Yellowstone 2.0

In 1872, Yellowstone became the first national park in the United States when President Ulysses S. Grant signed the National Park Protection Act into law.  Since then, millions of people from around the world have experienced the wonder of nature.  Count us as part of those millions, we’ve been twice and I know we’ll be back for more.

Our first visit was in the summer of 2001 when our boys were 9 and 7.  That visit was a first for all of us and it sure didn’t disappoint.  We visited Old Faithful, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone as well as lots of geysers and sulphur pots.  We took a horseback ride outside of Roosevelt Lodge.  We were fascinated with the 1988 fire exhibit at Grant Village.  We were on our honeymoon and remember reading about the fire as part of the cruise ship’s news.

Our home base that trip was Fishing Bridge Campground.  We drove our Class C motorhome all over the park.  It served us well as a lunch station while everyone else stood in line.  It gave the boys a birds-eye view of bear, bison and elk traffic jams.  It was a place every night that we talked about our adventures and favorite parts of the day.  It was a trip we knew we wanted to repeat.

Our return trip was just the two of us, 20 years later almost to the day.  We called this trip Yellowstone 2.0.  The park still holds the same awe and wonder.

Our drive the first trip took us through Park City and the tiny town of Vernal, UT where my step-grandparents are buried.  We even had to slow for a cattle drive.  I’ll never forget it, the highway was bending toward the left and a cowboy was there on the shoulder motioning all traffic to slow down.  We slowed, made the turn and quickly came to a stop staring at 75 or so cows and calves on and near the highway.  It was wild and super cool at the same time.  Our dog, Blossom was bouncing from the couch to the front seat with every MOO.  That trip we entered through the south entrance, stopping at the Grand Tetons for a few pictures along the way.

This trip we entered through the east entrance, driving through Cody, Wyoming after the FMCA Rally in Gillette.  Coming into the park this way, we got to drive around the top of Yellowstone Lake.  The views were vast but hazy thanks to the wind from far off wildfires, hazy but still pretty.  There were no cattle drives on this route, only the cattle drive from 2001 that we talked about.  This trip we stayed at Bridge Bay Campground because Fishing Bridge is still closed for renovations.

As we drove we talked about all the things we saw and did on our last trip.  Every time we left the campground in our Jeep we talked about our last trip.  I should have brought the photo album.  So much is different since our last trip, yet so much remains the same.  Trees are growing again in the fire scar from 1988.  There are more buildings near Old Faithful.  The waterfalls still make me smile.

After we set up camp, we set out on our first hike to Natural Bridge.  It’s an easy trail with an access point near Bridge Bay that meanders through the trees to a small natural stone bridge.  I had Lake Powell’s Rainbow Bridge on my brain, this is much smaller.  It’s also a lot more rugged than the smooth wind-blown lines of Rainbow Bridge.  After the hike we drove over to Fishing Bridge as we wanted to see the campground renovations.  No such luck, it’s surrounded by big barricades.  One of Mark’s plans for retirement is to work a summer at Yellowstone.  He has it all figured out, he’ll drive a golf cart and take people to their campsites and I’ll work in the gift shop.  The barricades meant we couldn’t see Mark’s future workspace but the gift shop was open so we could see mine!  Holy cow was it busy, and a lot bigger than I remember.  We perused the store, picked up two bottles of Yellowstone wine and headed for the checkout.  As we walked out Mark said, “That was a lot busier than I thought.  Maybe you’ll have more fun checking people into the campground.”  Good call, Mark.  Good call.

Back at camp we took a bike ride around the campground.  We were just in time to see two elk grazing in between campsites.  Nobody bothered them, taking pictures from a distance.  We saw what we think were these two every evening.  Their racks were huge, at least to us.  Our campground also had a resident bison, taking a spot 4 campsites up from ours every afternoon.  He would stand, lay down, roll around to scratch his back then lay back down.  Yellowstone nature up close but don’t worry, we were very careful.

Much like our first trip, the routine each morning was get up, eat, make lunch and go.  No planning the day of, that was all taken care of the night before.  We knew our plan before we went to bed.  Such is vacation life with us.  Always on the move.  Last trip we had AAA trip books, this trip we had the Yellowstone App.  It didn’t work fabulously the entire time because of zero cell signal but, it worked great leading up to the trip and when we were at visitor centers that had a good signal.  We’ll happily use it again.

