US National Parks

Yellowstone National Park has the largest concentration of wildlife in the lower 48 states. Wildlife spotting was probably my husband’s favorite part of Yellowstone and it helped keep Gordie amused too while we were driving around the park.

You are probably more likely than not to see wildlife while you are in Yellowstone, even if you are only there for a short time. But remember to keep your distance and do not feed any of the animals. All of the animals in Yellowstone are wild no matter how tame they may seem.

The animals you are most likely to see in Yellowstone are bison.  Although at one point the Yellowstone herd was down to less than 50 bison, the herd in Yellowstone is now of the the largest in the US at  3500. Sometimes they can cause quite the traffic jam as they wander along the road. They can be found all along the Western areas of Yellowstone during June and July but by August you may need to go to the Hayden Valley to see them (between Yellowstone Lake and the Canyon area). Although they do not seem as dangerous as wolves or bears they are responsible for more injuries and even some deaths. It can be sometimes be difficult to keep the legal distance of 25 meters away, but make sure you do not approach or cross in front of them.

We waited on the path pictured below for 20 minutes waiting for the bison to move away from the edge of the path. Although a few people went by, no one with kids did.

Bears are a lot less commonly seen while in the park. They tend to be in the North East areas of Yellowstone. If you are interested in seeing a bear, pay attention to the other cars on the road. If there are a lot of cars stopped somewhere (and lots of fancy cameras) someone has probably spotted some unusual wildlife like a bear or a wolf.

We were on our way to a restaurant when we spotted a bear on our last day in the park. My husband got out to see if he could get a picture while Gordie and I waited in the car. Gordie – “Daddy’s looking for bears. I’m not. I’m looking for the restaurant.”

Elk are plentiful in Yellowstone. They are commonly found in the Northern areas of the park (Mammoth, Tower/Roosevelt).

Wolves are not seen very often by visitors to the park because they tend not to hang out around populated areas during the summer months. This year was a late, cold spring, so we ended up seeing wolves on three occasions. The first time is pictured below, on the road to the Grand Teton National Park. The guy in the picture is crazy. Although legally, you only have to keep 25 meters away from them, it’s recommended you keep 100 meters away (like the bears).  We also saw one running across a field near the Old Faithful area and far far far away (I saw it through a telescope) we saw two wolves feasting on an elk.

Although historically mountain goats haven’t lived in the area, they’ve started to colonize the northern rocky areas of the park.

There is  a lot of other animals that you may see too, including moose, small mammals, numerous birds and even snakes.

The snake above is actually just a bull snake. Which are harmless, but it looks like a rattlesnake. This is a good strategy for its threats from most other animals, but unfortunately for the snake, looking like a rattlesnake gets you killed by humans.

That’s the end of my series on Yellowstone, but stay tuned for the Devil’s Tower National Monument! Also, if you misssed them be sure to look at my tips on Taking Your Kids to US National Parks, Gordie’s Favorite Things In Yellowstone, Accommodations Things to See Around Old Faithful, Things to See in Other Geothermal Areas, and Other things to See in Yellowstone.

Yellowstone’s most famous features are geothermal in nature But there is a lot more to Yellowstone than just that. Here are a few more areas in Yellowstone (and one just to the south) that you may want to visit.

1. Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River

                
Worth the stop – If you’re short time on time it’s not a must see, but it’s definitely a worthwhile sight..
Approximate time – Anywhere from a quick stop to a long walk.
Difficulty of walk – easy – difficult depending on the path
My thoughts – I’d recommend the Artist Point on the South Rim if you’re only going to make one stop. It has the most classic view of the lower falls. If you want a nice view of the canyon itself go to Inspiration Point on the North Rim. I’d also suggest going to the Brink of the Upper Falls (North Rim). It’s not the best photographic opportunity, but you can get up really close to the waterfall and really feel how powerful it is. Gordie found this a little bit scary this year. He woke up having a nightmare about it.

