Thanks again to all DDFers who’ve posted such helpful TRs! I hope I can help others as well with details of our most recent trip. This was a longtime bucket-list destination, and my husband and I are now heading back to NY (waiting for our delayed flight to depart) after spending a few days in fabulous Yellowstone National Park. Here are the details:
Sunday – Day 1We caught an 8:30 am flight from Newark to Bozeman, which my husband purchased with 50k United points. Newark was an absolute madhouse – maybe because it’s summer or because it was Sunday, or both! Once we boarded our plane, things went very smoothly, with lift off even earlier than expected. Arrival was supposed to be 11:11am local time, but by that time we were actually already collecting our luggage from one of the three baggage carousels in this tiny airport, which btw looks more like an old, rustic resort than an airport.
Here’s the reasoning behind our decision to fly into Bozeman. We did not want a flight with stops, so that brought down the choices to either Bozeman, Montana, or Salt Lake City, Utah. The advantage of Salt Lake City is that you drive through Grand Teton National Park on your way to Yellowstone, and everyone knows what Something Fishy has to say about that! However, my husband and I knew that we weren’t realistically going to wake up in the early a.m. while on vacation, even if it’s to watch “the most beautiful sunset in America,” and even if the daytime scenery is beautiful, we also really did not want to spend six hours driving from Salt Lake City to Tetons/Yellowstone. Bozeman is only 1.5 hours from Yellowstone’s North Entrance, and since we wanted to drive as little as possible, that clinched our decision.
After getting our car at the airport, we stopped at the Bozeman Walmart to pick up a microwave (we had pre-ordered a small cheap one for pick up there, but cancelled that when we saw another one on sale for only $35) and some fresh vegetables. From there it was a smooth ride all the way to the park entrance. Only several miles from the North Entrance is the Mammoth Hot Springs area, so that was our first destination. After a quick stop at the visitor center information desk, we drove to the parking lot at the trailhead of the famous terraces.
The first trail was short and easy along Liberty Cap. It’s hard to describe what we saw, but it was strange, beautiful, exotic… something I haven’t seen anywhere else. We then hiked a second, neighboring trail, which is quite steep and difficult with many steps. We saw Palette Spring, Minerva Terrace, and the breathtaking Mound and Jupiter Terraces before continuing all the way up to the observation point at the top, which is quite exhausting and completely unnecessary. The main road winds up right behind that observation point, with a small parking spot giving easy access to it. In retrospect, it would have been enough to hike halfway up the trail, until the Mound and Jupiter Terraces.
There is an additional section called Upper Terraces, which I think has easier access and observation points right off the road, but we were too exhausted to move (we were up since before dawn to catch our flight and were adjusting to the elevation) so we just continued driving towards our next planned stop: Norris Geyser Basin.
When we got to Norris Geyser Basin, there was a sign blocking the entrance saying that the parking lot was full. We were disappointed, but seeing no other option, we decided to continue driving towards Madison Junction and then the West Entrance. We had reservations for Sunday night at Days Inn in West Yellowstone, so that was our ultimate destination. I quickly began looking at my map and some information I had saved on my phone to find an alternate stop instead of Norris. Though we were both exhausted, we did want to do one more thing before leaving the park for the night. We decided to stop at Artists’ Paintpots, which is just a short distance from Norris Junction.
Though I hadn’t planned it this way, I’m really glad at how our itinerary worked out. Artists' Paintpots is very unique and beautiful, with a relatively easy loop trail. The trail first winds around Blood Geyser, where there’s a boiling, bubbling spring and endless clouds of steam. My favorite feature was the bubbling white mud at the highest point of the trail, from where you can look down at the rest of the trail. The mud keeps bubbling like a pot of gravy, and every few seconds, some of it sprays straight up, several feet in the air. Just an amazing sight.
After leaving Artists’ Paintpots, we encountered our first bit of traffic between Madison Junction and the West Entrance. It wasn’t too bad though, and soon we were at Days Inn West Yellowstone, which is minutes from the West Entrance. We had only reserved one night’s stay, since we planned to spend the next three nights inside the park. (FYI there aren’t really options for using points for any hotels in the park or the towns immediately bordering it.) The room was equipped with a microwave and we reheated some of the double-wrapped suppers we’d picked up at a local deli for the trip, ate supper, and called it a day.
Monday – Day 2We checked out of the hotel Monday morning and headed into the park at around 10am. There was quite a bit of traffic between the West Entrance and Madison, with lots of guests heading into the park. It eventually cleared up, and after we turned south at Madison towards Old Faithful, things kept moving along nicely.
We reached the Old Faithful parking lot with only 4-5 minutes before the next scheduled eruption. We kept circling the lot but couldn’t find parking. Finally, we saw a car parked on a tiny patch of grass at the end of a row of cars and we managed to fit our car alongside it. We hurried towards Old Faithful and it started erupting seconds before we reached the observation area. It keeps going for a while though, so we had time to get even closer and get some great shots.
Afterwards, we headed into the Visitor Center to get oriented and plan our next move. There are quite a few geysers and pools around Old Faithful which can only be accessed through hiking trails. We were happy to do some hiking but didn’t see the point of hiking for hours just to see each and every geyser. We decided to skip the Geyser Hill loop behind Old Faithful, and instead took the trail that ends at Morning Glory Pool, which I definitely wanted to see.
