Yellowstone Park = Awesome

[Pacolovestacos]

Just completed a 4 night stay at Yellowstone and I am completely blown away by the awesomeness of this place!

 

[daannzzz]

I loved it when we went 15 years ago. Driving in we were stuck in a group of buffalo traveling on the road. Saw lots of wildlife and I could so end days looking at every steaming geyser, pool, river and little hoke that gurgled, hissed and puffed. It was all so fascinating and beautiful.

 

[marthachick]

Just completed a 4 night stay at Yellowstone and I am completely blown away by the awesomeness of this place!

We are going next month. We are staying 2 nights at Canyon Lodge. We are so excited! What was your 'not to be missed' recommendations?

 

[bcla]

I loved it when we went 15 years ago. Driving in we were stuck in a group of buffalo traveling on the road. Saw lots of wildlife and I could so end days looking at every steaming geyser, pool, river and little hoke that gurgled, hissed and puffed. It was all so fascinating and beautiful.

No mention of how it smells? I remember Black Dragon's Cauldron as having a particularly nasty odor.

However, the smells in Yellowstone pale compare to Kilauea. I heard that described as smelling like the "farts of 10,000 people".

 

[bcla]

We are going next month. We are staying 2 nights at Canyon Lodge. We are so excited! What was your 'not to be missed' recommendations?

Not the OP, but definitely Old Faithful. You're probably going to see Yellowstone Falls in that area. The geysers are great, but it's kind of a crapshoot as to whether or not you'll see one of the bigger geysers erupt. There are some people who sit around with radios in chairs waiting for them to erupt. In my visit a decade ago we spent maybe a day in the Upper Geyser Basin and saw Old Faithful, Giant, Riverside, Grand, and Beehive erupt. It was really impressive because I have a photo of Giant, Riverside, and Grand erupting simultaneously. Giant was crazy too. It makes Old Faithful look like a garden hose compared to a fire hose. Giant also erupted for well over an hour. After a while I figure I'd seen enough and walked back to the lodge, and it was still going. There was a ranger leading a tour, and he didn't seem to notice until I said that Giant was erupting. He then told anyone in his group that he recommended just going there because it was a pretty rare occurrence.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

My all-time favorite place

 

[Planogirl]

Was it crowded? I'd love to go someday but I deal with enough crowds at that other place.

 

[design_mom]

We are going next month. We are staying 2 nights at Canyon Lodge. We are so excited! What was your 'not to be missed' recommendations?

We are going next month and spending 2 nights at Canyon Lodge, too! Maybe we will see you there.

We are flying into Salt Lake City and renting a car. We are driving to Jackson, WY. We'll spend the next day at Grand Teton NP. Then the next two at the Canyon Lodge in Yellowstone to see the East side of Yeloowstone NP. Then we are going to go up to Glacier NP for 3 days, then back to Yellowstone. We'll spend another 2 days based out of West Yellowstone to see the west side of the park... Then back to SLC to fly home.

 

[mom2rtk]

I loved it when we went 15 years ago. Driving in we were stuck in a group of buffalo traveling on the road. Saw lots of wildlife and I could so end days looking at every steaming geyser, pool, river and little hoke that gurgled, hissed and puffed. It was all so fascinating and beautiful.

It's been years since we were there but the kids still talk about being stuck in a buffalo jam! It's an amazing place and I'm looking forward to getting back one day.

 

[mom2rtk]

Not the OP, but definitely Old Faithful. You're probably going to see Yellowstone Falls in that area. The geysers are great, but it's kind of a crapshoot as to whether or not you'll see one of the bigger geysers erupt. There are some people who sit around with radios in chairs waiting for them to erupt. In my visit a decade ago we spent maybe a day in the Upper Geyser Basin and saw Old Faithful, Giant, Riverside, Grand, and Beehive erupt. It was really impressive because I have a photo of Giant, Riverside, and Grand erupting simultaneously. Giant was crazy too. It makes Old Faithful look like a garden hose compared to a fire hose. Giant also erupted for well over an hour. After a while I figure I'd seen enough and walked back to the lodge, and it was still going. There was a ranger leading a tour, and he didn't seem to notice until I said that Giant was erupting. He then told anyone in his group that he recommended just going there because it was a pretty rare occurrence.

It's been a while, but I do recall seeing boards posted by some of the geysers with expected eruption times. When we stayed at Old Faithful Inn, I woke up early and recalled that Castle Geyser was due to erupt sometime soon so I moseyed on out for a walk. I was treated to a nearly private show:

castlegeyser by mom2rtk, on Flickr

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Was it crowded? I'd love to go someday but I deal with enough crowds at that other place.

I've been twice & there are parts that are crowded, and traffic often moved slowly. But, there are tons of "off the beaten path" places to explore that are very secluded. Makes for a nice break

 

[tasha99]

Was it crowded? I'd love to go someday but I deal with enough crowds at that other place.

I went last September and it wasn't crowded at all, except around bear sightings. Perfect time, since the weather was still nice, but kids were back in school.

 

[Pacolovestacos]

Was it crowded? I'd love to go someday but I deal with enough crowds at that other place.

It's like Disney World after 10am. If you wake up early, like I did, you'll be treated to very enjoyable mornings and evenings. Of course I went in June which is one of the busiest months at Yellowstone. If you go in the offseason, it will be much less crowded.

 

[Pacolovestacos]

We are going next month. We are staying 2 nights at Canyon Lodge. We are so excited! What was your 'not to be missed' recommendations?

I would wake up early and go see the Old faithful eruption. You can see the predicted eruption online, google it. After that, head back down the same road you came in on. There will be several geyser basins to check out. See them. Then go see Norris Geysers. You can do all that in one day.

Second day, enjoy the canyon. DEFINITELY do South Rim early in the morning. Then maybe have lunch and do North Rim in the afternoon.

Keep your eyes open for bears. If you ever see a big conga line of cars pulled over in the middle of nowhere, there are bears. I was fortunate enough to see 2 grizzly bears and 4 black bears on my first day in the park.

If you want to head to a cool area one evening, go to West Yellowstone. Tons of really good restaurants.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Subscribing. Sounds like a "blast"!

 

[daannzzz]

Before my digital camera. We were there in May and it was cool out so the steam was prevalent.


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[bcla]

Before my digital camera. We were there in May and it was cool out so the steam was prevalent.

My biggest problem was that steam interfered with proper use of autofocus. If I wanted to focus in the distance and there was a lot of steam, the autofocus would often lock on the steam. It helped with a camera that could be manually focused or where there was a manual override focus.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Cool pics anyway bcla! I guess I am putting this on the bucket list.

 

[bcla]

Cool pics anyway bcla! I guess I am putting this on the bucket list.

I was just referring to my experience trying to focus on a scene with steam. Those photos looked fine, but I was just just trying to chat it up about the process.

 

[ols386]

Bucket list. Looks and sounds spectacular.