Yellowstone National Park - May 2018

I wanted to visit Yellowstone National Park (YS) for more than 2 years. Finally things worked out in early 2018 to plan this trip on Memorial Day weekend 2018. 

Yellowstone is first national park in the world, a super volcano and very diverse landscape. Yellowstone has more than half of world's active geothermal geysers. A very diverse national park with geothermal geysers, mountains, meadows, lakes and plenty of wildlife including bisons, black bears, grizzly bears and elks to name a few.  

Closest airport to park is Jackson hole, Wyoming. But flights to Jackson hole are very expensive. So we flew to Salt Lake City on May 25th evening and stayed near Salt Lake City Airport. Salt Lake City is little farther away from YS, but one gets cheaper flights to Salt Lake. 

Day 1 - May 26th

We left Salt Lake City at 8.40 am to head north to national park. West entrance of the park is 320 miles / 4.5 hours from Salt Lake airport and is a pretty straightforward drive. This drive is very scenic as we near the park. A lot of mountains and meadows along the way. 

Also there are plenty of gas stations (Petrol pumps) along the way - all the way till West Yellowstone village which is at the west entrance of the park. 

We entered park at around 1.30pm. After driving  couple of miles we were greeted  by long line of cars. It took us almost and hour to cover next 5-6 miles. Later on we guessed that the traffic was due to wildlife on the road. 

First lesson about YS - Be patient, be very patient! 

Map of YS National Park

Map of "8" shaped loop inside YS national park

Lower Geyser Basin - 

After reaching Madison Junction we started driving south towards Old Faithful. We reached lower geyser basin after driving 3-4 miles south of Madison junction. There was a line of cars to find parking spot in the parking lot. Did I say the first lesson we learnt - Be Patient! 

We lucked out and got a spot quickly. There are several geysers in this basin and a wooden walkway goes around basin. Notable features here are Morning geyser, fountain paint pot and red spouter (Pics below)  

Lower Geyser Basin

Lower Geyser Basin 

Fountain Paint Pots - Lower Geyser Basin

Fountain Paint Pot - Lower Geyser Basin

Red Spouter - Lower Geyser Basin

Morning Geyser @ Lower Geyser Basin

Midway Geyser Basin Pics- 

We headed further south after visiting lower basin. We reached midway basin after driving about 3 miles south. Grand Prismatic spring, a well known feature of YS, is here at midway basin. Firehole river runs right between the road and basin. This spot was very crowded and we decided not to struggle for parking in the lot. We parked on roadside just outside parking lot and walked towards spring after navigating through crowd of people. 

Firehole River

Firehole River

Excelsior Geyser 

Crowd on the way to Grand Prismatic spring

Grand Prismatic aerial view (pic from national park services website)

Grand Prismatic Spring

Vibrant colors of Grand Prismatic spring

Upper Geyser Basin -  

Black Sand Basin 

Old Faithful Geyser

After visiting black sand basin we headed south to Old faithful geyser. Old faithful is the most popular feature of YS. This geyser erupts every 90 minutes. It is known as "faithful" due to its dependable eruptions. Eruptions last 3-5 minutes and geyser can go as high as 180 feet!
We reached geyser area around 5.30pm. There was already a big crowd waiting for eruption. We joined them. There is plenty of seating around the geyser - it is more or less like an amphitheater. The geyser erupted at 5.50pm after some false alarms for 20 minutes and making us wait patiently for it. The eruption geyser was totally worth waiting.

Crowd waiting for Old Faithful to erupt

Old Faithful - before eruption

Old faithful eruption 

We grabbed dinner at cafe in Old Faithful lodge. The food here can finish quickly, so it is a good idea to grab early dinner. There are food options for vegetarians.
We were staying at old faithful lodge cabins, so we called it a day after dinner.


Day 2 - May 27th

We got ready and left the cabins at 7.45am. We had a lot of places to visit today and had to drive a lot. That's why we had aimed at early start. Early start was also helpful to beat traffic and crowds.
We drove up north from old faithful towards Norris geyser basin. On the way to Norris we took a short break at Gibbon falls.

Gibbon Fall

Gibbon Fall

@ Gibbon Fall

Norris geyser basin
After Gibbon falls we continued further north to Norris Geyser basin. Norris basin is about 30 miles from Old faithful and took us about 2 hours to get there (With one break at Gibbon and delay due to Bisons on the road)
Norris geyser basin has multiple geysers and from high up it looks like a land on fire. There are 2 trails in this basin. We explored porcelain basin trail. Pics and video of basin are below -

Tower Fall 
From Norris fall we continued east towards Canyon village visitor center. Took a short break at visitor center and continued north towards tower fall. There is a short trail from parking lot to the overlook. The fall is much away from this overlook and I was slightly disappointed due to that. None the less we crossed off one more place from the list.