2. The Area Around Tower Roosevelt

Worth the stop: Even if you just drive through instead of stop it’s worth a trip, but if you’re only in Yellowstone for a day or two and it’s not on your route, you may want to skip itMy thoughts: The Tower/Roosevelt area is in the North East corner of Yellowstone. The around around it is some of the best spots  to see wildlife. We’ve seen bears to the South, and to the East you are very likely to see some elk. The geography is very different from the other areas of Yellowstone (more mountains and forests). There is a part along this roadway at gets to nearly 8000 ft in elevation. I generally think Calgary is pretty high up at around 3400 ft above sea level. There is also some interesting geology to look at, like the Bleached Cliffs pictured above. We had been hoping to see more of this area this year, but the road was closed while we were there.

3. Yellowstone Lake

  
Worth the stop: At least a drive by
My thoughts: To be quite honest, we haven’t spent much time at the Yellowstone Lake. We’ve walked along the West Thumb Geyser Basin, driven along the road beside it and eaten at a restaurant beside it. But that’s it. It doesn’t help that, as you can see in the picture above on the right, the lake was still frozen while we were there this year. But if you are interested, you can rest non-motorized boats or small powerboats (with a crew and guide) at Bridge Bay Marina to take out on the lake.

4. Grand Teton National Park/John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway

 

Worth the stop: It depends
My thoughts: Included in your entrance fee to Yellowstone, is admission to the National Park areas to the South, the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway and the Grand Teton National Park. It’s a bit of an extra drive, but if you are a national park passport stamp collector, you’ll want to make the trip, because you can get a stamp for both of these national park areas. Sometimes the Parkway Visitor Centre is closed, but we were able to get both at the visitor’s center in the Grand Teton National Park. Also, if you are planning on participating (or rather, your kids) in the Jr. Ranger program, you can earn a badge in the Grand Teton National Park too.
The mountains and lake front in this area is stunning. This year, there was still quite a bit of snow along the way (see the picture above – my husband is 6’3”, that is a lot of snow!) and Jackson Lake was still pretty low in Coulter Bay Village. Other times, it is a pretty vibrant recreation area.

Check out the last instalment – Wildlife of Yellowstone. Also, if you missed them be sure to look at my tips on Taking Your Kids to US National Parks, Gordie’s Favorite Things In Yellowstone, Accommodations and Things to See Around Old Faithful, Things to See in Other Geothermal Areas.

This is a very dynamic area and things can change very quickly, so don’t be surprised if what you see isn’t quite as I’ve described it. Nonetheless this should give you an idea of what to expect at the many different geothermal walks outside of the Upper Geyser Basin.
Be sure to look at my tips on Taking Your Kids to US National Parks, Gordie’s Favorite Things In Yellowstone, Accommodations, Things to See Around Old Faithful, Other Things to See In Yellowstone and Wildlife of Yellowstone.

1. Norris Geyser Basin

 
Worth the stop – It’s a good stop, but you’re not going to see much here that you couldn’t see somewhere else
Approximate time – The Porcelain Basin Area is a fairly short walk, but if you did the Back Basin Area as well it would take over an hour.
Difficulty of walk – Primarily easy but some areas have steep sections.
My thoughts – This is a great area to see some of the different colors that the water can be. The Porcelain Basin Area is can get can get pretty hot on a warm day, but the Back Basin Area is more wooded.

2. Fountain Paint Pots

Worth the stop – I would highly recommend it
Approximate time – Short (0.8 km round trip)
Difficulty of walk – easy, but there are some steps
My thoughts – I really enjoyed this walk. The mud pots here were my favourite in the park – very active and bubbly. And Clepsydra Geyser erupts almost constantly. We also saw Jet Geyser erupt while we were there.

