This is part eight of a travel series to Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Parks. If you'd like to start at the beginning, go HERE!
Today's post begins the end of our journey in Yellowstone. It is a huge park, and we managed to drive the entire figure eight grand loop in three days and see most of the major attractions on that loop. Our last stop in our adventure, was West Thumb.
The morning of our last day in Yellowstone we checked out of our little yellow cabin and started driving southwest out of the park. If you're following along on our trusty little Yellowstone map, we were staying at a cabin on Yellowstone Lake. We got back on Grand Loop road and planned on exiting out of the park at the South Entrance, but first we stopped at the West Thumb Geyser Basin.
It was so early in the morning, we were the only ones there when we first arrived with the exception of this large elk feeding off the parking lot.
The West Thumb Geyser Basin is a must see because unlike all the other thermal attractions in Yellowstone, this one is right next to Lake Yellowstone and the hot thermal springs flow into the lake. The basin includes mudpots, boiling springs and geysers.
Like all the other hot spring areas in Yellowstone, West Thumb has a boardwalk over looking all the thermal areas. It was short enough that we were able to walk the whole trail.
The Mimulus Pool reminded me of the mud volcanoes we saw the day before.
We were most impressed with the Abyss and Black Pools as the color of the turquoise water was incredible!
Now here is where it gets really interesting. When you reach the lake shore, you see the water flowing into the lake. Here are some interesting colors the waters produce on the rocks.
The combination of the thermal attractions with the spectacular lake views make this a worthwhile stop. Unfortunately, we were there so early in the morning that there was a lot of fog, so I would suggest waiting until later in the day to visit. It is one of Yellowstone's least visited basins in the park, and they have quite a large parking lot (Funny, I know. And then the more popular places have hardly any parking), so you don't have to worry about congestion. In fact, if you want to get away from the crowds, go to West Thumb!
Now we have reached the lakeshore portion of the trail. The boardwalk hugs the lake shore so you get panoramic views of the lake, along with some geysers, right on the shore!
Here is a short video of one of the lakeshore geysers.
These "cones" remind me of beehives.
It's a shame we could only see this early in the morning, because I looked on line for photos of what this area looks like on a sunny day, and it is incredible!
Getting out early in the morning is always your best chance to see wildlife. I saw a large elk in the forest while driving, then we saw the elk in the parking lot, and finally we were treated to a river otter both resting on a rock and swimming in the water. It was so fun to watch!
River Otters!
Well our adventure in Yellowstone was over, but our journey was not, for now it was time to explore The Grand Tetons! Yellowstone National Park and The Grand Tetons are right next to each other, so if you are ever in the area, you might as well see them both!
As we exited Yellowstone, we went out the South Entrance on the way to Jackson Hole Wyoming where we would spend the next few days. But you actually have to drive through the Grand Teton National Park and right past the Tetons to get to Jackson Hole, so we stopped and got a photo of the sign.
The Grand Tetons!
And here is a peek of the Tetons. The drive to Jackson Hole is absolutely breath taking as you have incredible views of the Tetons all the way.
I hope you enjoyed my Yellowstone posts and that I have provided you lots of useful information for your future trip. Next week I will cover the incredible western town Jackson Hole! You don't want to miss that one!
This is part four of a travel series to Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Parks. If you'd like to start at the beginning, go HERE!
Fountain Paint Pot (Lower Geyser Basin)
This is the fourth and final post for Day One in Yellowstone. Our goal was to see most of the highlights on the figure eight loop of Yellowstone in three days and we did!
Now, if you look at my trusty little map I've been showing in every single post, we came in to Yellowstone from Cody (the East entrance). We stopped at the Fishing Bridge Visitor Center and Museum, drove around Yellowstone Lake, went to Old Faithful (Upper Geyser Basin), then the Grand Prismatic Spring (Midway Geyser Basin), took the Firehole Canyon Drive, then we drove OUT OF THE PARK exiting out the West Entrance to West Yellowstone. It is about 14 miles to reach the exit. We went to the town to have a Linner. West Yellowstone is the cutest little town ever with shops, restaurants, and hotels (sorry I never took photos of the town). In hindsight, I would have spent the night in West Yellowstone, then we could have enjoyed the town more. But I was informed there were no hotels near the park (not true both West Yellowstone and Gardine have hotels) so I booked inside the park. While enjoying my first Buffalo Burger (it was delicious, but I honestly couldn't taste the difference between buffalo or cow meat so it didn't justify the increased price) I looked on Google Maps and saw the closet route to our cabin in Yellowstone was closed. I'm not sure if that was true or not, but we weren't willing to take the chance. It could have been temporarily blocked due to animal crossings. Anyhow, we decided not to risk it and instead of going through the center of the figure eight loop to reach our cabin, we went back the way we came. It ended up being an hour drive from West Yellowstone to our cabin.
