Taryn's Mad Hatter Adventures

Tales from my (mostly Disney) travels!
Taryn's Mad Hatter Adventures
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  • Category: Yellowstone

    • Yellowstone National Park–Grand Prismatic Spring, Old Faithful

      Posted at 6:02 pm by taryngirl, on May 16, 2023

      6/27/22

      Today was our second day in Yellowstone National Park. We just stayed one night at the Kelly Inn West Yellowstone, so had easy access at the west entrance. I highly encourage staying in West Yellowstone! There are many hotels and restaurants, and it’s super easy to drive into the park.

      Since it was night time when we arrived, here are some daytime pics of the hotel:

      The rooms here were very nice and clean. There was a complimentary breakfast that was very good. Many different options available for everyone. Sadly I have no pics of it or the actual room!

      Upon entering the park, we headed south towards the Midway Geyser Basin, which is where the Grand Prismatic Spring is located. When researching the trip, I knew this was one destination I definitely wanted to visit! This area was veryyyyy busy. The small parking lot was completely full and we waited in a long line of cars to park one by one as people left their spots. In hindsight, we left the hotel around 10 a.m. and finally were able to park around 11:30 a.m. If you are interested in this area, I would get there in the early morning!

      This is one view of the Excelsior Geyser while walking over the bridge at the “You Are Here” on the map.

      Next was the Grand Prismatic Spring!

      Absolutely amazing!

      It was everything I thought it would be! If you want to see it from above, there is a little trail you can walk on accessible from a different area.

      This blew my mind:

      Nature is actually amazing and at times incomprehensible! Here you can see some bison hoof prints just off of the boardwalk where we were walking.

      It’s hard to believe that flowers can grow here!

      We left here and headed towards Old Faithful, which was our other stop for this day. We caught this fella just hanging next to the road.

      We had an exciting moment on the way to Old Faithful. There were tons of cars pulled over, and park rangers were out with cones directly traffic along. This could only mean one thing….

      You can’t see it! But it’s a momma bear with her 2 cubs. I could not get a good pic sadly. We got to talk to a park ranger who was standing there. The momma bear was staying down close to the road because there was a male bear that was after her cubs.

      We continued on to Old Faithful, and arrived here around 1 p.m.

      We were just in time for the geyser to go off! We walked around to this side where we were pleasantly surprised by a bison just laying around in front of it. There was a park ranger standing here as well just keeping tabs on him and his movement.

      What an amazing sight to see! This guy was so unbothered by everything…the crowd of people watching, the geyser going off, the oohhs and ahhs from the crowd…

      We actually had NO idea that there were more geysers right around here. Had we not seen the sign I posted above by where we were standing waiting for Old Faithful, we would not have even known! We continued on around the trail.

      You could see the Old Faithful Inn in the distance from the trail.

      Here are just some of the things we saw along the trail:

      This interesting insect landed on Kinsey.

      It was about this point in our walk that we noticed some scurrying around. Tour operators who were leading groups of people starting briskly moving around. I caught wind of “this is like the trifecta, this rarely happens, we need to move over here, etc. etc.” What I learned was the Beehive Geyser was about to erupt. This geyser is taller than Old Faithful, and the eruptions last about a minute longer than Old Faithful. It usually erupts only two times per day, so we just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

      We were exhausted yet again, but I was determined to see more wildlife. So we drove counter clockwise around the lower loop again so we could go past Hayden Valley.

      This bird was practically flying parallel with us, but it was so far away. I had to use my good camera while driving in the car, so this is the best I could get!

      Along the way, we hit a small bison jam.

      We exited the park at the west entrance. Our next hotel was in Island Park just south of West Yellowstone. We stopped for dinner in West Yellowstone because we had not had time to explore there yet. There were many fabulous, reasonably priced souvenir shops, and several restaurants to choose from. We decided on this one, which had good reviews online, and was located right near the shops where we were.

      The portions here were HUGE! For some reason I only have a pic of my daughter’s meal, which was the Turkey Dinner. Everyone was happy with their food. There was just so much of it! We left here, shopped some more, and found a fabulous candy store that also had ice cream.

      Overall, it was a great day again!

      This marks the end of our trip. This night we stayed in a hotel, got up early the next morning, and drove to Bozeman to catch our flight home. The drive from here to Bozeman was also so beautiful! So many ranches, different landscapes, and just nature’s beauty.

      I am so glad we took this trip with our teenage girls. Even though they were dreading it from the beginning because they are so used to the beach, THEY LOVED IT! We all still talk about it.

      Posted in Out West, Uncategorized, Yellowstone | 0 Comments | Tagged Grand Prismatic Spring, Old Faithful, Out West, Yellowstone, Yellowstone National Park
    • Yellowstone National Park–Old Faithful (Day 1)

      Posted at 11:18 am by taryngirl, on April 24, 2023

      6/25/22

      Picking up where we left off on my last post…we had just finished Yellowstone entering at the south entrance and made our way counter clockwise around the lower loop.

      We were so tired and were on our way back to the hotel, but the route we were taking went directly past OLD FAITHFUL! How could we not stop??

      The complex in this area is huge! Besides the actual geyser(s), there is an education building, store, Old Faithful Inn and more. We parked and headed directly to Old Faithful. It was supposed to erupt within the next 15 minutes, so we had good timing. It was late afternoon/early evening by this time. Around part of it is a boardwalk area with seating. We found an empty spot to wait and watch. This little guy came to join us:

      We didn’t have to wait very long, and there she blows! I would caution you to pay attention to which way the wind may be blowing. If it’s blowing towards you, think about moving to a different spot so you can see.

      We did come here another day and I have more photos that I will include in that post!

