[aditya_rao]

Yellowstone is one of the oldest national parks in the US (and in the world as they claim). The most striking visual of this park is the grand prismatic prism and many people call it the third eye. This is what caught my attention last year while going through a magazine and then I decided to do a trip. My parents were visiting the US, so we thought this would be a good place to visit in the summer with family. Yellowstone has multiple attractions apart from the grand prismatic. Wolves, Bison’s, hot springs, Sulphur springs to name a few. As this was during the peak season, we decided to travel over a regular weekend taking an extra day 2 days off. After evaluating airport options near Yellowstone we decided to reach Salt lake city and then book a car from the airport. Plan was as follows
Day 0 – reach SLC, pickup car and stay overnight in SLC
Day 1 – Start from SLC and reach Gardiner, Montana
Day 2 – Do upper loop of Yellowstone
Day 3 – Do lower loop, reach Grand Teton by night
Day 4 – Do a tour of the Grand Tetons and then reach SLC by night to take the return flight
Flight Tickets were booked around 3 weeks in advance and instead of booking hotels we decided to book it via vbro.com (an alternative to Airbnb). We also got a good rate at comfort inn in SLC for the night.

Day 0:
Apart from my family, another friend decided to join solo. We had around 2 bags and 3 smaller bags and were contemplating whether to take an uber to the airport to drive ourselves. The main concern was fitting the 5 bags in the boot. After some struggle we managed to fit all bags and decided to keep the remaining smaller bags in the rear seats with us. In the days near to travel, we had purchased lot of ready to eat Haldirams and other packages as within the national park there are very few or no food options (that too vegetarian ones). So we reached the airport around 1.5 hrs in advance, checked-in and gave the bags at bag-drop. Surprisingly we got free TSA-Pre on the boarding pass, so we got to keep the shoes on. Boarding happened in a timely manner with little delay (for a change, from past trips on AA). We reached with some delay, but got our bags and headed to the rental counter to pick up the car. We got the Chevy Traverse. While I was looking for a Tahoe, but since this was the only one available, we decided to go ahead with it, instead of wasting time in looking for a similar category vehicle. The hotel was not that far off and soon we checked in and dozed off for the night.

Day 1
Next morning we got ready, packed our bags, had breakfast and left for Yellowstone. Our route was taking us from Utah to Idaho to Montana and into Wyoming (for Yellowstone). Gardiner sits on the border of Wyoming and Montana. Since we were passing through Idaho, we were hoping to go to one of the big waterfalls in Idaho called Shoshone falls. But soon it dawned upon us that this seem over ambitious with the stops with the distance we had covered so far. So we decided to see a smaller waterfall on the way called Mesa falls which is almost on the route to Yellowstone. There are two falls here – upper and lower mesa falls. Since the upper one was closer to where we were, we decided to park and take the trail to the view point. The visitor station seemed closed, so we decided to see on our own and then head towards Gardiner. After spending almost an hour there we moved on. On the way we stopped couple of times for coffee and lunch. By the time we reached the entrance to the national park, it was getting dark. After getting our park passes checked we had two options, either to head to our accommodation and then come back, or to do something in the park and then head back. We calculated the distances and decided that it was better to stay in the park and then head to Gardiner so that we don’t have to travel the same route two times, plus it would take around 2hrs roundtrip as some constructions was being done on the roads. We browsed through the park magazine and decided to take the Solar eclipse information seminar. There was a night sky viewing program being organized after the talk on solar eclipse. This would go on till around 10 PM, after which we would start back. The talk on the eclipse gave some good information about the eclipse (as Jackson hole was in the path of totality in August). After the talk they even distributed free eclipse viewing glasses. Once the seminar was done, they started to setup the big telescopes. We could see the major planets, moons, rings of Saturn and even the ISS. We tried to click some pictures of the Milky way too, but did not get good shots. It was past 10:30, so we decided to leave the viewing area, as it would take around an hour to reach. We managed to reach by 11:30, had dinner with the ready to eat items and slept off. The house we got was a 3-storey house (good for 8-9 people) so we had enough space for everyone.