We were hoping that the road closure would open up by the time we reached the area, so we decided just to drive half way through the figure eight loop to see the Virginia Cascades. It is a beautiful waterfall on the Gibbon River.
Unfortunately, by the time we were finished at the Virginia Cascades, Google Maps still showed the road closed, so we turned around and headed back in the direction we came when we first entered the park.
We decided to make the best of our return trip by stopping and seeing some highlights we missed, like the Lower Geyser Basin. By now, it was almost dusk, and the people crowds really thinned out. That was nice. But the animal crowds increased! Animals are more active around dawn and dusk, so if you want to see animals at Yellowstone, you need to be in the park around those times. Right when we pulled in to the parking lot of the Lower Geyser Basin there was a huge herd of buffalo (sorry, no photos) trying to cross the sidewalk/trail to the Basin to get to the other side of the road. There were tourists just standing around, so close to the buffalo, and there was one park ranger keeping an eye on the herd migration to make sure no one got injured. I think this might be a regular night crossing for that herd of buffalo that's why the park ranger knew to be there at exactly the right time.
Anyway, the Lower Geyser Basin features the Fountain Paint Pot. This is another nice boardwalk trail overlooking geysers, springs, pools, a fumarole, and the Fountain Paint Pot. Unfortunately because it was getting dark and I was worried about finding our cabin in the dark, we only had time to walk to the Clepsydra Geyser and back.
The boardwalk hike was very nice because of the lovely open surrounding landscape. The Clepsydra Geyser is in the very first photo of this post, plus the photo below. I've also included two short videos. The first one shows the viewpoint of us just walking the boardwalk, the second one is of the Clepsydra Geyser itself.
Walking the Fountain Paint Pot Boardwalk
Clepsydra Geyser
Well, now that we were done exploring on Day One, it was time for the hour long drive back to our cabin. I have to say, Day One was the worst day for our cabin location, because on Day Two we only had a short drive in the morning to our next stop on the figure eight loop and Day Three we just had to drive out the south end of the park after a brief stop at the West Thumb Geyser Basin. So it really wasn't that bad, and if the road had been open the first day, it would not have been such a long drive from West Yellowstone to our cabin.
Lake Hotel and Yellow Cabins
Lake Hotel is a humungous, gorgeous hotel located right on Yellowstone Lake. It is Yellowstone's oldest operating hotel in the park, opening in 1891 and is listed on the National Historic Landmark.
It is such a large hotel, I couldn't even get a picture of it on one photo. The top and bottom photos show the hotel from the front. The next photo shows the hotel from the back.
The hotel is right in front of Yellowstone Lake so it has great views of the lake along with a nice walking path in front of the lake.
The next few photos show the hotel lobby. The dining room was closed for renovations when we were there so we couldn't have dinner there. That is why we drove to West Yellowstone for a Linner. I don't think anyone was staying in the hotel when we were there, it seemed everyone was staying in a yellow cabin behind the hotel. The hotel rooms are closed for renovation until June 27, 2025.
In the photo below is a large room that used to be the grand dining hall but now it's just filled with furniture. There is also a bar area to order drinks. The dining hall was moved to another part of the hotel.
It was a foggy morning when I took these photos, but you can see the beautiful Yellowstone Lake from inside.
The car port is also very elegant. There are rocking chairs available to sit on and enjoy the view.
And here is one of the little yellow cabins where we stayed. These are located right behind the hotel. I'm wearing a dress because we took this photo the morning we left Yellowstone and we were headed to Jackson Hole for the day. Yes, I was FREEZING. It was the coldest morning ever, like in the thirties, but it warmed up to the mid sixties when we were in Jackson Hole.
The cabins are very simple and cute. We actually really enjoyed them and thought they were very cozy and romantic. There is no air conditioning, but we certainly didn't need it the time of year we were there. There is heat, and we did need that. The cabin has a fan, and a coffee maker (thank God) but no microwave or refrigerator.
The bathroom shower was pretty tiny, but I was grateful to even have my own private shower and I didn't have to use a public shower.
If you're wondering what/how we ate during our three days in Yellowstone, there are lots of restaurants/stores in the park, but we didn't eat at any of those. They even have a coffee shop at Old Faithful. We brought a ton of food with us, and a cooler. We had bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, and for snacks/lunch we had apples and peanut butter, granola, beef jerky, that sort of stuff. Then we would always go to a nearby town for a Linner, like West Yellowstone or Gardine. Hubby always wanted to check out the old western towns anyway.
Well folks, we have finished Day One of Yellowstone! It only took me four posts to cover one day. Now onto Day Two, which I will keep brief.
Looking back at our trusty Yellowstone Map in the second photo of this post, we spent the night in Lake Village. We are now going straight up, heading for the Canyon Village area to see the most magnificent waterfall in the park (that will be covered next week). But to get there, first we have to drive through Hayden Valley. This was the road that was closed the night before. Now it was open.
