Utah Road Trip Diaries: Day 17 was all about Yellowstone. We are staying two hours south of the oldest national park in the world and decided to make a day trip of Yellowstone. We first made our way to see Old Faithful, arriving just in time to see it erupt. We ate lunch while listening to a ranger talk about the geysers and the boys completed their Jr. Ranger program for their fifth national park! By the time this was done, Old Faithful was erupting again and we enjoyed a second showing of Mother Nature. I popped into the Old Faithful Inn to ogle at the 110 year old architecture and then we headed on to see the Grand Prismatic Spring. We were all surprised by the heat and how tropical it felt next to the spring. We drove on around the park to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone — it felt reminiscent for southern Utah with a 300ft waterfall dropping into the canyon. We then grabbed dinner at Canyon Village before heading back to our campground via Hayden Valley. We had been promised lots of bison in this valley. We actually saw a few throughout the day, but none here. Everyone had their eyes on the large almost full moon that was rising over the valley. We didn’t have time to stop at the Mud Volcano or Sulfur Caldera but we could sure smell them as we drove by! As the skies darkened we saw quiet a few elk on the side of the road. Including one who made a sound like a scream — I guess it was not pleased with the trail of cars so close by. We were gone for about 10 hours, driving about 6 hours total and hiking almost 4 miles. It was a quick overview of the park, but a pretty good one. We felt like we got a good overall feel for the park.
Trip Stats
Camping Locations:
TN > GA > AL > MS > TN > MS > TN > AR > OK > NM > CO > UT > WY
227 miles ⎮ 445 miles ⎮ 403 miles ⎮ 325 miles ⎮ 191 miles ⎮ 125 miles ⎮ 14 miles ⎮ 106 miles ⎮ 88 miles ⎮ 101 miles ⎮ 345 miles ⎮ 50 miles ⎮ 160 miles
Previous Trip Posts:
Utah or Bust: Mesa Verde
Utah or Bust: Moab Part 1 (Sand Flats Recreation Area and Mountain Biking the West Rim of the Porcupine Trail)
Utah or Bust: Moab Part 2 (Arches National Park)
Utah or Bust: Goblin Valley
Utah or Bust: Capitol Reef
Utah or Bust: Grand Staircase and Bryce Canyon
Utah or Bust: Hyrum Lake near Logan, Utah
Utah or Bust: Chilling at Hyrum Lake
Utah or Bust: Ogden Dinosaur Park
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