Yellowstone National Park

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Besides being generally glorious,Yellowstone National Park is also HUGE. We were told some people do it in a day but I'm not sure how they managed that.

We spent time over three days (but not full days on days 1 and 3), and it was still a taxing schedule. We did get to see everything on our list, but had to limit trails to those that were the shortest. You could easily spend an entire day just hiking, or fishing, or cycling, or whatever else floats your boat (there are probably boats somewhere in thepark, too, they gots everything). The main drag around the park is called the loop (technically a figure 8, but we skipped that wee connector in the middle and stuck to the sights along the main loop).

The schedule:

Day 1 - we left Grand Teton National Park and drove north to YNP. From Teton Village (where our hotel was) it was about a 1.5 hr drive to YNP. We entered at the south entrance and while driving accross a bridge, we saw a buffalo (technically a bison but everyone calls them buffalo) down below in a field by a stream. Yelled something like "holy sh@t there's a buffalo", and pulled over for photos. T hadn't finished closing her door before noticing I was long gone. In what I can only attribute to buffalo fever, I actually sprinted - I'm pretty sure at Olympic speed - over to the edge of the bridge. We hadn't seen a single buffalo in GTNP and the two parks are actually connected so we were feeling pretty lucky that we were barely into YNP and came across one. Yay us!! 20-odd pictures later and we were back in the car still humming from seeing the great beast in his natural habitat before we turned another corner and...holy sh@t....there are 30 more. An entire obstinacy of buffalo (the Gaperguide we talked about in the last post taught us that a herd of buffalo is an "obstinacy". Not quite as cool as a blessing of unicorns, but there you go). So it turns out that T et moi don't have an especially good eye for wildlife, the buffalo are just everywhere in YNP. Not that that had any impact on how exciting it was to see them. Even after day three there were still exclamations of "Oh my jeebus, Buffalo!"

Our first stop after buffalos #1 and #31 was the famed Old Faithful geyser. The eruption was beautiful and also surprisingly quiet. We walked the one hour circuit around it, saw some other hot springs and, surprise, surprise, more buffalo. I also pointed out to T a buffalo crotte which was the size of a volley ball (I just asked T to confirm if crotte was spelled with one "t" or two and she had this to say: "you made me google "crotte" and now pictures of poop keep popping up". We then headed east over the the Lake Yellowstone area with stops to check out the sights on the way (still being entertained and masterfully guided by our Gaperguide). We overnighted in the park in Lake Village and determined that we'd get up obscenely early the next morning to be out during sunrise - the golden hour for wildlife spotting.

Day 2 - we got up obscenely early (ouch) and were out in the prime wildlife spotting zone on the east side of the park (Hayden Valley) and spotted a ton of critters and continued up towards the north west corner of the grand loop. A whole bunch of buffalo were walking on the main roadway and had eastbound traffic at a crawl but fortunately for us we were heading west so we just got to enjoy passing them (technically, they passed us since we stopped until they made their way past us). We checked out the Mammoth Hot Springs and ended the day just outside the park in West Yellowstone, Montana.

Day 3 - we got up obscenely early (again) and saw loads of critters (again) and finished the stuff we didn't see on days 1 and 2 (basically everything between the west entrance and Black Sand Basin. Sapphire Pool and Fountain Paint Pots were awesome. We continued heading east and stopped for a picnic lunch around the lake area before leaving the park through the east entrance.

What you need to know: It is super chilly this time of year - like polar fleece and long pants chilly even with the sun out. We learned this is pretty normal as the YNP has its own microclimate. To compare, when we left the park out the east entrance we went from about 45F to about 80F within an hour(ish). Bring a toque, mitts, etc. especially if you are out early in the morning.

What surprised us: YNP is crawling with people. It was busy everywhere we went and the only time we really didn't feel like we were trying to keep ahead of tour buses was when we were out very early in the morning. I can't imagine what it would be like during peak season in the summer. Not that it impacted our enjoyment, it was still magical and we had a few quiet moments even with folks about.

Staying in the area ain't cheap. Accommodation in the park is expensive and books up early. Even basic hotel accommodations just outside the park will set you back considerably more than the same digs elsewhere. However, it is what it is. It's a high demand area and since the park is so big, you really can maximize your time there by being close by. My advice would be to book early (like really, really early) to have the most options of location and price.

The Verdict: it should be on everyone's must-do list. Everyone's.

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