Yellowstone has been on my to-do list for years. Growing up, my grandparents shared photos from their travels there: unique landscapes and wildlife close-up. My parents and in-laws had visited in recent years. Everyone said, “You’ll love it.”
The sheer scale of the park is intimidating. The park spans 3 state borders: Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. It encompasses mountains, lakes, plains, canyons, and a variety of volcanic hot springs, geysers, fumaroles, and mud pots. We knew we couldn’t rush a visit to Yellowstone, so we waited for the time when we could give it the time it deserved, and strategically plotted a route through the park to maximize our time in each section.
Yellowstone National Park was the second destination on our September road trip. You can explore the other parts of our trip here: Westbound/eastbound travel | Grand Teton | Wind Cave | Badlands
We left the Tetons and headed north along the Rockefeller Parkway towards Yellowstone. The border of the two parks seems arbitrary at first, there’s no dramatic difference in the landscapes, but soon the dramatic mountain views become obscured as you cruise through the forest.
We made our way to the West Thumb along Yellowstone Lake. Steam wisped through the air, and sulfur stung our nose as we walked along the boardwalk to see the fumaroles, geysers, and saturated colors of the streams that deposited boiling water into the cold lake. Several pools had surreal teal hues, surrounded by bright oranges and reds, that quickly fell off into cracked mud and steaming soil.
The remnants of the early season snowstorm that hit two nights prior hung from the trees all around the West Thumb. We watched a small herd of elk grazed as they navigated a field of steaming vents.
We spent two nights near the most recognizable national park sight in the world: Old Faithful, and watched several of its nearly hourly eruptions.
Beyond Old Faithful is the Upper Geyser Basin, an area heavily packed with several dozen regularly erupting geysers. Muddy, shallow puddles bubble next to deep, multi-colored pools, framed by textures of all types. We spent an afternoon walking the boardwalks marveling at the variety of features.
Just a bit north of the Upper Geyser Basin lies the famous, psychedelic colored Grand Prismatic Spring. Early in the day, steam from the hot water hitting the cold air obscures its grand features and its variety of colors are lost when viewing the spring at surface level.
The rocky textures and distinct lines that look like an aerial view of a river delta are obvious up close at surface level. After viewing the spring from the surface-level boardwalks, we walked to the top of a nearby hill and the famous grand landscape came into view: fingers of orange reached out from a heavily saturated, rainbow-colored pool.
From the hill above the spring, we continued down the trail through a small pine forest and ended at Fairy Falls, a towering fall that tumbles 200’ down a cliff face.
Walking through the Fountain Paint Pots felt like climbing into a volcano, the ground all around was alive with bubbling mud. A ranger told us that some of newest features discovered in the park were scattered throughout this area: steam vents that had only recently opened above the earth's surface.
After two nights near Old Faithful, we packed up, grabbed coffee at the lodge, and headed north towards our next stop: Mammoth Hot Springs. Before we left the Upper Geyser area, we stopped at Biscuit Basin, a short boardwalk featuring sapphire-colored pools that bubble and belch while pouring plumes of steam into the early morning cold air.
It could take weeks to see all of Yellowstone’s volcanic features. Each geyser basin is familiar but just different enough from the next to make it fascinating on its own. Each features a grand, deserted landscape littered with pockets of brightly colored pools, streams, and ponds.
We took a short detour from the main park road to see Firehole Canyon, a meandering gorge capped off with a waterfall that cuts its way through an ancient lava flow.
Halfway between Old Faithful and Mammoth Hot Springs is the Norris Geyser Basin, home to the world’s tallest geyser: Steamboat Geyser. We watched as it steamed between eruptions, then walked the wooded boardwalks through the Back Basin.
We then climbed up to see Porcelain Basin, an area saturated with colors: milky white sand, iron oranges and reds, and bright teal pools stretch throughout the valley.
Using Mammoth as our home base for a few nights, we headed out early to do some wildlife spotting in the Lamar Valley. Early in the day, we spotted several herds of bison and a pronghorn antelope grazing along the riverbank of the Lamar River. Then, we saw a large crowd transfixed on small objects moving in the distance. We took turns using a super-telephoto lens as a spotting scope to survey the scene. Someone pointed out a pack of wolves, far in the distance, playfully running, just barely in view.
Our aim was to hike the short loop around Trout Lake, but a large bison blocked our path, refusing to move and inching closer to us until we had to trace our steps back to the trailhead.
We aimed to see as much of Yellowstone as we could, from border to border. In our week in the park, we managed to visit all but one park entrance (we only missed West Yellowstone, Idaho). After driving through the Lamar Valley, we drove the Northeast entrance road all the way to Silver Gate, Montana, then continued to explore the Gallatin National Forest east of Yellowstone.
We arrived at the trailhead to Hellroaring Creek just in time to nab the last parking spot. We setup a quick picnic lunch, then headed down through a series of steep switchbacks towards the aptly named creek.
Late in the afternoon, we explored Fort Yellowstone, once the home to army troops who were the first to protect the park from poachers. Now the historic buildings serve as ranger residences and the park’s headquarters. We walked around the old buildings, dodging elk droppings along the way, to get a sense of the infrastructure required to run one of America's most prized places. We saw pickup trucks with snow tracks ready for traversing the winter roads, a wooden sign workshop ensuring the park is easy to navigate, a clinic, post office, and various administration buildings.
We explored the upper terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs late the afternoon but quickly retreated away from the packed boardwalks. The next morning, we headed out early and had the Lower Terraces to ourselves. As the sun lit up the nearby mountains, the cave-like travertine formations lit up in the warm glow of morning light. The textures are endless: flowing lines, and cascading smooth shapes that look like waterfalls frozen in time.
Our next stop was the iconic Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Walking to the top of the canyon’s edge, it looks like a fault split open in the middle of the forest, exposing a magma flow below. Trees line both sides of the canyon’s rim, then the rock sharply drops through layers of tan, oranges and red rhyolite flowing down to a narrow river below.
We walked the south rim of the canyon, weaving along the canyon’s edge through pockets of forest. We emerged at Artist’s Point and saw the real-life version of Thomas Moran’s famous painting. Then we dipped back into the forest, past several small lakes and out into an empty, grassy valley.
We cruised through Hayden Valley in hopes of catching a glimpse of a grizzly or wolf but settled on watching bison grazing throughout the landscape. We set up a picnic dinner along the Yellowstone River on our last night in the park.
We started our drive out of the park in the pre-dawn light, hoping to see some active wildlife in the Hayden Valley, but hazy conditions and steam coming off the river gave us limited visibility.
We walked the boardwalk at Mud Volcano and were amazed at the sensory overload of Dragon’s Mouth: a sulfuric-stinking, hissing and steaming hot spring that turbulently laps waves against the cavern walls and spews steam from the cave’s mouth.
Listen to Dragon’s Mouth rumble as it sends waves crashing against its cavern walls:
Our last stop in Yellowstone was its giant lake. The cold water lake looks serene on its surface but features fumaroles, geysers, and springs on its floor that feature temperatures more than 200 degrees warmer than the surrounding water. The lake is very much alive with two known resurgent domes building about one inch every year.
Our trip to Yellowstone was long-awaited: years in inspiration from family’s visits and 14-months of planning and travel booking. We plotted a route and rerouted as roads closed due to construction projects, bridge failures, and the potential for wildfire detours. We booked campgrounds, cabins, and lodges, then rebooked as the pandemic threatened to interfere with our plans.
Yellowstone is an amazing place: a huge swath of geologically active and diverse features that change at every turn.
© 2026 Scott Richardson
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