Hi all, my son (almost 12 now!) and I went to Grand Teton NP and Yellowstone NP last week. It was a last-minute decision with everything booked just 3 weeks prior to departure!

Why Teton/Yellowstone?
I've been thinking about visiting there for sometime, but simply overwhelmed by the planning. Most guidebooks/people say you need to plan a year in advance, and I simply am incapable of doing that, especially planning for summer, not knowing what our schedule will be like for next year's summer. I was paralyzed by the uncertainty, not to mention the high price of airfare to Jackson Hole.

It was pure serendipity when about 3.5 weeks prior, I was browsing on google flights (actually looking for airfares for Feb 2025 school break), when I saw $318 fares from Boston to Jackson Hole. Surprised by the low price, I clicked on it and saw it is on American Airlines for mid-August. Wow, that's a good price for sure. But then I told myself there's no way I can find lodging with just 3 weeks' notice. Lo and behold, I was able to book in-park lodgings for both parks. I suspect it's because people book it far in advance, and as long as they cancel 1 month before, they can get a full refund, so as the date gets closer, some people did cancel their bookings. In fact, when I checked the Yellowstone lodging website, they were offering a "Christmas in July sale" with 20% off room rates. As everything seems to fall into place for me, I ask myself, "If not NOW, when?"

Even though the AA airfare is pretty cheap, I actually have enough miles with AA (I rarely fly them anymore) to cover both our tickets, so I only paid $11.20 pp in fees.

Luckily, several friends (and my brother) have gone to Yellowstone/Teton the last 2-3 years so they gave me lots of advice, and maps as well to help me plan.

Lodging
In-park lodging is expensive, but you pay for the location, which is key for me. with 7 nights, we stayed
2 nights in Jackson Lake Lodge (Grand Teton); I paid extra for a mountain view cabin, which I thought was worth the money
4 nights in Canyon Village (Yellowstone). I opted for the cheapest room, which is in one of the older lodges (Dunraven)
1 night in Old Faithful Inn. I paid extra for a room in the East Wing "with view of OF" which was ABSOLUTELY not worth it. I can't recall what other Old Faithful options were available (they were limited when I looked), but if I were to do this again, I would be totally fine staying in Old Faithful Lodge or the Snow lodge.

Things I was glad I brought
Since we were flying, I couldn't bring a lot (I had a medium sized suitcase which I checked, my son had a carryon size). But these were things I brought
Layers — morning temps were in the 30s and afternoon temps were mid-high 80s
high power binoculars
insulated lunch bag & 2 small freezer packs, couple ziploc bags, couple of plastic takeout containers & reusable utensils
hiking poles * (I could have done without them but it was nice to have them)

Day 1
Since we live in Boston, there is no nonstop to Jackson Hole. Our outbound AA flight connects in Charlotte (yeah, a bit out of the way). With the lowest miles, we were on the 5:57am flight to Charlotte, and eventually arriving in jackson Hole at 11:20am. Jackson Hole Airport is probably one of the smallest airport I've been, but it's very well-designed and beautiful to look at. I first picked up our bear spray rental from Bear Aware (kiosk right at the airport), then walked a few yards to the rental car desk for our rental car from Hertz... originally I booked a corolla but ended up taking out a Subaru Crosstrek instead (which I really enjoyed driving)!

Jackson Hole airport is a few miles north of the town, and literally INSIDE the National Park. It was a very short drive to the Craig Thomas Visitors Center, where we picked up park maps and junior ranger booklet. Then we drove a few more miles north to the Taggart Lake Trailhead and went on our first hike. We opted for the Taggart Lake Loop (3.5 miles). It's an easy loop with beautiful views of the mountains at the lake.

By the time we were done, it was around 3:30pm. We then drove north on the Park Road to Signal Mountain Summit Road where we stopped at the 2 overlook viewpoints. Back in the car we continued North until we arrived at Jackson Lake Lodge for check-in, where we will stay for the next 2 nights. As I said, I paid extra for mountain-view room and we were assigned one on the 2nd floor with a balcony facing the Tetons. After dropping off our luggage, my son stayed put to rest, while I drove over to Colter Bay Village for the General Store to stock up on some groceries. The Colter Bay store is by far the best grocery store I found on this trip (better than Yellowstone), with a decent selection and reasonable prices. I bought enough breakfast for the next couple of days, pre-packaged sandwiches for lunch, and fruits. As soon as I got back from shopping, we were due for our dinner reservation at the Mural Room in the main lodge.