Lamar Valley 
From tower fall we drove 2 miles north to Tower Roosevelt junction. Here we started driving east towards north east entrance of the park. This road drives through Lamar valley - probably the most scenic drive in this park (And also one of the most scenic drives I have seen in 21 national parks that I have visited till date! ). Don't miss this drive. It is totally worth it!
Lamar valley is also known for spotting wildlife. As soon as we started driving in the valley we came across a wolf which ran across the road. Further east we also came across a crowd which had spotted a grizzly bear and cub on a far hill. We didn't have binoculars, so we could just listen to people explaining the scenes on the hill.
We drove about 18 miles into the valley and turned around to retrace our way back.
This is very scenic drive - No matter you see wildlife or not. Pictures cannot capture beauty of this valley!

Wolf with his prey 

Elk crossed the road 

Crowd of photographers trying to spot a badger 

Bisons along the road 

Grand Canyon of YS
After exploring lamar valley, we retraced our way back to Canyon village junction. A mile south of junction is trail for Grand canyon of YS. This trail is about 3/8th of a mile and drops 600 feet in elevation to reach top of lower falls ( One of the three falls on Yellowstone river - Upper fall, lower fall and crystal fall) . The view from this point is breathtaking.

Grand canyon of YS

Mud volcano and Dragon's mouth spring 

On the way from Grand canyon to west thumb is mud volcano. Its a good spot to visit if you have time. You can skip this spot if you are short on time.  

Mud Volcano

West Thumb -

West thumb is another geyser basin which is on west shore of Yellowstone lake. Its a nice trail with some scenic views of geysers alongside lake.

West Thumb Geyser Basin - With view of Yellowstone lake

Back to Old Faithful 
After exploring west thumb we returned to old faithful. We grabbed dinner at Lodge cafe and got to see one more eruption of geyser while having our dinner - at around 7.30pm.
We came back again at 8.50pm to see next eruption and the faithful did not disappoint us.

This was a very productive day. We drove almost 80% of the park's 2 loops and had covered all major spots except Mammoth hot springs by end of the day. We could see 2 more eruptions of old faithful to end our day.

Old Faithful Eruption at 7.30pm - From Lodge dining area 

Eruption at 9pm

Day 3 - May 28th 
We left old faithful lodge at 8am after having breakfast. We left early to beat traffic of long weekend and it worked out really well. We were out of the park in 45 mins and by 1.30pm we made it to Salt Lake City! It was a trip well planned and executed! Everything went smoothly and we made the most of 1.5 day that we got inside the park.


My Tips for planning the trip

1. Plan really early. It is never too early to plan a trip to Yellowstone. People plan this trip as ahead as 1 year. We planned it 6 months prior and somehow managed to get last available rooms in the old faithful lodge 
2. Plan to stay in one of the lodges in the park - preferably Old faithful inn or lodge. This is a huge park and you will end up wasting a lot of time and energy if you stay outside the park. (If you stay in West Yellowstone town then you add 60 miles to your daily trip which can take anywhere between 1.5 and 2.5 hours depending on traffic. 
3. There are plenty of gas stations along the way to West Yellowstone entrance (about 1 gas station every 25 miles). There are gas stations inside the park as well - at Old Faithful, Canyon visitor center, Mammoth hot spring, Lake village and west thumb. So no need to stress over availability of gas. 
4. There are cafes at every lodge inside the park. Although food options are limited if you are a vegetarian. Moreover the food may finish quickly on long weekends. So good idea will be to pack your own food as a backup. 
5. Be patient! - specially during crowded time of the year. This is a popular national park and can get crowded in late spring / summer. Wildlife on road can result into mile long traffic and it can take up to an hour to drive 4 miles ( Been there, done that!). So be patient 
6. We covered most of the park in 1.5 days, but ideal will be 2.5 days. That way one can explore all the points and may be do a hike or 2 to explore the park like a traveller. 
7. Lamar valley - a must go! Do take time to drive to Lamar valley. Its a very scenic drive. 
8. Carry a binocular to see wildlife in Lamar valley. 
9. Visit popular spots like Grand Prismatic spring, Lower geyser basin in early morning. That way you can beat crowds of people, and don't have to struggle for parking.