Witnessing the stunning, natural beauty of Yellowstone National Park

The day after I saw the northern lights in person for the first time, I didn’t think the trip back to Seattle could get any better. And then we hit Yellowstone.

Since we knew we would be spending a lot of time in the park where dogs aren’t allowed, we booked into a campground so we would have hookups. We chose the Sun Outdoors Yellowstone North in Gardiner, MT and it was $265.65 for 3 nights in May. Pretty pricey but it was only 5 minutes from the park. We didn’t spend much time at the campground itself but it was worth it to know Loki had air conditioning and our temperature sensor was online.

The first day we arrived and unpacked and then immediately headed into the park for sunset at the Lamar Valley. We saw all kinds of wildlife including bison, elk, coyotes, grizzly bears, a black bear, and prairie dogs. The grizzlies were chowing down on some kind of carcass which was cool to witness. We also saw coyotes howling in amongst a herd of bison which even though both of us had heard coyotes howl, we’d never actually witnessed it.

Day two was all about the geothermal. I might never get the smell of rotten eggs out of my nostrils but it was worth it for all the beauty. We managed to hit all the major areas except for the Grand Prismatic because of parking. We had lunch at the Old Faithful cafe and then got to see it erupt in all its glory with about 500 of our closest friends. We came very close to a bison when on a short hike we rounded the corner and it was right next to the path. Thankfully there was room to get by but there is something deeply unsettling about being that close to such a huge animal. They’re beautiful creatures but I would not want to get on the wrong side of one.

Our final day was all about geography. We started out at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and while I haven’t seen the OG this one is named after (but will later this year!) I think it’s an apt moniker. We managed to get there just ahead of a tour bus that dropped off about 200 people who didn’t understand personal space, and then we spent the rest of the morning staying ahead of them. I guess tour buses aren’t allowed in on the weekends but even with the tour bus there was less people in the park on a weekday for sure. After doing the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon we drove all the way to the bottom of the park to see Yellowstone Lake and the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. Amazingly in mid-May the lake was still mostly frozen which gave it a very ethereal look. You can walk around the hotel and find out the history of it. We brought sandwiches with us from the RV so we didn’t eat there but there is a cafe with some sandwiches available.

And that was it for our time at Yellowstone. It was a quick 3 days but I think we managed to fit a lot in, while leaving enough to do that we’ll definitely need to go back at some point.