I read some not so great reviews about the food, but still decided to give it a go. I'd say this was actually the best meal on our trip, not to mention the view and the setting! We lucked out because all the tables by the window are 2-tops, so we got one of those, with a spectacular view of the mountains. Any party larger than 2 will be seated farther away from the windows. In terms of food, between the 2 of us, we split a soup, the Mural room salad, and the elk bolognese, plus a dessert. The soup was a special chilled beet soup. Apparently one of the kitchen staff is from Lithuania and this is her special recipe. It was delicious... even my son enjoyed it. I thought the food was very fresh and tasty, the pasta might be a tad dry, but otherwise good. Dinner was $98. (if you look at the menu price from the Pioneer Grill next door, it isn't much cheaper yet the ambiance is way worse).

We finished dinner around 7:15pm, and at Jackson Lake Lodge, they offer "educational programs" (aimed at kids) daily. The times vary from day to day and today's happen to be at 7:30pm on different animal sounds/calls in the park. My son was interested so we attended it. It was very well run and informative, though I took off early because it was close to sunset (just after 8pm) and I didn't want to miss the sunset view.

I quickly walked back to the main lodge where there is a terrace / walkway for great viewing, and the sunset was magical. Luckily my son re-joined me just in time to catch the quickly-vanishing light. After a long day (we've been up since 4am eastern time, ie, 2am Mountain time), we were ready to head back to our room to rest.

~ End of Day 1 ~

View from Taggart Lake

View from our table at Mural Room

Sunset view right outside Jackson Lake lodge

View of the mountains from our hotel room

Your trip reports are always fun and informative. I've been wanting to go to Yellowstone but the logistics and having to plan a year ahead have stopped me. Now based on your experience I'm going to try next year.
Looking forward to the rest of your report.

I am glad you got to visit Yellowstone with your son. It is one of my favorites. You did luck out with the lodging, we have done that last minute thing too. The one time I made an early reservation at Yellowstone and Grand Teton we had to cancel due to covid.

I am looking forward to hearing about the rest of the trip.

A Review of the Jackson Lake Lodge accommodation:

There are several in-park lodges at Grand Teton: Colter Bay, Jackson Lake, Jenny Lake, and Headwaters. Headwaters is actually outside of the park (between GTNP & YSNP) so I ruled it out. Jenny Lake is too expensive and Colter Bay's cabins are a bit too rustic for me, so it is down to Jackson Lake Lodge options.

The location is quite central, and the main lodge is where Mural Room is, and the lobby also has huge 2-story floor-to-ceiling windows with spectacular view of the mountains. They offer multiple lodging options, with regular cottages being the most common. I booked us into a mountain-view cottage, which costs an extra $120/n compared to classic cottage. I believe our room is also slightly larger, with a kitchenette-ish area upon entering, with a sink, coffee maker, and mini-fridge. I was happy to see there is wifi, which works reasonably well. We are on the second floor (you have to carry your luggage up the stairs); we have a balcony with 2 Adirondack chairs. If you look at this property map, our cottage is the middle of the three 2-story buildings on the top left of the map.

From our room, it is a 3 to 4 minute walk to the main lodge. It is pretty dark in the evening however. This is my favorite lodging in this trip, reasons being:
1. The view — many people say to save money and just walk over to the main lodge for the view. But for us, the benefit is being able to see the mountains the whole time we are in the room, especially in the early mornings and early evenings. We ate our breakfast in our room so we got to watch the sunlight glowing on the mountains as the sun rises. In addition, at night, you can just walk out to the balcony to look at the night sky. Unfortunately we were there during the waxing moon phase just a few days before full moon, so the moon was already super bright.
2. Quiet — With the cottage, the entrance is outside and our room is on the end, so we are only attached to another room on one side. And being on the second level, we don't have anyone walking above us.
3. Mini-fridge — not all lodging locations offer mini-fridge. This is useful for us because we can re-freeze our ice packs, and also store breakfast items.

