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Travel, Wildlife, Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone and Tetons Roadtrip 2025: Part IV

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Day 5: Yellowstone

The next morning Shelley and Evan elected to sleep in a bit longer before we checked out of our cabin in Canyon Village. I wanted to return to Norris Geyser Basin to continue on with the Back Basin portion of the thermal area.

I got into my truck and after it warmed up from the 35 F degree temperatures overnight (Canyon Village is at about 7900 feet in elevation), I saw that one of my tires had low tire pressure. I got out and saw no obvious damage to the tire, so I drove over to the service station at Canyon Village and refilled it to full PSI.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

I didn’t wan to go far so I drove over to the nearby North Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and hopped out to take some photos closer to sunrise.

The Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellwstone

After returning to my truck I found the tire was still fully inflated. I decided to travel a bit farther and give it a couple hours more to see how the tire held up and continued on toward Norris.

Feeling more confident about the tire, I thought to myself about how much I was enjoying the trip thus far and how beautiful the park was in June. The weather had been perfect. I had worried that in June we would encounter possibly frigid temperatures, but instead it was in the high 70s every day.

Norris Geyser Basin

I returned to Norris Geyser Basin, and since it was only 6:30 AM I was able to park right at the entrance to the basin. I hopped out of my truck with my camera and GoPro and resumed where I left off from the prior evening, this time walking the Back Basin Loop.

I started with Steamboat Geyser. It is the tallest in the park and one of the tallest in the world when it erupts. Which is a rare occurrence. But when it does it is so powerful it sounds like a steamboat.

I enjoyed my walk through the Back Basin in teh morning with few people around. The temperatures were still relatively cool at the early hour of the day and this did mean that many of the hot springs were more obscurred by the hot steam than they would be later in the day.

When I was at Steamboat Geyser a seismologist was there and was replacing the battery on a seismograph near the geyser. After the recent steam explosions at Biscuit Basin, the park needs to be extra vigilant about identifying potential changes in subsurface activity.

Canyon Village

After enjoying my morning at Norris Geyser Basin I drove back to Canyon Village to meet up with Shelley and Evan and to check out of the cabin. That day we would move to Grant Village for a one night stay in the lodge (a replacement for the camping we were earlier going to do in Grant Campground).

I stopped at the Washburn Lodge to go to the lodge snack shop to see if they sold coffee. They do, they said, bt only drip coffee.

Rather than waste money on crappy coffee, I returned to the cabin to find Shelley and Evan not there. Just then they called me. They were walking to the village area where there is a larger coffee shop that sold more varieties of coffee. I parked and walked to meet them as they made their way to the village. We were all feeling good and enjoying ourselves and we were desperate for some good morning coffee.

We did get some huckleberry lattes, after a wait for the staff to replenish their supply of milk. Sigh. Oh well. Time to pack up the truck and drive south.

Hayden Valley and Lake Yellowstone

We entered Hayden Valley again, and as usual it didn’t disappoint. This time we watched a coyote hunting near a herd of bison.

Though the coyote was fairly distant, it was fun to watch it stalk through the grass as it moved ever closer to the herd.

After reaching Lake Junction, we proceeded along the lake shore and found this elk cow and calf walking along the shoreline.

The elk cow was collared as you can see in the photos. A crowd of people were following along the roadway above and we were concerned that they were making it difficult for the elk to lead her calf out of the water. Lake Yellowstone is 40F and certainly the calf couldn’t stay too long in the water. We left and hopefully the elk were able to reach a dry and safe exit from the elk.

Before heading to Grant Village we had our second hike of the trip planned for the day. We crossed the Continental Divide twice at close to 9000 feet in elevation, then pulled into the parking area for Lonestar Geyser.

The Lonestar Geyser Trail

Every trip has its ridiculous moments, and I ended up turning what what supposed to be an easy-going family hike into a personal 10K at almost 9000 feet.

The last time we were in Yellowstone in 2019, we decided to hike this trail. We got a mile into the trail and my then six-year-old Evan had to go to the bathroom. Number two. Really bad. So we quickly returned to the trailhead to get him to the bathroom and that pretty much ended the hike.

This time, it seemed an ideal family hike again. And if we were lucky we’d see it erupt.

At the parking area we got out the bug spray, backpacks, water, cameras, and made a stop at the bathroom to not allow the same issue to hijack our hike. Ready to go, we started off down the trail (which is really a back road for most of the distance).

We all started out together and were having a fun time as you can see in this clip.

Not long after this bridge crossing I realized, however, that I didn’t have my cell phone. I was very concerned that I may have set it on the truck bed cover while we were getting our gear together.

Rather than wait until we returned, or worse turn back without completing the hike, I told Shelley and Evan I would run back to the truck, get my phone, and run back to them. I told them to keep going and I’d catch up.

We were about a mile into the hike so it was two miles to run back and forth from that spot. I got to the truck, found my phone safely in the console, and jogged back down the trail.

