We booked a last minute 3 night stay (then got a consecutive 3 night stay the next day giving us 6 nights) at Grant Village campground which gave us 2 days to drive there from Glacier. So we drove all day to a BLM site (Ruby Creek Campground) near the west entrance and then the next day we refueled the car, did laundry, and drove through the park to Grant. The timing worked out really well. We got to the campground right at check in time. We did have to wait in line at the entrance for about 30 minutes to get in but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
Once we set up the trailer, we went to the Grant Visitor center for our Junior Ranger books, and then to West Thumb to get a passport stamp while they were still open. We happened to notice a trail nearby and checked it out. It turns out West Thumb is a pretty great Geyser Basin in the park! Lots of cool looking hot springs, fumaroles, and mud pits with a super easy boardwalk all right along the West Thumb of Lake Yellowstone. Not a bad way to start our stay.
We got some rain in the afternoon which we figured scared off a bunch of tourists so we also tried to see Grand Prismatic via the Fairy Falls Overlook. Unfortunately the rain caused a lot of steam on the hot spring causing it to be obscured and the late hour in the day also made it hard to see the colors really well. We tried though.
Day 2 was pretty low key due to rain but we managed to leave the trailer and campground in the evening to go see Old Faithful go off. We ended up getting there right after the time we were aiming for but it worked out for the best. It gave us some time to go to the Old Faithful lodge which was really neat inside, and get some ice cream. We’ve decided we’re going to start a new tradition of trying the ice cream in as many national parks as we can. So far Glacier has a great chocolate flavor, and Yellowstone did great with cookie dough. Old Faithful put on a great show, and we went back to our trailer for the night.
Day 3 presented us with some good weather so we took advantage and had an active day. We drove up to Canyon Village first, and rode in the autonomous electric vehicles, TEDDY! They were so cool and we were nerding out with the vehicle manufacturer operator (Yellowstone requires an operator for liability/safety even though he doesn’t drive it except to help maneuver around obstacles). I had read a news release about TEDDY earlier this year and mentioned to Andrew I wanted to ride in them. He found out where they were and made it happen for us. We had zero reason to go into Canyon village except for the ride in TEDDY. 😆 Totally worth it.
From Canyon Village we drove back down to Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the two waterfalls there. You can view the upper falls from an overlook on either side (which we did). There was a rainbow in the falls when we were there which was fun.
The other viewpoint is along South Rim drive. We went all the way to the end first where we viewed Artists Point and Lower Falls. This was definitely worth the drive. The views at the end were stunning. The Canyon colors were amazing and the view of the river and the Lower Falls were breathtaking as well.
We drove back up South Rim drive to view Upper Falls from the other side. Andrew ran to snap a couple pictures but the consensus was the rainbow and view on the other side was just as good. We skipped the North Rim drive because it was completely packed with cars and backed up all the way to the main road.
On the way back to our campground we saw several small herds of bison, and this one right in the road. Andrew offered to open my car window so I could get a clearer picture but I declined. The entire drive between Old Faithful and Canyon Village is very idyllic. I told Andrew it reminded me of a Windows Screensaver. I saw a deer standing by a stream and the entire scene just seemed unreal.
Day 4 of staying in Yellowstone we decided to make a day trip of driving to Grand Tetons. We attempted to go to Jenny Lake but it was too crowded to take the boat shuttle so we continued on a car tour around the park instead. We drove down to Moose and the visitor center there. We circled back up and took a quick Lakeshore trail hike where we spotted a beaver swimming (as well as all the trees it had been busy cutting down along the shoreline). Coming back into Yellowstone we were greeted with this amazing double rainbow. If you zoom into the closer picture you can see the brighter rainbow actually repeats blue purple, blue purple, blue purple! How crazy is that? I’ve never seen a rainbow repeat like that. I’m gonna need one of my optical engineer or physicist friends to explain this phenomenon.
Day 5 of Yellowstone we decided to pack up and leave due to wildfire smoke filling the air from nearby fires. On our way out of the park we stopped at obsidian cliff which is a huge 150ft tall cliff made entirely of solid obsidian. Very impressive to the adults, the kids said “meh.” We also stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs and did a small boardwalk hike along the lower terraces. Elk were surrounding the village there. We had to be strategic where we walked so as not to spook them. We also spotted a bald eagle sitting on a low branch nearby our parking spot!
From Yellowstone we drove to Billings, MT where my friend Leigh lives now! We stayed with Leigh for a couple days and refueled, recharged, and fixed a few things on the trailer. The kids were very excited to have some wifi again so they could watch Netflix as well, and a full couch to sprawl out on. Thank you, Leigh, for the awesome hospitality!
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