Rebecca's Top Tips for Vacationing in Yellowstone

 

1) Patience is a virtue (for the animals, yes, but also for the people).

2) Be prepared for a lot of driving.

3) Early morning (before 8:00) and late afternoon were the best times to travel.

4) Make sure you have a map for the times when your phone doesn’t get a signal (and don’t buy the National Geographic $15 topographic map – it is not helpful).

5 ) Most of the places we visited had many people coming through. We wondered if hiking on less traveled trails would let us see more animals? Depending on your perspective that could be a good or bad thing. FYI: Bear Spray can be rented at the Canyon Village.

6 ) For lunches, take a picnic. There are great spots. I recommend the Virginia Cascades.

7)  Yellowstone is a great place to play the license plate game. We found almost all 50 states in the park plus most of the Canadian Provinces. (I finally saw Hawaii on our way through NE, but my family doesn’t believe me.)

8) The Prismatic Spring and Old Faithful were the most crowded places we stopped at.

9) Glamping is the way to go. We traveled 20 minutes outside of the park, stayed in a tipi and slept in a king-sized soft, comfy bed.

1 0) Planning is a must. Kirk did a great job planning our must-sees. Keep the must-sees to a minimum and be flexible.

 

Here is what we did – some of it was planned and some of it happened by accident:

Day 1) Traveled by way of Cody, WY to see the Dead Indian Pass (great history), ate lunch in Cooke City, MT, entered Yellowstone by the NE Entrance and traveled through the Lamar Valley – known for the animals seen there, ate awesome wood-fired pizza near our glamping site.

Day 2) We stopped at Beryl Spring, Artist Paint Pots, Mammoth Hot Springs, Undine and Wraith Falls, Tower Fall, shopped at Tower/Roosevelt Junction, shopped at West Yellowstone and ate at Canyon Street Grill.

Day 3) Hiked Mt. Washburn, went to the Brink of Lower Falls and Artist Point of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Mud Volcano, and Norris Geyser Basin. We grilled pork chops at our glamping site for supper.

Day 4) Went back to Artist Point for a photo op, shopped at Canyon Village, drove the Virginia Cascade, went to the Prismatic Spring, and then to Old Faithful. We ate BBQ in West Yellowstone at Firehole Bar-B-Que.

Day 5) Got up super early to go home by way of East Yellowstone and Yellowstone Lake. We traveled to Thermopolis, WY to soak in some hot springs and have fabulous stone fired pizza at P6 Station. We ended the day (1:15 a.m. in Beatrice, NE to see family and traveled the rest of the way home the next day).