      After watching, we headed over to check out the Old Faithful Inn.

      The lobby was beautiful and rustic. Disney’s Wilderness Lodge is modeled after this hotel.

      We had one more day planned here in Yellowstone, so we headed back to eat dinner at our lodge (Headwaters at Flagg Ranch). The name of the restaurant was Sheffields. They are open daily for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I thought I took a picture of the menu, but in my hangry moment, I guess I forgot! I do know we were starving, and everything on the menu looked good. Here’s what we ordered:

      Pork Pot Stickers:

      These were realllyyyyyy good!

      Kid’s Meal, Hot Dog and Fries

      Also good! She ate it all.

      Pasta Alfredo with Broccoli and Chicken

      Also good! Huge portion. She could not even eat 1/4 of it.

      Ribeye with Loaded Baked Potato and Veggies

      This was very good too!

      Overall, we had a really good meal.

      Next up….Grand Teton National Park!

      Posted in Out West, Uncategorized, Yellowstone | 0 Comments | Tagged Old Faithful, Out West, Yellowstone National Park
    • Yellowstone National Park–Mud Volcano, Upper Falls, Lower Falls, Norris Geyser Basin

      Posted at 1:02 pm by taryngirl, on December 1, 2022

      6/25/22

      Our next stop around the loop was the Mud Volcano area. This was a small trail, and this entire area had a sulphur smell.

      View from the parking lot towards Dragon’s Mouth Spring.:

      Dragon’s Mouth Spring:

      Mud Volcano:

      Mud Caldron:

      This whole area was so interesting! So many different things all in one area! You can see the Yellowstone River here.

      While we were on this trail….this spectacular event happened! Walking on the trail around this area, and you could hear a rumbling coming. A bunch of bison came running! There was no time to even react or move out of the way. Kind of scary with nowhere to go. Standing still was the best option at this point.

      After leaving the Mud Volcano area, we continued on to the Upper and Lower Falls.

      This is just part of Hayden Valley. This is typically an area where you can see a lot of wildlife.

      View of the Upper Falls:

      This view was just unbelievable! The changes in terrain, they types and amount of trees…it was all just amazing! You could see hoof prints in the sides of this. I was looking the entire time for mountain goats but sadly did not see any.

      View of the Lower Falls:

      We really wanted to get to Grand Prismatic, but we were starting to get tired. We decided to continue on and just make a couple of stops before returning to our hotel. Here you can see the road closure due to the flood. This was going north at Norris:

      We stopped at the Norris Geyser Basin to explore a little bit.

      Here you can see the boardwalk that goes throughout the different geysers.

      Overall, our day was great! There was so much exploring, and so much more yet to come.

      Up next…Old Faithful! We couldn’t resist stopping on the way home to the hotel and dinner.

      Posted in Out West, Uncategorized, Yellowstone | 0 Comments | Tagged Out West, Yellowstone National Park
    • Yellowstone National Park – West Thumb, Lake Village, Fishing Bridge

      Posted at 2:06 pm by taryngirl, on November 1, 2022

      6/25/2022

      Two weeks prior to us leaving for this trip, Yellowstone National park experienced devastating flooding and was actually completely closed for a little bit. We were unsure what was going to happen for our time there, but figured there was enough all around that we could do just in case the park was totally closed. The trip was still on! The north entrance near Gardiner was heavily affected and that is where we were to spend some of our trip. We scrambled to secure different accommodations in other areas of the park, and rearrange our touring plans. Once the park did reopen, they instituted a license plate entrance system. Plates ending in odd numbers could enter on odd days and even on even. This split our group up but it ended up working out just fine.

      We arrived at our lodging late the night of the 24th after leaving Jackson Hole. The drive was about an hour to get to Headwaters Lodge Flagg Ranch, which is located near the southern entrance to Yellowstone. It was dark and we couldn’t see a thing…but we eventually found our cabin through some trial and error!

      Fun fact…the heat was not automatically turned on in our room, and we woke up in the morning with the temp around 46 degrees! The room was perfect for what we needed. There was no television or mini fridge. I loved the location and would definitely stay here again! Here are the girls on our cute little porch in the morning before we headed out to the park. It was COLD! High 30s I think in the morning??

      We left around 7:30 a.m. Our plan for this day was to enter at the south entrance and go counter clockwise around the lower loop as far as we could get before reaching our physical limit. The lower loop was 96 miles. We were using the GyPSy Guide app for this park as well.

      We couldn’t resist pulling over to catch some amazing views…and we weren’t even through the gates yet!

      When we got to the entrance, they did have staff out checking license plates. There was no traffic back up for us to get in.

      Our first real stop was West Thumb Geyser Basin. This area bordered Yellowstone Lake and the views were simply breathtaking! There were so many different geysers and springs.

      (As a note, just recently someone died here. They found a foot floating in a shoe and that was all that was left of the body. So please take these signs seriously!)

      It was COLD this morning! There were some slick spots on the boardwalk while walking around.

      There were so many little “pools!” I tried to take a photo of the name in front so I would remember.

      Yellowstone Lake:

      Super interesting!!!

      Freezing!

      After leaving West Thumb, we continued our drive around the lower loop towards Lake Village and Fishing Bridge.

      We finally spotted our first wildlife in the park!

      This is one of my favorite pics from the whole trip!

      We made a small pit stop, as suggested by our Gypsy app.

      We saw some really neat looking ducks! The currents were pretty strong and they were just bobbing along like nothing was happening!

      Up next…Yellowstone National Park Part 2!

      Posted in Out West, Uncategorized, Yellowstone | 0 Comments | Tagged National Park, Out West, Yellowstone
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