Y is for Yellowstone

Yellowstone!  We are spending three nights and two full days there!  I am excited.  It's going to be a long drive from the Devils Tower area to Yellowstone.  I am opting for a route that is about forty miles longer than the shortest.  Reason why?  Because I will need to grocery shop at that point and I do not want to do it near the national park.  They are tourist trap towns with inflated grocery prices.  My sister warned me about them.  The grocery stores inside the park are considerable cheaper than the ones right outside but the variety of food and brands lacks.  We will be doing our grocery shopping in Billings, Montana.  Plus, I wanted to add Montana to our lists of states visited.


In Yellowstone, we will be staying in the Bridge Bay Campground.  It's a large campground for both RVs and Tents.  People have mixed feelings on the place.  I figure, we aren't going to be spending much time at our actual campsite, so I'm not super worried about things. 

Picture from NPS.gov

Yellowstone is a caldera geothermal hotspot.  It's one big super volcano.  There is so much to see there.  I like watching the webcam for Old Faithful.  Right now, there is snow on the ground but there are still visitors hanging out. 

I remember watching Old Faithful on my trip to Yellowstone when I was little.  I remember the large amounts of water and wondering where it went.  I don't remember the crowds though.  We have been warned of the crazy crowds.  My plan is to get up early on our first morning there, we aren't going to sleep well in the tent anyhow, so we might as well get up and going, grab a cold breakfast (We love Poptarts and granola bars!) and drive over to Old Faithful. It's only about thirty miles but the drive is an hour and a half.  This day, we will hit up the Upper Geyer Basin, this is where the majority of the geothermic activity takes place in the park.  It's also known as the Lower Loop.  If we get there before the big crowds, we can get some quality walking and hiking time in to see the features.  We will hit up the rest of the Lower Loop, I'm guessing with traffic it's pretty much going to take up our whole day. 


Let me back track a little.  We will be driving in through the North Entrance of the Park.  Near the North Entrance of the Park, we will find Boiling River.  One of the best kept secrets of Yellowstone.  I am hoping that is open since we will be visiting in Spring.  If it's not, that's a bummer but we will move on and see other things.  The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is on our way to our camp site.  Actually that whole highway is full of things to do and see and fall in love with. 


I want to hike Lamar Valley for at least half a day.  I do want to venture down into the Grand Tetons for a look see.  It's about 100 miles from our campground.  I don't know if we will have time. 


Our Yellowstone time is one that I do not have detailed and planned out.  That's why I want books, so I can try to decide what to do.  I know three days of Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons is not nearly enough.  So we will just have to go back sometime. :)


What are your favorite things to do in Yellowstone?