Mammoth Hot Springs
We spent a week mid-May travelling in Yellowstone and Grand Tetons. This was one of our best trips as we really enjoyed the diversity and amount of wildlife the two parks have to offer. We flew into Bozeman, MT and drove about an hour and a half to get to Gardiner, MT where the north entrance is. We then took the rest of the day to go into the park. Our first stop was to Mammoth Hot Springs. We were blown away at how big and strange the hot springs are as we had never seen anything like it. We then headed towards Tower-Roosevelt. Along the way, we saw various waterfalls and had our first buffalo encounter! They are massive animals and wander everywhere! We also saw ground squirrels, coyotes, black bears, deer, pronghorns, a moose and even a mountain lion! Our first day in Yellowstone was very exciting to say the least!
Norris Geyser Basin
Our second day we headed to West Yellowstone where we would be staying for the next two nights. During our drive we got to see some pretty lakes and a smoldering mountain. We stopped at the Norris Geyser Basin which was quite interesting. The basin is full of various geysers, hot springs and fumaroles. Some of them are very colorful in pretty blues, yellows and reds. Bacteria live in the water and depending on the color of the bacteria tells you how hot it is or how acidic. Some of them are so hot they practically boil and others are so corrosive it’s like touching battery acid. My favorite ones were those where gas bubbles on the surface. We then stopped to break in West Yellowstone before heading back into the park. This time, we headed south towards Old Faithful. We stopped at all the geyser basins along the way. Each different spring was its own unique variation of the next. Some muddy, some bubbling, some black, some bright blue. It was impressive to see them all. The park has over 600 of them and new ones continue to pop up.
Lower Falls
Our third day we went towards the east entrance. This day was much different than the last. The east side is where the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is along with Yellowstone Falls. The temperature was colder and there was still snow on the ground in some places. We got to see YS Lake and the mountains and even another coyote. It was pretty but not super exciting. We saw a few more springs that evening. Some were even right next to the lake and some were even in the lake!
Old Faithful
Bison
Our fourth day we visited the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West YS. The center houses various animals who are no longer able to survive by themselves in the wild due to being injured or orphaned. It was really neat to see all the animals they were able to rescue. We then went back to the park and continued our journey to Old Faithful where we were staying for the night. Along the way we stopped at Grand Prismatic, which is the parks most famous spring for its size and colors. We saw it two nights earlier in the evening but the steam was so thick you couldn’t see much. This day was very sunny and the colors were so visible you could see them in the steam coming off the spring. We were extremely glad to have stopped again. We then decided to take an adventurous hike in the woods (with bear spray). Not many people chose the hike which made it more special. Along the way we got to see springs that most missed out on. The hike was a roundabout way to get to Old Faithful. We did half of it and decided to do the other half later. On our way back down we came across some buffalo next to the trail. I was extremely nervous walking past them but they seemed to care less. We then headed to Old Faithful and got there in time to watch it erupt. It goes off about every 90min on average. We were lucky to see it six times since we were staying there!
Grand Teton National Park
Grizzly
Our next day we headed out of YS and on to Grand Teton National Park. The road out of the southern exit is the entrance to GTNP. We were slightly confused by this as we kept waiting for an actual entrance building but there wasn’t any. It was an all-around strange park and kind of boring actually. The mountains were very pretty to see though. There are many hikes to do but most are long and lots were closed due to bears. We spent this day and the next bumming around the park. The best times we had though were in the evenings. We went moose searching both nights and were successful. The first night we even saw a HUGE black bear across the river from where we stopped. We were kind of embarrassed because we didn’t even notice it for ourselves and someone had to point it out to us. We confirmed later it was a grizzly. It was no wonder because the bear was massive.
Mama and cubs
The next day we spent in the park we did a couple of hikes to some lakes. The icing on the cake came when we got to see a mama grizzly and her two cubs (off the road, not on a trail). We had tried the day before to spot them but we were too late and they disappeared but we got lucky this time. They were so cool to watch. It was very special. Cars were lined up down both sides of the road and people gathered to watch them. I would guess and say there were cars parked nearly a quarter mile long.
Our trip to YS and GTNP was very nice. We were glad to go when we did but figured it might actually be best to go in September which is an off season and more would be open. Some things were closed due to snow and bears so we didn’t get to experience everything although we do not feel like we missed out on anything. The buffalo were everywhere and it was funny watching them lay by the springs to be warm. The park has over 4,000 of them and I’m pretty sure we saw each one! All of the springs and geysers were so cool to see. It was an eerie feeling to look around and see the earth steaming in every direction knowing you are standing directly on top of a volcano.