Overall, this place exceeded my expectations. (Okay, my expectation was a bit low after staying in a cabin at Bryce, which was really quite basic!) In terms of temperature, the 2 days we were there it was on the cooler side (high of 70s?), so the rooms were definitely cool enough, and even chilly at night.

Yk, dunno whether you may have caught it, but CNN's Ed Lavandera did a piece last night about Yellowstone. He and his team focused on safety issues currently facing that park. They supplemented their coverage with archival clips taken of misbehaving public.
Love the way that your TRs are so clear easy to read.
Carry on.
I am done. The end.

Day 2 - Grand Teton
We got up fairly early this morning as we wanted to get to Jenny Lake before the crowd descends. We had breakfast in our room (yogurt parfait made with yogurt, granola and fruits, all purchased from Colter Bay general store, plus in-room coffee). We were able to watch the morning rays catch on the mountains from our room.

We left our room around 7:30am and arrived at Jenny Lake around 7:45am. At that hour, there were still plenty of parking spots open in the lot. We walked over to the boat dock and got on the next ferry (8am). We didn't have to wait; at that hour, it seems like they were able to accommodate everyone in line (but full capacity). We opted to buy one-way tickets as it was early enough that we believe we have time to walk back instead of taking the ferry. We didn't plan on hiking too far, just up to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point but not going into Cascade Canyon.

If you can believe this, just a mere 10 minutes into our hike to Hidden Falls, we saw a moose (male) that was leisurely munching on vegetations. This was super cool as neither of us have seen a moose in the wild before (or ever!). The hike to Hidden Falls and Inspiration point is fairly easy, and we turned around to start our hike around the lake back to the visitors center. We hadn't gone far before we saw a hiker telling us he had spotted a bear by the stream, so we went looking and we saw it too! The bear was on the other side of the stream and a pretty good distance away; pretty sure it was a black bear foraging berries.

The trail around Jenny Lake has few hikers, so my son and I were clapping our hands and yelling "hey bear" for a good part of the way (we also saw bear scat on the path). It wasn't until the second half of the trail when we saw more people hiking the opposite direction towards Hidden Falls. I suspect the line for the ferry has gotten long by then, and it possibly is faster to hike than to stand in line to wait.

It was around 11am when we got back to the Jenny Lake Visitors Center area (yes, the ferry line was long). I went to the car to get our lunch (pre-packaged sandwich from Colter Bay; this is when my insulated lunch bag & ice packs come in handy) and we had a picnic by the VC. The park rangers had a pop-up table starting at 11:30a, which we checked out and learned about pronghorns. By the time we left Jenny Lake area, the parking lot was full, and cars were parked a good 1/2 mile down along the main loop road.

As we still had plenty of time to kill (our next scheduled event is 2pm snake river float trip), we went back to the Craig Thomas Visitors center at Moose to look a the exhibits and watch the park film, which we missed the day before due to time constraints.

Around 1:45pm we made our way to the River Float departure area, which is across the main road from Craig Thomas Visitors center. There are at least 5 outfitters that do this float; I read many reviews and honestly I think they are all the same (and similar pricing), so just pick whichever has the best time that works for your schedule. There are a handful that picks up at the lodging, so double check on that. Otherwise, the rest meet at the Moose float trip stop. We went with Barker-Ewing.

Our 2pm group was big enough for 2 floats, but the float we were assigned on only have 6 people + our guide (Grant), so that was very nice. Grant is a local and has been guiding all his life (even though he's only in his 40s) so he is super familiar with all the flora and fauna, the geography, the topography, the weather of the area. We didn't see many wildlife (probably because it's in the middle of the day) but we did see several bald eagles. The trip itself is pretty relaxing, and it was sunny but not that hot, pretty enjoyable. About halfway down the trip, Grant noticed some rain clouds starting to form in the distance, so he sped up the boat a bit (we passed 2 or 3 other floats in the meantime), and got us back on dry land maybe 10 minutes before the thunderstorm arrived. By the time it started pouring, we had just arrived at Dornan's Pizza & Pasta for an early dinner. We split a salad and a pizza.

The rain stopped by the time we finished, so we returned to the car and drove north on Hwy 191, stopping at Mormon Row and later the Cunningham Cabin. On the way back to Jackson Lake Lodge, we also stopped at Oxbow Bend, but with cloudy weather, it wasn't anywhere as scenic as you see on photos. We looked around for wildlife but didn't see any either.

