Yellowstone Trip 7/24-7/26

We left at 6:40pm on Thursday night to head to Idaho Falls. When we hit Honeyville, traffic completely stopped. We had been warned on a sign early about an hour delay. I wasn't really sure how to get around it, and we didn't figure it out in time. What should have been an hour of traffic was actually an hour and 45 minutes. 

So we got in just before midnight instead of at 10pm like we were supposed to.

The next morning, we got gas and breakfast and left about 10am. We stopped at a small Idaho gas station in Island Park, which was a little trashy, service folks included, sorry to say. We got to West Yellowstone about noon and were in the line of cars to pay to get in for about 45 minutes. I wished I had just paid the $35 in advance. Silly me. 

Here's the map we used if it's helpful for you to see that we did the top of the circle on Friday and the bottom of the circle on Saturday.

Disclaimer before all the photos: where there were crowds, we wore masks.  

Our first stop was Gibbon Falls. 

After that we stopped at Beryl Spring. 

Next, we stopped to see the Paint Pots. It was insanely crowded, and people parked along the side of an already small road. We didn't have our hiking shoes on and found that this small site was actually a hike. It only took about 15 minutes to get there. The paint pots were awesome, and the view was amazing. 

After that, we both needed to eat. So we found a spot with picnic tables by the river and had some sandwiches, jerky, and chips. 

We got back in the car, skipped the Steamboat Geyser because it was too busy, and did the little Virginia Cascade drive. It's only a drive. There's nowhere really to get out and look, so pictures from the car were a little difficult. 

We continued on to the Canyon Village area and took the turnout for the lower and upper falls. The upper falls parking area was insanely busy, so we kept going (not knowing what the falls were like). We ended up parking at the lower falls area and got out to the lookout point. We then knew what all the fuss was about.

We went to the Sulphur Caldron and the Mud Volcano which actually had a lot more to see than I expected. The "Dragon's Breath" cave was pretty cool looking. Both sites were very smelly.

We got to our campsite about 5pm. My favorite thing about check-in was being told that if there are bears or elk, we had to wait for them to leave. And if there was bear or elk poop, the park doesn't pick it up, so oh well for us. I liked our campsite because our table was right by our fire. The sites above and below ours had it a little farther away. Matthew got the tent up pretty quickly. 

We drove back up to Lake Village to Wylie's Canteen, which was offering to-go service and had a line out the door (social distanced line). We each got burgers, and shared fries and onion rings, and Matthew got chicken fingers. The only thing that was decent were the fries and onion rings. The portions were tiny, and our burgers were burned. But there were elk on the side of the road when we got back to camp, so that was awesome. We ate, made s'mores, and got to bed by about 10pm. 

Don't worry that I sleep-talked all night, Matthew woke up frequently thinking there were bears, and it was insanely cold. We were under prepared for the night temperature. Now we know better. 

The next morning, we were out of our campsite just after 8am. We took one of the little turn out drives at Yellowstone Lake, got out for a minute, and saw some cool steam vents.

Next, we went to West Thumb and didn't know what we'd find there. It was awesome! There were so many beautiful pools of different sizes and colors. 

We went into town at Grant Village and wandered around a gift shop a little bit. 

After that, we took a little turn out to Kepler Cascades. 

Next? You guessed it. Old Faithful. We got there about 11:40am and wandered the area until about 12:20 since the geyser was set to erupt at 12:26pm, give or take ten minutes. 

We ate lunch at the car and decided against getting ice cream because the line for the general store was too crazy. So we made our way to the Grand Prismatic Spring. We turned out too early, but it was the best accident we had. We did a mile hike (one way) up to the lookout point to see the Grand Prismatic from up above. That two miles was worth it, guys!

We left there and headed to the Firehole Lake Drive which was pretty neat. It had lots of little areas you could park in to see. Lots of pools and mini geysers. My favorite was called "Young Hopeful." Someday maybe it can be an Old Faithful :)

After that we went across the street to the Fountain Paint Pot. It was a little bit of a walk as well. We were in the sun a lot on Saturday. There were a couple of different steam vents and geysers. 

Since we both needed a break, we stopped at a picnic area on the Firehole River and put our feet in the water. 

We did the Firehole Canyon Drive but didn't get out of the car, and I didn't get any pictures, sadly. Just after we pulled out of there, it started to rain.

And that was it! We drove out West Yellowstone where we came in. We went into a few different shops in West Yellowstone, looking for shirts and hats. I got two slouchy sweater things and a magnet. I picked up some things for my brother. And Matthew got a shirt and hat. 

Sadly, our drive back to Idaho Falls was marred by more traffic. It was supposed to be 24 minutes of traffic. It was 45 minutes. And there was no reason for it. We amused ourselves with a Yellowstone candy taste test. We finally got in about 8:30 and went to Red Robin for "dinner," after days of sandwiches, jerky, and burned burgers. It really hit the spot. We finally got to the house and went to bed. 

The next morning, we threw the sheets and towels into the washer and dryer and got everything ready. We ate breakfast at Abracadabra, which was just as good as I remembered. Matthew got a side biscuit and gravy, which was so, so good! 

We packed up and headed out about 10am, stopped in Tremonton to use the bathroom, and got home a little after 1pm. I spent the day doing laundry and was unpacked around 3pm. I watched Downton Abbey and then Matthew picked me up again to go down to Lehi for dinner with his family because his sister is in town. 

And that was it for our long weekend! I highly recommend visiting Yellowstone if you haven't already done so.