We had a great time at Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks Oct 10-18, 2021.
Here are some pics.
Incidental art...is Amazing!
Here's the google map we used, you can zoom in on the bulbs to get details
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1rJ0bu8UpczQ9ypwPLG3DXmHkUhQ&usp=sharing
WHEN TO VISIT?
June-August: Average highs hover in the 70s and 80s (depending on where you are in the park), making for great hiking conditions. Plus, all of the park's facilities will be open. During the warmer months, Yellowstone welcomes more than 2 million visitors
October is fall in Yellowstone—which means below
freezing temperatures and snow are more likely! Before visit,
check the weather forecast by visiting the park website's Weather page.
Weather - Yellowstone
National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
LOGISTICS:
We had time/scheduling constraints and had to visit Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks in fall. We had been in Mexico for 15 days and landed in Houston on Oct 7th, Thursday. Thankfully our flight scheduled for evening 6.30 was rescheduled by the airline for 6.30 am. We had a full day to unpack and repack and started off on our trip at 8.30 am on Oct 8th, Friday.
Ideally it’s best for us to fly into Bozeman, rent a car and stay at West village Yellowstone. Then drive down to Teton and fly out of Jackson. But because we could not confirm our trip till we had landed in Houston, we chose to drive in our car from Houston.
With night halts at Amarillo and Casper on the way in and Fort Collins and Amarillo on the way back, we managed it.
This is the google map of our drive into Yellowstone [there is a small change in the map below from our route, we wentered thru the east entrance and drove through YNP to reach our hotel exiting through the west gate, google maps is not letting us do that now as currently that east entrance is closed]
https://goo.gl/maps/FxJYtMbJVVpyiU1q6
https://goo.gl/maps/xGjGDveYR2Dwg1LNA
This is the drive back
https://goo.gl/maps/8krhskcn73ekMpSD9
It's important to check road conditions esp if we are not visiting in summer. These were the regular reports when we visited.
Park Roads -
Yellowstone National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
ROADS: CLOSED. Tower–Roosevelt to Canyon Village
Road Construction Expect delays and/or traffic pattern changes in these locations:
•
North Entrance
•
Old Faithful Area entrance and
exit
Check also road conditions in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Grand Teton National Park before traveling.
The park sits on the Yellowstone Plateau, at an average elevation of 8,000 feet (2,400 m) above sea level. The plateau is bounded on nearly all sides by mountain ranges of the Middle Rocky Mountains, which range from 9,000 to 11,000 feet (2,700 to 3,400 m) in elevation. With 2.2 million acres ⎯ larger than the size of Rhode Island ⎯ the park is enormous
YNP covers an area of 3472 sq. miles,
310 miles of paved roads. and
travel super slow. No one base works for both Yellowstone and Tetons. West
Yellowstone works for Yellowstone and Jackson works for Tetons.
There are 5 entrances to the park:
North Entrance Brings You to Mammoth Hot Springs
Northeast Entrance Puts You at Doorstep of Park’s Wildlife
East Entrance Brings You to Yellowstone Lake
South Entrance Allows You To Tackle Two National Parks in One Day
West Entrance Brings You to Geyser Paradise
BUY ENTRANCE PASS ... $80/ America
the beautiful Interagency passes valid for all Nps. At entrance as
online requires pass to be mailed.
https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/passes.htm
WHAT TO SEE?
There is ONE main road in the park It's the Grand Loop Road. The park was designed for the park road to take us to all of the main sights. The original visitors were driven around the loop in a week, stopping at the villages to spend the night. There's an upper loop and a lower loop and each takes about 4 hours (plus/minus 30 minutes) to drive. The upper loop has one segment under construction so this year you can't drive the full upper loop. In October visits, one can make better time because there's comparatively little vehicular traffic.
The park is divided into eight areas as can be seen in the above pic:
Canyon Village
Fishing Bridge, Lake Village and Bridge Bay;
Madison and West Yellowstone;
Mammoth Hot Springs and the North;
Norris Geyser Basin;
Old Faithful;
Tower-Roosevelt and the Northeast
West Thumb, Grant, and the South.
One of the greatest experiences in Yellowstone is witnessing the geologic wonders of the park. Topping the list of geologic wonders are hydrothermal features: hot springs, mudpots, fumaroles, and geysers. Well over 10,000 different hydrothermal features have been estimated to be active within the park.