We went back to our room and I watched the rain clouds hovering over the mountains, later we went to the Lodge for dessert at Pioneer Grill. My son wanted the huckleberry brownie, and I had huckleberry cobbler. Our waitstaff warned us that they are HUGE, which we didn't listen to... well they were HUGE! Luckily we have a mini-fridge so we took most of them home and enjoyed it for 2 additional evenings as desserts.

Another storm passed by later that night as we could hear the rain pounding on our roof. But by the morning, we woke up to clear blue skies.

~ End of Day 2 ~

View of morning sunlight on the Tetons from our room

View from Inspiration Point

Along Jenny Lake loop

On Snake River, seeing approaching rain clouds

Mormon Row

Partial clearing in the evening (from Jackson Lodge)

Wonderful report! Lucky you that you were able to plan this trip at the last minute! My husband visited Yellowstone and Grand Tetons in the 70’s. I’ve never been. He always says Grand Tetons is one of his favorites. I hope we can visit before we get too old!

Day 3 — Leaving Grand Teton for Yellowstone
Today we leave GTNP for Yellowstone, but not before a bit of kayaking on Jackson Lake. Before I elaborate on that, I was considering taking the Jackson Lake Breakfast Cruise to Elk Island for this morning. The reviews for the breakfast cruise are quite good, but you have to call the # to get details & book. I called and I think it leaves by 7:15am and costs a pretty penny. Between the early start and $, I decided against it. Instead, we enjoyed breakfast in our room (with the mountain view), then checked out and drove to Colter Bay Marina. We arrived just before 9am and were one of the first few people renting kayaks.

This is honestly my highlight of the trip. They give you a laminated map so you don't get lost; you have to stay within 1/4 mile of the shoreline. It was so serene and peaceful on the water, and the view of the Tetons was breathtaking. We were hoping to see some animals at the early-ish time but only saw a bald eagle. Originally I allotted 1 hour for this (the rental is 2 hr minimum) but it was so beautiful that we ended up staying for almost the full 2 hours. Afterwards, we stopped at the Colter Bay Visitors Center to collect the Junior Ranger badge, then to the General Store to buy pre-packaged sandwiches for lunch.

Onward to yellowstone
Before I go on, I'll say that it's super useful to download the NPS app, and to save Yellowstone info for offline use. While in GTNP, I was surprised by how good cell coverage it is there, I was getting pinged with msgs/emails the whole time. But as soon as we get to Yellowstone, cell service is pretty non-existent apart from certain areas.

The Yellowstone NPS app has live geyser time predictions. There are also a number of self-guided audio tours of different areas. This was helpful when we were in a geyser area and want to learn more about the features. Inside the park, there are few descriptions of the geyser or hot spring etc besides the name of it. In some areas you can get a leaflet guide for $1. But if you have the audio guide, you can listen to it while walking around. Other areas don't have audio guide but there are descriptions of many many sites, you just need to know where to look for them the app.

Back to TR...
The 2 parks are only a few miles apart but they couldn't be more different! We entered through South Entrance and stopped at West Thumb geyser basin. People say if you are going to visit this, do this first because if you go to the bigger geyser basins first, you will be disappointed by West Thumb. I would't necessarily agree but it certainly isn't as impressive as the others.

We first had our lunch at a picnic table, then joined the 1pm ranger program at Abyss Pool. Both Abyss Pool and Black Pool are beautiful — both have gotten hotter so now both are blue. They honestly look like a pristine swimming pool that you just want to jump in (DON'T!). It didn't take long to finish the loop, and we continued on north with a quick stop at Sulphur Cauldron, one of the most acidic hot springs in Yellowstone, with a pH of 1-2, as acidic as car battery acid. Next we passed by Hayden Valley, which is lush with many shades of green and our first sighting of (many more to come) bisons.

We arrived at Canyon Village around 4:30pm to check-in, only to be told our room isn't ready yet. So we walked over to the Canyon Visitors Center (maybe a 10-min walk?) to pick up junior ranger booklet, plus a special Young Scientist of Yellowstone booklet. We also watched a film, and before we knew it, almost 2 hours have gone by, so we went back to check-in again.