The first attraction on the trail is Castle Geyser, which you can literally take in with all your senses. You see the water and steam spewing from the geyser, you hear the roar of the water bubbling to the surface, you can feel the heat rising from the pool surrounding it, and you can smell the rotten egg smell, which comes from the hydrogen sulfide gas from the magma chambers beneath Yellowstone. Okay, I didn’t try tasting the water, so I guess that’s only four senses!
Right at Castle Geyser, you can turn onto an alternate boardwalk-type path (see left side of photo above) that crosses Firehole River and then parallels the main path, while offering access to Grand Geyser and other geysers and pools. It eventually rejoins the main path, just before Grotto Geyser. We took that detour, even though Grand Geyser wasn’t scheduled to erupt again until that evening, since the walking time is about the same and the path has additional attractions.
New Day 2 Crossing RiverAs we were about to get back onto the main trail, we could see the geyser after Grotto, Riverside Geyser, erupting from afar. It erupts every 5-7 hours, and though it took us a few minutes to reach the geyser, it was still going strong when we got there. Turns out, Riverside Geyser eruptions last about 22 minutes. This was one of my favorite geysers (together with Old Faithful and Castle Geyser). It sits right alongside Firehole River and just kept spewing water and steam for a really long time. Just an awesome sight.
Riverside Geyser is almost at the end of the trail, so right after watching that eruption, we finally reached Morning Glory Pool. The pool is smaller than I had imagined from pictures, but it’s just absolutely beautiful. It’s incredible how clear it is in the center, and you can actually see the formation of the crater from which the water emerges. When you stand on the viewing deck just a few feet away, you can feel the heat rising from the pool. Incredible!
We finally turned around and headed back to Old Faithful Visitor Center. According to the information at the center, it’s a total of almost three miles, walking until Morning Glory and back.
I think it’s very important for anyone visiting the area to plan well. Doing the Morning Glory trail, plus the Geyser Hill loop, plus every trail along the main road (Daisy Geyser, Black Sand Basin, etc. etc.) is beyond exhausting, probably impossible, and completely unnecessary in my opinion. While the geysers and pools are incredible, there’s only so many you can see.
After we left Old Faithful, we headed back north towards Madison Junction. I wanted to make one other stop in the area, at Midway Geyser Basin to see Grand Prismatic Spring. There was a line of cars on the road waiting to turn into the parking lot, and we had to wait 10-15 minutes until we could get into the parking lot. Once we were inside, we found parking right away. It’s a rather easy trail, not too long, and the sights are just incredible. Right at the beginning of the trail there’s a pool that gives off incredible heat, and when the breeze came towards me at one point, carrying the steam rising off that pool, the heat was almost unbearable. This trail is also a loop, with the farthest part going alongside Grand Prismatic Spring. It’s similar to Morning Glory, only much, much bigger. The vastness of the pool is just incredible, though you can’t look down the center like you do with Morning Glory, because it’s simply too big and you’re standing too far away to look down the middle.
When we left Grand Prismatic Spring, it was about four in the afternoon. We were now headed towards Canyon Village, about 34 miles away. The drive took almost an hour, with some traffic on the way. We had reservations at Canyon Lodge, which is actually a collection of seven three-story structures that were built only a few years ago. The rooms here are nice and clean, and not as rustic as the older Canyon Cabins or the Old Faithful Lodge.
I chose this location because it offers easy access to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and Hayden Valley, and relatively easy access to Lamar Valley. It’s quite central yet new, and when you wake up in the morning, you are literally minutes away from attractions. On the flip side, the rooms offer no wifi (paid wifi is available but works only in the main lobby), there aren’t even any TVs, and while our room did have a small fridge, there are no microwaves either. Additionally, no cooking is allowed in the rooms.
My husband called up in advance to say that we’re on a kosher diet and need to bring our own food. He asked if there’s anywhere we can use a microwave, if we bring our own (hence the Walmart purchase). On the first floor of every Canyon Lodge building, there’s an area next to the elevator that has a small counter space and an outlet, so we were told we can warm up the food there. It was a bit of a schlep to set up the microwave, warm the food, store the microwave, etc. (and though we had specific permission, I did felt a bit uncomfortable whenever someone passed), but I think it was still worth the hassle to stay at such a great location and save ourselves the time and traffic of driving into the park each morning and out each night. I also want to mention that while reservations at these lodges are typically made a year in advance(!), there are always cancellations. I got our reservations only one month before our trip. I had originally wanted all four nights, which wasn’t available, and that’s why we slept in West Yellowstone on Sunday night.
There was quite a long line at the check in counter, and after we were finally settled in our room, we decided to head out again to Hayden Valley. The best time to see animals is at dawn or dusk, and since the valley was just five or ten minutes away and it was already late afternoon, it seemed like the perfect ending to a beautiful day, especially since there would be no hiking required this time!
We left the parking lot and reached Hayden Valley within minutes. Almost immediately we encountered large groups of bison, some of them right alongside the road. It was very exciting, with cars stopped everywhere, people leaning out of windows with cameras and binoculars, and some bison even crossing the road. We were lucky enough to see a bear too! After several miles of this, we turned back, and had some more bison traffic and bison-watching on our way back to the hotel.
To be continued...