As I got past the point where we separated I expected to find them but could not. They had all my heavy gear so I assumed they were not moving as fast, but after about 3/4 of a mile run further down the trail I could not find them.

I looked at my phone. There was no cell reception but it appeared that the Life360 app might be working and could show me where they were. It appeared to show them back the way I had come.

Not sure why they would be behind me but I started running back the way I had come. Until it led me all the way to the truck. They were not there. Thankfully. Stupid app though.

I applied sunscreen at the truck since they had the only other bottle in my backpack and ran back down the trail again. At around 1.5 miles, I asked a couple if they’d seen a mom and son on the trail. They said they had. At the geyser.

As my wife’s GoPro footage shows…

I ran onward until I met them on the trail back. They asked what took so long. They had waited for me at the geyser…

I told them I had run 2 + 3.5 + 1.75 miles plus the initial hike of a mile, so about a 10K at 9000 feet in hiking boots. I was tired. But no way was I turning around now. I’m going to the geyser.

Anyway they continued back while I finished the hike at got my photos and video footage of the rest of the trail and at the geyser.

It almost looks like I hiked alone but that was never the intention. After spending some time at the geyser I hiked back and apparently they missed the buffalo just off the trail.

Once back to the car we were all in agreement that ice cream was in order after we had lunch at Grant Village.

On the way out of the parking lot we got the best black bear photos yet.

How often do you see bears in the wild four days in a row?

Grant Village

Once we arrived in Grant Village we found out the only place we could eat was the General Store. Fortunately the woman that scooped the ice cream did not hold back. We got well-deserved amounts of huckleberry ice cream (and a couple other flavors).

After eating we checked into our room. I made a video of the room for fellow travelers. It’s a two queen lodge room.

We got some needed rest for a couple hours in the room before walking over the the Grant Village Restaurant at our reservation time. We assumed the restaurant was at least as nice as the one in Mammoth Hot Springs, but despite the lake views it was a bit of a disappointment.

The restaurant space was very crowded even at 8:30 PM with reservations. The menu was also a bit silly, in our opinion. I ordered a hamburger because it was the most filling and ‘normal’ thing on the menu. Why on earth was ‘jerk tofu’ a menu item? In a rustic lodge in a national park where people come in from a day of outdoor recreation.

Again, Xanterra needs to knock off the woke stuff and just make the visitor experience high-quality. We want BBQ Mac `n Cheese and other delicious food and drinks, not menu items you’d expect to find in San Francisco. We shouldn’t have to ask for the beer menu. You understand, right?

Oh well, it was another fun, adventure-filled day with another one planned for tomorrow.

Travel, Wildlife, Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone and Tetons Roadtrip 2025: Part II

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Day 3: Yellowstone

We woke up fairly early with busy plans for the day. We had discussed the hiking plans for the trips and I had picked out two hikes that were fairly low elevation change and about five miles round trip that would be enjoyable for all three of us: Fairy Falls and Lonestar Geyser. This morning was the Fairy Falls hike.

In preparation for the trip and to facilitate our camping goals for the coming years we had invested in a new 60 quart cooler Blue cooler. Even though we were no longer camping on the trip, we still brought the cooler and filled it with milk, juices, yogurts, lunch meat, and more with the intention of being able to eat breakfasts and lunches on the go, rather than waste time and money going to restaurants every day.

And for the most part, every morning except two we ate breakfast in our rooms and we had a few lunches out of the tailgate of my truck. Today was one of those days and it helped us get out to the trailhead quicker.

Fairy Falls Trail

We made it to the parking area for Fairy Falls before it could become too crowded and while the temperatures were still fairly mild (we had mostly 80F degree days during the trip).

The trail is located on the south side of the Middle Geyser Basin and the first mile of the trail crosses the Firehole River before passing alongside the basin.

We of course took the Grand Prismatic Spring overlook spur trail and admire this enormous hot spring that is the largest in the United States and third largest in the world. I consider it one of the most impressive natural wonders in the park, and one to admire from both the boardwalk and the overlook.

Following the spur trail back to the main trail we continued onward to the junction behind the geyser basin where the Fairy Falls trail begins in proper. There the trail enters a forest of young lodgepole pines that have filled in the forest after the 1988 fires devastated this area of the park.

The numerous dead trees that lie along the path are a reminder of that fire but also show that the park is now in a much healthier condition than when the 1988 fires exploded throughout the park. Fires must happen occasionally to burn away some of the excess fuel and the park service and forest service learned from that fire to better manage the forests and ensure that ocassional smaller fires can burn without turning into a conflagration.

As we arrived at the falls and saw some of the fallen timber that lay near the cliff edge over which Fairy Falls pours, I thought of what the scene might have looked like prior to 1988 without these stark reminders. It was a beautiful nonetheless and a really enjoyable first hike of the trip. The falls was taller than I expected and the mist created rainbows against the back cliff wall. And my son happily traversed the enormous tree trunks to test his balance and cross the creek that led from the falls.

