Venturing Into the Wilds
Come along and venture into the wilds of Wyoming with me!
Last month I spent a week with family roaming the wilds of Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. And let me tell you, there is a LOT to explore! I feel like we barely scratched the surface with driving scenic routes, hiking, and venturing to overlooks. There’s just so much to see in these two parks, nestled within a beautiful state.
Yellowstone is so much larger than I thought it was. I mean, I knew it was big, but it’s HUGE. Arriving there reminded me a little of visiting Zion National Park many years ago, when I just felt small in a vast, beautiful world. (And honestly my absolute love of mountains, and lack of them in my current backyard, is likely a factor here. 😂) To me, the mountains feel like home. They remind me the world is so much bigger than me—than my worries, my problems, everything. And the God who created that world is even bigger than that. In a season where I’ve been struggling with a lot of change, worry, and doubt, it was a much needed reminder.
Days 1 & 2 — Mammoth Hot Springs & Old Faithful
We spent our first two days exploring West Yellowstone—both north and south-central. Mammoth Hot Springs is in the northwest section of the park, where a bunch of thermal activity happens, both above and below ground. We saw a few geysers, but the real draw of Mammoth is the hot springs bubbling up from deep under the earth. Now, when I thought hot springs, I thought maybe it would be set up like a resort—but these are far too hot for that! Since the area is heavily mineral-rich, the water boiling from the ground dissolves some of the mineral and leaves behind layers of white limestone, which means it’s too hot to bathe in (slight sadness). But life still thrives in this temperature-high environment in the form of tiny colonies of thermophiles, which are the source of many of the colors we see in the hot springs themselves.
This is also the area where I learned which animals are frequently found in Yellowstone—black bears & grizzly bears, moose, bighorn sheep, cougar, elk, bison, pronghorn deer, mule deer, wolves, and coyotes are the larger animals you can find in the park, depending on the season. We didn’t see a lot of different wildlife in the area, mostly because it was the middle of the day, but we did see a few elk and some pronghorn deer. (Alas, I didn’t manage to get pictures.)
Old Faithful lived up to its name—it was big, beautiful and definitely worth the wait. On our drive down to it, we saw a grizzly bear! My sister’s been to Yellowstone many times for fishing trips, and she says it’s pretty rare to see one on your first visit. They don’t often make it to high-trafficked areas, but we spotted one crossing a river and I managed to get a few pictures. That just started the day off right, and while we waited for Old Faithful to do her thing, we gobbled down lunch and watched a raven prowling the area, hoping for handouts (we didn’t have any—mostly because we’re all about keeping the wildlife wild).
After Old Faithful, we nabbed some ice cream (Wilcoxson’s—if you go to the park, definitely get some because it’s delicious), and headed off to our long hike for the day, back to Fairy Falls. We also took a slight detour on the hike to a lookout point for the Grand Prismatic Spring and guys, this is the way to view this one. It’s where you get such a view of the spring with all the color, steam, and beauty surrounding it. You definitely don’t see it as well if you utilize the turnout provided for it (and the boardwalks around it)—pic below! Fairy falls was high and beautiful and the hike was wonderful. It’s been a while since I’ve done a good hike, so I really enjoyed this, and it wasn’t hard. And of course, true to form for a family hike to a waterfall, it rained on us. 😂 We definitely didn’t get the downpour-like-a-waterfall rain we’ve gotten in the past, but we all had a good laugh about it.
Day 3 - Grand Teton National Park
After a down day where we just spent time in the area of our accommodations (which was much needed after all of the driving/traveling of the previous three days), we headed off to Grand Teton National Park. Fun fact, the Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks sit right on top of each other—Yellowstone in the north, and Grand Tetons in the south. We didn’t enter Grand Teton from Yellowstone (it would’ve been a very long drive from our accommodations), but instead headed through Jackson Hole to get there.
We stopped off at Jackson Hole for some souvenirs and pictures with the famous antler arches. Then we headed off to explore what we could of the Tetons in the day we’d allotted for it. The drive, you guys. There are so many beautiful scenic elements and vistas all over this part of the country, and I definitely want to go back and explore it all over again—and expand it. (I should probably plan a week just for the Tetons, and a month or two for Yellowstone. 😂) For our trip, we stuck around Jenny Lake, where we took the ferry over to the beginning hiking point for Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time to also do the hike around the lake, but the boat ride across was gorgeous and offered some beautiful picture opportunities.
Both hikes were beautiful, but Inspiration Point… tip, don’t brave it if you don’t like heights. I don’t have a lot of issues with heights, but I have a few, so I definitely stayed to the inside edge of the path wherever possible. It was definitely worth the views, though!
Side note: The mountain range of the Tetons area reminded me a lot of my view of the Tarantella Mountains from my Nutcracker retelling!
Days 4 & 5 - Yellowstone Canyon, Yellowstone Lake, & Lamar Valley
The last two days we had for exploring were full of vistas, canyons, huge expanses, and wildlife. Yellowstone canyon is known by many as the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and for good reason. It’s huge and gorgeous with wonderful waterfalls along the way. I did a crazy hike down to the Lower Falls (something like 10-12 switchbacks, and super steep, but I conquered), and we saw the Upper Falls as well. Though I do have to say, canyon views were much better from the Lower Falls point on the north rim of the canyon. (Next time, I’ll explore the south rim!)
From there, we headed south toward Yellowstone Lake. Guys, I cannot even begin to tell you how large this lake is. We have a local state park with a huge lake . . . or, well, I used to think it was huge. But Yellowstone Lake? One of the rangers we spoke with in the visitor center said it gets whitecaps regularly. So it’s basically the ocean, especially on windy days. The water vanishes into the horizon. It was amazing to see, and I hope one day I can return to do some kayaking on the lake.
While these last few days were full of driving, driving, driving (because Yellowstone is HUGE guys. It takes something like 5-5.5 hours just to drive across the park . . . and that’s if you manage to find a good flow and wildlife stays out of the road 😂), it was totally worth it to see more of the park. Our last day we explored the north central and northeast part of the park, where Lamar Valley is. It’s supposed to be the place where you can see the most wildlife, and it definitely lived up to its name. We saw tons of bison. We also saw a lone coyote (we’re pretty sure it got separated from its pack), and a few pronghorn deer. But man. Bison in the road, buffalo in the river . . . just everywhere. Which, of course, meant I got some really good pictures. 😄
Overall, it was an exceptionally fun trip, and I’ll likely be coming back to a lot of these pictures and experiences as I worldbuild for new books and stories. (Speaking of, I had a wonderful short story idea on the plane . . . 😏) So I’ll likely talk a bit more about this trip in other posts and such, but man was it a good time. It was wonderful to be surrounded by mountains again (I swear it’s where my heart lives), and overall it was such a fun adventure into the wilds (where I did feel a little like Lystra, even if I don’t have a cardant and it wasn’t the desert).
And now . . . a question for you: Which National Park should I adventure to next?