Just like our last trip, we broke the park down into two circles, the lower loop and the upper loop.  Just like our last trip, road construction closed one leg of a loop.  Just like last trip, we didn’t let that stop us!

The West Thumb Geyser Basin was our first stop on the lower loop, just like our last trip.  The basin is fascinating both with colors and smells.  As we walked we talked about Jeff and Kevin “wowing” at each new one along the path.  Our view from geysers out across the lake was hazy from the fires this trip but still pretty.  There was a large group that was part of a tour, their exclamations at what they saw was universal, even though they spoke another language.

Old Faithful was next on our radar but first we had to stop at the cool waterfall we found on our last trip.  I knew it was on the left side of the road on the way to Old Faithful but couldn’t remember the name.  Mark laughed because I’m one of those people that remembers silly little things that nobody else does.  I KNEW it was on this stretch of road yet the maps said nothing of a waterfall.  We stopped at a neat pond at the top of the Continental Divide, my heart sinking with every mile that the pretty waterfall was somewhere else.  Boom!  There was a sign pointing to Kepler Cascades on the left!  I jumped out as soon as we parked and yes!  Yes, this was the same waterfall I remembered.  Mark just shook his head and smiled.  He likes me on his trivia team just for this reason.

There is a lot of road construction in and around Old Faithful to better move the crowds.  Holy cow it was crowded!  I remember pulling into the back of the lot on our last visit and getting an RV space right away.  Not this time as we watched several RVs circling the lots just like us in our Jeep.  We checked probable eruption times on the app and we were good for several in the area.  After finding a spot (finally) we headed over to Old Faithful for a few minutes.  While we waited, we could see a few others erupting which made us excited and bummed at the same time.  Having them erupt within our sight as part of the big picture window before us was super cool but, we were also kind of bummed that we weren’t closer.  Post eruption was a walk with 10,000 of our new closest friends to the other geysers that thankfully thinned out in about ten minutes.  I remembered this part of our last trip and smiled walking the same paths our boys did when they were young.  I can still picture them walking and talking, sharing all the facts they knew about each upcoming geyser.  The things a mom remembers.

We got to the Daisy Geyser minutes after it finished so we stopped at the benches and ate our lunch.  The Grotto Geyser was just ahead, it was bubbling and spurting like crazy.  It was so interesting from all the different angles.  We made our way back towards Old Faithful along the planked walkway passing the Oblong Geyser, Beauty Pool, Wave Spring and more.  The Grand Geyser and Spasmodic Geyser went off just before Old Faithful.  The path wound through a cluster of springs ending up back at Old Faithful.  We wandered through the Old Faithful Lodge one more time before heading back to our car and got to see Old Faithful erupt again, lucky us.

Next up on our lower loop was a hike to Fairy Falls and the Grand Prismatic Spring, something we didn’t do on our last trip.  It was a beautiful hike, covering 5.75 miles from our car and back.  Most of it was in the trees, the very beginning and end were on a path wide enough for two way car traffic.  We took a wonderful little detour that climbed for a bit and opened up to a spectacular overlook view of the Grand Prismatic Spring.  Fairy Falls were a great treat as the far point of the hike, the volume was a pleasant surprise well into summer.

We hiked a lot of miles this trip, over 13 miles on this day alone.  We packed a lot into each day, our first day wasn’t close to being done yet.  After Fairy Falls, we headed north toward the Norris Geyser Basin.  We stopped at Gibbon Falls, something we missed last time.  I could have stayed there an hour watching and listening to the falls.  We decided not to stop at the Norris Geyser Basin because traffic was bad and parking was a zoo.  The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was next on our list.  As we drove we talked about our horseback ride on our last trip and how beautiful the grand falls were.  Again I was bummed that I didn’t bring the photo album from our last trip.  All of a sudden Mark turned right down a narrow road toward Virginia Cascade.  What a treasure!  This narrow one-way road is for cars only, no RVs.  We enjoyed it so much we drove through it again the next day!