Even more incredible might be that over half of the world's active geysers are found here. Every year, some 500-700 geysers are active. In 2011, 1,283 geysers have been recorded as erupting in Yellowstone. This is truly incredible, when all of the rest of the world's geysers combined number less than 500.Our Itinerary
Day 0.1 Oct 8 2021 Friday: Houston to
Amarillo
Stay: Camelot inn, 1 n,
Day 0.2 Oct 9 2021 Saturday: Amarillo to
Casper
Stay: Motel 6, 1 n
Day 1 Oct 10 2021 Sunday: bought bear spray
at Cody Walmart and some provisions.
Bought the $80 America the beautiful pass
valid for a year at all national parks at East entrance.
Drove along Yellowstone lake, West thumb,
saw Old Faithful erupt and reached our hotel , 1 minute drive from West
entrance.
Stay: Branding Iron inn, 4 n
Day 2 Oct 11 2021 Monday: [37° | 22°, 0.11 in]
Under a brewing storm and drizzles of snow, enjoyed the boardwalks of Fountain Paint Pot , Grand Prismatic, Gibbon falls, Norris Geyser basin
Day 3 Oct 12 2021 Tuesday:[29° | 20°, 0.38 in]
YNP was closed. We drove to Grand Teton
Day 4 Oct 13 2021 Wednesday [25° | 21°, 0.05 in]
Mammoth Springs and Lamar valley
Day 5 Oct 14 2021 Thursday [25° | 19°, 0.13 in]
GRAND CANYON OF YELLOWSTONE, Check in to Teton village hotel
Day 6 Oct 15 2021 Friday
GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK: Craig Thomas visitor center, Jackson lake, Jenny lake loop, Lake Taggart hike
Day 7 Oct 16 2021 Saturday
GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK: Craig Thomas visitor center, Moose village drive, String lake and Leigh lake hike
Days 8, 9, 10: Drive back home.
SO, WAS THE OFF-SEASON TRIP WITH THE LOOONG SELF DRIVE TO AND FRO WORTH IT?
What were our goals and were they achieved?
1st goal was to enjoy the natural beauty of this highly scenic area.
The positives first: Grand Teton was amazing and we enjoyed every inch of the stunning park with almost no-one else around.
YNP showed different facets of beauty. These videos of Madison river illustrate the changing facets.
HAVE A LOOK AT THE VIDEO IN THIS LINK https://photos.app.goo.gl/hUsRRstNdTG9tUrr7
OCT 11: Madison river at west entrance... its breath became visible only further in.
Such a stunning Evidence of weather vagaries in different parts of the park... the micro climate.
Video below shows Madison river breath Oct 11, 2021:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/S7CS8EVhBpy15ysg6
MADISON RIVER AFTER SNOW was another amazing sight... so much difference in the span of a few hours...:https://photos.app.goo.gl/L6grQQGisd7fknK97
The cons were that a few roads were closed in YNP, and we spent a lot of time driving back and forth. But one might argue that in summer, people drive back & forth since they don't get parking in the top sites.
2nd goal was to enjoy the thermal features. We have been to Rotorua in New Zealand, and also to Thingvellir National Park in Iceland; and enjoyed the thermal features over there.
YNP has a huge variety as well, but in this season, the beauty could not be enjoyed to the maximum. The background was whited out and the ground was fully covered in snow. For example, the Travertine terraces in Mammoth didn't pop as everything was snow clad. Grand Prismatic was too hazy. Norris and Mammoth boardwalks were treacherously slick . It was definitely not for the faint hearted.
3rd goal was to watch wildlife. We've been on a 5-day self drive in Kruger National park during the fall season, and had an amazing experience. At YNP, the fall turned into extreme winter conditions, probably curtailing wildlife viewing. We did see plenty of Bison, including a huge one near our car window. A moose and her cub right outside our hotel room door, a fox trotting right in front of our car...so it was nothing much to complain.
Grand Teton saved the vacation for us, providing ideal weather and panorama in every corner. To sum up, there are no regrets, we had an awesome vacation.
Re the looong drive, this is the first time we attempted a vacation without prior booking months ahead. Also, our driving holidays earlier have always been very prudent with optimum drive times. Anyway again no regrets!
Freak snow storm can't be predicted much in advance. Kudos to the rangers who keep the park going with their tireless efforts and cheerful demeanor
VIDEOS LINK
All the videos of our trip are in the link below.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/fVzadZ5AJejT5Xtu6
I'm starting a detailed report of each day now.
Report of 2 travel days and Day 1 in YNP is here:
https://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2021/11/how-to-plan-vacation-in-yellowstone.html
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