Yellowstone National Park

• krambman

  

  Has anyone been there? I went out there the beginning of this summer (right after their winter ended, so it was still in the mid 60's in the middle of June!) and I was just thinking about it earlier today. I've been a lot of different places around this great country of ours (Death Valley, Acadia, Niagara Falls, Valley of Fire, Grand Sequoia, etc.), and Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons easily topped them all as the coolest place I've ever been. We only spent two days in Yellowstone and a Day in the Tetons which wasn't close to enough time. I can't wait to make it back some day. My favorite sports in Yellowstone were Geyser Basin of course and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
  
  The Ken Burns documentary was right, the National Parks really are America's best idea! Every time I go to one I'm overwhelmed by how amazing and diverse the natural landscape of this country is.
  
  Anyone else been to Yellowstone (or any of our national parks really) and care to share some memories?
  
  
  
  Here are a few pictures we took on our trip.
  
  
  One of the waterfalls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
  
  
  Old faithful
  
  
  Morning Glory Hot Springs
  
  
  An elk
  
  
  A mama bear with two cubs.
• OneBuckeye

  

  Yellowstone is awesome, tetons are my favorite mountains.... been there in the summer and winter (for skiing). Breathtaking no matter what time of year it is. Jackson Hole is an awesome town as well.
• krambman

  

  OneBuckeye wrote: Yellowstone is awesome, tetons are my favorite mountains.... been there in the summer and winter (for skiing). Breathtaking no matter what time of year it is. Jackson Hole is an awesome town as well.

  Yeah, we stayed two night in Jackson Hole while we were there. Didn't get to see the town much because we were in the park all day, but it looked like a pretty sweet town. Would love to stay there again sometime and spend a bit more time exploring the town. We did go to church there and the church had a big picture window behind the pulpit with a mountain behind it. Such a cool church design!
• Sykotyk

  

  I went there last October for my 2nd anniversary. Very nice. You're right, there's not enough time to explore that park in only two days. Grand Teton was amazing as well.
  
  I've been to Arches, Sequoia, Redwood, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Everglades, Smoky Mountain, Mammoth Cave, Arcadia and have flown over the Grand Canyon. I want to see Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Grand Canyon (up close), Yosemite, Lassen Volcanic, Crater Lake, Big Bend, Rocky Mountain, Mesa Verde, and Sand Dunes some day. As well as the other major parks of Utah: Canyonlands, Zion, and Bryce.
  
  I also want to get a second look at Craters of the Moon in Idaho, Gooseneck, and Goblin Valley state parks.
  
  Sykotyk
• j_crazy

  

  that's an elk homie. not a mule deer.
  
  I lived in Cody for 1 year and Dubois for 1.5 years. I can say you'll never have enough time to see all of Yellowstone. We spent 40% of our summer weekends in Yellowstone and we didn't see nearly as much as I would have liked.
  
  I want to do Yosemite and Sequoia at some point in the near future, but Teton/Yellowstone will be hard to top.
• Sykotyk

  

  krambman wrote:

  OneBuckeye wrote: Yellowstone is awesome, tetons are my favorite mountains.... been there in the summer and winter (for skiing). Breathtaking no matter what time of year it is. Jackson Hole is an awesome town as well.

  Yeah, we stayed two night in Jackson Hole while we were there. Didn't get to see the town much because we were in the park all day, but it looked like a pretty sweet town. Would love to stay there again sometime and spend a bit more time exploring the town. We did go to church there and the church had a big picture window behind the pulpit with a mountain behind it. Such a cool church design!

  We stayed the first night in Jackson Hole, and the second night at the Snow Lodge inside the park.
  
  Jackson Hole was fun. Was a Friday night, went over to see the H.S. game (Jackson Hole vs. Worland). Awesome with the mountains as the backdrop to the stadium.
  
  Sykotyk
• OneBuckeye

  

  I would like to go WW rafting down the snake river there... ala The River Wild!
• tcby99

  would love to go someday.
• krambman

  

  Sykotyk wrote: I also want to get a second look at Craters of the Moon in Idaho, Gooseneck, and Goblin Valley state parks.

  My parents live like 90 minutes from Craters of the Moon and they've all been there, even took my sister out there, but I still haven't been yet.
  We have gone out to the South Hills several times and have seen some other pretty cool places. They live in Twin Falls, home of the Perrine Bridge, which is the only place in the US where BASE jumping is legal 365 days a year, and I still haven't seen anyone jump yet either.
  

  j_crazy wrote: that's an elk homie. not a mule deer.

