MTgirl's Yellowstone and Grand Teton travel thread

I can imagine how bad and obnoxious the crowds are there now...22 years ago I worked on a ranch north of Jackson and would head up the the park on my day off. Traffic was nuts then. Bet people are awful now.

 

OK, so here it goes:

The first stop on my adventure was Denver, Colorado. There I met my family and we prepped out trucks for our adventure up to Breakneck Pass which is 2 hours southwest of Denver. Breakneck Pass is a just outside of FairPlay, Co and is a fairly easy drive up the mountain. Some hairy spots and some great water crossings but overall moderate. We had a blast camping over the weekend and we got some great hiking in and also I caught 5 Brookies in a short afternoon of Fly Fishing. We set up camp on a Saturday morning and packed up for Yellowstone on Monday morning.


On Monday we drove to North and made it to Riverton, Wyoming. Interesting little town of about 11,000 people. We stayed just long enough to spend the night and gas up in the morning.

Tuesday we drove in to the Teton/Yellowstone area and my gosh is the place awe inspiring. First we drove through the Bridger/teton Nat'l Forest.

It is very beautiful but there also many dead trees mixed among the forest. Very early on in the forest there are these electronic signs warning people to,"Stay In Your Vehicles! Bears on the Road ahead", which gives first time people to the area some cause for excitement, others not so much as about 500 yards up the road are a couple bicyclists just cruising up the mountain. We snickered and hoped that they didn't get eaten for dinner. We realized that the signs are all precautionary and had a laugh anyway.

Further on the first thing you see from our direction is the Grand Tetons. Wow! What a sight!

Please excuse some of the pictures, many of them I took on my Go-Pro through a bug covered windshield. Anyway, not long after we roll into the area do we see our first wildlife; Wile E. Coyote himself.
I didn't get a pic but it was great to see him saunter across the road in front of us. Shortly after the coyote sighting we come across the ever present halting of traffic for a wildlife sighting. Our first herd of Bison! Those pics I cannot find at the moment but it was pretty great. Most were quite far away but one mother and her calf walked across the road ahead of us. It was quite beautiful and my kids loved it. We decided to put the calf in the back of the truck....ha, kidding.


When we rolled into Grand Tetons we found out that the only camp grounds with availability were Colter Bay, Gros Venture and Lizard Creek. We stayed at Colter Bay for the duration of our trip and it was pretty great, especially since it served us only as a site to pitch the tents and sleep. Looking back, I probably would have chosen Lizard Creek as it is slightly more centrally located. Oh well we had a good time and just had a few more miles to drive everyday to get to our destinations.

When you are in Yellowstone for a few days you learn to get the lay of the land very quickly. We knew the first day that we were there that we wanted to check out Old Faithful right away. We thought we'd get it out of the way and then off to less crowded spots. It was a pretty wonderful place to be if you don't mind crowds. There was rain and a bad thunderstorm when we first saw it so it had to be from a distance.
That first day we also stopped and saw the West Thumb Geyser Basin. That was impressive and very beautiful.


The second and third days were filled with hopping from basin to basin and searching for all the wildlife we could see.
Some of our favorite moments were when we came upon another traffic jam of people watching and we joined in the fun as we saw a bear eating a bison.



Some others include:


There are so many more that I will have to put together an album.

One thing that I noticed on our adventure is how stupid will go to pretty ridiculous lengths for a picture. And I'm not trying to stereo type or anything but the people who were hands down the craziest when it came to getting "the Shot" were Asians. Maybe that was due to the fact that there were so many of them that it just stood out. They sure did perilously go out of their way to take pictures. I of course had my camera(s) but honestly I didn't use them as much as I could have. I truly just enjoyed the adventure with my own two eyes most of the time. I don't regret a second of it either.

Another scary moment was when this enormous Bison was crossing over into a crowded pull off area and this man and his three stupid teenage daughters jumped out of their huge SUV to take pictures of this animal and were within 10 feet of the beast. They had just hopped out of the car too, so all three would have been D.E.A.D had the bison felt threatened and decided to attack. Overall people behaved but it is just a bit crazy how busy the place gets. The good part of it was that even though it was busy, we didn't have to wait in lines much at all for anything.

We spent our days seeing the sights and then stopping at the road side picnic areas for lunch and dinner and of course tons of Fly Fishing on the Yellowstone River, the Gibbon River and also the Firehole River. That for sure was not the best fishing I've ever done but the scenery was hard to beat. I think these fishes stay well hidden except early in the AM or in the evening. In the 3 or 4 rivers I fished I only caught a Brown and one Cutthroat. The place I hit pay dirt was Taggart Lake in GTNP. I slayed about 8 Brookies and a few Cutthroat over about a 2 hr period. That backdrop was amazing as well.



Yellowstone was amazing and I can't wait until I am back there. I want to make time for a trip in the Fall sometime soon. Maybe Lisa can be my personal guide?!! (I was going to say escort but that may have taken on a slightly different meaning Thanks for your help with things Lisa. Next visit I most defintiely want to see more of the North side and do some wandering around Montana.

 

Oh Yea, we also picked up a new pup on the way home!!!

This is Arlo!

 

Hello MTgirl,
Lots of reading, so I'm trying to jump all that.
My family and I will be visiting west Yellowstone in two years(long time away I know) and I was wondering how many Tacoma trails are there if any???
Thx, Roger

 

Thanks a ton

 

Will do, going to wait till I get home next weekend.
Thanks and your awesome

 

This thread/guide is amazing. My wife and I woke up Christmas morning 2015 at the Mammoth Hot Springs Lodge to 5 degree temps and went out to drive around and see the park on the fresh powdered roads. There was one other car out, sadly an asshole in an FJ Cruiser who was impatient with bison and laid on the horn at 7am to clear them from his path.

Regardless, we got some amazing pictures and an even more amazing experience. I can't wait to be back out west to experience the park again. Best Christmas ever.

 

I can't remember the state, but it definitely wasn't a local! The driver arrived minutes after us at the lodge and was aggressive toward the staff right away, just an overall nasty person. But I can understand the sentiment of seeing one and seeing them all. I grew up near a canyon full of burros that loved to create midnight traffic stops.

 

I will be leaving East Tennessee in the morning for a week in Yellowstone, and this thread has made me more excited than I already was. I wish i could have my truck there to see more of the sights, but sadly it will be staying at home. So far we have 2 days of fly-fishing planned and plenty of hiking. Really looking forward to it!