Yellowstone: The First U.S. National Park

Stopping for lunch inside the park

We departed Teton National Park and headed north-entering Yellowstone National Park by the south entrance.  The National Access Pass (available from the National Park Service (NPS) for seniors and those with disabilities) was checked at the gate and they waved us through with no fee.  

The Bus did a fine job pulling the Jeep up the long grades; but, we pulled over in one of the side areas to let cars pass and have some lunch.  

We made our way through the park passing Grant Village Campground where we would

stay the following week and out the west gate to West Yellowstone.  West Yellowstone, Montana exists for the tourist business and it was booming this summer with visitors from all over the world.  We headed north to Yellowstone Holiday campground and enjoyed the level pull through campsite with full hook-ups.  Pattie was able to catch up on the laundry here and I cleaned the inside of The Bus and Jeep windows.  

Our plan was to use the campground north of Yellowstone as a base for exploring the northern circle of the park and later use Grant Campground as a base for the southern loop. This worked well, but required some backtracking due to our timeline.  The locals said the road to Mammoth Springs was under construction and 30-minute delays were normal.  To counter this, Pattie and I departed camp about 6:30AM and headed into the park.  The temperatures were in the high 40’s and the steam coming from various fumaroles and geysers was spectacular.  Our first wildlife encounter was a big old bull bison with steam rising off his body just lumbering down the road in our lane going the same direction we were going. He paid us no attention as we passed. 

One of us enjoyed the geysers more than the other

We made it through the construction with hardly enough delay to eat a yogurt for breakfast.  We stopped at Mammoth Springs and began the first of many, many short hikes around what I call bubbling pools of various goo and chemicals.  Pattie loved it!  We hit it at 9AM just in time to join a ranger who was giving an interpretive guide of the springs.  In the little town of Mammoth, we saw the elk that live and walk among the buildings there. We also discovered huckleberry ice cream that I really like.  

We continued on our journey around the north circle and stopped to hike in to see wraith falls. We stopped at Yellowstone’s own Grand Canyon and ate our picnic lunch.  This was the same spot I stopped for lunch in 2010 when I brought our sons here, so it was fun to share that memory with Pattie.  

On another day, we went back to the canyon and did a steep hike down the north rim to see the Yellowstone river waterfall and back to the top, but the view was great.  Then we went to the south rim and saw the iconic view of the waterfall and river.

Along our way around the park we saw several elk.  Some large bull elk with their horns in velvet and many cows and calves.  We also saw some scary near wrecks as people just stopped in the middle of the road to look at animals.

 At one stop, we approached the river quietly before anyone was there and saw a marmot.  In another location, we saw a lynx. 

After a few days of touring the northern circle, we relocated The Bus to Grant village Campground in the center of the park.  It was a dry campground meaning we did not have any hook-ups for the RV.  We ran the generator in the morning and evening to charge the batteries more than possible with just the solar panel.  It was a tight campground between other campers and the trees. Packed with campers it was always noisy, but at 10pm everyone respected quiet hours and went to sleep.  Grant Village was a good location for seeing the sites in the southern loop.  Of course, we went to see the Old Faithful Geyser that went off on schedule.  

The Grand Prismatic Geyser was probably our favorite feature with its wide array of colors.  Different types of bacteria that thrive in the various temperatures cause the colors.  

Grand Prismatic Geyser

On one drive, a short rain shower passed over and we were able to see a spectacular double rainbow over the Geyser Basin.

We enjoyed our visit to Yellowstone National Park and participated in several evening interactive programs conducted by park rangers.  One evening, we stayed out until 1am looking at stars through various telescopes the University of Montana Science Department set up for our use. Another evening, we heard about the development and evolution of the park and the recovery after the devastating 1988 fires.  One of the most educational events occurred when we took a spontaneous side trip west of Hebgen Lake about 25 miles northwest of Yellowstone.  We found a small museum dedicated to preserving the history behind the August 1959 earthquake that killed many campers and drastically changed the area.  It shifted the lake and many log cabins floated to new locations.  

Remains of cabins flooded during 1959 earthquake

Thanks for keepingupwiththejonesrv!

RV Tip:  Just because it says you can get a 40-foot camper into a campground doesn’t mean it is a good idea to do so.  The Grant Village Campground is not really suitable for such a large rig and we acquired several scratches from tree branches trying to exit. One of the rangers explained the Park Service philosophy of balancing enjoyment with preservation.  Basically if you don’t make improvements (like cutting branches and trees, widening roads, building more campgrounds), it is a passive way to limit visitation.  With nearly 5 million visitors per year trying to see Yellowstone, a lottery system may not be too far away.  If you have a large RV, camp outside the park.