Yellowstone National Park

Since Yellowstone National Park is in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, we will do a blog just on the park itself.

We actually visited it from the west while staying in Idaho, and from the north while staying in Montana and did not go into it at all while staying in Wyoming even though 96% of the park is in Wyoming with 3% in Montana, and 1% in Idaho.

For the blog map though, it will be listed under Wyoming, not that it matters.

North entrance into Yellowstone National Park.

This is one of those places that we always wanted to visit and it is well worth the trip.  We got to see just about every part of the park but had to double back a good bit since parts of the road were closed for maintenance or the season.  It would have been nice to do the full circle of Yellowstone and not have to double back, but at least we got to see most of the park.

We really wanted to come into the park on the Beartooth Highway that starts at Red Lodge, Montana and ends up in Yellowstone by its Northeast entrance.  We missed its opening by a week while staying in Montana so will have to travel it some other time.

So we will not have any pictures of that scenic drive, but will have plenty of Yellowstone pictures.  Each entrance of the park offers different views which are all beautiful.

I'm not going to try and list the pictures in any order but will try to keep them together for each area we visited.  If I showed you every picture we took, this would be a very long blog, so to keep it short and sweet, I will just put in the pictures I think are the most interesting.

Bubbling mud at Artist's Paint pots.

Here is a little joke to help you remember what is the real name for a buffalo:

"What did the mother buffalo say to her son while he was leaving for college?  Bye Son!"  Funny, right?!?

Buffalo or Bison standing in the road.  They are everywhere in the park.

More bison in the park.  Sometimes you had to stop because they block the road.

A bull elk feeding on the side of the road.

Dragon Mouth Spring.

Excelsior Geyser viewed from the boardwalk.

Excelsior Geyser from the parking lot.

Looking into the Excelsior Geyser.

Excelsior Geyser.

Runoff from Excelsior Geyser into the Firehole River.

Fountain Paint Pots Red Spouter.

Fountain Paint Pots Silex Spring.

Fountain Paint Pots Spasm Geyser.

Fountain Paint Pots at the start of the boardwalk.

Bubbling mud at Fountain Paint Pots.

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

 Grand Canyon of Yellowstone Lower Falls.

Grizzly bear warning.

Misty, Ethan, Ian, Chloe, Tia, Courtney, Don, and Avery at Fountain Paint Pots.

Old Faithful Geyser.  Click HERE for YouTube video of eruption.

Avery, Ian, Tia, Courtney, Ethan, Misty, and Chloe at Old Faithful Geyser.

Courtney, Chloe, Ethan, Misty, Ian, Tia, Don, and Avery at Porcelain Springs at Porcelain Basin.

Sheepeater Cliff.

Explanation for Sheepeater Cliff.

Steamboat Geyser.

Sulphur Caldron. It really stunk here.

Valley view from West Entrance into Yellowstone.

Another view of the drive coming into Yellowstone from the west.

One of the two Black Bear we saw in the park.

Another shot of one of the two Black Bear we saw.

A view of the drive from Roosevelt Lodge back to Mammoth Hot Springs.

A view of Yellowstone Lake.

We were hoping to also see a Grizzly, a Moose, and a Wolf, but no such luck.  Also the above pictures are just a glimpse of what there is to see while at Yellowstone.  We visited the park two days and saw about 90% of the park which was rushed.  You really need a good week to see it all and even more time to really take it all in and do any hiking and such.

Planning your visit is the best way to see everything since you can learn the park before you come and plan what you want to see.  

This page has a bunch of maps for the park.  If you study them then you will know where everything is and can plan your visits accordingly.  They will also give you a map when you enter the park and will have which roads are open and closed.

If all the roads were open when we visited we could have seen more sites a lot easier because we would not of had to backtrack so much.  Yellowstone is very large with lots of miles between locations.  Here is a link to an interactive map on the Travels with the Johnsons web page that shows the distances between attractions.

Probably my favorite site was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and its Lower Falls.  Somehow I did not get any pictures of the Upper Falls, so will have to do that next time we go back.

Yellowstone is one of those places that you could visit over and over again and see something different every time.  We are so happy that we finally made it there and hope to get back one day so we can explore it in greater detail plus drive over the Beartooth Highway.

We hope you enjoyed what little bit of Yellowstone we shared and will come back to read more of our posts.  

God bless and may He keep you and yours safe.

Thanks!
Don, Misty, and Kids...

Twenty Five States Visited So Far.