ventre road
The drive starts with a more forested view with a river along the way and the farther in it gets more open and more dramatic, then there's Lower slide lake which was nice and along with red mountains on one side we were pretty much there by ourselves, after slide lake you can go a little farther on the dirt road and it goes back into the forest (we had an suv but any car should be good on the dirt road as long as you drive slow), we got to see some more elk and bighorn sheep.
gros ventre wilderness
slide lake
bighorn
On the return back we saw our 1st view of the grand tetons from far the clouds were a little higher and the view was something else,
1st views of the gros grand tetons from the gros ventre wilderness
When we entered the park we saw a jam, it was a grizzly and cub walking across the field, these people saw it on the road on the other side (about half mile across the field) and we're waiting for it to come back into view, it was late in the day and decided we saw our fair share in yellowstone and we'd rather see the park before dark, as we drove to Mormon row we saw many cars heading there, we stopped by someone with a scope who allowed us to view the bears, behold it was heading towards the road so we decided to get back in there now there was about 25 cars (about half the people in the park that day) driving on the road where the bears were coming to all with scopes and radios on the run following every move we enjoyed listening to these ppl. Talk on the radio as if they were on a heavy police chase (bear is heading for the trees, he stopped, he's breathing etc...) I highly recommend getting a radio and onto that channel your chances of wildlife sightings will increase dramatically🐻🐻🧐, one women told us she's been running with the animals the whole day and she had even seen, moose, a few bears black and brown as well as a badger🤷♂️ (never heard of it till we came to yellowstone although from googling it we think we saw a few over those few days running across the street at night I think it's a mix breed skunk/racoon) the experience was fun and we got to see the bear in the distance until the bummer it went into the trees at that point we gave up getting the grizzly crossing the road picture and continued
mormon row
grizzly bear jam
the lookouts were all spectacular and of course more elk, pronghorns, and..... bison, the clouds at the peaks of the tetons kept changing making for some cool scenery as well, the mountains were also fully covered in snow which made them look amazing
wildlife
elk
bison
views of the grand tetons
along the road
shwachbacher landing
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Snake River overlook
oxbow bend a little before sunset
we finished going back with the teton parks road
jackson lake
views along the teton park road
we ended off with the moose wilson road I read online and heard the rd was one of the best places to spot animals especially sunset time, the wildlife wasn't abundant when we were there but when we turned into the rockefeller preserve to daven mincha there was a moose who decided to join me for davening.
our only wildlife sighting on moose wilson road
moose at rockefeller preserve
The drive back was uneventful and we had another great day in the bag.
At 10:00am on Thursday we left for Bozeman where we flew back on the 230pm flight To ewr with a stopover In msp.
Thanks for reading.
I hope this was interesting & helps people in the future.
Things I recommend & learnt from our trip that may be helpful.
$$$:
Flights, accommodation, and cars are significantly cheaper in may.
Accommodation:
We air b&b in island park id, you have to drive about 1 hour To get to the park entrance,
West yellowstone would have been way more convenient but more expensive, we wanted more privacy and hot tub so we picked island park, retroactively there was townhouses in west yellowstone for similar prices we would have taken, it's the best location becuse it is closer to everything as opposed to staying in gardiner Mt or Jackson WY,
If we would have been spending more time in the Tetons area we would have split our itinerary and stayed in a hotel in Jackson WY.
Park opening dates:
Not all roads were open when we were there but most were making things longer to get to but you can make up for that with saving a lot of time not sitting in traffic, also if it was a heavy winter the road openings can get delayed nps website has all the info there.
Traffic and parking:
We never had a problem with traffic unless there was a wildlife jam, we often drove several miles seeing more park Rangers than regular cars, Regarding parking we never had a problem and often had it for ourselves.
Weather:
Not every day that we're there the weather was great sometimes very windy or snowing the weather can be entirely different in different areas,
If your going in early May I would give a extra day or 2 in case of severe weather (although we didn't experience anything we couldn't handle)
We got away most days with a sweater the temps were beet. 30-50F.
Views:
If you liked snowy scenery there's a lot of snow in tetons while Yellowstone had less.
The lakes were still frozen when we were there but there were still nice water views by the rivers and the waterfalls were rushing.
We did 1 sunset in lamar valley which was very nice and one of our highlights was the purple sky with the bison and mountains in the background.
Other times in Yellowstone I was at sunrise in lamar, and tetons, (you won't regret the tetons Sunrise) just one thing to note it's freezing there at that hour even in the summer so plan accordingly.
The mountains in yellowstone are overshadowed by all the other things the park has to offer but it's a very scenic park.
Hot springs & geysers:
There are many diff types of hot springs like pools, mud pots, steam vents, geysers....... do your research before to get the full experience and not get geyser fatigue.
When it's colder there will be much more steam making some geysers look on fire but a bit less visible (overall it was not a problem),
Also bring a scarf as wind can blow the steam at you and it can smell pretty bad.
One particular hike I would highly recommend the fairy falls hike, there was snow on that trail so we didn't do it, but we saw people doing the hike and did it in the summer the views of the grand prismatic springs from the hike are unmatched, just keep in mind there can be grizzly bears near the trail.
Wildlife:
I met people in the parks who said they come every year this time to see yellowstone at its best, one even showed me a video of a wolf a few feet from his car When he was on the way to see sunrise in the park,
We felt at times literally in a safari,
My friend who convinced me to go in may have had very good sightings as well the year before.
Almost everyone in the park I talked to had seen multiple bears and the ones that didn't just didn't go to the right places.
I had the best experience in Lamar Valley over anywhere else, but saw wildlife all over the place like bald eagles near Madison, and a bison right next to old faithful inn.
One ranger told me the animals are more abundant due to snow on higher elevations, hungry after the long winter, and less ppl. on the road so they come very close to.
We saw a sign Saying thousands of elk.
Although nothing is guaranteed and there can be bad days also.
It's recommended to bring binoculars but we almost never use them.
May vs june:
Benefit: all the roads are open but the park has a lot more visitors.
I was never there in June so I don't know but
@cgr early June trip report 2024 looks like he had warmer weather and great wildlife sightings.
Prob. A good idea to avoid national park week.
Spring vs summer:
Spring for empty crowds and wildlife sightings.
Summer for better weather and more hiking trails available.
I hope this was interesting & helpful and if it was boring sorry.