  I fixed it. I wasn't sure which it was but we saw more mule deers than anything else so I just guessed.
• coyotes22

  

  I have been to Yosemite, Mt. Lasen and Mt. Shasta.
• OneBuckeye

  

  Best thing about Yellowstone... Bison prime rib. YUM!
• rentilrebo

  I loved Teton and Yellowstone but I enjoyed Glacier more. I only got to spend two days in Yellowstone and only a drive through Tetons and I am planning on going back next summer I think.
• j_crazy

  

  Not yellowstone, but a view out the back of my house in Cody.
  
  
  
  Here's me in Yellowstone:
  
  
• Swamp Fox

  My wife and I took a trip out West several years ago and went through the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. On our way back from Idaho we stopped at Yellowstone and were amazed at the beauty and grandeur of the Park. We are both animal lovers so we enjoyed the various animals we were able to see. We also were interested in the various hot springs bubbling out of the ground and of course we sat and waited for Old Faithful to "blow her top" and she did. We had a nice lunch at the lodge immediately adjacent to the Old Faithful site and just really enjoyed the entire Yellowstone experience. We would go back at the drop of a hat. When we left, we exited on the Eastern Rim side and they were doing extensive repairs to the road. Guard rails had been removed and things got really exciting whenever a large Motor Home would come at us from the other direction. we finally reached the exit and then drove about 100 miles of the most beautiful and certaily the highest elevated highway I had ever driven....but it, like Yellowstone, was breathtaking.
• Apple

  

  Yellowstone is awesome. I've been there a couple times and will no doubt go back. Last summer I went to Alaska and went to Denali, though didn't get to see the peak. It too, was incredible! ...saw 11 grizzly bears one day.
• redfalcon

  

  Yellowstone is great, but the tetons are even better, in my opinion. Old faithful has become rather sporadic since the 90s, and is way to crowded and not that impressive, but with the grand canyon of the yellowstone and upper and lower falls, I think it is one of the coolest places on earth.
• j_crazy

  

  redfalcon wrote: Yellowstone is great, but the tetons are even better, in my opinion. Old faithful has become rather sporadic since the 90s, and is way to crowded and not that impressive, but with the grand canyon of the yellowstone and upper and lower falls, I think it is one of the coolest places on earth.

  
  the geyser itself is still pretty regular, but the violence of the eruptions is sporadic. I've seen it 15 times and I can think of 2 duds and 3 really violent eruptions. the crowds from june 10 - august 15 at old faithful are ludicrous.
  
  the upper falls and mammoth in september are the coolest things about yellowstone.
• krambman

  

  j_crazy wrote:

  redfalcon wrote: Yellowstone is great, but the tetons are even better, in my opinion. Old faithful has become rather sporadic since the 90s, and is way to crowded and not that impressive, but with the grand canyon of the yellowstone and upper and lower falls, I think it is one of the coolest places on earth.

  
  the geyser itself is still pretty regular, but the violence of the eruptions is sporadic. I've seen it 15 times and I can think of 2 duds and 3 really violent eruptions. the crowds from june 10 - august 15 at old faithful are ludicrous.
  
  the upper falls and mammoth in september are the coolest things about yellowstone.

  Yeah, Old Faithful still goes off every 94 minutes or so, but the magnitude does vary. We pulled into the parking lot just as it was erupting so we watched it from the car. We then had lunch and went to watch it "up close" and the eruption was twice as big and lasted twice as long as the eruption when we pulled in.
  
  My favorite geyser was Fountain Geyser. It only erupts every 4-6 hours and goes for about 30 minutes. And unlike Old Faithful where you sit 100 yards or more away from it, we were only 20-30 feet away, and it erupts up to 50 feet.
  
  We also saw a lot of activity at Giant Geyser, but no eruption. Not sure if it every did erupt, but it hadn't erupted in over a year and what we saw was the most active it had been since it's last eruption. It is very sporadic and they have no way of telling when it will erupt because it isn't very often.
• coyotes22

  

  Apple wrote: Yellowstone is awesome. I've been there a couple times and will no doubt go back. Last summer I went to Alaska and went to Denali, though didn't get to see the peak. It too, was incredible! ...saw 11 grizzly bears one day.

  I would love to see Alaska. I bet you got some good pics from there.
  
  I hear it is beautiful up there!!