After enjoying some time at the falls we started back. I had considered extending the hike to Imperial Geyser and onward beyond that (because the backcountry of Yellowstone beckons to me for a future adventure), but the mosquitoes were saying otherwise.

We did apply mosquito repellant, but apparently not enough. Or the mosquitoes were resistant. Whatever it was they were eating us alive as the temperatures rose and we made our way back through the forest.

Along the way we saw two rangers pass, one with a shotgun. My wife joked that we “hadn’t seen anything bigger than chipmunks” and they laughed, but we realized they were probably looking for a bear or bison along the path.

When we got to the fork where Fairy Falls trail begins we saw that the rangers had closed the trail due to bear activity. Apparently a grizzly was meandering along the trail and although we missed it, the rangers felt it was a bit too risky to keep the trail open. So we were lucky to get there while the trail was still open, but either lucky or unlucky to miss the grizzly 🙂

Once we got back to the car we sprayed more repellant on and vowed not to leave the car without it. Then drove south to the Upper Geyser Basin.

Old Faithful Inn

It was now close to lunch time and we made our traditional stop at Old Faithful Inn to have buffet lunch in the dining room. Every trip we’ve made to Yellowstone we have had lunch there and this trip could be no different.

After lunch we made our way down to the ice ream shop for our traditional ice cream at Old Faithful Inn. And of the scoops one must be huckleberry (because you can never have too much).

After enjoying a seat in the balcony and admiring the lodge that defines the standard for every national park lodge, we made our way out to the Upper Geyser Basin to await the eruption of Old Faithful.

Upper Geyser Basin

Shelley got a front row bench for Old Faithful (which would erupt in about 45 minutes) while Evan and I walked around the basin to check out the hot springs and any other geysers that might erupt while we were there.

The Upper Geyser Basin was unfortunately much more crowded and the people on the boardwalks were the ruder type of day visitor that wake up late, never hike beyond the boardwalks, and won’t share the pathways. After a while Evan and I were a bit disappointed with dealing with them and he suggested just walking right into them.

At any rate, we made our way around to the back side of the basin where crowds were a little thinner but the people were no less obnoxiously full of themselves and were still crowding every hot spring for their instagram photos. Fortunately most of these types of people would be leaving the park in a matter of hours.

We made our way back to Shelley and took our seats right at the front of the crowd. It felt good to have such a prime view in front of the same people that wouldn’t budge for us earlier.

Old Faithful is always a great show and something to enjoy when visiting Yellowstone. We’re all lucky to enjoy natural wonders such as these.

We decided to drive back north and visit Norris Geyser Basin before heading back to our cabin to rest. When we got to Norris we found a long line of cars and decided to make a stop there later when there were fewer people.

We proceeded onward back to Canyon Village where we bought more mosquito repellant and then headed to our cabin before dinner.

After considering our options for dinner (because there was no way we were eating at the crappy Canyon cafeteria again), we decided to drive down to the Lake area where there was a fast service restaurant called Wylie’s Canteen.

Hayden Valley and Lake Yellowstone

The drive down was amusingly slow. Amusing because of the constant animals that were along he route.

First there was another black bear and then some herds of bison on both sides of the road. And on the road.

Bison Jam

Then we entered a crowd that was using scopes to view a very distant pack of wolves. Evan and I were able to look through a spotting scope and see a black wolf far in the distance. Much too far for my camera, unfortunately. But cool to see nonetheless.

We were making pathetic time and we were a little worried the restaurant would be closed by the time we arrived. But inevitably we got there and had a decent hamburger dinner.

On the way back we saw some trumpeter swans on the shore of Yellowstone Lake. They were being a bit nasty to the geese that were sharing the lake shore, snapping at them and pushing them out of the way 🙂

It was cool to see swans because the aren’t common where we live. But the sure are mean birds.

We started north and enjoyed more bison before noticing a crowd around a ranger vehicle. We decided to check it out.

The rangers said that there were wolves in the area but they were no longer visible to the crowd. Evan and I were about to leave, but Evan convinced me to ascend a hill instead of walking back to the car. Watching him run up the hill so eagerly I could hardly refuse.

Once at the top w saw a small family looking out at a distant area and an animal moving and pouncing amid the vegetation. They said it appeared to them to be a wolf.

With my zoom lens extended to the full 300mm I was able to capture a couple photos and it was indeed a gray wolf! My first on camera.

I realize these are blurry photos from such a distance, but even people living and working in Yellowstone rarely ever see a wolf. We were able to identify it was a wolf based on the tail which is narrower than a coyote. Which I’ll show you in a later blog post.

Evan and I were excited and happy to have seen this wolf and I credited him with pushing me to go up that hill and not just walk back to the car. It was a fun and rewarding end to the day.

Yellowstone is a place that requires some effort and patience and isn’t a place to rush through. This is exactly why.