Changing Directions on the Fly
Our original plan was to visit Glacier National Park for two days. We had even thought that since my husband had forgotten his passport in the hotel room the day before, that we might drive through Glacier again and head up to Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada. However when we woke up our plans quickly changed. The entire area was covered in smoke from the wild fires. Now the wildfire in Glacier itself had been pretty much contained by this time but the smoke from the fires in Washington State was blowing into the area and it had become quite thick.
Since we had spent the last half of the day in Glacier with the smoke settling in, we knew that views would be obstructed. Our hotel for the evening was in Bozeman, Montana so we had a little bit of flexibility in our schedule. Bozeman is about a 5 hour drive from Glacier National Park and an hour and a half drive to Yellowstone National Park. We were planning to go to Yellowstone the following day.
Last minute decision.....we decided to head to Yellowstone a day early, take a look around and head to Bozeman for the evening. This turned out to be a terrific decision because it gave us more time to spend in Yellowstone and see things we might have missed in a shorter visit!
The Drive to Yellowstone
Well the smoke was thick on our drive, obstructing the views in most spots. It's amazing to know that mountains are there and you can't see a thing. The sun was there, but when it was visible it was filtered through the smoke and appeared red. These conditions combined with the very early morning travel resulted in a very close encounter with a deer! Luckily the deer sideswiped our rental vehicle and other than taking off with a molding....left it totally intact. Sounded really bad but the damage was very minimal so we were able to continue along our way. We passed several other vehicles that were not so lucky as smoke, traffic and wildlife apparently do not mix well!
We arrived in Yellowstone in the early afternoon. This gave us several hours of daylight to explore the park and still get back to Bozeman for the night.
Yellowstone National Park
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| We began to see wildlife as soon as we entered the park! |
Having family who live in the western United States, I visited Yellowstone a few times as a kid. My husband and I also made a quick visit to the park about 14 years ago. Each time we went to Old Faithful, walked around the geyser basin and were on our way. As a kid, I did stay at the Old Faithful Inn once and in a cabin in the Old Faithful area but mostly we were in and out. So when my husband and I planned this trip, we planned on driving through, seeing a few things and heading to Grand Teton (which is actually one of my favorite parks!) Well having the extra day changed things our plans and allowed us to see what a gem this park really is!!!
At this point I have to digress for a moment. A few years back we had rented a Gypsy Guide when we were in Maui to take with us on the Road to Hana. We absolutely loved having it along. It made the ride so much more interesting and pointed out stops that you had to make along the way! We were heading back to Maui later in the year so we were wondering if the Gypsy Guide was now in app form and also if they offered any other tours. Much to our delight both of things were a reality! We rushed to the app store and purchased the Yellowstone Tour before our vacation. This was THE BEST $4.99 we spent on this trip!! I would HIGHLY recommend you purchase the app before you go to the park and also check out the other tours that Gypsy Guides offer. You will not be sorry!!! The guide points out must see things in the parks, provides information on what you are seeing, offers suggestions on hikes and routes to take. The app works without cellular service (which is very important in the National Parks). Just make sure you keep your phone plugged in (it does take some battery power to use) and you will be in for an enjoyable trip! We saw so much more by using this app than we ever would have without it!
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| The Visitor's Center in Mammoth Hot Springs |
Mammoth Hot Springs
We entered the park from the Mammoth Hot Springs Entrance in the North of the park. We made a quick stop at the Albright Visitor Center and headed to the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces for our first stop of the day. If you have been to Yellowstone before you know how interesting the terrain is....if you have not been to Yellowstone, I can only describe it as entering a whole other world. Geothermal features are everywhere and anywhere you can imagine! This means you may find the ground "smoking" at any time and you will most certainly smell the characteristic sulphur smell of the area! |
| Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces - Boardwalk |
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| Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces |
The terrace area has many types of features and has a boardwalk that you can walk along to get closer to the scenery. I would recommend taking a look around this area. The trail is a few miles long and there are some uphill areas so make sure to take your time on your walk. I will let the pictures do the talking here because it is not so easy to explain!
Sheepeater Cliff
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| Sheepeater Cliff |
There is a little side road (never would have taken if it hadn't been for the Gypsy Guide) that will take you to Sheepeater Cliff. It's not a long detour off the main roadway and is a short stop. The cliffs are really interesting. They look like the inside of honeycomb! Definitely worth a short stop if you have the time.
