How best to get around? People visit Yellowstone by driving in, by tour buses and RVs typically. There is no public transport to bring you into the park. The park is so vast that it has some ten visitor centers and information stations. You will most often find a visitor center close to the entrances and should use it to find out more about park activities, weather, wildlife, maps and everything you need to know from the helpful rangers. Also, it is a good experience to stay inside the park than outside of it, if your budget allows for it.

When the Sun goes down in Yellowstone, it gets cold quickly. It also gets VERY dark with little light pollution. Best to avoid drives at night (the only exception to this rule is if you are out specifically to watch wildlife. The best times to view wildlife are at dawn and dusk). There are too many animals out and about after dark, and it can be a bit dangerous to travel on unfamiliar roads at night.

It is extremely important to follow rules of the park for your own safety. One absolutely needs to stay on the boardwalks. The thermal areas are fragile and quite dangerous. There have been people that have fallen into thermal areas never to be recovered. Gruesome, but true. Stay far away from any wildlife. There are of course bisons, bears, elks and so many more smaller animals in the park. Remember, this is not a petting zoo – it’s the wilderness. We bought bear spray upon advice of the rangers as we intended to do many hikes.

Currency is the US Dollar. Can easily use credit cards everywhere as long as you are aware of any foreign transaction fees charged by your credit card company, if you are travelling to the US from elsewhere.

Power outlets in the US are either A or B type plug adaptres with 110 V and 60Hz.

The weather is hot and sunny in summers, cold and snowy in the winters. Best times to visit are late April to May, as well as September through early October. Summer holidays bring in very big crowds. Check out more details on weather and events.

Old Faithful to Lake via Grant Village

• • Drive towards Grant village and along Lake Yellowstone to the West Thumb geyser basin.
  • The historic Lake hotel which is old and one can have lunch and relax here. OR in the nearby little restaurant that overlooks the lake and serves something akin to fast food.

Lake to Canyon

Experience various sights and hikes along this stretch.

• • Storm Point hike easy 2.3 mile.
  • Mud Volcano and Dragon’s Cauldron.
  • Elephant back trail at Lake village is 2.8 mi round trip.
  • Hayden Valley: What a spectacular valley for a drive and spotting animals!
  • Yellowstone river
  • Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Artist Point
  • Upper falls and Lower falls – Uncle Tom’s trail. Steep, 300+ steps, 500 ft to river. (Closed at the time of writing – Oct 2023)

Near Canyon

• • Mount Washburn trail is a 6.4 mil loop, strenuous. Trailhead is North of Canyon village Dunraven pass. Or from Chittenden road – then trail is 5.4 mi.
  • Blacktail Plateau drive is also very scenic. Stop at many overlooks. Calcite Springs.
  • Wraith Falls is a short hike
  • Undine Falls
  • Drive through the Hoodoos formations, it is a short drive.

North Yellowstone

• • Mammoth hot springs (the Minerva terraces) is a sight to behold! Early in the morning, with the mist, it is an even more incredible sight as we see vast expanses of what seem like frozen waterfalls in the form of terraces. There is of course steam rising from various points which seems to be a signature of Yellowstone wherever we go. There are boards created for the visitor to safely walk and enjoy the Minerva Terraces.

  • Bear Tooth Highway

    This is one of the most beautiful roads of America. Whether you will actually be able to drive on it or not depends on the weather! Start the drive before 6 am. Drive thru the beautiful Lamar Valley (aka American Serengiti) stopping to see wildlife like bears, wolves, bisons, deer, foxes, if lucky. Drive all the way to Silver Gate and Cooke city. Beartooth highway and the pass is at 11,000 feet. Eat breakfast at Cooke city – Bear Tooth cafe’ and then start the drive. A total of 10 hours + drive!

    More information on Bear Tooth Highway: Mammoth lodge to Cooke = 1.5 hrs. Cooke to Red lodge = 2.5 hrs (Bear tooth pass). Snowstorms can occur even in the middle of the summer at this altitude of 11,000 feet and the pass is also known for strong winds and severe thunderstorms. Drivers should plan on a driving time of at least two hours for the 69-mile (111 km) trip from Red Lodge to Cooke City. It is a good idea to check with the Red Lodge Chamber of Commerce or the Beartooth Ranger District beforehand in case of road closures (Montana Traveler Information and Wyoming Travel Information Services both provide online information on Beartooth Highway travel conditions for their respective portions of the highway).The Beartooth Highway passes through portions of Custer National Forest, and Shoshone National Forest and near the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness.

