Pedro i sent you the spreadsheet i had via email, its pretty choppy to read but the info is in there. I didnt follow to a T but its a good timeline of approx what we did.
Bigsky, here is a little summary of what i would tell people, and if you guys have any specific questions i can certainly answer.
Lamar Valley and Hayden Valley time was very peaceful and the essence of being in a national park. Lamar Valley is awesome, and we did a hike up specimen ridge that day which was great, as well as a hike around trout lake which was quick and i'd highly recommend. Walked back behind Pebble Creek campground around the creek and it was awesome. Didnt get to hike back to the Hellroaring which was really the only thing i didnt get to do that i wanted to do in yellowstone on this trip. Mud pots around Hayden valley were cool, gotta love the smell. The yellowstone river running through Hayden valley...
Geyser Basins i had heard many say were over-rated even though they are the biggest attraction, but it was very cool to see the first time and we loved it, great for families with kids just be safe of course. Again, find some good hikes to take and see some things off the beaten path, waterfalls, hot pots, man we had a GOLDEN day of luck after struggling to time the first few geysers out, we walked by one that goes off once a day and there were 5 people there mostly rangers watching it go off....we were like oh wait what is this. Total Luck. Watched Grand and Castle geysers go off which are must. Did a hike to grand prismatic overlook another day, and a great hike to the base of a waterfall across from the mid geyser basin i believe.
Grand Canyon area is awesome and worth a lot of time, good to combine with Hayden Valley day and a yellowstone lake drive. We saw wolves in Hayden valley, glad i borrowed a spotting scope from a friend. Wish we had hike hayden valley area but didnt. Yellowstone lake was a bit boring, we went in the hotel but most of it was closed, but if it was open would like to eat there and go to the bar, heard its good.
The remainder of the park is just as good for relaxing and enjoying. I recommend doing a hike every day, short ones if you think you dont have time or family will get tired. Youll remember "doing" things vs seeing things and moving too fast. I would definitely pay the extra to stay in the park due to driving times. We stayed about 30-40 min outside of the park, which we really loved, but if you are short on time stay in the park when it opens back up. I believe the best location to stay to access the park from outside would be the west yellowstone gate. Always get to the gate by 7:30 or so to avoid bison jams and visitors. One thing I will say is that if you get up early and get in the park its beautiful and crowds are low and temps are perfect, get up at sunrise drink a coffee and head into the park, but you will be wiped out by 3 pm every day. If we were staying in the park we could have rested up and got back at it, but staying 40 min away made it difficult, and hard to enjoy both of the best times to be at the park which are early and late in the day.
One place i missed mentioning is the Firehole swimming area, which was closed for social distancing, which we ignored since we were alone and jumped off the cliffs (20+ feet). I wont forget that. Also, i wanted to do some of the Tetons and the southwest region (hiking) of the park but ran out of time. Best advice would be to not rush and just enjoy what you can and plan to come back and do what you miss, which is what we will have to do and i cannot wait to get back.
Sorry for the literary nightmare that is this giant run on sentence with misplaced commas, but hopefully this helps. I'm here for questions.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by badrose
Bookmarks