I booked one of the cheapest rooms left, which is an ADA room with 1 queen & 1 twin in the older lodges. We were assigned to Dunraven, which honestly isn't bad at all. I went inside the new lodges and yes, they are prettier but our room is definitely serviceable, with a mini-fridge. The only problem with ADA room is the bath area which has no barrier, so a good part of the bathroom floor gets wet after a shower. There is no view (parking lot). One nice thing about Canyon is its higher altitude, so generally it is cooler there, as I did read a lot of complaints about the rooms being hot as none offer a/c.

After we settled in, we once again walked back to the Village to explore food options. The Village is pretty huge, with the Visitors center, the main Village Lodge (has 3 eateries plus shop), an outfitter, a post office, the general store (with a diner inside), and more stores. Altogether I think there are 4 or 5 souvenirs shops in that complex!

We chose to eat at the Eatery that evening, which is the biggest one, like a cafeteria. What we didn't realize is, there are 2 sections - you either go left or right, and both are cafeteria style, so we assumed both served the same menu. It wasn't until a few nights later we realized they serve different foods. We shared a soup and the braised beef entree.

~ End of Day 3 ~

Kayaking on Jackson Lake

Black pool - no longer black due to change in hot springs temperature

Not a fan of the sulphur smell at Sulphur cauldron

Saw a mule deer and 2 fawns in Canyon Village while walking back from dinner

Gorgeous, yk!

Day 4

We have 4 full days in Yellowstone. Originally, this was my itinerary:
1 day - Mount Washburn Hike am; Lake Yellowstone boat cruise pm
1 day - Lamar Valley; Mammoth Hot Springs (Upper loop)
1 day - Grand Canyon of Yellowstone + Norris Geyser Basin
1 day - Old Faithful area

However, when we checked in at the Visitors Center the night before, we were told Mount Washburn trail was closed due to Grizzlies sighting (2 moms + multiple cubs). I also found out Lake Cruises were canceled due to mechanical issue with the ferry boat. So essentially we have a whole day freed up.

I decided our first full day will do Grand Canyon(of the Yellowstone) with an added hike. Since we were staying in Canyon Village, I let my tired tween sleep in a bit. We had stocked up on breakfast items from the Canyon Village general store the night before. (the store is smaller and fewer selections compared to Colter Bay in GTNP). After breakfast in our room, we drove over to South Rim.

A brief digress, when I was researching for Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon section is the most perplexing for me, given there is a North Rim and a South Rim, an Upper Falls and a Lower Falls, and many pull outs and lookouts. It was confusing to say the least. But the park ranger gave me a detailed map and explained all the stops to us in great detail.

We parked our car at the Upper Falls ViewPoint lot (pretty big lot) around 9am. The Upper Falls is the smaller of the 2. After checking the lookout, we started our hike along the South Rim Trail towards Artist Point. It is a very scenic trail along the rim, with multiple view points looking into the canyon and the Yellowstone River. Reviews said it is very buggy but maybe by mid-August with cool temps in the mornings, the mosquitos are no longer active, as we didn't encounter any at all (and we both are mosquitos magnets). The hike isn't far but we stopped many times for photos. The trail isn't crowded but there certainly are hikers all going the same direction.

We arrived at Artist Point at 9:55am; my plan had been to get there at 10am because I read that 10 is the time you can catch the rainbow at the Falls. Well, by 9:55am the rainbow is at its peak! We took a bunch of photos (along with many, many tour groups), and by 10am the rainbow was already gone. I was so glad we managed to catch it at the right time! (The rainbow is only visible on sunny summer mornings when the sun hits the falls at the right angle, which happens around 10am, and only lasts 10-15 minutes I believe).

After quite a long break there, we continued our hike from Artist Point, turned inland into the forests and passing Lily Pad Lake, and continued on to Clear Lake passing hydrothermal areas, and eventually made it back to the parking lot. The hiking crowd thinned out a lot after Artist Point.

It was noon time by then, we got back to our car and drove to Brink of Upper Falls parking lot, where it is a short walk to view the "brink." After that, we returned to our hotel room for sandwich lunch (pre-packaged bought the night before). So far we have only covered the South Rim area, but given it is middle of the day, we won't have any luck finding parking in the North Rim.