Hayden Valley
Hayden Valley is absolutely stunning! One of the prettiest areas in the park in my opinion. It is supposed to be one of the areas in the park where you go if you want to see wildlife; here or Lamar Valley. We were there at dawn, and we couldn't see any animals up close, but we could see them in the distance. There were a few people with cameras with telephoto lenses and binoculars were at all the look out points searching for animals.
Even though we couldn't see any animals up close (just dark blobs of what we thought could be animals), the place seemed absolutely magical at dawn. It was so quiet and peaceful.
Well I hope you enjoyed Day One of our visit to Yellowstone National Park!
For more information on Yellowstone, please check out these posts:
I am so excited to start a new travel series with you! Warning: This trip was EPIC so this will be a long travel series. I will cover all of the highlights of Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, plus some of the cute surrounding towns like Cody and Jackson Hole, and all the fun stops on the road trip!
For my very first post, I will share one of the spots Yellowstone is most famous for: Old Faithful, plus the scenic drive on the way to the park.
Getting There:
Ten Sleeps/Big Horn National Forest
Yellowstone National Park is a 16 hour drive from our home. We left on a Saturday and spent the night in Spearfish South Dakota. The next day we drove five hours to Cody, Wyoming where we spent the night. Since we arrived in Cody by lunch time, we spent the afternoon dining, shopping, and relaxing before we made the 50 mile drive to Yellowstone the next morning.
Before I get to talking about Yellowstone, I want to say that the drive to Yellowstone is almost as impressive as Yellowstone park itself. From the east, there are two options to get to the park, one is more steeper than the other. Obviously, we took the less steep one, yet as you can see pictured above, there were still runaway ramps for trucks.
The scenic, more gentle route we took was Scenic Hwy 16 west to Ten Sleep Worland. It was so gorgeous, yet scary at the same time. I couldn't believe this was considered the "less steep" highway, I would hate to see what the steeper version was.
This route takes you through the Big Horn National Forest where there are multiple stops to get out and hike.
We enjoyed this area so much, we thought we might just have to come back here someday and do some hiking!
If you enlarge the photo below you might be able to read all about Tensleep Canyon.
Here is a short video of us driving through this amazing canyon.
Yellowstone: East Entrance
There are five entrances to Yellowstone park. Since we were coming from the east, we entered through the East Entrance. The beautiful Yellowstone Lake is located on the east side of the park, and that is where we spotted our first signs of wildlife: Tundra Swans.
We did stop at the Fishing Bridge Visitor Center & Museum to use the bathroom. It is a small, unimpressive Visitor Center so I didn't take photos, although there is a gorgeous view of the lake from behind the museum.
Yellowstone National Park is a large park encompassing nearly a 3,500-sq.-mile wilderness recreation area atop a volcanic hot spot. It is mostly in Wyoming, but the park spreads into parts of Montana and Idaho too. It is so huge that it is impossible to see it all on one trip, BUT with careful planning and moving from sun up to sun set, you can see most of the highlights on the 142 mile loop in three days; we sure did!
Looking at the map above you can see the figure 8 in the middle of the map; that is where mostly all the main attractions are located in the park . The entire figure 8 loop is 142 miles long. As stated earlier, we came from Cody, Wyoming and entered through the east entrance (lower right in above photo). Then we drove past Yellowstone Lake heading to the Upper Geyser Basin. On the way to the basin however we made a quick pit stop when we saw a little sign that read "Kepler Cascades".
Kepler Cascades
I was so happy we spotted this little sign and took the time to stop and check it out because it was so worth it!
Just a short walk from the parking lot is a large viewing deck over the Firehole River. The three-tiered cascades drop fifty feet into the river.
The Kepler Cascades look so beautiful with the evergreens on either side of them. They are located about two miles south of Old Faithful! Don't miss it!
Upper Geyser Basin
We knew Old Faithful was the most popular spot in Yellowstone and we wanted to see it before the crowds arrived. Our timing was perfect! We got there just in time to see it erupt with no crowds. In fact, we actually saw it erupt twice: once when we first got there, and then again later (with crowds) after our hike around the basin.
Old Faithful
Here is a video of Old Faithful erupting. I can't even begin to express my feelings as I watched this geyser. There seemed to be a holy hush in the crowd; like everyone knew they were experiencing something special. I heard about Old Faithful my entire life. I couldn't believe I was finally here witnessing this!
The funniest part of watching Old Faithful was that there was a buffalo sitting right in front of the geyser just a few feet from the crowd. It amazes me how of all the places in the park this guy could take a nap, he chooses one of the most populated places. It makes me think maybe animals like to have people around after all.
That is the Old Faithful Inn in the distance.
