We are excited to celebrate Yellowstone‘s 150th Birthday. It was clear from the first couple days in the park that the summer crowds were not as big as they usually are due to the recent flooding and park-wide closure. Hey, that works in our favor. Surprisingly the cost of food, gas, souvenirs, etc is not as high in Yellowstone as it was in Grand Teton. Sure the prices are higher than a typical town in Wyoming, but considering how remote this place is, seems kind of on par with the extra transport/logistics of getting things here, including the army of seasonal workers that keeps the park running.

Our first day in Yellowstone, we visited the Upper Geyser Basin which is home to the Old Faithful Geyser. The Old Faithful Lodge is the oldest National Park lodge in America and a very cool place to hang out and have a drink. Even though the Morning Glory Spring is not as vibrant as I remember it from my childhood, it was very cool to see it again all these years later.

One of my favorite hot springs in the park is Grand Prismatic. So big and so colorful. We hiked to Fairy Falls which has the Grand Prismatic Overlook along the way. I think this is the best way to experience the spring — from afar and up high so you can get a perspective of how large it is and can see the entire spring.

Next, we went to Norris Geyser Basin, home to Steamboat Geyser, the world’s tallest geyser. It has been erupting about 50 times a year over the past few years. Did not erupt while we were there but probably a good thing since the spray carries over the parking lot and the mineral-rich water will bond to car paint, damaging the finish. It was steaming and bubbling which was enough action for me 🙂 Further down the road is Fountain Paint Pot which has mud pot geysers. The bubbling mud makes for interesting sights and sounds. There is also a very colorful hot spring that looks like a smaller version of Grand Prismatic.

We kayaked Lewis Lake the following day. The permit and inspection process for all watercraft, even our little inflatable kayak is a very tedious process. It was worth the effort though to be able to paddle on some of the most scenic and pristine lakes in the country. We were the only people on the entire lake — very cool.

Some people say Yellowstone is too crowded. Yes there are large crowds at the biggest attractions like Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic. But get out there and on to the less traveled trails and you can experience the beauty and wilderness of Yellowstone with relative solitude.

We moved to a different campground in another part of the park for the rest of our stay in Yellowstone. We were at Grant Village in the south part of the park. Now we are at Fishing Bridge which is fairly centrally located on the north shore of Yellowstone Lake where it flows into Yellowstone River. Very beautiful area.

Hiking the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is probably my favorite activity here and nears the top of the list of all the places we have ever hiked. We did the North Rim Trail. Full of so many incredible viewpoints including Inspiration Point at the trail’s end. All of the colors of the different rocks that make up the canyon walls and the vibrant white and blue water of Yellowstone River fall below. It really is one of the marvels of the natural world and should be seen by everyone at least once during your lifetime.

We enjoyed the Grand Canyon so much we went back to hike the South Rim. We hiked from Artist Point to Ribbon Lake. The first half of the trail followed the South Rim and like the North Rim, just an overload of beauty. When we hit the junction to Ribbon Lake, we entered the forest and the mosquitoes swarmed in 🙂 Even armed with bug spray it wasn’t enough to stop all of them. Once we made it back to South Rim they gave up the fight and we could again enjoy the scenery. We finished the hike by enjoying Artist Point — named because of the popularity of painters to capture the scene of Upper Yellowstone Falls as it plunges into the Grand Canyon — the most iconic view in all of Yellowstone Park.

Besides the wonderful hike, today is Emi’s birthday!! What a great way to celebrate, well except for the mosquito war 🙂 The rest of the day was fun and I hope she enjoyed celebrating in nature.

The next day we drove up to Mammoth Hot Springs. A huge (mammoth) mound of travertine with hot springs bubbling up out of it in several places with the hot waters running down the face of the travertine, creating colorful rock formations very similar to something you would see in a limestone cave. Really incredible. I enjoyed sitting in front of each terrace/spring to really take in the multitude of different formations and colors. We almost did not visit Mammoth since it was in the most northern part of the park and farthest from our campground. I’m thankful we did not skip this natural wonder.

We kayaked Yellowstone Lake from the Bridge Bay Marina to Gull Point. I was a bit nervous kayaking on such a large body of water with big waves and large boats. We hit the water early in the morning when it was most calm and hardly any other boats out yet. The water was a little choppy but since we stayed in Bridge Bay we were protected from the bigger waves in the open water. As we neared Gull Point, we were even more sheltered and the water was glass. Great spot to kayak. We relaxed on the beach, enjoyed a snack, and paddled back to the marina. Excellent day.

Emi prefers river and/or valley hikes — more flat. I prefer the mountain hikes with some elevation for those sweeping vista views. I convinced Emi to do the Mount Washburn hike which has some decent elevation gain. We could see the entire park from the summit — all the way to the Tetons. There is even a little visitor center up there. So cool. A storm started to roll in as we headed back down. Luckily, we only got hit with some light showers, not enough to get wet.

On the drive back to camp, we happened upon 3 bear sightings — a single adult black bear, a mother black bear with 2 cubs, and a grizzly mother with 2 cubs. The black bear with the cubs was really close, about 50 yards. I was able to get some great photos and video, including a video of the cubs wrestling. The amount and diversity of wildlife is really what makes Yellowstone unique.

On our last full day in the park, we hiked the Mary Mountain Trail. This is a backcountry trail but we just did a 6 mile out and back. It is in Hayden Valley which is known for big bison herds and lots of other wildlife. We were delayed to the trailhead by a herd of bison walking down the road. Very cool. Some of the big bulls seemed mad at the vehicles on their road 🙂 On the trail, we saw a few bison and a mule deer but that is it. That’s ok though — we have seen so much wildlife during our stay.

That’s it for Yellowstone. We really enjoyed our 11 day stay. Being in the park so long was really nice because we had ample opportunity to spot wildlife and really see the entire park without being rushed. However internet and groceries are very limited so that was a bit of a challenge but we survived 🙂

Next stop Glacier National Park!