For the past several years my husband and I have been trying to make a return trip to one of our favorite National Parks, Yellowstone, a place we have not seen in a very long time. We’ve been blessed to have spent time there on three previous occasions with our kids in 1982, 1986, and 1991.
All these years later we still reminisce about our trips to Yellowstone and we longed to see it again. In 2020 we made plans to visit the area, but the pandemic caused us to cancel our trip. In 2021 our hopes were dashed again when monsoonal flooding washed out some roads in the park and gas prices skyrocketed. Determined to try again, in late summer ‘23 I began to put together a plan to visit Yellowstone in 2024, hopeful that this time nothing would stop us.
We made our reservation for a campsite at the Yellowstone West Gate KOA in August of 2023. We reserved our site a full year in advance since you need to secure camping near National Parks very early or risk not finding a place at all. A few weeks into autumn we searched Outdoorsy.com and reserved a fully furnished 32-foot trailer for rent near West Yellowstone that suited our needs perfectly.
The price was right and the owners would deliver, set up, and pick it up afterward. All we would need to do is arrive on the given date with food and personal items and explore. My husband and I had considered driving out west from Ohio, but factoring in the time and expense of driving, we chose another path. We booked a flight into Las Vegas with plans to stay a couple of days there before hitting the road to see some sites between Vegas and Yellowstone. In the fall of ’23 I set about finding a rental car to use for the 2 ½ weeks we planned to be gone. Booking our vehicle months in advance may seem premature, but I’m so glad I did, since the price of the same vehicle in the spring of ’24 was a whopping $800 more.
For those of you who have visited Yellowstone and the surrounding area, you surely understand the draw. America’s first National Park, Yellowstone was established on March 1, 1872 when President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act. The diversity within the park is amazing … flat prairies, flowing rivers, geysers and mudpots, mountains, canyons and waterfalls.
And always the wildlife. Bison, elk, bear, deer, wolves, cougar, otters, and so many others call the park home. The park is home to 285 species of birds and the largest herd of bison in the world roaming free. You will also find the largest herd of elk known that does not migrate and the greatest concentration of hydrothermal features in the world.
With the park encompassing over 2.2 million acres, you need more than a day to fully take in sites. We were happy for the full week that we spent there. Our home base at the KOA in West Yellowstone was only a couple of miles from the park’s west entrance. Each day we chose an area of the park to explore and with good roads that form a huge figure 8 within the park, it was easy to explore one area at a time. Visitors to Yellowstone should be aware that seeing the park involves a lot of driving. On average, it takes about an hour or more to get from one major attraction to the next and that does not factor in stoppages along the road when wildlife decide to tie up traffic.
Anytime you are driving in the park and see traffic stopped, get ready for a treat as wildlife, including elk, fox, buffalo and even the occasion bear, venture into the middle of the road on a regular basis. We averaged over 150 miles per day on our explorations. The first three days we entered the park early, around 7 a.m., and saw some impressive wildlife in Hayden and Lamarr Valleys and even right along the road. Grand Prismatic geyser area is extremely popular and if you don’t get there by 8:30 a.m. or so you will find it hard to get a parking spot. Passing this area in the afternoon there were cars parked along the road for nearly for a mile.
On our fourth day we slept in a bit and enjoyed the camping experience then entered the park around 4:30 p.m. for the drive to Hayden Valley in hopes of seeing something special. Our efforts paid off as just before sunset we spied a group of three wolves along the road by a river and got some photos and videos. We hung out with many other people in the pull-off areas watching a large herd of elk and bison along with an otter, swans, cranes, and ducks in the water. We were like kids on Christmas morning.
No trip to Yellowstone would be complete without seeing the geysers. Old Faithful is still faithfully erupting every 45 minutes or so and puts on quite a show. We watched her blow a few times during our stay and saw the very impressive Beehive Geyser which sits just behind Old Faithful spouting from a distance.
In the area of Grand Prismatic Geyser we experienced Fountain Geyser spray its waters into the sky and saw from the road Biscuit Basin geyser which had blown violently destroying the walkway around it just a few days before our arrival into the park. Several times on our journeys we passed Steamboat Geyser which sits right beside the road, and we always put the windows down to hear the loud hissing of the hot steam spewing from that one. Driving north toward Gardiner, Montana you come to the Mammoth Hot Springs area which was drying up in ’91 when we saw it last and is still quite inactive today although beautiful in its own way.
On our final day in the area, having seen all the sites we intended to see in the park, we returned to the Old Faithful area one last time and watched her spout for the final time, then grabbed a bite to eat and shopped in one of the many gift stores on the grounds. We were fortunate to meet in person one of the professional photographers of wildlife in Yellowstone and other national parks, David William Peterson, who was signing his books and photos he had taken. I have always had an affinity for wolves and purchased one of his photos of one of the more famous wolf packs that inhabit Yellowstone, the Mollie pack. Mr. Peterson and I had an interesting conversation about his experience capturing the photo as he followed the wolves in the back country of the park. I will just say that he is a brave man.
After our amazing week at Yellowstone, we drove out the south entrance and through Grand Teton National Park down to Jackson Hole, Wyoming where we explored a bit and grabbed a bite. Then it was on to southern Wyoming and eventually back to Vegas from where we flew home with big smiles on our faces and a renewed appreciation for one of the most beautiful National Parks in our country. I hope you all get to see it for yourself one day.
This trip was taken July 26-August 8th by Larry and Debbie Sidener.