The Upper and Lower Falls at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone were as beautiful as I remembered.  On our last visit, we walked to the Grand View spot and to the top of the upper falls.  This time we walked it all.  Like Old Faithful, it was much more crowded than last time and we had to be patient for a parking space.  The trails were busier, we still had room to move at our pace.  The walk to the brink of the lower falls is steep, it’s an easy walk down but you better be ready to walk back up.  Standing at the brink is worth every single step.

It was late evening for our drive back to camp, perfect for seeing animals.  It was hotter than normal this trip, we figure many animals moved to higher elevations for cooler temps.  Bears were elusive this trip, unlike the last one. Bison and elk were plentiful and thankfully their traffic jams weren’t bad as the bear jams.  The bison must be more predictable in their movement with pullouts to stop in perfect places.  Since we had our own campground bison four sites up, we rolled on through the Hayden Valley where they were congregating.

Our plan for day two was to conquer the upper loop.  In a perfect world, we would have a couple of weeks to explore, that time will come.  Our plan was to drive to Mammoth Hot Springs and work our way back.  The road from Canyon Village to Tower-Roosevelt was closed, which made a full upper loop impossible, but not a problem. We were on vacation in a beautiful place, nothing would get in our way.  The road from Mammoth Hot Springs to Norris Geyser Basin was closed on our last trip so part of this day would be new.

Historic Fort Yellowstone is super cool, the boys really enjoyed it and we were looking forward to seeing it again.  The Yellowstone App has a walking tour of all the buildings that make up the fort.  We decided not to fight for a parking space, instead heading straight to the fort where spaces were plentiful.  More steps for us.  It’s not too far of a walk from the Albright Visitor Center to the base of Mammoth Hot Springs, the weather was nice and we stopped for an ice cream cone along the way.

The Hot Springs were new to us since that portion of the road was closed on our last trip, oh how Jeff and Kevin would have liked to see this!  The springs are huge, almost like a multi-tiered cake with frosting flowing down from the top.  It was an amazing sight to stand at the base and take in and it got better as we climbed the stairs!  We walked every part of the lower terrace, marveling at the beauty.  The dead trees struck us, we’d seen them several times across the park.  We learned that they died when the geysers and springs robbed the nutrients from the ground.

From there we headed to the Norris Geyser Basin and lucked out with a good time.  We had to park out on the road but found a space near the trailhead.  We spent a good amount of time here and I could easily have stayed the entire day.  The geysers and springs were so similar and unique at the same time.  We walked both Porcelain Basin and Back Basin.  The Vixen Geyser was a quiet little thing when we walked by then two minutes later started shooting into the air.  We watched it for over five minutes and it didn’t let up!  It wasn’t putting anyone in danger, just letting everyone know it was still active, it was very cool to watch.  We talked to a ranger about the wintertime, specifically snow.  Were these all hot enough to keep snow away.  We were surprised that the answer was no!  She said many in the Porcelain Basin would have snow accumulate and also told us that the Puff-N-Stuff Geyser was hot enough to not only keep any snow accumulation away but to have grass grow all winter long!  It was unusually hot during our visit so the grass was brown and desperate for water.

We had to make one more drive through Virginia Cascade on our way back to our campground.  Mark was a good sport and stopped at the Mud Volcano on the way, one more loop around smelly pots.  These were different as they bubbled a lot of muddy water, almost like really thin chocolate pudding.  We hiked the loop clockwise and ended coming down the stairs near the Dragon’s mouth spring, finding a bison just hanging out nearby.  What. A. Treat!  I quickly snapped a picture then we went on our way.  I didn’t want to disturb him in a spot where he’s clearly laid before.

We saw the campground elk on our evening walk through the campground but missed the resident bison.  His spot remained empty all evening and I hoped he was okay.

Our last morning was upon us all too soon.  We both talked about our next trip and being able to stay longer.  One of our favorite spots from our trip twenty years ago was the 1988 Fire Exhibit at Grant Village.  It was a bad summer with 18 lightning caused fires.  The exhibit was fascinating and we looked forward to seeing it again.  Since it was south of the lower loop and on the way to the South Exit, we decided to stop there on our way down to Colter Bay.  Alas, it was not to be.  All we got to see was a ranger standing at a table.  He said they didn’t’ have enough staff to operate the exhibit.   As sad as we were, it does leave another thing to come back to.  That’s always a good thing.

We can’t wait for our Yellowstone 3.0 trip.