Last Updated on September 12, 2023 by

Travel Orientation for Newcomers

There are so many superlatives to attach to Yellowstone National Park it’s hard to keep track. It is the oldest, one of the largest, and possibly the best known national park. It is home to the highest elevation lake in the country and has hundreds of earthquakes per year. It contains portions of three separate mountain ranges, vast prairies and meadows, and rivers, lakes, and streams. The main attraction of the park, of course, are its some 10,000 hydrothermal features, which constitute roughly half of all those known in the world. The iconic Old Faithful geyser may be the best known of these, but there are also steam vents, fumaroles, colorful hot pools, mud cauldrons, paint pots, hot springs and terraces, hot rivers, and even more geysers. Scientists now know all of these features are interconnected as part of the largest supervolcano in North America.

Yellowstone was established by U.S. Congress on March 1, 1872, as the country’s first national park. Interestingly, it is entirely possible that Congress may have preferred to make Yellowstone a state park, like Yosemite eight years earlier, except for the accident of geography that put it within the boundaries of three states. Arguments between Wyoming and Montana territories resulted in a decision to federalize Yellowstone. Eighteen years later, dissatisfied with California’s handling of Yosemite, it was also made a national park by Congress in 1890.

Even though it received the park designation in 1872, sufficient funding was not allocated to maintain the park. The remote location held tourists to several hundred people per year in it’s infancy, but the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad brought an explosion of growth. Consequently, it suffered greatly from poachers, timber harvesting, and vandalism. Eventually, conditions deteriorated to the point the US Army had to be dispatched in 1886 to restore order and protect resources. They would manage the park for over thirty years until 1918 when the newly created National Park Service officially began management.

Did You Know?
Capitalizing on the popularity of Lewis Carroll’s book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Northern Pacific launched an ad campaign that presented the park as America’s “New Wonderland.” One 1885 pamphlet even included a fictional endorsement from Alice herself, who offered breathless descriptions of Yellowstone’s geography. “The Park, let me tell you, is an extensive area literally crowded with natural curiosities of the most wonderful character,” the character gushed. “Tell me, is this not Wonderland?”
Courtesy – History.com

The park has come a long way from it’s Wonderland days. In 1904, the first year statistics were maintained by NPS, visitation was recorded as 13,727. In 2022, Yellowstone had 3.2 million visitors while it eclipsed four million visitors for six of the previous seven years prior.

Yellowstone is also enormous. At 3,471 square miles, it is the size of Rhode Island and Delaware COMBINED. It also touches portions of three states. While it is largely situated in north west Wyoming, there are small portions in southern Montana and eastern Idaho. It also has five entrances, one at each cardinal direction and an additional one in the northeast corner.

The Grand Loop Road is a total of 142 miles with the twelve mile Norris Canyon road roughly bisecting the park. It will take you between four and seven hours to drive the loop from any one of the entrances, keeping in mind it may take you an hour just to reach the entrance itself. There are no shuttles located in the park and while it is possible to bicycle, there aren’t any dedicated lanes. Throw in the number of cars randomly and rapidly pulling off to view wildlife and bicycling may prove to be too dangerous for the average rider.

Yellowstone National Park Quick Facts

Fees
Entrance Pass – $35

Operating Hours
Check the NPS website for the numerous road and visitor center hours: https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/hours.htm

Closest Towns
Gardiner, MT – 1 mile to North Entrance
Cooke City, MT – 5 miles to Northeast Entrance
Cody, WY – 52 miles to East Entrance 
Jackson Hole, WY – 57 miles to South entrance
West Yellowstone, WY – 1 mile to West Entrance

The Grand Loop Road provides access to nearly all of the park highlights with very little walking. Of course we always recommend finding a good hike. After all, we wouldn’t bother setting aside 2.2 million acres if everything worth seeing was on the roadside. Hiking aside, here are some of the notable sights you can see from the Grand Loop Road:

• Old Faithful – perhaps the one thing people identify with Yellowstone more than any other feature, Old Faithful is a hugely popular site. Shooting water over 100 feet in the air up to twenty times a day, the Old Faithful offers a front row seat along the boardwalk, or a fantastic view from the Observation Point a short hike away.
• Grand Prismatic Spring – the largest hot spring in the park. It is inhabited by trillions of microscopic organisms known as thermophiles creating the brilliant colors of the pool.
• Norris Geyser Basin – the hottest, oldest, and most dynamic of Yellowstone’s thermal areas. The Norris area has had temperatures measured as high as 459°F (237°C). Nearly all of thermal features here are over the boiling point.
• Mammoth Hot Springs – home to the travertine terraces, the Albright visitors center, and historic Fort Yellowstone. The terraces are formed by thermal water pushing through the limestone layer until it reaches the surface where carbon dioxide is released and calcium carbonate is deposited, forming travertine.
• Roosevelt Arch – the perfect photo op to capture your visit to Yellowstone. Gardiner was the original gateway to Yellowstone and the gate was commissioned to provide suitable grandeur to the entrance.
• Lamar Valley – often dubbed the “Serengeti of North America”, Lamar Valley offers probably the best opportunity for wildlife gazing in the park. Bison, pronghorn, grizzlies, and if you’re very lucky – wolves, all frequent the valley.
• Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone – a 1000 foot waterfall plunging into canyon walls of some of the most vibrant hues of browns, reds, and oranges has inspired tourists and painters alike to make the trek here
• Hayden Valley – Another great spot for wildlife viewing with bison, grizzly and black bear, and coyote
• West Thumb Geyser Basin – located along the shores of Yellowstone lake, West Thumb offers a large collection of thermal formations. While it can still get crowded, West Thumb is more likely to offer you the opportunity to observe the formations in relative peace.

How Long Should I Stay?

We would recommend at least 4 days to allow for a comprehensive, but leisurely park visit. Also, if at all possible, we would suggest choosing two different parts of the park for lodging as time in the car will definitely take its toll.

If you are not staying in the park, plan on at least an hour to reach any of the gates either due to distance or traffic. Once in the park, if you are trying to navigate the Grand Loop Road, it is not uncommon to spend several hours in transit between the ‘major’ attractions.

Attempting to tackle Yellowstone without some strategy can rapidly diminish your overall experience. It is not necessary, or even prudent, to plan down to the minute, but some form of plan is critical. The seven hour effort to circuit the park alone should give you pause to ‘just wing it’.

Perhaps more importantly, there are A LOT of turnouts along the road for observation. You may enthusiastically wish to stop at every pullout so you don’t miss anything, likely resulting in one or two things. One, you will arrive at your intended destination exhausted, or two, your take away from Yellowstone will be ‘Drive, get out of the car, drive, get out of the car’.

Our recommendation would be to focus on one area of the park, plot your travel time, and then add in an hour or so to allow for random pullout stops. Also, take your time, drive the speed limit and enjoy the views – traffic is likely to be a problem during the peak months – so prepare yourself mentally for some quality time in the car.

We’ve included some options for full and half day itineraries we feel will maximize your experience and minimize drive times. Feel free to mix and match as your schedule and visitation tastes permit. Although it is possible to navigate the entirety of the Grand Loop Road in a day, we did not include it as an option. Just not our cup of tea.

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