Norris Geyser Basin
Norris Geyser Basin is the home of the oldest, hottest and most dynamic thermal area in Yellowstone National Park. There is a boardwalk that will take you through the thermal area and brings you up close to many of the features. Plan on at least an hour at this stop and quite a bit of walking. This is definitely a place that you will want to stop!
After the Norris Geyser Basin we had a choice to make. We could either head south on to the Old Faithful area or keep going around the upper loop of the park. We chose to go around the upper loop and head to Canyon Village and the Hayden Valley.
Virginia Cascade
Another short detour that the Gypsy Guide alerted us to was the roadway to the Virginia Cascade. Once again while it is marked on the park map, we never would have thought to go there if it hadn't been for the guide! It is a very short detour that brings you back out on the main roadway and has a nice view of the waterfall. If you are a lover of waterfalls, I would suggest you plan this small detour into your schedule!
Canyon Village
From the Virginia Cascade we headed on to Canyon Village. This is a terrific place to stop and walk around. There are gift shops and food (which we decided to pass on and later regretted!) and small grocery stores. If you are looking for a good restroom stop and place to stock up on snacks...this is it.
Hayden Valley
From Canyon Village we headed south to the Hayden Valley. It was getting toward evening time and this is a terrific place to see wildlife at this time of day. It also happened to be rutting season (mid August) for the bison so we saw huge amounts of them all over the roadway, beside the roadway, in the distance...you name it....everywhere we turned we saw bison! Give yourself time in this area as the bison have the right of way and you never know how long you might be stopped waiting for them to clear the roadway.Places to see within the Hayden Valley
There are a few must see stops in the Hayden Valley. There are beautiful views of the Yellowstone river in this area (and many times wildlife by the river). You will also come across the sulphur caldron and Mud Volcano. Both of these take a short amount of time to stop and look around and I would recommend that you factor in the time to do this! I mean...how often do you see a mud volcano???
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
Unfortunately the wild fire smoke was starting to head into the park about this time of day and our views weren't quite as clear as we would have liked but still pretty stunning.
We also saw a grizzly bear in this area! We were in the car so it was exciting...kind of glad we weren't out walking around though!
Tower Falls
By this time it was getting pretty close to dusk but we wanted to make one final stop at Tower Falls on our way around the loop back to Mammoth Hot Springs. It is a short walk from the parking area to the overlook for the falls. If you have time to stop you should hit this spot. The view of the falls is nice. There is also a small gift shop here and a place to pick up snacks.
Back to Mammoth Hot Springs
By the time we completed the loop and got back to Mammoth Hot Springs we were into twilight. This meant that the Elk came out and were sitting all over the grass in the small "downtown" area! Very cool to see! Unfortunately it also meant that we were running out of daylight hours and we still had a couple hour drive back to Bozeman to get to our hotel!
Bozeman
Our trip back to the hotel was quite eventful! Route 89 out of the north entrance of Yellowstone up to Bozeman is quite a dark roadway and is FULL of animals in the evening. We had several very close calls with elk on our way back. I would suggest if you are traveling this way that you leave the park before darkness sets in. We were a bundle of nerves the entire length of this roadway. There are also not a lot of services along this roadway.
Homewood Suites Bozeman
We finally picked up a sandwich at a McDonalds in Bozeman and headed to the Homewood Suites for the evening. We were so happy to get there. It was about 10:00 PM by this time and it had been a long day of driving and walking and we were ready to hit the hay. Unfortunately this was the only bad experience among all the hotels we booked for this vacation. The front desk ignored us when we got there, gave us a smoking room instead of non-smoking. When we called down to see if we could change it we were told that it was the only room left. We had booked a non-smoking room several months in advance and are Hilton HHonors Diamond Members but obviously they had given all the rooms away in our category before we arrived. (This tends to happen at Homewood Suites properties so beware of late check in at these properties.) The room was dirty with old popcorn by the ottoman and stains on the drapes and carpets. The room was on the side next to the highway and it was very loud with semis changing gears as they went up the hill outside our room. Breakfast was horrible...half the items were gone by 7:00 AM when we were there. All in all a terrible stay and I would not recommend this property. There are many others in the area to choose from and I would suggest booking another one.
A Long Day but very Satisfying
We had a wonderful time exploring Yellowstone and were so happy that we took the extra time to see some things that we definitely would have missed! We were looking forward to going back to the park the next day and continue our exploration!
