Day 2 – Made it to the West Entrance Gate around 7 and we know the Canyon Area gets crowded, so decided to head there first.
Didn’t have a long wait at the gate, but ran into some other delays.
We got to the Upper Rim Drive around 8:30 and only a few other cars were at the Brink of the Lower Falls. Hit all the observation spots, which for me was a lot of down into the canyon and back up. I mean when you’re at an overlook and see another viewpoint below you, why not? Right?
Did the South Rim Drive as well. One of our favorite viewpoints was Artist Point. So, seriously do not miss that one.
Drove through the Hayden Valley. We noticed a number of vehicles and people looking off in the distance. So, we managed to finally park down the road and walk back. There was a kill site where a couple of grizzlies had been feasting before we walked up. We showed up in time to see a couple of wolves get their turn. The binoculars really came into play as you couldn’t really make out much with the naked eye (and therefore, no pictures). A park ranger was there as well, and he was really helpful at pointing some things out. Then we headed to the Fishing Bridge Area.
Checked out Yellowstone Lake and drove out towards the East Entrance.
Came back and did the hike to the Yellowstone Natural Bridge.
We ended our day by doing the Gull Point Drive before turning around and heading back. We ran into a traffic jam on our way back. Some elk were taking a dip in the river. Worth getting stuck in traffic for that.
Day 3 – This time managed to get to the gate around 6:50. We headed to the south loop drive and did the Firehole Canyon Drive. A pretty little detour with some nice falls.
We had thought we’d head to the Grand Teton National Park. We had been there before, but it was in the winter and like Yellowstone, most of the park is shut down in the winter months. As we were driving down, we realized that it was still early and decided to go ahead and do Old Faithful. That was a great decision. We got there a little before 8. We found out that the next estimated time for its eruption was 8:41. So we hiked up to Observation Point to watch Old Faithful from there. It’s a nice place to watch from and there were only about 8 of us up there at the time.
We took the trail around and made our way to the boardwalk and saw some of the other geysers in the area. Got back to the main area and found that Old Faithful’s next eruption was estimated to be in about 15 minutes. So, we hung around and got to see it erupt from the closer vantage point as well. All told we were there around 2 hours. Continued our way down to the south entrance and Grand Teton National Park.
We left Old Faithful and continued south on 191 and into the Grand Teton National Park taking in most of the overlook stops along the way. What we didn’t take into account was the fact that it was Labor Day and with the park’s close proximity to Jackson, it was crowded. It was still a beautiful day.
We came around the loop entrance to the Moose Park entrance. We thought about doing the Taggart Lake trail, but it seemed that everyone else had the same idea. So, we found a picnic site and just ate our lunch.
We did the scenic drive around Jenny Lake. Highly recommend. Great views!
Drove up Signal Mountain. The first overlook was nice for views of Jackson Lake and the Grand Tetons. The second overlook wasn’t as nice as it’s just overlooking the valley side.
On our return to Yellowstone, we stopped at Lewis Falls. A quick stop right off the main drive.
Then a stop at Isa Lake. It’s the only natural lake know to drain into 2 different oceans as it straddles the Continental Divide. The west side of the lake drains into the Atlantic Ocean and the east side into the Pacific. Weird, right?
