Overview

Zoltan and I visited Yellowstone and Grand Teton during the Labor Day week. We flied to Bozeman, rented a car, and started the journey from the north entrance. We spent 10 nights there, 9 in our green tent, and 1 in a little wooden cabin. We watched hundreds of hydrothermal vents, hiked many trails, tried horseback riding, floated along the Snake River, and observed various wild animals.

Hydrothermal vents

Yellowstone is famous for its colorful hydrothermal features, including hot springs, geysers, mudpots, travertine terraces, and fumaroles. The variety and the amount are extraordinary. They are everywhere in the park, but more or less different at each place.

Hot springs

The famous Grand Prismatic Spring.

Mudpots

A colorful clay pot

Geysers

Some of the geyser eruptions can be predicted. The period varies from minutes to years. Definitely checkout the Old Faithful visitor center, if you are interested in seeing the eruption of some of the largest geysers. Waterside Geyser Gigantic geyser in Old Faithful Volcano like geyser

Fumaroles / steam vents

Travertine terraces

Must-see Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces. A close look.

Wildlife

We had the most first-time animal encounters in Yellowstone and Grand Teton. We also learnt the word “Animal Jam” - a traffic jam caused by drivers stopping at the road to watch animals. It is a thing that broadcasted in the park radios and printed at the brochures and signs.

Yellowstone has a lot of stories about grizzly bears. Whether they are true or not, grizzly bears do exist here and they are among the most lethal creatures. We carried bear spray with us on all wild trails.

Bisons are easy to spot in Yellowstone. They tend to appear in the early morning and in the evenings. We met one very closely when having food in one of the picnic areas after a hike. It came suddenly and slowly walked by our table. We stayed quiet to not provoke it. All of it happened like a dream.

Elk jams was frequent as well. But it was in the Mammoth visitor center that we got the best view. Elks like to visit there in the evenings. The first time we went to that visitor center, we noticed a lot of poop left on the grass. We got to know where they were from after seeing elk herds filling the area in one evening. They also went all the way to Gardiner, a small town in the north of the Mammoth visitor center. Trees and flowers there were fenced to protect them from the herbivores.

Small mammals like chipmunks have a high population here. Some were very brave and lived around the geysers. We also saw a marmot from our car when driving up to a peak. In the Cascade Canyon trial, we frightened a rat like animals, possibly a pika.

We met this black bear during a hike in Grand Teton. With so many people in the hike, nobody was scared except the bear.

Another hike encounter. This time it was a moose. It was chewing leaves at the same spot for hours.

A ptarmigan in the bushes and eagles in the tree tops.

To have some exotic fun, we tried bison burgers and elk burgers during the trip. The former was from Trapper Grill in the Signal Mountain Lodge next to the Jenny Lake, where we enjoyed the food with a view of the Grand Teton range. The elk burger was a discovery in Gardiner. Between Wyoming and Montana, there were several elk farms, where the meat was probably from.

Camping and cabining

In Yellowstone, we camped in the Canyon Campground and the Madison Campground.

The Canyon Campground is in a pine forest at Canyon Village. This area is well commercialized, with lodges, restaurants, a big general store, and a gift store.

The Madison Campground is next to a meadow with a creek running across. The views were glorious.

In Grand Teton, we stayed in the Headwaters Campground at Flagg Ranch.

We were not able to get all nights in the tent, so for the last night in Grand Teton, we lived in a cabin, which provided bare minimal furniture. It was not a bad choice, considering that the nights in the area could be below freezing point.

The air in Yellowstone in Fall was very dry. We had to get a lip balm to stop our lips from falling apart. The showers in the Yellowstone campgrounds were closed during our visit, we had to go to the nearby towns to clean ourselves.

Hikes and activities

As usual, we did a lot of hikes. Yellowstone has really grand waterfalls and diverse landscapes. Grand Teton has a more forest-like terrain.

Ribbon Lake

Waterfall in the Canyon

Bunsen Peak and Osprey Falls

Cascade Lake trail

Natural Bridge trail

Cascade Canyon

Our first time horseback riding.

Yellowstone used to have a primitive way of crossing the rivers by using a line. The old lady that did the floating with us told us that the facility was broken by a group of boy scouts in a summer.