A Quick Guide to Exploring Yellowstone National Park

Best Tips for a short Yellowstone Trip

Yellowstone National Park is one of America’s most distinguished nature reserves. After our epic cross country road trip post, we wanted to take a deep dive for anyone wanting an exclusive visit. This post provides all the essential information for the park’s first time visitors. Here’s everything you need to for visiting just a few days!

Yellowstone National Park

This massive subalpine forest located in Wyoming is the world’s first national park. Yellowstone is almost 3,500 square miles, spread across multiple states, and has a plethora of lakes, canyons, rivers, and mountain ranges. The park is home to a diverse set of animals including bears, bison, elk, wolves, deer, and much more. YS is so huge you could easily spend a whole week just exploring everything. However for those short on time, an ambitious 3 days is good enough.

Wildlife at Yellowstone

The vast wilderness inside can be dangerous, so it’s best to take precautions while visiting. There is a good chance you’ll encounter wildlife, most likely bison or elk but be aware it is bear country. It’s recommended to maintain a distance of at least 100 yards (91 m) away from bears and wolves, and at least 25 yards (23 m) away from all other animals. Herds of bison or elk crossing the street are also very common so watch out for that.

Current Conditions and Alerts

Weather can change rapidly in Yellowstone (especially in the fall), which causes road closures. Stay updated on current weather patterns and closed roads here. Many of the park roads are now closed to automobiles for the season, so plan your trip for April 16th, 2021 when everything begins to reopen.

Getting to Yellowstone

If you’re not planning on driving across the entire country, there are a few other options. You can arrive by air, via one of the many nearby airports. These include the Yellowstone Airport, Jackson Hole, Bozeman Yellowstone International, or the Bert Mooney airports. Another option is flying into Salt Lake City and renting a car for the 5 hour trip.

Where to Stay

There are many accommodations to choose inside the park. You can reserve a cabin, hotel, or campground here. Be advised these options are extremely expensive and sell out pretty quick, but will save traveling time so you can explore more of the park. There are also campgrounds available on a first come, first serve basis that can save you tons of money. We decided to stay at a cheaper hotel an hour away but wasted a lot of time driving back and forth.

Where to Eat

Yellowstone isn’t exactly a foodie’s paradise but it has a few good places to eat. Some visitor centers have restaurants with good food like Old Faithful’s visitor center. Most of the hotels offer family restaurants too. There are also 7 gas stations with convenient stores to grab some snacks. If you’re in the Mammoth Springs area, You can drive 15mins north into Montana to grab some awesome food too. We ate some delicious steak at a place called Wonderland Café.

Yellowstone Highlights

The park is enormous, so first time visitors will have to choose which sites they want to see the most. I recommend the following highlights if you’re short on time. Keep in mind it takes around 3 hours to drive across the entire park. Here’s a map of Yellowstone to prepare with.

Old Faithful

The quintessential Yellowstone experience is waiting for the Old Faithful geyser to erupt. This iconic landmark “performs” about every 90 minutes on the upper geyser basin. It’s pretty awesome, but there are actually more impressive geysers around the area’s hiking trails. Castle geyser is one of my favorites. There’s also a bunch of thermal pools to see too.

Grand Prismatic Spring

Heading north from Old Faithful is another amazing hydro-thermal area in the Midway geyser basin. Here you can check out the Grand Prismatic Spring, which is the largest hot spring in Yellowstone. You can walk the trails between the hot springs, but if you want the most picturesque view of the lake, you’ll need to hike the Fairy Falls Trail. The trail is about a mile round trip but the views are splendid.

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Move over Arizona, Yellowstone has its own grand canyon. There are many overlooks to view the canyon from all different angles. Try visiting the upper and lower falls, and the Yellowstone River, which has carved the canyon’s geological features over thousands of years.

Mammoth Hot Springs

About 2 hours north of Old Faithful, you’ll find limestone hills housing multiples hot springs. Mammoth Hot Springs offer many boardwalk trails to enjoy the various hydro-thermal features. Herds of elk frequent this area so you may see some. If you’re interested in finding wolves, many photographers line up around the Norris Canyon rd around dusk so you might get lucky.

Yellowstone Lake

In the east side you’ll find the largest lake in Wyoming. Yellowstone Lake is the highest elevation lake in the North American continent, and is more than 20 miles long and 14 miles wide! The water stays very cold year round, so swimming is not a good idea.

Yellowstone is one of America’s best national parks. With all the diverse geological features, it felt like we were in another world. I would recommend spending at least 3 full days so you can get the highlights. If you need some tips on planning a road trip across the country, check out this blog. Thanks for reading and keep leveling up!

Here’s our Yellowstone travel vlog with the best highlights you must see if you have only 2 days to spend in the park!