After Grand Teton we drove to Yellowstone National Park, another bucket list park. I knew Yellowstone was large and crowded; however, how large doesn’t really sink in until you drive from the west entrance to the northeast entrance and go 88 miles! Just WOW! Regarding crowds on our last day at the park I saw a 7.5 mile traffic jam caused by one bison getting a drink from the Madison River.
Yellowstone is known for thermal features located in the super volcano caldera. It also has amazing waterfalls and rivers and lots of wildlife that mostly managed to hide from us. So here we go….volcano stuff first.
Grand Prismatic Spring
This is Heart Spring, named for being the shape of a real heart. It is a hot spring and based on its color about 160 DEG Fahrenheit. We found the lacy sinter edge to be beautiful.
White Dome Geyser. We did not get to see it erupt. The sinter cone is 20 feet tall and has been built over several centuries.
Mammoth Hot Springs. The travertine terraces build up at the rate of up to 1/4 inch per day. With these incredible growth rates the terraces are different every time a person visits Yellowstone.
The terraces are beautiful. It is a reasonably short walk on a boardwalk to see all of them.
Of course we watched Old Faithful erupt. No picture can capture the sound and amazing amount of energy that is released with each eruption. The one we watched lasted over 4 minutes .
This is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone as seen from Artists Point. It is a great view. This is Lower Yellowstone Falls at 308 feet high. When we visited, Uncle Tom’s Trail to the base of the falls was closed for reconstruction. If you get a chance to hike it post some pictures.
This is the Yellowstone River as it approaches the upper falls.
Gibbon Falls 84 feet high.
Fairy Falls 220 feet high.
Bison dust bath time
Bull Elk resting during the heat of the day.
Yellowstone is an amazing park, but during the summer peak season too crowded for our taste. When we return it will be an early September visit after most kids are back in school. Yellowstone is so massive we will also plan to stay in multiple campgrounds to reduce the driving. From our campground in West Yellowstone it was 45 minutes to the closest visitor center (Old Faithful). Also, the park is most crowded between 10 am and 4 pm so we typically entered the park around 8 am and returned to our camper around noon. Crowds aside, everyone should find a way to experience Yellowstone in person.