Unscripted Experiences: Week 14 - Yellowstone Part 1
Yellowstone Wildlife, Driving the Upper Loop, Geysers, Waterfalls, and The Yellowstone Grand Canyon
Welcome to Unscripted Experiences. We are a family of four that has decided to go off script. We sold our house, got rid of most of our possessions, and have decided to travel full time in an RV.
Over the summer we will be traveling through Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, and eventually to South Dakota.
In these weekly updates, I share some of the unique experiences that we’ve had… the places that we’ve visited… and the lessons that we’ve learned while living full-time in an RV.
Come along with us as we explore Yellowstone National Park!
Let’s dive in…
(But first… I know I missed a week. Our time in Yellowstone has been amazing, but it’s also been busy! We’ve been filling all of our time exploring the park. Sorry! Enjoy the pictures)
Getting Familiar with Yellowstone
We arrived in Yellowstone on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend.
Unfortunately, when we arrived at our campground there was a little issue…
Someone else was in our spot. There had been a miscommunication about dates and we had to wait for a few hours before we could set up.
It was hot, mid-90s, so we decided to unhook, leave the trailer at the campground, and drive into the park.
We explored the Albright Visitor Center (closest to the North entrance) to grab our junior ranger books, park maps, and as much information as we could gather.
And then on Labor Day we headed back out to drive the upper loop.
To say the place was crowded would be an understatement. Over the past week, we’ve remarked multiple times about how crazy this park must be during the peak season.
The scale of Yellowstone is also something that you can’t fully understand until you are in the middle of it.
For example, to drive just the upper loop it takes between 2-3 hours. To drive both loops it would take upwards of 6 hours.
We put on our audio tour and drove the upper loop, stopping on a few occasions to do some small hikes and to check out a few overlooks.
We also visited the Canyon Visitor Center for the first time and drove by the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
Halfway around the loop, we realized that it had been over 4 hours already…
So we packed it up and drove the rest of the loop to get back to the camper and wrap up our day.
Thermal Features
Yellowstone is known for Old Faithful.
But there are dozens of other geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles.
We are keeping our fingers crossed that we can get lucky and see the biggest geyser in the world… Steamboat.
It erupts every 40-60 days on average. And it’s been between 55 and 60 days since it’s last eruption…
So we are due.
Heather and the kids spent a few hours this week doing schoolwork near the geyser, and we revisited it again on Friday. But no luck.
Still hasn’t erupted though… so there’s still a chance.
In the Norris Geyser Basin, we did the two loops and saw dozens of other small geysers, hot springs, and mud pots.
As beautiful as they are… they are also quite stinky…
And we haven’t even seen the worst yet.
The Northern part of the park isn’t known for Geysers, but driving around the loop you can still see a good number.
Including Roaring Mountain.
Best seen in the morning, this mountain is filled with fumaroles and looks absolutely incredible.
Waterfalls and the Yellowstone Grand Canyon
On our first drive around the north loop of Yellowstone, we stopped and saw a few waterfalls that were either right off the road or a short walk.
Turns out that while Yellowstone is known for Old Faithful and its numerous geysers… there are plenty of waterfalls to enjoy as well.
The land was carved out in many places by volcanic rock, glaciers, and the Yellowstone river.
And nowhere is this more evident than in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
We drove through this area on Monday and stopped on the South rim just shy of the Inspiration Point lookout area.
The colors were amazing and the sheer scope of the canyon was enough to take my breath away.
We ended up returning on Saturday to explore the North Rim and Artist Point.
Artist Point gave us an amazing view of the Lower Falls and absolutely lived up to its name.
We then drove back down and visited the Upper Falls viewing area before driving around to the South Rim and taking the short hike down to get up close and personal with the Upper Falls.
From there we drove around the South Rim, stopping to eat lunch at the Inspiration Point lookout area, before returning to the Canyon Visitor Center.
Yellowstone Wildlife
It didn’t take us long to spot Yellowstone Wildlife.
As we made the first trip from our campground into the park, we had to drive through the town of Gardiner, Montana.
In a large field, just before town, we say a massive herd of what we thought might be elk, but they were too far away to really tell.
But then… driving through town… there was a momma and baby elk walking down the sidewalk…
Driving into and through the Mammoth area we saw more and more elk. Including a few massive bull elks with impressive antlers.
We’ve been told to keep an eye out for bull elk right now as we are getting into the elk rut… where the males begin competing for the attention of females…
Driving back through the Mammoth area one evening (after visiting the Norris Geyser Basin) we saw multiple packs of elks and even got to hear an elk bugling…
Around the park we ran into a few solo bison and more elk… but there’s still plenty to be seen.
To start week two, we are getting up early on Sunday morning to drive out to Lamar Valley to see if we can catch sight of any wolves, bears, or bison herds…
Preview of Week 15
We’ve got one more week in North Yellowstone before we move down to West Yellowstone. Here’s what we explored during our second week in Yellowstone National Park…
Early Morning in Lamar Valley
Yellowstone Hot Springs
Mammoth Hot Springs
Bison Burgers
Museum of the Rockies
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Looking for past blogs or previous weeks? You can find them here.