Instead headed south to Mud Volcano area. We got there in time for a 2pm ranger talk, which focused on 2 of the hydrothermal features in that area. Afterwards we toured the rest of the geyser area. We have to drive through Hayden Valley again to return to Canyon, and this time we ran into a brief bison jam with a bison taking up an entire travel lane.

Approaching Canyon, we turned off for North Rim Drive (one-way road), and first parked at Brink of the Lower Falls. This was almost 4pm, it's a bit less crowded and we lucked out with a spot when someone pulled out. From the lot you can descend down to the view point; a 0.4 mile trail that drops 600 vertical feet. What goes down must come back up. If you are able, it's certainly worth the hike down (and up!)

Back into the car, we drove further along and stopped one last time at North Rim Lookout Point lot. From the parking lot, it's a very short walk to the lookout point, where you have a view of the Lower Falls. We opted to hike the additional short (but steep) trail down to Red Rock Point. This is 0.3 miles with 260 ft drop and I also think it's worth it, as it brings you down to a lower view point of the Falls.

We skipped the last 2 viewpoints on North Rim (Grand View & Inspiration Point) as the park ranger told us those sounded better on paper than in practical terms. We were back in Canyon Village around 5pm, and my son went back to the exhibits in the visitors center to finish his Young Scientist booklet. I also enjoyed the exhibits there. The ranger deemed his work passable, and awarded him with both a Young Scientist badge and a keychain.

Dinner that evening was in the diner counter in the General Store in Canyon Village. I had bison burger and my son had pulled pork sliders. While the foods in all the Canyon Eateries are okay, vegetables are very hard to come by.

~ End of Day 4 ~

View from South Rim Trail

Artist Point with view of rainbow at Lower Falls

Looking into the canyon

Mud volcano

Bison jam

View of lower falls from Red Rock Point in the North Rim

Day 5 - Northern Loop of Yellowstone
After another in-room breakfast of yogurt parfait, we set off to explore the Northern Loop. Our first stop is Tower Falls, which honestly we could have skipped, especially since we had seen the Falls in the Grand Canyon yesterday. It is on the way though, but stopping there used up at least a half-hour of our time. From there we continued driving to Lamar Valley, but it was already 10am by the time we got there. We made a few stops every time we saw cars pulled over. We saw an osprey nest with a family of 4 in it, also prong horns, bisons (of course), and a small flock of sandhill crane. All these animals are pretty far away so I didn't bother taking photos of them with my cellphone. However, we did have a good look at them using the high-power binoculars that we borrowed from our friend for this trip. Later, a coyote darted across the road right in front of my car; luckily I was going fairly slow. We eventually turned around at the Yellowstone Forever Institute to head towards Gardiner.

Even though Gardiner looks very close by (just 5 miles north), the road is winding and hilly, so plan on a 15-min drive. My son wanted to step foot in Montana, besides, we figured we can get better food there. My friend recommended The Corral. We shared a soup & salad, and the Elk Burger. My son didn't like the burger, but he woofed down the salad, since greens is a rarity back in the Canyon area where we were staying.

After lunch, we filled up on gas (pretty cheap there) and stopped at Roosevelt Arch and the Yellowstone NPS sign for some photo ops. Then we drove to Mammoth Hot Springs. We first stopped at the Albright Visitors Center to get a better sense of the lay of the land. That area is huge with a lower terrace and upper terrace. Some website I read said you can walk both of them, but the ranger recommended against walking the upper loop, as it is a narrow winding road with no real walking path. There are a few areas you can walk to at the beginning of the loop however.

There were TONS of cars and tourists at Mammoth Hot Springs, though we were super lucky to find a spot in the Upper Terrace parking lot (very small). From that lot, we can walk down to visit the entire lower terrace, plus the few walkable areas of the upper terraces. It was a pretty hot day though, and there is no shade anywhere in the thermal areas. While impressive, I think we were happy to return to the a/c in our car after walking in the blazing sun for over an hour. The rest of the upper terraces is visited by driving the loop, and YOU CAN LISTEN TO THE AUDIO TOUR WHILE DRIVING if you have the NPS app! If you don't have the audio guide, you really don't have much idea of what you're looking at. The audio guide tells you where to pull over and you can listen and look at the hydrothermal features, before driving on to the next stop.

Finally we headed south on the loop, driving past Obsidian Cliff and Roaring Mountain (where I pulled over for a quick stop), before returning to Canyon Village. That evening we returned to Canyon Eatery, and discovered that the "other" side serves a different menu. We split a korean bbq beef stir fry with rice, and a soup.

