Yellowstone Staycation

We started planning our 10-day Yellowstone vacation over a year ago so that we could get reservations to stay inside the park. Michael took time off work and we were calling it our Yellowstone vacation until he said “Wait, isn’t this our Yellowstone staycation since we live here?”

There are 12 campgrounds, but a 30 ft travel trailer pushes the size limit of how many campsites actually fit us, so planning ahead was key. Originally, we were splitting our time between 3 campgrounds, Mammoth (north entrance), Madison (west entrance), and Fishing Bridge (east entrance). Sadly, Yellowstone suffered major flood damage in the northern loop earlier this year and those entrances and campgrounds remain closed. Luckily, we were able to extend our time at Madison.

We absolutely loved our 6-night stay at Madison. Fishing Bridge is the only campground inside the park with hookups. It was very expensive ($95/night!) and one of the worst campsites we’ve ever had.

It’s not surprising that the concept of a National Park originated when Yellowstone became the world’s first in 1872. It is definitely the most mind-blowing park we’ve visited.

Yellowstone is located in the caldera of a supervolcano that has had 3 massive eruptions. Magma is found just a few miles beneath and heats 10,000 thermal features in the park. There are hot springs (pools with unrestricted hot water plumbing), geysers (restricted hot water plumbing so pressure builds and releases), fumaroles (steam vents), and mud pots (acidic hot springs that dissolve surrounding rock). Resident heat-loving microorganisms and minerals make these features colorful.

The Norris Geyser Basin was our first stop, with the trailer still in tow, because we were too early for check-in. We nervously parked our house near a sign saying “park at your own risk, this area has acidic geysers that can damage vehicles”. Great.

It was just sensory overload – so colorful, smelly, and listening to the sounds of bubbling, gurgling, and hissing. Not to mention feeling the warm steam and water droplets as we walked by. We probably saw a few hundred thermal features over the next week and never got tired of them.

A very unique hot spring is found at Mammoth, where interactions between limestone and evaporating water make travertine terraces.

Of course, the largest and most famous hot spring is Grand Prismatic. It is so vibrant and amazing that it’s hard to tear your eyes away.

Over half of the geysers in the entire world are found in Yellowstone. They are mostly located in several geyser basins in the southwest corner of the park. When you are driving through that section there is rising steam in every direction you look. Old Faithful is the top left of the photo collage, but we caught several erupting. Beehive geyser erupts 200ft (bottom left of the collage) and got us wet! Michael wants to note that we missed Grand Geyser so is on the list for next time.

We had fun trying to find the best views to eat picnic lunches and dinners in the park. Our favorite dinner spot was the deck at the Old Faithful Inn where we ate dinner while waiting for it to erupt.

The West Thumb Geyser Basin was a very pretty area with Lake Yellowstone as a backdrop. Some thermal features are even in the lake.

If the geyser basins weren’t enough, Yellowstone also has its own Grand Canyon created by the Yellowstone River. The canyon walls are very colorful yellows and pinks. You can spend an entire day walking along various viewpoints on the north and south rims.

The other thing that Yellowstone is famous for is wildlife. We were a little disappointed that we only saw one black bear. Apparently, June and September are the best months to see bears so we were not there at the right time.

We saw so many bison. You can usually see large herds in Hayden and Lamar Valleys on the east side of the park. The road through the Lamar Valley was flood damaged and we will have to revisit Yellowstone after it reopens.

The closest to the Lamar Valley we could get was Slough Creek, which we needed a reservation for. We saw at least 5 herds of bison. We made the mistake of walking on one of the trails in this area and as we came around a corner found ourselves 10 feet away from a huge bison and had to move way off the trail to give him space. Yellowstone is not really our favorite place to hike.

The only other hike we did was the Hellroaring Creek trail down to the Yellowstone River. The park is named for this river, which was named because of the yellow sandstone along it near Billings.

One thing we really wanted to do in Yellowstone was fly fishing in the backcountry. We found Yellowstone Horse and Mule which offered combination riding/fishing trips. Most just do one or the other. We ended up being the only ones to book that day so we got a private trip and it was perfect.

We met our guide at the Bighorn Pass trailhead near Big Sky, MT, and rode along the Gallatin River for 2 hours, followed by lunch and fishing lessons. He spoke of his concerns about Bozeman becoming a hipster town, which was funny considering he was born in Sweden and grew up in California. He also told us that Michael’s horse was previously a wild mustang in South Dakota. I rode Pokey, a mule. I wanted to take more photos but every time I got my phone out Pokey would stop to eat which I wasn’t supposed to let him do.

It was so beautiful out there!! We didn’t catch any cutthroat trout, that’s okay, they are protected and we’d have to throw them back anyway. And now, Michael is trying to figure out if he can add an additional hobby to our lives.

Most RV trips to Yellowstone include a visit to the neighboring Grand Teton National Park, so that’s where we headed next!