We took this trip to Yellowstone and surrounding areas in the summer of 2019.
The next morning we drove straight to Grand Prismatic Spring in order to get there before it got overcrowded. Good idea, there wasn’t much of a crowd. Bad idea, but there wasn’t much to see. A heavy early morning fog was too dense to see much of anything.
So we drove on to Old Faithful Lodge. We hadn’t taken the time to see it before, so now we did.
Then we got out on the boardwalk and saw the other half of the Grand Basin we had been too tired to finish seeing before.
All the steaming water runs off into Firehole River.
This little geyser was going off.
This one was a little bigger.
This one even bigger. More were erupting than on the day we’d been out here before.
We took this trip to Yellowstone and surrounding areas in the summer of 2019.
From Artist Point in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone we drove south on Grand Loop Road Hwy. 20, which we took south along the west shore of Yellowstone Lake. We stopped at a scenic overlook.
We continued along the lake to West Thumb Geyser. Which is on the edge of Yellowstone Lake.
Some geysers are actually out in the lake. There is a good story about Fishing Cone. Supposedly, people used to boil the fish they caught in this geyser. A grain of salt, you know.
Finished, we ate lunch in the parking lot before we continued. We turned northwest onto Hwy. 191, which climbed high into the mountains. We crossed the Continental Divide at an elevation of 8,391 feet. We continued through the mountains until we crossed it again, this time at 8,262 feet. We stopped here to see Ise Lake. This small lake straddled the Divide, so it drains both ways at either end, which made it unique.
We continued this beautiful drive through the mountains to Kepler Cascade.
We continued on Hwy. 191 past the Old Faithful area to Grand Basin, which was on the Firehole River.
We parked and hiked over along yet another boardwalk.
And up a hill to a good overlook of Grand Prismatic Spring.
We were so tired by this point, and the area was so crowded, that we decided to wait until tomorrow to see Grand Prismatic Spring upclose. So we hiked down from the overlook back to our motor home and drove back to Canyon Village for showers (they were free for registered campers, and really nice). Then we went back to our site. Late that afternoon and that night it rained, the first bad weather of our trip.
We took this trip to Yellowstone and surrounding areas in the summer of 2019.
Just outside the campground the next morning we saw an elk.
On Monday we had explored the north side of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, so today we drove around to see the south side. Our first stop took us to the Upper Falls overlook on the South Rim.
We then drove on to Artist Point.
We got someone to snap our picture.
I hiked a good portion of the Rim Trail.
It descended a bit, kickback after kickback.
But the trail mostly kept you on the Rim as you approached the Upper Falls.
While also offering views the other way down the canyon.
We took this trip to Yellowstone and surrounding areas in the summer of 2019.
Once finished hiking around Mammoth Hot Springs, we stopped by the visitor center.
We then followed Hwy. 89 north out of Wyoming into Montana all the way to the northwest entrance.
And on outside the park to see the little town of Gardiner.
We drove south on Hwy. 89 back into the park back to Mammoth Hot Springs, where we turned southeast on the Grand Loop Road. We stopped to see Undine Falls.
We made another stop to see the petrified tree.
At Tower Junction we turned onto Hwy. 212 and stopped at a picnic area on the Yellowstone River to eat lunch and take a nap. All this high-altitude hiking is exhausting.
Recharged, we drove off Hwy. 212 and back onto Grand Loop Road to continue south. Our next stop was at Calcite Spring.
We stopped next at Tower Falls.
Then on to Mt. Washburn.
That was our last stop. We drove the short distance from Mt. Washburn to our campground and crashed at our site for the rest of the day.
Next Location – Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone Pt. 2
We took this trip to Yellowstone and surrounding areas in the summer of 2019.
In the morning we headed east on Norris Canyon Road to where it ended at Hwy. 89. We turned north and began the Grand Loop. Our first stop was Nymph Lake.
On the way we saw 3 bears, 2 deer, an elk, and a bison walking along, or down the middle of, the road. This was obviously a wilder part of the park.
After getting around all this wildlife, we stopped to see Roaring Mountain.
The road through this part of the park was rugged and scenic.
We stopped at Mammoth Hot Spring and spent some time wandering around their boardwalks.
From the North Rim 