3. Firehole Lake Drive (one-way enterance in the south)

-Firehole Canyon Drive ( one-way starting in the north, swimming hole along the drive)

Worth the stop – Definitely
Approximate time – Both drives are will only take your a short way out of your way
Difficulty of walk – you don’t even have to leave the car if you don’t want to
My thoughts – I would highly recommend taking these two short detours.

4. Mammoth Area

     
Worth the stop – You don’t want to miss this area
Approximate time – If you only have a short time you can do a short walk at the lower level of the lower terraces, if you want to do the lower, main and upper terraces, expect it to take a while. Not to mention the Fort Yellowstone area is here as well.
Difficulty of walk – There is an short accessible path and at some times of the year you can drive the upper terrace loop (but it is not an easy drive and not for big vehicles (such as motor homes) the rest has stairs or steep paths along the way
My thoughts – This area is unlike any other. It’s not a particularly dynamic area, but it is gorgeous. The terraces are described as living sculptures. This area does change constantly though with different areas becoming active and inactive. We noticed changes just between our two trips. Apparently, the overall activity and volume of water remain fairly constant despite all this change.

5. Artists Paintpots

 
Worth the stop – A great stop but not a must see
Approximate time – Fairly short (1 mile round trip)
Difficulty of walk – generally flat and easy, but there is one very steep section
My thoughts – This is another great spot to see mud pots. They are at the very top of the hill though, so if your party is not up for the climb, go to the Fountain Paint pots instead. The walk includes a wetland meadow making it even prettier than some of the other geothermal areas.

6. Mud Volcano Area

 
Worth the stop – I’d give it a pass unless you are in the area looking for something to do
Approximate time – short (1km)
Difficulty of walk – there are some steep sections to get to the top of the loop
My thoughts – This area seems like it would be a lot more fun than it is. Unfortunately the geothermal features are not as dramatic currently as they once were. The Mud Volcano name sake has broken apart and is now just a mud pot. If you do decide to go, most of the interesting features are along the lower levels. Our favorite was the Dragon’s Mouth Spring  where the water growls.Gordie walked away mimicking it.

7. West Thumb Geyser Basin

8. Midway Geyser Basin – Grand Prismatic Spring – Fairy Falls

     
In front of the Grand Prismatic Spring

View of the Grand Prismatic Spring from a hill along the trail to Fairy Falls
Worth the stop – yes just so you can tell people you stood beside the grand Prismatic Spring
Approximate time – The Midway Geyser Basin is a quick walk (.5miles) but if you really want to get a good view of the Grand Prismatic Spring you need to walk about a mile down the Fairy Falls path and scramble up a small hill. It is definitely worth it though.
Difficulty of walk – The Midway Geyser Basin is an easy walk. The Fairy Falls to the lookout for the Grand Prismatic is along a dirt road (no vehicles allowed) which we managed to push a stroller along.
My thoughts – This is one of the most impressive things in the park in my opinion. Unfortunately the best view of the Grand Prismatic Spring is directly above it. It frequently appears from this angle in books like “Earth from Above” and for good reason – it is truly gorgeous. When you are at the base of the spring you see what is in the top two pictures. Still impressive, but you lose a lot of the blue and green colors. The 3rd picture is taken from the hill along the path to Fairy Falls. The lookout point is not marked on the path, so you have to look at where the Spring is to figure out which hill you need to go up. There is a good chance though that someone else will be up it because it really is a view.
Just a note, if you find the hill make sure you look for the path up instead of scrambling straight up the hill. It’s not a bad climb if you find the path. My husband managed to do it while carrying Gordie last year (14 months old).
Check out the next post in this series – Other Things to See In Yellowstone.

Yellowstone is so big, I’ve split the Things to See into 3 posts. This post covers the Upper Geyser Basin area which includes Old Faithful. This is a very dynamic area and things can change very quickly, so don’t be surprised if what you see isn’t quite as I’ve described it. Nonetheless this should give you an idea of what to expect at the many different walks in the upper Geyser Basin.
Be sure to look at my tips on Taking Your Kids to US National Parks, Gordie’s Favorite Things In Yellowstone, Accommodations, Things to See in Other Geothermal Areas,  Other Things to See In Yellowstone and Wildlife of Yellowstone.

