A swing through Yellowstone

Yellowstone National Park is one of those places I admit to being somewhat ambivalent about. It offers stunning beauty and natural wonders but also tremendous crowds and the sensation of being in a drive-thru wildlife attraction. On our way home from Glacier we stopped in the little town of West Yellowstone and had a couple of days to experience the best and worst that YNP has to offer. The weather was definitely showing the change of seasons with morning temps in the low 20's and made for some gorgeous morning views of the steam-shrouded geysers set against the backdrop of crystal clear Montana and Wyoming skies. Our first day in the park we cycled from West Yellowstone to Madison Junction and back and for most of the ride we were passing cars slowly creeping along the roadway. Not the most fun bike ride but still better than those stuck in their vehicles staring at a never ending stream of brake lights ahead of them. Still it was fun to pull into some of the turnouts along the Madison River and watch the early morning fly fishermen and women doing their thing. And on this day the fish were biting as we saw several trout  snap at the flies being cast their way.

Next day we got up even earlier and headed for the Old Faithful area. Most of the northern loop of the park was closed to traffic so we anticipated lots of crowds  but were pleasantly surprised to find easy parking and not-overwhelming numbers of folks flocking to see the park's most famous geyser erupt every 90 minutes or so. A lot of the geysers in the park seemed more active than I remember from our last visit and despite my ambivalence its hard not to be wowed when Nature puts on its geothermal show. 

Its also nice to stop in and visit the Old Faithful Inn though this trip we were not fortunate enough to stay there overnight. COVID precautions have toned down the experience inside the grand lobby considerably but gazing up at the magnificent wood ceiling so high above is still something to behold.  Gone is the ambiance of sitting in front of the roaring fireplace or listening to the live piano music lofting from the second floor but one can still mosey out to the upper outside deck and watch the geysers do their thing. The main dining room has switched to a buffet setup rather than the full service dining of years past but the food was very good and as always its fun to sit inside and look through the windows at the incredible scenery. 

Here's a short video of our Yellowstone stop. If you've been to YNP you'll likely recognize some of the locations and if you haven't been, hopefully it will whet your appetite to make a visit. From here we had one more stop to make before arriving home. We had spent a couple of weeks in the Tetons in July and were looking forward to a couple of more days there seeing what Fall was like.....