Yellowstone National Park/Grand Teton National Park, 9.26.21 - 10.6.21, Part 1 of 11
Yellowstone. Just the name conjures up all kinds of images from Yogi Bear to Old Faithful. It was the first National Park. Despite being only the eighth largest National Park in the U.S., Yellowstone is a huge place covering 3,472 square miles. Second only to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in visitations, it is also a very crowded place at certain times of the year, although during our trip at the very end of September, the park was much less crowded than in the summer months.
Our first trip ever to Yellowstone was last fall. We were on a seventeen day trip to a variety of places and drove through Yellowstone to get from Cody, Wyoming to Jackson Hole. We only had about a half a day on that trip so we stopped at the West Thumb Geyser Basin, The Grand Prismatic and Old Faithful. I knew all along that I had to come back to Yellowstone and had to devote at least a full week to really get a good sampling of what this incredible place had to offer. Plans began last winter and by the early part of the new year we had made reservations to drive the Navibahn there and stay for six nights at the Fishing Bridge Campground which is the only one in the park with hookups. Our lifelong friends Kent and Candice Adamson from Colorado would be our travel companions. Not being campers they booked a room at the Canyon Lodge for the same nights, September 27th through October 3rd. When we got an email stating that Fishing Bridge would remained closed in 2021 for renovations, we immediately switched to a room at the Canyon Lodge and the dates and accommodations were now set.
I spent the entire year studying Yellowstone. I even found an outstanding book called "Photographing Yellowstone” that had excellent recommendations about what time of the day to be in certain spots for the best light, interesting phenomena or wildlife sightings. Slowly, an itinerary came together and while many factors such as the weather or fire smoke might affect the plans, if the gods were smiling down on us we would see a whole lotta cool stuff in seven days. Kent and Candice would leave Denver a day early and stay in Jackson, Wyoming while we in turn would stay in Butte, Montana, meeting up at the Canyon Lodge on Monday the 27th.
In addition to our short visit last fall, I recently had an entire day to drive around Yellowstone during a hiking trip to the Beartooths in August. That was an extremely beneficial trip as I became much more familiar with the layout of the park after that day and it helped me a lot with my planning of where we might go each day.
From Butte, it was less than three hours to the north entrance. This was all new to Bridgit so when we reached the park we stopped and checked out the famous Roosevelt Arch before heading further in.
The Roosevelt Arch
Just south of the entrance we came to Mammoth Hot Springs where we stopped into the visitor center. I had a map of Yellowstone from 1925 that was a gift from our aunt Carol so I showed it to some of the employees. From there we drove up to the Mammoth Terraces. Since we would be coming back here anyway with Kent and Candice there was no point in stopping but I did drive Bridgit through the Upper Terrace Drive and we stopped for photos at a couple of really cool spots. It was actually a good thing we did this short drive because it made us feel more like we had really arrived and it was getting exciting!
Orange Spring Mound
Orange Spring Mound
White Elephant Back Terrace
Raven
Canyon Lodge is actually seven separate lodge buildings and we ended up in the Chittendon Lodge. Canyon Village was close by which had a visitor center, a store and two dining options. Unfortunately, due to Covid and the time of year, the restaurant was take out only and most nights you would have to wait in a long food line to be served like you were back in school going through the lunch line. Options were slim but we worked around it and it wasn’t an issue (except the Wok Bowls - they were an issue).
So what to do on our first full day in Yellowstone? I thought it would be good to keep it one of the lower mileage days to get into the swing of things. Kent and Candice all along had planned to defer to whatever I suggested, knowing I had done research. I was happy to call the shots and to do the driving. It is so much easier to just whip off the road if I see a good photo op in the Highlander than if we were in the Navibahn. Bridgit meanwhile has become fanatical about looking for wildlife and she knows the time to do that is at dawn. That first full morning, dawn would be at 7:26AM so I wanted everyone’s butt in their car seat by 6:45AM. When that didn’t happen I was starting to get wiggy but we had the Gods of Timing on our side this whole trip and the first morning was no exception. From Canyon Village it is an extremely short drive to the beautiful Hayden Valley. Hayden Valley and Lamar Valley are known as the two best spots in Yellowstone to look for wildlife. Both have wolf packs, grizzly bears, bison, elk and pronghorn. I think we saw a few bison and maybe an elk as we drove through the pre-dawn golden hour. We popped over a hill above the Yellowstone River just as the sun broke the horizon and the mist coming off the river swirled through the trees glowing in an orange bath of morning sunshine. It was breathtaking and if we had left on “my schedule” we would have missed it.
Sunrise in Hayden Valley
Sunrise in Hayden Valley
Early morning in Hayden Valley near Sulphur Cauldron
Yellowstone River
We drove all the way through Hayden Valley to Fishing Bridge and then turned around and drove back up through for a second look. Halfway up the valley we stopped at The Mud Volcano and hiked a short loop trail up and around several springs and fumaroles. Back in the car, we were all on high alert, swiveling our heads back and forth for any sign of creatures lurking by the side of the road. In one open sage flat we were quite close to a coyote so we pulled over and watched it running through the sage and jumping up in the air to pounce on an unsuspecting rodent. I don’t think it caught anything while we were watching but it was fun to observe him hunting and so far the coyote was the biggest predator we had seen.
The Dragon’s Mouth
Coyote
Coyote
It was still early when we got back from our drive down and back up Hayden Valley. The northern end of the valley is where the Yellowstone River makes a hard turn to the northeast and carves through the mighty Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. In my research I had read that at this time of the year, if you look at Lower Falls at or about 10:30AM, the sun will be at just the right angle to create a rainbow in the mist at the base of the falls. One of the best spots to observe this phenomena is called Red Rock Point. To reach this spot we drove down the North Rim Drive to Lookout Point. Rather than go up to the point, we took the trail that dropped down about five hundred feet to an observation platform that afforded a straight on view of the Lower Falls. For those that don’t like to hike at all, the view from above at Lookout Point is almost as good. We did see a little bit of a rainbow, but at this time of the year there is far less flow in the falls which means there is a much smaller cloud of mist at the base of the falls, resulting in less of a rainbow. One last stop before lunch was at Inspiration Point which gave us incredible views of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone below the falls.
Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River
Team Yellowstone at Red Rock Point
After a leisurely lunch we hopped back in the car and drove down the South Rim Road opposite where we had been before lunch. I had read that for good light it is best to see the canyon from the south rim early and from the north rim late. We kind’ve did the opposite on the first day but we were staying only minutes from the Canyon so I expected to spend several sessions photographing along the rim.
South Rim Drive is a dead end road that takes you to one of the most iconic views on the planet. Artist Point gives you the broader picture of the power of the Yellowstone River. With the Lower Falls higher up the valley, the river runs through a staggering display of carved volcanic rock, all hued in brilliant shades of orange, brown, yellow and even red, with the royal blue water of the Yellowstone River slicing the canyon ever deeper over the millennia. The view from Artist Point is as famous as any view on earth, from the great pyramids of Egypt to Niagara Falls to the Matterhorn. It is a view that inspires.
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone from Artist Point
Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
It had been a great first day and yet so much more lay in store for us in the coming days!
Part 2 of 11 is next up!