Here is what the Old Faithful area looks like before the crowds arrive. Get there early, if you want an unobstructed view like this, because by the second eruption of the day, this area was packed!
We were surprised to see all the hiking and other hydrothermal spots surrounding Old Faithful. We walked around for a little while, and would have loved to have walked the entire boardwalk, but do to lack of time, we stayed always within view of the Old Faithful Inn
We were amazed to find this pretty river and green area so close to the hydrothermal features. This is the Firehole River and you can find it just by walking a little past Old Faithful and over this cute bridge.
There were great views of Old Faithful Inn and the hydrothermal features from here.
The thing that surprised me the most about Yellowstone was the number of hydrothermal features there are in the park. There are over 10,000 hydrothermal features, 500 of which are geysers. It seemed they were everywhere in the park and it felt to us that the entire park was just about ready to explode!
The entire area around Old Faithful is boardwalks leading to more of these hydrothermal features and geysers. The boardwalk seemed endless. Because we wanted to do the entire figure 8 loop in three days we only had time to see a small portion of it. But listed below are all the trails that you can take from this area if you had the time:
Upper Geyser Basin Loop: A 3-mile loop with an elevation change of about 50 ft
Observation Point Trail: A 0.5-mile trail that takes 1–3 hours to complete and offers a commanding view of the Upper Geyser Basin
Old Faithful to Biscuit Basin: A 5-mile hike with an elevation change of about 100 ft
Upper Geyser Basin Tour: A 3.8-mile hike from Old Faithful to Morning Glory that takes about 180 minutes
Full loop: A hike that takes more than half a day to complete and allows you to see all of the over 150 thermal features in the Upper Geyser Basin
While planning for our trip to Yellowstone we watched videos of this area and saw some scenes where buffalo charged at people on the boardwalk. I was a little nervous about this happening when we were there, especially after seeing the buffalo at Old Faithful, so I kept my eyes out for any buffalo in the distance. There's just no place to go if a buffalo charges. You certainly can't step off the boardwalks and into the hydrothermal features!
It is interesting to see that wherever there is a hydrothermal feature the vegetation is all dead, even the trees! But then in the distance you can still see the beautiful forests.
The next two photos show the beautiful colorful streaks that result from the minerals that they precipitate or microscopic organisms.
After viewing the right side of Firehole River, we crossed the bridge to check out the other side instead of walking all the 3.8 mile hike up to Morning Glory Pool.
The first hydrothermal we came across was "Crested Pool".
See all the dead trees in the background? The earth must be getting to hot for the trees roots.
We both thought 'Castle Geyser' was very interesting; aptly named for its castle like shape.
After finishing the small loop around Old Faithful, we decided to walk in to the Old Faithful Inn. We would have loved to have eaten here, but reservations fill up fast. You are however, allowed to walk in and check out the place.
Old Faithful Inn
The inn is absolutely gorgeous. The fireplace is enormous and the lumber in this place is incredible.
This is a stairwell leading to the upstairs rooms. Just look at all those logs and that interesting staircase!
If I could take this vacation all over again, I would spend one night in Old Faithful Inn, one night in the Roosevelt Lodge, and one night in Canyon Village. That way, you don't have to drive so much and you can easily see the entire park in three days. We spent all our nights in one place: Yellowstone Cabins. It was very nice, but we were constantly driving miles back to our lodging which wasted a lot of time. I knew this would be the issue when I booked our lodging, but all the hotels in the park were full except for the cabins. You need to book one year in advance at least if you want to stay in any of the other hotels in the park, and I can't seem to ever plan that far ahead. Heck, I don't even know when my husband can take a vacation that far in advance.
Old Faithful Visitor Education Center
After touring the Old Faithful Inn we headed over to the Old Faithful Visitor Educational Center. The park has ten visitor centers and information stations. That is incredible. We only visited a couple: Fishing Bridge Museum and this one. Regrettably, we didn't have the time to spend as much time as we would have liked at the Old Faithful Visitor Center. It seemed incredible! There was so much information to digest.
We thought it was pretty cool that you could see Old Faithful erupt from inside the Visitor Center!
And now be sure to enjoy a short video or two of some of the hydrothermal features in the Upper Geyser Basin. You really need to see at least one video to hear the gurgling, bubbling sounds and see the features in action. Pictures alone do not do them justice.
Videos of More Hydrothermal Features in the Upper Geyser Basin
Ear Spring
Small Hydrothermal Feature
Another Small Hydrothermal Feature
Dump Geyser
I hope you enjoyed my first post in my travel series to Yellowstone. There will be many more to come! My posts will all be very detailed about each highlight in Yellowstone we visited, so that you have plenty of information to plan your own trip someday!
Next week, I will cover another spot Yellowstone is famous for: The Grand Prismatic Spring! What a special place that is.