Upper Geyser Basin (around Old Faithful Geyser)

1. Old Faithful Geyser

     
Worth the stop – Absolutely. If you have any desire at all to see a large geyser erupt, Old Faithful is a must see.
Approximate time – It erupts every 50-120 minutes for 1.5-5 minutes.
Difficulty of walk – Easy.
My thoughts– When you get to the Old Faithful area first look and see if there is a crowd around the geyser. If there is, go! It will be erupting soon. Old Faithful is such a hit because it is the most frequently erupting large geyser and because it’s eruptions can be generally predicted +/- 10 minutes. So most of the time you don’t even have to wait that long. If you don’t see a crowd, you can go into the Visitor Centre, stores, or hotels and check when the next predicted eruption is. If it’s not for a while, you can take a look at the Visitor Centre, do some shopping, or walk around Geyser Hill. If you are on Geyser Hill when Old Faithful erupts you’ll still get a great view of the eruption.

2. Other predictable geysers

 
Worth the stop – Maybe. It depends on when the geysers are predicted to erupt, how long your kids are willing to wait around and the accuracy interval of the geyser you want to see.
Approximate time – The predicted eruption time varies from +/- 30 minutes to +/- 2 hours for the different geysers. The eruptions range from a few minutes to 20 minutes long.
Difficulty of walk – the pathways to most of the predictable geysers are pretty easy. You should be able to take a stroller.
My thoughts – When you enter the Old Faithful Area, stop in at one of the hotels or the visitor centre to see the predicted eruption times. If your kids are not good at waiting, don’t bother. There are lots of other things to see. We saw Castle Geyser Erupt. It erupts for 20 minutes and is a quick trip to get there. I was really happy we waited but we ended up waiting around for about an hour. Thank goodness for Ipods otherwise Gordie wouldn’t have made it. We also went up to the walk towards morning glory pool at the beginning where we would still be able to see it if it went off earlier rather than later.
Predictions – Castle +/- 1 hr, Grand Geyers +/- 2 hrs, Daisy and Riverside +/- 30 minutes.

3. Geyser Hill

 

Worth the stop – Absolutely.
Approximate time – Fairly short (2.1 km for the loop)
Difficulty of walk – Primarily easy, although there is a steep section to get from Old Faithful to the hill.
My thoughts– There are a bunch of smaller active geysers on this loop. If you’re lucky you might even see one erupt. But it is still interesting to look at even if you don’t. When we went last year, we saw Beehive erupt and it was one of the highlights of the trip for me.

4. Upper Geyser basin Walk (towards Morning Glory Pool)

Worth the stop – Definitely. Most of the large, predictable Geysers in Yellowstone are along this walk.
Approximate time – If you go all the way to the Morning Glory pool it’s pretty long (4.4km round trip) But you could easily stop at many points along the way and turn around.
Difficulty of walk – Easy
My thoughts – This is one of the parts of the park that I wish we had spent more time at. Next time I want to go all the way up to the Morning Glory Pool. This trip we only went as far as Grand Geyser. We saw a bluebird, an otter and two marmots in addition to all the interesting pools and geysers.

5. Biscuit Basin

 
Worth the stop – Not a bad stop, but you’re not missing much if you pass it by
Approximate time – fairly short walk (1km)
Difficulty of walk – easy
My thoughts– This has some pretty pools and jewel geyser is entertaining as it erupts every 7-10 minutes.

6. Black Sand Basin
 

Worth the stop – Yes
Approximate time – fairly short walk (1km)
Difficulty of walk – easy
My thoughts – To the west of the Old Faithful area – the pools here are beautiful and Cliff Geyser erupts every 10 minutes – it seems different every time too. I was pleasantly surprised by this area.
Take a look at the next post in this series – Things to See in Other Geothermal Areas.