Mesa Falls












visitor center


Sulphur fumes coming out next to the road in the national park




failed attempt with the milky way. A better picture needed more time to setup the tripod and camera properly

[aditya_rao]

Day 2

Day 2 was the when we actually started with the Yellowstone tour. One can divide the entire park into two areas – upper and lower loops as it resembles an 8 like loop. Since we had planned on going to Grand Teton, we decided to do the upper loop first and then the lower section on the next day. We started with Mammoth hot springs. There are many viewing areas here. You can walk up the platform to get close to the structures. Another option is to take a loop drive close to the main hot springs. You can park your car in the pull-out areas to take pictures or take pictures from the car, as you must go slow. We made a quick pit stop at the Canyon village to have some snacks and then made our way towards the upper Yellowstone falls. Water flows are quite strong near the view point and the lower falls might make a better place to take photos. Parking is always an issue in the national parks, so you either need to be patient or come on a day when the crowds are less. Our next stop was Dragon’s mouth spring. The specialty of this spring is that at frequent intervals the gas and pressure from inside creates a sound resembling a big animal’s growl or something like a dragon breathing and releasing the gases from his mouth. Each interval is marked with the steam coming out of the cave. The smell is awful if you go near. There is water coming out of the cave, but I guess it mostly has Sulphur and other chemicals, so more or less toxic. A walkway has been built all the way to the top, so you can easily go up close to the mouth. You’ll find that the soil and water around it is in multiple colors and this is due to the different algae or bacteria that thrive in this type of environment. For this day our last stop was to go to Lamar valley to see the bison herds. The valley is also known for wolves but as per the rangers they are mostly visible in the early hours of the morning and it would be rare to find the pack during the hotter part of the day. Lamar valley was not close from the cave, so it took some time for us to travel. We didn’t have a fixed destination the Lamar valley so we decided to keep stopping on the way and go on further till it turned dark. The eastern entrance/exit to/from the park is also on the same route. In between we were on the wrong direction to the Lamar valley but found some good places to take pictures before coming back on track.

Once you are on the road to the valley, you will see open and flat areas. We kept moving ahead and after some time we could see one or two bison on the road and along the sides. We initially thought we might see only a few but after a while there was a big herd crossing the river nearby and in terms of count they were a min of 100. We stopped a little ahead, to try to get closer (but from a safe distance) to take photos and could see another big batch coming behind the group we saw earlier. There would be at least 200+ is what we thought. Some of them were huge and trying to push and trouble other smaller ones. Some were lying on the ground trying to bring a mini storm of dirt and dust around them. After an hour of seeing bison’s go past we thought we had seen enough and decided to go a little ahead and start our return journey. On the way back we saw smaller groups crossing the road. Some of the YouTube videos show bison’s damaging cars which were near them, but luckily we didn’t have to experience any such thing even when the cars were close.

At night you would find hardly anyone on the road and the only person we saw was a ranger when he stopped our car. While all of us thought we were going within the speed limits, a car crossed us and when we realized it was a park ranger (being dark, all we could see were headlights from a distance). We were around 40 mph, but when I saw brake lights in the ovrm, I knew he was going to turn back and come behind us. Within second his flashers came on and we had to stop. Not knowing anything we stopped and he came and said he found us above the speed limit and asked for the license and car rental papers. I had to open the boot to get the rental documents and he came along with me and kept asking general questions, where we were headed to, how long in the park, which place did we fly from and hence he had the documents he asked me to go back and wait. He came back within a minute and said he will just give a warning and that there are animals roaming on the park roads, hence we should exercise more caution. He asked if we had any questions for him and then asked us to proceed. Those 5 mins were the most tense in the entire trip . While I know for sure I was within the speed limits (and I have everything recorded on the dashcam, though there is no way to judge the speed), but being late at night we didn’t want to get into any argument, so we just let it go by what he had to say. We reached home around 9 or 9:30 PM. Most of the restaurants were closed, so our only option was to eat the ready to eat items. Yellowstone is also known for dark skies and after catching the fever of milky way photography, I always try to find places good for viewing the night sky. On the previous day the astronomy group had shown us the location of the milky way in the sky, so we thought of going to the entrance of the national park (which was hardly 5 mins from our place of stay). We initially thought of going a little more inside the park, but just after Roosevelt arch, we found a big parking area which was almost pitch black with hardly any lighting nearby. So we parked, setup our tripods and got some good shots of the milky way and were very happy with what we had captured. We reached back around 12:00 and that was the end of the second day in Yellowstone.