  • Spend a day in Gardiner and enjoy the little mountain town with lovely views and some choices of restaurants. The drive as one enters Gardiner is beautiful as we go over the tall bridge on the Yellowstone river.

We started our trip from a flight from Dallas to Salt Lake City. Since we were six of us, we rented a 7-seater, what we named “the beast. First we did the important sights of Salt Lake city and then started our drive late afternoon towards Idaho Falls. In 3 hours, we stopped at Idaho Falls for the night. Idaho Falls to West Yellowstone is less than two hours of driving. We left early the next day so we could spend some time in West Yellowstone. There is a place called the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center located in West that is very informative and is a good warm up for the Park. They have grizzlies, wolves, otters, and raptors on display. There is an IMAX theatre that shows a film about Yellowstone.

There is often a line to get in the park through the West entrance, especially during school holidays and we were lucky that we were visiting before that began. Along the road from West to Madison junction, you have the possibility of seeing elk, deer, trumpeter swans and bald eagles. There are several places to pull out and look. Our drive took us along the Madison River.

A fork

At Madison, we decided to visit the Norris Geyser first thing and so we took the left fork. A bit hard to find parking (it is better early in the morning they say) but we managed. We were awestruck by this basin with such a large area that was steaming. We spent time walking around here. Then we made our way back to the car to drive back the way we came, to Madison and southward with our ultimate destination being Old Faithful area for the night.

Soon we turned into Firehole Canyon Drive taking us along the Firehole River which was amazing because it is naturally heated by geyser run off. Apparently, it is much warmer than other snow melt rivers in the park and often gets closed to fishing late in the summer due to the increased temperature. Next, we stopped at the Lower Geyser Basin and Midway Geyser Basin. Notable sites along here include the not-to-be-missed Grand Prismatic Spring. It is one of the most iconic places in Yellowstone. It will be busy, but it is absolutely worth any crowd you face. We even managed a couple of hikes mentioned in the highlights section, part of the Fairy Falls hike, the Mystic Falls one and saw several AMAZING sights of Fountain Pot. Filled with awe, we checked into a cabin in the Old Faithful area.

Old Faithful area

We spent the morning. wandering around the Old Faithful area. There is a lot to see on the boardwalks close to the lodge. There is a clock that predicts the next Old Faithful eruption. Because we were staying at Old Faithful, we got to see it erupt a few times, each eruption of differing heights and strengths.

Hikes around the OF area

The Boardwalk around the area is a great way to see as much as possible. You can pick up a map at the desk inside the Lodge. I highly recommend the walk out to Morning Glory Pool. It is beautiful. The Lone Star Geyser hike is also a good one. It is 5 miles round trip with minimal elevation gain, good footing and is rated “moderate” on the scale only because it is 5 miles. Just outside of the Old Faithful complex is Kepler Cascades – it was a steep trail to the base of the Falls and lovely. We also took a walk to Riverside geyser on the Firehole river, and what a spectacular sight it was, as the eruption was like 75 feet, simply went on and on! We timed it such that we caught the eruption which only happens every 7 hours or so! This is in the Upper Geyser basin area.

Next on the agenda for the day, we went to the Grant Village area. It is a beautiful drive with lots of pull outs along the way.  Near Grant Village, we visited the West Thumb Geyer Basin. This day we did not stop near the lake as we decided to do it the next day.

West Thumb Geyser Basin and Lake area

Next day, we headed over to the Lake Yellowstone area. Took the same road we did as the previous day but without stops, via Grant Village and then north along Lake Yellowstone to Lake Village. There is a boardwalk out to the edge of Yellowstone Lake. Another amazing sight of a vast and still lake. We saw steam hissing out of many holes in the ground as we walked. You will be able to see the famous Fishing Cone here if the Lake level is low enough. Across the lake, we saw a mountain range called The Trident mountains, located in the larger mountain range of the Absorokas.  We continued on up to Fishing Bridge. Something interesting to note here is that Fishing Bridge does not allow camping in soft sided campers or tents due to significant grizzly bear activity. There is a trout spawning area that draws the big bears during spring and early summer. There were boat rides we could take out of Fishing Bridge to Stevenson Island but we didn’t do that.  We visited the  Lake hotel and walked around this historic landmark. Decided to do some hikes after a light lunch overlooking the lake (lunch was at a small, picturesque place).

