Visiting Yellowstone
Simply put, visiting Yellowstone National Park, is something you have to do! It is truly an amazing place, verging on mystical. From wildlife to incredible landscapes to things you may never be able to see anywhere else. All these types of things await you when visiting.
This is based on my first time visiting Yellowstone National Park. To say the least, I was more than a bit in awe of the experience. I also found that I was almost totally unprepared for the experience. I thought I’d done enough research. I’ve been to national parks. I have hiked many, many miles a day for days to take in scenery and take photos. I often drive hours to get to locations to just start an adventure. What I wasn’t all all prepared for, was the sheer magnitude of Yellowstone. The park is HUGE!!!
Mobile phone photo of Mammoth Hot Springs
Yellowstone is a MASSIVE Park
There is so much to see, you can drive over 100 miles in a day, and never leave the park. And that is just for things that most people would know as the main attractions. Look at the park on a map, and you will likely still not understand how massive the park is. We left for the park from Bozeman, MT. According to the map, it was less than a three hour drive. We had camping reservations, and thought we were all set. We would get to our campground about an hour before sunset, have time to setup and relax.
What I didn’t understand, was that that initial few hour drive only got us to the north entrance, and we still had a LONG drive to get to the campground. At at park speeds of 25-40 MPH, we finally got to our campsite more than an hour after sunset.
Trip Planning Maximizes Your Time
Looking back on how I approached the trip, and now understanding the distances involved, my next trip visiting Yellowstone will be much better organized. Even if you only think about some of the major attractions and areas in the park, you can maximize your exploring time, while minimizing your driving time. There are places to stay close to all of the big areas, which also means reasonable access other areas to explore. If you are on a camping budget or up for some of the amazing lodges in the park, you can stay all around the park.
The way I am thinking about it now, is to break the park down into regions. Each region has plenty of exploring to be done for almost as much time as you want to spend. Just some of the major areas:
- Mammoth Hot Springs
- Grand Canyon
- Lamar Valley
- Yellowstone Lake
- Old Faithful and the geyser basins
- West Yellowstone
Mobile photo of Grand Prismatic Spring
You may end up moving around for your campsite or lodging a few times, but that will save on literally many, many hours and miles of driving. The challenge at that point, is being able to plan enough in advance to get reservations all around the park.
With the vastness of Yellowstone, if you are even close to a serious explorer, don’t forget to plan for some down time. The other aspect of visiting Yellowstone I didn’t consider, was the elevations. The lowest elevation in the park is just over 5,000 feet. The highest road crosses Dunraven Pass at 8,895 feet. You’ll likely be spending a lot of time in the 6,500 to 7,500 foot elevation range.
High Altitude Exploring
Elevations like this have different effects on every person. Some people may get elevation sickness. Even without getting sick, the air may be considerably thinner than you are accustomed to. I live close to sea level, and am generally in good physical condition. The thin air had me moving slower than expected, and drinking 2-3 times the amount of water I would have normally planned for. I also needed far more calories than I would consider normal for me. Fortunately, there are also a lot of great places to eat in the park.
Visiting Yellowstone National Park is a truly amazing experience, so spend as much time as you can there!