Few photos from Mammoth hot springs








There is trail that takes you closer


If you drive a little further, you can take another trail to view the springs from a higher altitude, giving a different perspective










Taken when we stopped for a break on the way






Upper yellowstone falls


There was lot of force in the flowing water




Somewhere on the internal roads




A bison going downhill to eat


Dragon's hole




the pools around Dragon's hole


a lone bison walking on the road


Looks like a building in the mountains


herd of bisons coming towards the road








another group wanting to cross the road


Finally got a better view of the milky way than the previous night

[aditya_rao]

Day 3:
This was the last day in Yellowstone and we were going to do the lower loop and then travelling to grand Teton NP. We were hoping to reach by 9 PM there, so we had time till late afternoon in Yellowstone. We also had to vacate the house, so after cleaning up we informed the owner and left. We started our day following the same route going towards the second part of the loop. Our first stop was Norris geyser basin. This is a big area and if you want to do all the trails, it will take atleast 3-4 hrs. We decided to do the 1.5 miles one and skipped the short one (took around 2 hrs to complete with stops in between as it was quite hot). Parking could be tricky here as this place is full of people during summers, so arrive early or be prepared to keep searching for parking spots. our next stop was artists paint pots. The hype that is generated at this area is more than what you would actually see. There are mini pools of water (probably acidic) with different colors. There is a small hike on the boarded trail which takes you to the top of the hill. Once you reach the top section you can get a good view of the lower areas and see the colors on the ground and in the pools. On the top there are mini volcanoes in a mud like pool of clay. You can see bubbles of muddy water coming out at regular intervals. We didn’t stay for a long time as it was sunny and not as interesting as it sounded. We moved on from there and stopped at Firehole river. The river has some good view points on the road but little space to park, so you have to careful of where to park.

After clicking photos, we went to our next stop which was grand prismatic. This place was crowded and we somehow managed to get a parking spot. From the parking the actual steam pools can be reached via a 10-15 mins walk. The trail is clearly marked and has wooden boards for easy of walking. Once you reach the spring, you can only walk on the trail. You can see steam all around and for some time it became very windy. While the views were jaw dropping and it looks like the third eye, we were still hungry for a better view. We had read online that there is a separate route to the top. However, after the winds reduced, it suddenly started to rain and we knew we were going to miss the top view of the grand prismatic (and to think of it, we were not aware of the starting point for the trail to the top). Disappointed we moved on to our next stop which was the old faithful geyser. We were hoping this would be better than what we imagined and now that we have missed the main view of grand prismatic, we certainly did not want to the miss the next attraction. Old faithful was around 30 mins from where we parked and it’s a short walk from the visitor center (if you find it quickly). There is ample parking but the area is huge since there are shops and restaurants in the area. We parked our car in front of a gift shop and purchased some collectibles and other items. From there we went to the viewing area. There were hardly any people which looked odd. After about 15 mins we decided to go inside the visitor center and ask. And then we found that the next geyser eruption would be after atleast an hour (the normal frequency is around 90 mins with small variations). We asked about the grand prismatic viewing area as well and found that it was around 30 mins from old faithful. This sparked an idea that what if we could go there and come back in time. My family was already tired, so I decided to go along with my friend. We hurried towards the parking and started immediately as quickly as we could. Our timing had to be perfect if we wanted to come back to old faithful on time. So, we had around 20 mins to reach, 20 mins to go up and down the trail and the last 20 mins to reach back. We reached the parking area and started literally running. After few mins the trail was uphill and the most difficult park. We were not used to running uphill and that too after half a day of being out and driving. With our hearts pounding we somehow managed to reach the top, get our breathing to normal, take some pictures, see the view through our eyes with 2-3 mins. We looked at the watches and started to run down again and somehow managed to reach to the parking in 10 mins. Our backs were aching and hearts pounding, but we had not option but run or risk missing the old faithful. We drove as quickly as possible to the old faithful parking area as close as we could to the visitor center and again started running towards the viewing area. With camera in one hand I was trying to keep it ready to start shooting, as we were already past the estimated eruption time. As soon as we reached the seating area, the eruption started with short burst (as if it was waiting for us to start the show). The camera was already on in video mode, so all I had to do was start the recording and for the next few mins it gave a spectacular show and then slowly subsided. We were indeed lucky to cover both the major spots and were really thankful and happy after putting all the effort. It felt as if we delivered a big project.

