Fishing Bridge Visitor Center to Tower/Roosevelt Service Station

Last Updated on September 12, 2023 by

A Yellowstone Mini Road Trip

This section of Yellowstone National Park is highlighted by the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the Hayden and Lamar Valleys. It can be accomplished in one or two days depending on your schedule.
If you are just driving, it is a 68 mile out and back taking about two hours, but there many sights to see along the way.

One of our favorite hikes in the park – the South Rim of the Grand Canyon – takes us nearly four hours, but it could be shortened to accommodate your schedule.
Both valleys also offer great wildlife viewing, but if you want to see something specific (especially the wolves), you may need to sit in place for several hours.

The Grand Canyon area is definitely one of our favorite spots in the park. The Canyon is approximately 20 miles long, almost 4,000 feet at its widest point, and up to 1,200 feet deep. It is highlighted by an upper falls tumbling 109 feet and a lower falls crashing 308 feet. It has some great observation spots along both the north and the south rim, but we prefer the south due to the additional hiking trails.
From the north, you can drive to Inspiration Point, Grandview and Lookout Point. You can also park at the North Rim parking lot and hike to each, as well as a short hike to Brink of the Lower Falls. Technically, if you stop at Lookout Point, you will find yourself looking at the same scenery providing inspiration to Moran’s iconic painting.
If you approach from the South, you will be able to visit Artists point, the spot producing nearly all of the photos you see from this area.

Lamar Valley is often dubbed the “Serengeti of North America”, and for good reason. It is a huge, wide valley located in the northeastern corner of the park offering probably the best opportunity for wildlife gazing in the park. Bison, pronghorn, grizzlies, and if you’re very lucky – wolves, all frequent the valley. Dawn and dusk are the best times for wildlife viewing, so plan your travel time accordingly as this is one of the more remote corners of the park.
Hayden Valley is another great spot for wildlife viewing with bison, grizzly and black bear, and coyote.

Mud Volcano

Situated at the very southern end of Hayden Valley is Mud Volcano. Similar to the Artist Paint Pots, the Mud Volcano is a large cauldron of boiling, bubbling mud.

I don’t know what it is about watching the mud bubble, but to me it has the same mesmerizing effect as watching fire. Must be the little boy in me still lurking in there somewhere. Mud Volcano follows along a mile long boardwalk loop.

There are several other interesting features here including Dragon’s Mouth Spring, formed by a steam vent under a rock outcropping creating the illusion of a mouth breathing fire. A short but steep climb up the boardwalk stairs will lead you to Sour Lake, the largest pool in the mud volcano group.

Hayden Valley and Lamar Valley

A word of caution, and I say this with all sincerity, prepare yourself for the inevitable ‘bison jam’. Bison do not obey the rules of the road, and in fact, seem to take great pleasure in defying them. Like us, you will be very excited to see the bison for the first time and will have 700 photos of the event – and you should. However, after the third or fourth day sitting in the car for 4-5 hours waiting on a lone bison to move out of the road, you may wish you had never seen bison one.

I still get excited to see bison, but it is definitely on the trail and not on the road. For this reason, we typically avoid the east gate to northeast gate stretch unless there has been a particular dearth of bison sightings elsewhere. If you want to maximize your experience, definitely plan to get there early or late (when they are most active anyway).

The trip to the Lamar Valley (aka the Serengeti of the Yellowstone) was about two and a half hours from our campground and had initially been ruled out. After two weeks of virtually no wildlife sightings we decided to bite the bullet and make the drive. We were well rewarded! Bison galore (although I am happy to report the 6AM departure got us there early enough to avoid the bison jams). We also had the opportunity to watch two wolves from across the field, thank God we finally remembered to bring the binos. Throw in a herd of pronghorn and a couple of prairie falcons, and it was a pretty successful trip for wildlife, just based on this one stop.