~ End of Day 5 ~

Roosevelt Arch and YSNP sign at the North Entrance

Pronghorns

Jupiter terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs

Minerva terrace

Screen shot of Self-Guided Yellowstone audio tours on NPS app

If you click on a specific area, you can start and stop the audio tour according to your pace

Continued bravas, yk. That driving guide app is very cool.

Day 6
A quick update — we found out from park rangers that Mount Washburn trail has been reopened. However, my son and I decided to skip... we just didn't feel comfortable hiking in an area where there were recent grizzlies sightings (esp moms with cubs). NPS has always recommended people to hike in groups of 3 or more, and there are just 2 of us and we are of slighter build, and only 1 have bear spray. It's just not worth the risk or the worry.

The sleep debt has set in and my tween refuses to get up early anymore As a result, we didn't get to the Norris Geyser Basin until 10am. By then, the parking lot was full and we had to park in the overflow area along the main loop. Just walking from the car to the Basin takes a good 10 minutes. We first explored the smaller Porcelain Basin, which is a smaller loop. I love the colors of the hot springs there, as some of them look milky. Norris is the hottest and most acidic basin in Yellowstone. We were back in the Museum area by 11am as there is a ranger-talk on "yellowstone volcano" which my tween wanted to attend. It was very good though we were constantly reminded we are standing on top of a lot of magma just 3miles down.

After the talk, we explored the much-larger Back Basin. With the NPS app, we were able to read more info on many of the hydrothermal features (there's no audio guide for this area). We were probably there until almost 1pm. My son has had enough hot springs and geysers for the time being, so I agreed to take him to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone after lunch. En route to West Yellowstone however, we saw cars pulled over so we did as well, and ended up seeing an elk casually walking along the river bank.

i picked Ernie's in West Yellowstone because they have Prosciutto panini and crepes, which i know my son would like. What I didn't realize is they close at 2pm and we arrived at 1:50pm. They had turned off their panini press though they still could make crepes. We got an Italian deli sandwich and a dessert crepe. Finally we headed to the GWDC, which is bigger than I expected. The museum building has a lot of displays and stuff to read; if my son had the chance, we would spend hours there with him just reading all the info. But I nudged him to go outside to see the animals. For the grizzly bears, only 1 or 2 are out at a time, and they give you a leaflet with a schedule. With each bear "outing", a staff member would give a 5-minute talk about that particular bear, and the bears normally stay out for half an hour. The staff hides foods under rocks or in nooks and crannies so the bears have to hunt for the food. The wolves, OTOH, are out on display at all times, though most of them are just lying down resting. They also have some birds of prey, and a building devoted to reptiles and fish and otters. They are building a new bear habitat.

We stayed for 1.5 hours though we could have stayed much longer (ticket is valid for 2 consecutive days), but I nudged my son to head back inside the park so we can stop at Artists Paintpots before returning to Canyon Village. Artists Paintpots is a 1-mile loop that goes up a bit of an incline, and you have a nice view of the hydrothermal area from the lookout. However, I would say that this area is skippable. For our final dinner in Canyon Village, we opted for the Falls Cafe, which has pretty good flatbread. We shared one and a soup from the Eatery. I also promised my son ice cream next door at the Ice Creamery.

The Canyon Visitors Center offer nightly ranger programs at 7pm. Tonight is the only one that my son wanted to attend, and it is held inside the auditorium. The talk is about animal species that are/were endangered but made a comeback. As always, we find ranger programs to be quite excellent.

~ End of Day 6 ~

One of the milky blue hot springs at Norris Geyser Basin

Emerald Pool at Norris

Echinus geyser

Saw an elk

One of the grizzlies at the discovery center

Looking down at Artist Paintpots from the upper viewpoint

Day 7
We had a late start, with my son sleeping in and also packing up and checking out of Canyon Village (we move over to Old Faithful Inn for our last night). As a result, we didn't arrive in Old Faithful Area until 11am. En route, all the parking lots for Lower Geyser Basin and Midway Geyser Basin were full with long line of cars parked down the main loop. The Old Faithful area is one of the few spots in Yellowstone that has cellular coverage, so I immediately checked the geyser predictions on the NPS app. Right away, I saw that 2 geysers (Castle and Daisy) were predicted to erupt between 11:30am-noon.

