Written by Kim
Wow just wow! We left our hotel in Montana at o dark thirty (6:20 am) that’s a saying my good friend, Kathryn, always used! We had a 2 1/2 hour drive to the North East entrance of Yellowstone. We read the drive over Beartooth Pass was spectacular and they were correct.
Yellowstone is an incredibly massive place. Everything is huge and it takes a long time to get around. The park spans an area of 3,468.4 sq and was the first US National Park sanctioned by Ulysses Grant March 1, 1872. The park is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features. It was named “Rock Yellow River” by Native Americans when the first French explorers arrived. The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River. The river is the heart of the ecosystem. Over time rock yellow river name was translated to Yellowstone. Lowest altitude is 5,000 feet and the highest point is nearly 11,000. We had a great day despite the 40 degree, rainy weather. Nothing was stopping us from enjoying this beauty.
Roosevelt loved to enjoy the nature of the park to escape the people and pressure of presidency. He didn’t even let secret service join him while he camped. No that’s not Teddy fishing 🤪
The ecosystem of Yellowstone is the largest remaining continuous stretch of mostly undeveloped pristine land in the contiguous United States, considered the world’s largest intact ecosystem in the northern temperate zone. Grey wolves prey on elk & bison so extinction of wolves put ecosystem out of balance. They were reintroduced in the 90s to park and has 300 now. The coyotes are prey for wolves but more adaptable so were the kings when there were no wolves but now have their place in ecosystem. There are lots of black and grizzly bear. We didn’t see one but the audio tour reminded us to bring our bear spray if we went on hikes in certain parts of the park. Oh no!
My favorite are the bison, I even bought a little wooden carved bison to put on my bookshelf to remind me of our trip. We don’t buy a lot of souvenirs but I needed a bison! Bison were hunted because they were main source of food for Indians to the point where millions of bison dwindled to 300. Yellowstone bought 21 bison from a rancher to revitalize the population. Now there are about 5,000. There are about 20,000 elk. Yellowstone has the oldest bison herd in the US.
The waterfalls were amazing. Undine Falls was named for Scandinavian water spirit where a woman’s soul was taken unless she married a mortal. Sound familiar was the inspiration for The Little Mermaid which is near and dear to my heart since I watched it hundreds of times with my daughter, Heather.
There are lots of geothermal pools in the Yellowstone ecosystem, It has 500 geysers. Yellowstone was a volcano that’s why so many geysers. Geysers under surface is water heated by volcanic rock creates steam that erupts.
Mammoth Hot Springs. Incredible boardwalks for was 1. 5 mile hike with tons of stairs! Stairs are good for me although I hate them when we’re doing them.
Yellowstone Lake is huge and covers 136 miles – it’s the largest freshwater lake at highest elevation in North America over 7,000 ft. Even though its average depth is 139 feet, in winter the lake freezes 2 feet deep because of the elevation. Isai Lake sits in on the continental divide and is the only lake in the world that flows into 2 different oceans. The west side flows into Pacific and east flows into the Atlantic. That is pretty cool!
We left the park around 6 pm from the West Entrance. The park loop roads are like a figure 8 so we did the north first. We used our app Action tour guide but Alex created our first going counterclockwise from the northeast on the northern part then crossing the canyon village shortcut and then following the clockwise route in the south to head to the western exit. The park was pretty crowded for a rainy Tuesday in September. We kept saying we can’t imagine a weekend in summer! Some logistics were odd. By Old Faithful they have parking for several hundred cars but 2 stalls in the ladies room. You can imagine that line – worse than a concert.
We booked a hotel in Idaho since prices near the park were outrageous. Our drive to the hotel was 1 1/2 hours. We had our first minor mishap tonight. I found us a restaurant in Idaho Falls which was good but as we were eating Alex realized our hotel was 20 minutes outside Idaho Falls back in the direction we came so we had an extra 40 minutes of driving on an already long day. We didn’t check into the hotel till 9:30. It was a very long day with 15,000 steps but well worth it. Yellowstone is a must see (even if I didn’t get to see John Dutton or Rip who Alex reminded me live on the ranch and not in the park! 🤪😜
Today we are heading across Idaho from Idaho Falls (really Rexburg) are to Boise. It’s about a 5 hour drive so we’re taking a rest / chore day today to do laundry, etc. We’re staying in a cute boutique hotel in Boise for the next 2 days so I’ll share that tomorrow. Until then….