After old faithful we had two options - either go straight to grand Teton or visit the West thumb basin for sunset and reach grand Teton from there. We decided to go to the west thumb basin to see the Yellowstone lake as it was already nearing sunset. There was a slight drizzle which went away once we reached the parking lot. I’m not sure why they call it thumb, as it doesn’t resemble a thumb from any perspective. We spent some time taking pictures and admiring the sunset over the lake. The pools here also are acidic and some resemble like a door to another world. It was already dark, so we decided to go ahead to our destination for the night – signal mountain lodge. We had booked it in advance and while it was not too expensive, it was still a wooden lodge with 2 rooms and basic facilities. It did have heating, but wasn’t that cold. We had some leftover ready to eat packets of pulao, rice and dal, however there was no place to heat it. We tried the lodge reception and they offered a microwave, but did not have utensils. So we had to go to the pub next door that was still open. The staff was quite helpful and gave us carboard food storage boxes and cutlery that we could use (for free). We used the boxes to heat up our food in the microwave and then had that for dinner (the pub wasn’t serving any food at that hour). We ate whatever we could and slept off hoping to get a good breakfast.

View from our house


At norris geyser basin






you'll see water in multiple colors. Lot of it is due to the bacteria present










View at Artists paintpots


the patches of color look like pots and probably the reason why its called paintpots


this was a clay like pool, throwing round balls of clay every minute or so


Firehole river






Going towards grand prismatic


and finally the grand prismatic pool




lot of mist all around


view from the hike that we did in record time


as we reached the viewing point


Full force of water and steam from within the earth




At west thumb basin, looks like a wormhole


water from the yellowstone lake








Another wormhole

[aditya_rao]

Day 4
We woke up hoping it would be a sunny morning, however could see lot of clouds surrounding us. A quick check on the weather told us that it was going to be mostly cloudy. The weather was anyway out of our control, so we decided to do whatever best was possible. The restaurant in the lodge was open, so we had a good breakfast there, filled up gas and then left the lodge by noon. On the way we stopped at signal mountain. If the cloud cover was less, then the views from the top of the mountain are quite good. Next stop was at the Jackson dam for pictures of the dam and the surroundings. From there we went to the Colter bay visitor center to enquire about weather changes and things to do in the current weather. The rangers didn’t give any good news and were told that it wasn’t going to change a lot. So we decided to see the basic view points and then proceed. We stopped at couple of places to get good views of the Tetons. If you are near the Jenny lake, then there is a drive around the lake like a circular route. We took that route and found some good views, though clouds were playing spoil sport. Also there are multiple turnouts on the way from where you can get good views. We stopped at Mt Moran and cathedral turnouts. After that our next stop was to go to a place which was much closer to the Tetons with a small lake near to it – Schwabacher landing. It is located near the snake rivers and provides great views of the Tetons. There is a short hike that takes you near the water and gives you a good view of the peaks and their reflections in the still water

Our journey was nearing its end and after this decided to go to SLC airport as it would delay our travel in case we thought of seeing other nearby attractions. Antelope flats was on the opposite direction of travel, so we skipped that also. The journey from here was around 4.5 to 5.5 hrs depending on our breaks. Our flight was around 1 am in the morning so while we had an extra hour, we decided to use it for dinner near the airport. After having only ready to eat and junk food in the last few days we decided to have a proper Indian meal. We initially placed a to-go order and when we saw that the restaurant was empty we decided to have it there itself and order other items also. The food was good and after that the only thing left was to return our car and board the flight. Car return process was simple and they did not even look at the car and asked me only to give the odo readings. We had lot of time to rest in the airport (and nearing midnight we were feeling sleepy too). We boarded the flight and reached the next morning (as usual American delays sending the baggage on time for no reason).

Rosevelt Arch (number of photos exceeded in previous post, hence adding it here)


Another view of the arch


Another milky way experiment at the signal mountain lodge


Views from signal mountain






jackson dam








enroute to viewpoints near grand teton






Reflections of the peaks


At schwabacher landing




a bit closer to the peaks








clouds and mist at the lower elevations

[moralfibre]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing!

[bsdbsd]

Outstanding. And, thank you so much for honoring my request. This travelogue is a gem. Couldnt have asked for more. I think you have left out one crucial information (unless I have overlooked it). When did this travel happen? That's the most important thing as Yellowstone is a planet of its own and ones experiences vary wildly based on weather. Which hotel would you recommend for a 4-day stay (in West Yellowstone). Thanks again!

[aditya_rao]

Originally Posted by bsdbsd

Outstanding. And, thank you so much for honoring my request. This travelogue is a gem. Couldnt have asked for more. I think you have left out one crucial information (unless I have overlooked it). When did this travel happen? That's the most important thing as Yellowstone is a planet of its own and ones experiences vary wildly based on weather. Which hotel would you recommend for a 4-day stay (in West Yellowstone). Thanks again!

Thank you!
This vacation was in July last year (took me a long time to write it)
if you want drive around without worrying about weather, then summers are the best time to visit yellowstone (even early fall should be good). Winters have their own charm and you will get to see a totally different perspective of yellowstone, however transportation is limited and weather will be harsh (good for photography though).

Accomodation depends on your budget. If you are willing to spend around 200-300$ per night, you can get best western, holiday inn and other good quality hotels close to park entrance. Again prices vary over season and are based on holiday rush and how early you book, so my numbers are from last year when i started to look for hotels. If you have a big group you can also look up airbnb or vbro.com. Sometimes you may get a big house with all the amenities at a good rate. The place we stayed was hardly 4-5 mins from the north entrance and had enough space for two families (it cost almost 1000 + deposit for 2 nights) but i booked just 4 days before travel (my mistake for not booking earlier), so even the budget hotels were like 450 per night.

[blackwasp]

Originally Posted by aditya_rao

Yellowstone is one of the oldest national parks in the US (and in the world as they claim). The most striking visual of this park is the grand prismatic prism and many people call it the third eye.

Wonderful pics and a good narration! The Yellowstone park looks like a good place to spend some time in the midst of the nature. Thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by aditya_rao

a lone bison walking on the road...

Wow, I'm sure it must be quite a sight for the people there to see animals on the roads. I'm sure it is due to the road being in the Park, but in many places of Gujarat and Rajasthan, you'll find hundreds of cows walking the roads, or even having a rest right in the middle of the roads.

Finally got a better view of the milky way than the previous night...

Great shot there. If possible do share the video of the eruption that you managed to just reach in time.

[aditya_rao]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

Wonderful pics and a good narration! The Yellowstone park looks like a good place to spend some time in the midst of the nature. Thanks for sharing.


Wow, I'm sure it must be quite a sight for the people there to see animals on the roads. I'm sure it is due to the road being in the Park, but in many places of Gujarat and Rajasthan, you'll find hundreds of cows walking the roads, or even having a rest right in the middle of the roads.


Great shot there. If possible do share the video of the eruption that you managed to just reach in time.

Thanks
Finding domestic animals on roads is a common sight in India, but here people go crazy when they see them on roads (it's hard to find people walking on roads, so with animals you can imagine the reaction)

i will extract the video and share it

[Vihari]

Originally Posted by aditya_rao

Thanks
i will extract the video and share it

Aditya, you visited Yellow Stone in 2017, put out the travelogue in 2018. Now it is 2019 and hence please kindly share the video as promised!

P.S :- Planning to visit Yellowstone in September 2019.

[prashkul]

Originally Posted by aditya_rao

Thank you!
This vacation was in July last year (took me a long time to write it)
if you want drive around without worrying about weather, then summers are the best time to visit yellowstone (even early fall should be good).

Ah!! Yellowstone....you've really taken me back years!

We did an epic road-trip from Minneapolis to Yellowstone back in....way back in 2006! It was over the labor day long weekend. We, a group of 4, that had only 1 driver (your's truly) took an extra day off to make it a 4-day trip.

Well, the story goes something like this...I made hotel reservations and car rental advance booking in July-2006 for this vacation in Sep-2006. All this was done based on one assumption....see the thing is, I had to clear my road test to get a DL to begin with. I cleared my road test on 9-Aug-2006 on my first attempt, much to surprise of my friends and colleagues. So, armed with my DL and new found josh, I did a trial run by renting a compact Chevy sedan right after getting my DL. Did a Minneapolis to Duluth run to get some much needed confidence for this upcoming monster drive.

On the day of reckoning, went to Enterprise to pick up my rental. I got a sparkling new Chevy Impala, fully loaded to the gills. 8-way movement of driver's seat, leather seats, heated front seats, sun-roof etc. My friend and I went to the 4th floor of the garage, and I started grinning from ear to ear when we located the car. I sat in, and started familiarizing myself with the car controls, adjusting seats, mirrors etc. We couldn't find the hazard lights button!! Called up the rental agency, which was on the ground floor, and the guy simply asked us to bring the car down to the agency and he'd help. When I pulled up and he showed us the button, we both were so embarrassed to even look at him and smile.

See how any conversation turns into a car conversation?? Anyways....coming to the trip itself, we started at 10pm (yes, pm) and drove all night to arrive at Mount Rushmore in the morning. We beat another group which was also driving to Yellowstone via Mount Rushmore, with multiple experienced drivers and they even had GPS to assist. Back in those days, GPS was still new. I didn't opt for one, and had taken prints of all possible combinations of routes (remember Yahoo maps anyone?). We then proceeded to drive to Beartooth scenic biway and then arrive at Cody, WY where I had booked us. Beartooth biway lived upto our expectations, it was really a driver's delight with twisting roads climbing over a series of never-ending mountains. It was Sep, and we could still see ice from previous season's snowfall on some of the peaks. My friends still remember me telling them not to worry when we have a tank full of gas and sweet melodies of Kishore Kumar, when it seemed we'd lost our way through those mountains. We actually never lost our way, and finally arrived at Cody somewhere around 9pm. IIRC, the hotel was about 50 miles from one (eastern entrance) of the five park entrances. We spent next two full days driving inside the park, spotted several wildlife, had desi dinner of parathas, pickle, yogurt and juice, right by the Yellowstone river. We had packed a stove, propane cylinders, and plentiful of frozen desi foods in a large freezer - I'm a vegetarian you see. The return leg started around midnight and we finally reached home back in Minneapolis around 7pm with ample breaks along the way. Returning home safely without a single traffic violation or ticket was also considered an accomplishment, when tickets for over-speeding were common for this trip especially in the Dakotas with arrow-straight roads, nothing to see/stop/do. Sorry, Dakotas...LOL.

Life has since taken all four of us in different directions, and we've had much fancier and expensive vacations, but whenever we reminisce, we unanimously agree that was the ROADTRIP!

Don't mean to hijack your thread, rather I'm thankful to you for jogging my memory. Boy, those were some days!!

[aditya_rao]

Originally Posted by Vihari

Aditya, you visited Yellow Stone in 2017, put out the travelogue in 2018. Now it is 2019 and hence please kindly share the video as promised!

P.S :- Planning to visit Yellowstone in September 2019.

I somehow lost track of this after visiting other places. Thanks for the reminder
Here's the link to a shorter video i could find in my disks, i had a start to end video also, but will take some time to find it

https://youtu.be/40B0bFsr6qY