So we sped walk through the Upper Geyser Basin all the way to Castle Geyser, which is first to erupt. Castle only erupts once every 14 hours, so if we missed this, we wouldn't be able to see it again as we were leaving the next morning. We watched it for about 10 minutes before we sped walk again, this time to Daisy Geyser. Even though Daisy erupts every 2 hours or so, it's just nice we can catch 2 geysers erupt within 30 minutes of one another. I have to say though, the Upper Geyser Basin is pretty large, and there is absolutely no shade at all. We caught the end of Daisy Geyser's eruption, then onward to see Grotto Geyser, and made our way to Mornin Glory Pool. This is where we turned back around, and backtracked our route, but this time we stopped at each feature for a better look. Another cool thing I noticed was at one point, I thought I heard a roaring sound. I looked around and saw nothing. A few minutes later, the Lion cub geyser started erupting! Maybe that's how it got its name.

By the time we arrived back at Old Faithful, it was past 2pm. We had spent 3 hours at Upper Geyser Basin. Truth be told, if it were up to me, I could easily spend another hour or two out there, as we skipped a few that are a bit further off the path. I also would enjoy spending more time at each hydrothermal feature. But we hadn't had lunch and my son has had more than enough geysers and hot springs. I went to the car to grab our picnic lunch, while my son scoped out a shady spot with a view of Old Faithful, which was scheduled to erupt at 2:30pm.

After lunch and viewing Old Faithful geyser, we went inside the Visitors Center and watched the park film. It was a nice break where we could sit, enjoy the a/c, and rest. Around 3pm we walked over to Old Faithful Inn to check in and found out our room was ready, so we quickly unloaded the luggage from the car. We made it back to the lobby to join the 3:30pm Old Faithful Inn tour. The tour runs 4x a day during summer season, it is free and you don't need to reserve in advance. Just show up! I highly recommend this. We had an excellent guide who told us the history of the building. The logs are all lodgepole pines and the curvy banisters are also lodgepole pine branches. Our guide was able to show us one of the rooms in the original building, and it is truly beautiful.

The tour ended at 4:15pm, then we went to our hotel room for a brief rest (our room is in the East wing just down the hall), before returning to the lobby for our 4:45pm Old Faithful Inn Dining room reservation.
(side note: if you are a overnight guest at OFI, you can book dinner reservation 60 days in advance. If you are an overnight guest at other in-park locations, you can book 30 days in advance. For non overnight guests, you have to stand in line to check for availability. We certainly saw a long line of people standing in line by 4:15pm)

For dinner, you can order a la carte or go for the buffet. We both opted for the buffet ($40 'ish for adult, $15 for kids). My son was almost at the age cut-off point. The food was fine; we were so delighted they had fresh greens for salad! We haven't seen any greens for 4 days while over in Canyon Village. In any case, I thought the buffet was a pretty good deal.

We finished before 6pm, and then we set off again, this time to Midway Geyser Basin for Grand Prismatic Spring. This is one must-see on my son's list. First we parked at the Fairy Falls trailhead and walked the trail to the Grand Prismatic Spring viewpoint. It is a good 0.8 mile uphill trail, and we once again sped walk as I wasn't sure if the sun was going be too low by then and we wouldn't see the vibrant colors. Luckily, the sun was still above the mountain at 6:30pm and we had a nice view. The viewpoint isn't big and TBH there is only one spot where the view isn't blocked by trees. Even at 6:30pm we had to wait our turn to take photos. I can't imagine what that area is like in the middle of the day with many more tourists.

My son was happy to go back to the hotel at that point, but I insisted on driving over to the actual Grand Prismatic and see it up close. I couldn't believe it when we pulled into the lot at 7pm... it was still full! Luckily someone was leaving so we took the spot. By 7pm, the sun has gone down some and the light has become more soft. The result was a very beautiful landscape with the soft light. Even my son, who wanted to go home, was glad that we came.

We returned to Old Faithful Inn, and the next eruption is scheduled for 8:50pm, so I said we should watch it again in the nighttime. The crowd is considerably smaller and definitely a different atmosphere in dusk.

~ End of Day 7 ~