I had heard about Yellowstone growing up, but was surprised to find out how (relatively) close it is to Calgary. Although you could get there in one (long) day, we haven chosen to stay in Great Falls overnight both times we’ve gone. We went for the first time last year when Gordie was just over a year and enjoyed it so much that we went again this year.
I’m definitely not an authority on Yellowstone, we were only there for a few days both times. What I’ve written is more what I would say to a friend over coffee before she took her kids to Yellowstone.
Be sure to look at my tips on Taking Your Kids to US National Parks, Gordie’s Favorite Things In Yellowstone, Things to See Around Old Faithful, Things to See in Other Geothermal Areas,  Other Things to See In Yellowstone and Wildlife of Yellowstone.

Accommodations

The first time we went to Yellowstone we stayed in a hotel in West Yellowstone. It ended up taking a long time to get back into the park because in addition to the actual distance, bison like the area and wander across the road (and along the road) and people blocked the road as they stopped to take pictures.
So for our trip this year we looked into getting lodging inside the park itself. We found out that you need to book in advance, even when we were booking in December for our trip in June, it wasn’t easy to find 3 consecutive nights. Although I would stay inside the park again, I wouldn’t stay at the same place all three (or whatever) nights. Yellowstone has a few lodging areas and if we were staying for 3 nights, I would stay at 3 different places in the park. It would be a bit of a pain to pack up every day, but then you don’t have to spend so much of your time just driving back and forth.
Staying inside the park is not going to be for everyone though. The rooms are surprisingly well priced as the rates are price controlled, but may lack some of the amenities you would like. The cabins and lodges do not have radios, TVs, air conditioning or internet. Not all rooms (even in the lodges) have their own bathroom and those that do will typically have a shower but no bathtub.

We didn’t spend a lot of time in the cabin, we were out early and came back late and Gordie had his afternoon nap in the car. So it was really all we needed.
We stayed in a cabin by the Old Faithful Lodge that did have a bathroom. These cabins are small and a little austere. The picture you see of the outside of the cabin is misleading as each cabin is a duplex with two units inside it. In the picture I took of the inside of the cabin I am standing in the doorway. There is a small desk to the right with a kitchen chair, and to the left is the bathroom and the sink. There is a small heater, but it was still cold enough the first night that we didn’t think Gordie would be warm if we set blankets up on the floor for him to sleep on. I expect the cabins get pretty hot in the summer and there is only a small fan in the room.
If you are planning on staying in a cabin with kids you really want to think about your sleeping arrangements. The one bedroom (with a bathroom) cabins have only a queen bed (and not a generous one at that) although there would be room to set up an air mattress or cot or two on the floor. The hotel will supply playpen cribs for children under 2 years old. Gordie ended up sleeping between us on the bed, but if he was any older this wouldn’t have been a functional solution. There are cabins with two beds, but you have to share a communal bathroom.

Gordie struggled to fall asleep in the cabin (in part because we kept him out too late 🙂 because there is just no way to give him any distance from us to let him fall asleep on his own – without leaving him by himself. There is only one chair and the room is so small you just can’t help but be right there in front of him.

Overall though I’d really recommend staying in the park if you are planning a trip in advance. The lodgings are reasonably priced, it cuts out a lot of time in the car and you don’t want to spend a lot of time in your room when there is so much to see in the park anyway.

Updated to add: This year – 2012 (although I said I wouldn’t) we ended up staying in a cabin for 4 nights at the Canyon area. These cabins were more expensive, but were nicer, had 2 queens and a full bathroom (and a coffee maker that took k-cups!). I had thought the location would feel out of the way but it actually provided good access to the whole park. If you are planning on staying for a few days and exploring the park, it’s a great location.
Check out the next post in the series – Things to See Around Old Faithful.