Hikes around the Lake area

Storm Point was a nice hike. It was a 2.3 mile loop trail with minimal elevation gain and was ranked “easy”. We saw Marmots and found them super cute!! On the Storm point hike, was one of the best views of the lake. We were told to check at the Visitor Center at Fishing Bridge about wildlife as there are bisons and also, this area can sometimes have a lot of grizzly activity (seasonal). Apparently, if there have been a lot of grizzly sightings, they close the trails completely.

Next we did the Elephant back trail which was 3.5 miles as a round trip. This took a while as it was moderately challenging and we were rewarded with some panoramic views of the Lake and more.

On the drive from Lake Village to Canyon Village, we stopped at the Mud Volcano area. This is home to Mud Volcano and Dragon’s Cauldron – both were pretty spectacular. The whole park feels that way with fumes coming out of the Earth.

Next, we drove through the vast and beautiful Hayden Valley – it was amazing. We perhaps saw thousands of bison! We saw wolves, elk (those huge antlers), deer and bears too. Of course, we saw deer, elk, bears and bison in other parts of the park but it seemed like Hayden valley had a concentration of them. Whenever other cars were pulled up by the roadside, we did the same and for sure, there was some wildlife they had sighted. The Yellowstone River cuts through the valley. Our night halt was at the Canyon lodge, perhaps the most expensive lodging of this trip!

Canyon area

This day was dedicated to exploring the Canyon area. We drove to view the falls at Artist Point first. Next to The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone! Truly magnificent. This is THE view of the Lower falls we always see from Yellowstone. We took all the turn outs in the Canyon area and kept stopping. There is just so much of a treat to the eyes, and we spent a lot of time taking it slow and easy in this area.

The Upper falls is not as tall as the Lower falls, but just as amazing. Even though they are only separated by a mile, a bend in the river makes it impossible to see both falls at the same time. We took Uncle Tom’s trail which has steps going down about 500 feet to the bottom of the waterfall. It is a little steep, it has steps but many with a big rise and so this may not be for everyone, especially those with knee issues.

Hike near Canyon village

Mount Washburn which is at 10,000 plus feet. There are two trailheads – Dunraven pass which makes it a 6.4 mil loop, rated strenuous, and the other from Chittenden road from where the trail is 5.4 mi. We did not do this hike though now I wish we had one more day. Our choice was between Mt Washburn and driving the Bear Tooth Highway and we picked the latter.

Northern parts

Next, we were ready to pack up and and head north out of Canyon. We went over Dunraven Pass, a winding and lovely drive to the Tower area. We drove through the Hoodoos (bizarre rock formations). Tower Junction and had some much recommended huckleberry ice cream. The Tower area is known to be a habitat for black bears.

We continued on to Roosevelt Lodge with the huge rocking chairs on the porch. We went to see a Petrified Tree near here. The Blacktail Plateau drive was also very scenic. On the way over to Mammoth,we stopped at several overlooks like Calcite Springs, Wraith Falls (where we did a short hike) and Undine Falls which was a pretty spectacular sight.

Grazing deer is a very common sight in this northern part. We saw plenty of elk. While I don’t remember the order, we also did a drive to see the Hoodoos sometime in this day’s agenda. We checked into the Mammoth lodge.

Next, we set off to see the Minerva Terraces and did the boardwalk around that area. The Mammoth Falls as its also called, is phenomenal!

Bear Tooth Highway

What we did was to get a very early morning start to drive on the Bear Tooth Highway today. It was exhilarating. Lamar valley was literally coming to life with so many young animals having been born in the spring.  The car swayed at times (even being the beast!) as we drove in the high elevation with some winds. We stopped whenever we spotted bears, wolves, bisons and any thing else that moved! Undeniably the most scenic drive that needs a good driver.

To Gardiner

The drive from Mammoth to Gardiner is beautiful. Especially as we drive over the tall bridge with the river flowing underneath. Gardiner is a quaint little town right outside of the Yellowstone park. There are good dinner options here. We had quite a lot of laundry (4 people’s clothes used for 6 days) and so there was the very convenient laundromat in Gardiner and we found the town to have terrific Wi-Fi speeds (considering how we were Wi-Fi deprived for 6 days in the park). Our kids called it the Wi-Fi town!! So while the laundry was on, we went to have dinner at one of the restaurants near it.