It bears repeating. (See what she did there?) Two And A Half Hour drive (at o’dark thirty) in the hopes of catching a little wild life and the magnificent wolves of Yellowstone. True there was a little grumpiness at the early morning wake up call, but we did get to watch the fog rolling over everything while the mists came up off the streams and lakes to meet in the middle. Gorgeous. The elk were out in full force today with the ever present herd right inside the West gate, additional herds on the Loop Road to Mammoth Hot Springs and stragglers here and there. Once through Mammoth proper, we turned onto Tower Road and there, standing on the center yellow line, was a young elk. Just hanging out. Nothing to see here. Until a car came screaming around the corner from the other direction and almost hit him. Uncool! Slow down dude, enjoy the nature. In any case, he went bounding off, saying (I imagine), “Mummy. Mummy. Wait for me mummy. I almost got hit by a car.”

On the way back we stopped among a traffic jam and discovered the hullaballoo was due to a coyote and badger sitting side by side about 20 yards off the road. The badger was furiously digging the entire meadow, while the coyote appeared to be waiting to steal whatever the badger unearthed. I could draw a political comparison here, but this page is supposed to be for fun.

Badger and coyote playing in a field together. Start of a good story? I think not. The more likely scenario was that the badger was digging at the den of the coyote trying to get at her young. Welcome to nature.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Water has been eroding the canyon for about 150,000 years, gradually working it’s way through the sediment to this day. The dark orange, brown, and green rocks of the canyon result from the hydrothermally altered rhyolite and sediments. The effects of this erosion and rhyolite result in one of the most photographed spots in the entire park.

For years, Artist Point was improperly attributed as the location of Thomas Moran’s iconic depiction of the lower falls. It turns out Moran painted it from the north side of the falls at the place now known as Lookout Point. Artist Point was attached to the location on the south rim of the falls and despite discovering the true location for the Moran painting, the name stuck. Accidentally named or not, it is still conventionally regarded as the best spot to view the falls today.

We hiked the south rim and stretched out the distance a little by adding the Artists Point with Clear Lake Loop trek resulting in a little over 7 miles. This hike is worth every penny though as it follows the south rim for quite a while, offering spectacular views of the lower falls, the incredible array of color along the canyon walls, and relative peace from the folks who just park in the Artist Point parking lot to pull a Chevy Chase at the overlook (and if you don’t get that reference, it is a sad day for humanity). A little side trip takes you to Sublime Point. A misnomer to be sure considering the entire point is largely encircled by old growth pine almost completely obscuring the view in all directions, but there are multiple points along this spur that the entire canyon opens up to convince even the most urban-centric person that nature is incredible.

Best hike of the trip so far by a significant measure.

Tower Area and Lost Lake

At this point we had been in the car almost 5 hours and I would have been content to call it a day with another 2 hours of driving yet to go but Angela suggested we still get out for one of the hikes we had originally picked out.

Lost Lake Loop Trail turned out to be a great excursion. Steep at the beginning, but a reasonably wide dirt path got the sweat going, but not overly taxing. Then it opened up into a huge meadow with a crystal clear lake surrounded by wildflowers – Sound of Music style.

If there was any vision in my head of where I want to build my forever home, this checks all of the boxes.

We also came across badger who felt the same way and had already put a claim to it. Fortunately we weren’t close to his den and he scampered away, paying us very little mind.

The trail also takes you to Yellowstone’s petrified tree, singular. I’m glad we hiked to it because the paved road that gets you there is almost a mile off the Grand Loop Road, parking is treacherous and severely limited, and there are no other ‘points of interest’ along the road.

The return hike wasn’t quite as great, largely due to the fact the trail is a pretty well worn single track rut about 8 inches deep making for an ankle breaker of a downhill trip.

Of special note – This trail starts at the historic Roosevelt Lodge located near a spot where good ‘ol Teddy himself used to camp. Old fashioned looking rocking chairs lines the whole front of the porch. Made for a quaint scene out of time.

Always Remember the Seven Principles of Leave No Trace

Plan Ahead and Prepare, Stay on Designated Trails, Dispose of Waste Properly, Don’t Take Anything You Didn’t Bring with You, Minimize Campfire Impacts, Respect Wildlife, Be Considerate of Other Visitors

Courtesy: Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics