We entered Yellowstone National Park via the southern entrance from Grand Teton National Park/John D. Rockefeller Memorial Highway. Upon arriving, we checked the campsite board for status – all full except Lewis Lake (12 miles from the south entrance) and Slough Creek (85 miles from the south entrance) out of about 10 campsites total. That made our decision easy, Lewis Lake it was for the night. When we got there around 2 pm, there were only 3 sites left. Again, easy decision, site #W2 it was. The system at Lewis Lake is a bit of a free for all – you drive around to find an open site (one without a slip on the site tag) and then claim it with an item and pay for it using an envelope at the front of the campground. The ranger then circles around at some point (or points) during the day to officially register you. We felt fortunate to get a spot and the campsite was only $15! Only a pit toilet though, if that’s an issue for you. Overall, Lewis Lake is not a bad campground, it’s just far from most things in the park.
Once we secured our tent site, we headed to West Thumb and Grant Village visitor center as these were the closest park spots to our campground. First, we stopped by the visitor’s center to try to figure out some hikes/trail maps. Unfortunately, there is no wifi or cell service basically anywhere in the park for AT&T users so we had a hard time researching what all we wanted to visit in the park (we did see people making calls and even facetiming at Old Faithful, so hopefully you have Verizon!). The woman at the visitor’s center was not helpful, offering limited suggestions. We then went over to the backcountry office. They were much more helpful and with their guidance, we decided not to do a backcountry hike in Yellowstone as there is a ton of front country attractions we should see. West Thumb was one of those such attractions, so we headed down the road a mile to see it. A ranger walk was just starting, so we tagged along to learn some information about the springs. We spent an hour on the tour and then bailed on the last 10 minutes or so to head to Old Faithful and try to catch its next eruption. Everywhere in Yellowstone takes a while to get to since there is only one road. We arrived mid-eruption, so I told Patrick we had to go back at some point during our visit. 45 minutes later, we were back at the campsite. Dinner was chicken tikka masala tonight, followed by a short fire and then early bedtime.
The next morning, we packed up the campsite and headed north to Norris Campground around 6:45 am to try to secure a campsite here. There are two main loops to the park – a northern and southern loop. Norris sits on the NW of the southern loop and the SW of the northern loops, so is more centrally located which would help shorten some of our driving. It took about 1.5 hours to get to Norris and there was already a large line at the campground when we arrived. We were probably around 25-30 groups back. You have to wait until people leave the campsite for the day before they hand out sites to newcomers since existing campers have until checkout to extend their stay. We waited until around 10 am to get a site, but we were happy to get one! We quickly set up our tent and started north towards Mammoth Springs, which has the travertine terraces (one of Microsoft’s background images). Along the way, they were doing roadwork, so we sat for about 20 minutes at one point. Finally, we reached Mammoth. The travertine terraces were better than the pictures. And there are many formations located in this area of the park – we walked around for about an hour or so to admire the natural water fountains. Mammoth is also a town area, which consists of the old army base (now used as ranger housing), a restaurant, gas station, visitor center, and store). Near one of the houses, a large group of elk were relaxing in the shade. We stared at them for a while and then went back to the car to check out our next spot – Lamar Valley. Lamar Valley was just as promised – we saw hundreds of, maybe a thousand, buffalo. We also saw prong-horned antelope. By this time, it was getting late, so we turned back towards our campsite. Dinner was chicken tacos followed by a ranger talk at the campsite on grizzly bears.
On our last day at Yellowstone, we started with Old Faithful. We arrived around 9:15 am and the next eruption was anticipated for around 10:15 am, so we grabbed some coffee and waited. This time I got to see the entire eruption. There is also a nice walking path that takes you through many other geyser areas near Old Faithful, so we walked this path and were fortunate to see a few others erupt! In fact, by the time we had finished our walk, Old Faithful was set to go off again, so we watched and simultaneously, Beehive geyser also erupted in the distance. Very lucky to see these two erupt at once!
After we had our share of geysers, we drove to the Grand Prismatic Springs (another well-known feature in the park, as are most of the features). Parking was a nightmare, but well worth the trouble. The springs are very colorful, as shown in all the pictures (although surprisingly hard for us to capture its greatness).
After the Grand Prismatic Springs, we continued north. We took a side road on the way to the Paint Pots and saw the Pink Geyser erupting as we drove. There were many other springs and geysers that you can also explore on this road, but we didn’t stop. We also stopped at the Artists Paint Pots. For a short hike (less than a mile), you can see some cool mudpots gurgling and spitting mud. Well worth the walk in our opinions.
Our final destination for the day (and our Yellowstone visit) was Canyon Village. This stop included exploring the north and south rims of the canyon. We started with a short (but 600-foot deep) hike down to the top of the Lower Falls. 100% worth the climb! Being in the canyon is incredible and you can see where “Yellowstone” gets its name. The water itself looked like it had been dyed green. There are many other vantage points of the canyon and the falls along both the north and south rims (we stopped at most of these points). On our way out of the North Rim Road, we ran into some traffic resulting from two large male elk along the road in the trees. We circled the road three times just to catch some more glimpses of them! After our canyon exploring, we went back to the campsite and cooked sloppy joes for dinner. It had been raining since our visit to Canyon Village, but there was a brief dry period when we cooked. The rain restarted shortly thereafter, so we found ourselves sequestered to our tent early in the evening. Tomorrow, we planned to leave early and head to Missoula, Montana, where we were meeting up with some of my friends from college!
