If you’re new to my blog: welcome! I’m recapping a big trip my family just took. It involved:
This will cover days 5, 6 & 7 and National Park #2: Yellowstone!
Yellowstone: Diverse, gigantic, alive
- Miles hiked in Yellowstone Day 1: about 8 miles
- Campground: Grizzly RV Park, West Yellowstone WY
Knowing that Yellowstone is really huge, we booked 3 nights at this location. That was perfect. It gave us the minimum amount of time needed to tour Yellowstone. We certainly didn’t get to see everything Yellowstone has to offer because like I said, it is huge. As for planning at each destination, I bought some tour books, and was trying learn all I could about each. But honestly, we had a pretty heavy itinerary and I just couldn’t plan it all! However, I did find a recommendation for an app to tour Yellowstone and it was THE BEST money I’ve ever spent (app link here). Seriously, a life saver. It downloaded the whole park information (because you have super spotty internet service in Yellowstone) and then it was GPS based. As we drove through the park, our tour guide would tell us some information about the surroundings, and suggest places to get out and tour. We liked him so much we named him “Stan”!
Because Yellowstone is so large, you will be driving all day around the park. Stan kept us entertained in all of the “down” time and we learned a lot about the history of the area.
Yellowstone is split into several areas: Mammoth country, Roosevelt country, Geyser country, Canyon country, Bechler region, and Lake country.
We toured 2 areas on our first day (Mammoth & Roosevelt), and 2 areas on the second day (Geyser and Canyon). The other two regions were a bit more wilderness and the main roads don’t go through them.
If you go to Yellowstone, start out your day *early*. The park is open 24 hours, so get there when the sun comes up because that’s the best time to see the animals. The animals will practically be running to see you. Literally!
It’s like they hardly even know you are there!
The parking lots will fill up quickly with tour buses and other tourists, so get while the getting is good! Random note, the interesting cultural thing we saw in Yellowstone was a “squatty potty” in a port a potty. I’ve heard of them, but never seen one. But I digress….
I thought I’d be able to put all of Yellowstone in one post, but nope. This will take two posts. Sooooo much stuff to see there! We started with areas that looked like the moon, with steam from the hot springs and pools…
To wonderful rocky mountains….
To beautiful flower fields….
And snowy piles….
To things that look like snow and ice, but are not!…. (the travertine terraces)
We packed our lunch and ate by the side of a stream…
We went on some trails that involved a lot of stair climbing… (haha, look at Sydney’s face over on the left side!!)
And finished our day at the “Grand Canyon of Yellowstone”.
With a full day of sightseeing under our belt, we flopped into bed and looked forward to our next day of adventure at Yellowstone… geysers!
Day 2 of our Yellowstone visit will be in my next post. Hope you can stop back! 🙂 (Here’s a link to the first post if you missed it: 1st)
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Q: Have you ever seen bison up close??
I swear when we went to Yellowstone as a kid, people were feeding bears out of their cars. DO NOT try that!!
Q: Do you pack your lunch for works (or normally for day trips)?
Q: How about those squatty potties?
haha, I didn’t try it, so I have no idea….
WOWOWOW I can’t believe the bison are so friendly with humans! I guess they are just so accustomed to their presence. I bet you guys slept well at night after all that hiking!
That’s so funny about the squatty potty. Adam bought one a while ago, but I don’t use it so idk anything about it lol!
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So technically I guess it was just a hole in the ground (instead of the pit toilet), but the little cartoon described it, so I got the gist of it 😉
I just realized my next post is overloaded. Should have balanced the content a little bit, so you’ll have extra to see tomorrow!!
Wow, it looks INCREDIBLE. That app sounds awesome! Did Alan mind all that driving? Was he expecting that he would have to drive all through Yellowstone? I thought of him yesterday when driving home from VT. We hit traffic and it took TEN FREAKING HOURS and I drove the whole way (Paul doesn’t drive) and I was about to just drive our car off the Tappan Zee Bridge and call it a day.
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He pretty much had to drive at the parks because I was in charge of the itinerary and navigation! As for the other driving, other than the traffic in Chicago area (too busy!!), the main issue was keeping the truck and trailer on the road. It was very windy in some areas and it required that you always keep adjusting. And just keeping your arms/shoulders in the same position for hours. But I did provide post-drive massages, so that helped some 🙂
That traffic you drove in sounds terrible!! We don’t have a whole lot of traffic in our home area, so I’m just not used that stuff. Yuck!
I’m not used to traffic either! My commute to work is back roads.
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