Yellowstone

Yellowstone is a huge park (over 3,400 sq. miles), so we planned to camp there for about 4 days to get to see as much as possible.  The main park road is actually two loops, connected in a figure 8 (handy map here). The southern loop contains most of the park's popular volcanic features like Old Faithful, whereas the northern loop has more open prairie, forests, and wildlife viewing opportunities (at least in the summer). For the first half of the week we stayed in Grant Village, which is on the southern loop, and explored the sights in that region. For the second half of the week, we camped in Canyon, which is on the northern loop, and explored northward into the Yellowstone Grand Canyon and the Mammoth Hot Springs. 

The volcanic areas were on the top of our list to see, so as soon as we'd set up camp on our first day, we headed out to the Upper Geyser Basin. This basin is the most famous for Old Faithful, one of the more frequently erupting larger geysers, but there is also an extensive network of boardwalk trails that meander through the prairie and visit countless smaller geysers and colorful pools. At first we aimed to just scope out the landscape and identify hikes or features that we wanted to come back and see later, but we quickly got sucked in to walking almost the entire thing. We ended up spending several hours visiting all the different features, taking photos, and enjoying the sunset. 

Family portrait in the geyser pools

Exploring the Upper Geyser Basin

Cracks in the crust - Upper Geyser Basin

Rainbow at Riverside Geyser - Upper Geyser Basin

Matt and his parents at Morning Glory Pool - Upper Geyser Basin

Sunset light on the prairie - Upper Geyser Basin

We were just in time to watch Old Faithful erupt as the sun set

The next day we continued to explore the caldera region of the park, starting first with a small section of the Upper Geyser Basin that we had skipped the day before, then Biscuit Basin. It was amazing to see how bright and vivid some of the colors were in full daylight. The previous evening, we had explored in sunset light, which led to some pretty phenomenal effects (like the rainbow at Riverside Geyser, above), but with the sun overhead, the colors in the pools were much brighter and more vivid.  Each new pool revealed a new rainbow of dazzling colors and shapes. As we walked around the boardwalks, we were even lucky enough to catch a few of the geysers erupting spontaneously.

Next we headed further north to see the Grand Prismatic Spring, one of the famous colorful pools in the park. Unfortunately, due to some mixed signals, Matt's parents were separated from us in the crowd, and although we spent the next hour looking for them, we couldn't find them anywhere. So we pressed on by ourselves and explored the geysers and springs along the main park road - Lower Geyser Basin, Monument Geyser Basin, Artist's Paintpots, and Black Sands Basin. Happily, we were reunited with Matt's parents later that evening and recounted our adventures to each other.

Artemisia Geyser - Upper Geyser Basin

Morning Glory Pool in full sunlight - Upper Geyser Basin

Vivid colors at Biscuit Basin

Jewel Geyser erupting - Biscuit Basin

Grand Prismatic Spring

Bird's eye view of the colorful Artist's Paintpots


Mudpots at the Artist's Paintpots

Rising steam at Black Sands Basin

On our third day, we set out for a hike near Bridge Bay.  The trail led us through pretty alpine meadows and up to a natural bridge in an outcropping or rocks.  Afterward, we drove out to a picnic site along Yellowstone Lake, and enjoyed lunch in a shady spot.  We explored the lake shore for about an hour, then kept driving north up to LeHardys rapids and through a popular wildlife area along the road.  It took ages to get up to Canyon, and we waited mostly patiently through a long line of cars stopping to get pictures of the many elk and bison herds visible from the road.  We finally made it to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone around dinnertime.

Wildflowers along our alpine hike at Bridge Bay

LeHardys rapids

Yellowstone Bison along the road to Canyon

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

The next day was rainy, but we still hadn't explored the area north of Canyon, Mammoth Hot Springs, which was famous for its terraced pools and hot springs. We made our way north to the Mammoth area and killed a little time in the visitor center there, waiting out the rain and reading about the history of the park. When the rain finally let up, we headed out to the pools. The light was perfect, and it was a great way to end our trip. Matt's parents were driving back to the airport early the following morning, so we celebrated a successful trip with dinner at the Mammoth Hotel Restaurant before heading back to camp.

Mammoth Hot Springs 

Terraced pools at Mammoth Hot Springs

Overlooking the top of the springs

Lots more Yellowstone photos can be found here. It was pretty tough to pick which ones to include in this blog post, so please check out all the rest if you want to see more of the trip!