Michael and I spent 8 days in Yellowstone National Park! This is part 1 of our adventure. It was an unforgettable experience full of wildlife sightings, hikes, beautiful scenery, and touristy things.
As I mentioned in my Summer Plans post Michael and I both quit our jobs to take the summer to explore, camp, and hike as much as we possibly can. We decided to start our summer adventure with an 8-day trip to Yellowstone National Park.
Yellowstone Day 0
The Drive
Michael and I started our trip to Yellowstone National Park at 6am on July 5. We decided to take the slightly longer/significantly prettier route to Gardiner, Montana, where we had a hotel room for the night, by driving through the east entrance of the park.
It took us about 9.5 hours to get to the east entrance and another 3 hours to get through the park. It took slightly longer than it should have, since we ran into some “bear jams” on the way. The delay was fine by me! We were lucky to spot 2 grizzlies, a black bear, and some bison on our way through. Since all the animals looked like tiny black dots from the road, we decided that renting a scope was necessary. We got one from the Yellowstone Forever store in Gardiner for $25/day.
We grabbed dinner and beers at Wonderland Cafe, picked up a few extra items at the grocery store, then checked into the Best Western and called it a night.
But before bed we hung outside of our hotel on a big wooden swing looking out on the Yellowstone river.
Yellowstone Day 1
Getting a Campsite
We woke up bright and early so that we could leave our hotel at 6am and get to the Slough Creek Campground by 7am in order to snag a campsite before they filled up. Since Slough Creek is a first come first serve campground it’s important to get there early. We were the fifth group in line and all of us were able to get sites. Hurray!
We ended up in campsite #3, right along the Slough Creek.
Slough Creek campground has 16 different campsites each with a picnic table, fire pit, and bear bins. The campground also has 2 vault toilets, trash and recycling bins, and a potable water. It’s $15/night.
Morning Wolf Watching
As we were leaving the campground to do some exploring we noticed a group of people staring off into the valley with scopes. Obviously we stopped to check it out. Good thing we did! There was a lone black wolf from the Junction Butte pack. It was the first wolf I’d ever seen and was such a cool experience. We were standing there with a group of other nature enthusiasts talking about where she was headed and how beautiful she was. It was all actually quite dorky, but I loved every minute. I thought we’d be lucky to see one wolf the entire trip, so having spotted one within our first few hours was amazing.
Afternoon & Evening Activities
We stopped at the market in Tower to grab a cup of coffee and walk to Tower Falls.
On the drive to the Canyon Visitors Center we saw a black bear cub from the side of the rode! We only spotted him for about 30 seconds, but still, so cool.
We made our way back to Slough Creek campground and did a little hike along the creek. It was a gorgeous area! Initially we planned on 4-6 miles, but ran out of trail at about 1.2 miles and had to turn around. Honestly, I wasn’t too upset about the hike being cut short. I was having one of those days where I was too much into my head and was nervous that I was going to pass out or get paced by my defibrillator. It’s an irrational thing. Fortunately it doesn’t happen too often, but it happens enough to still be very annoying.
We got back to the campsite and sat in the shade with a nice, cold beer and cheers-ed to our new funemployment adventure.
PS- That wild huckleberry lager is real tasty.
Afterwards we headed to explore the Mammoth Hot Springs area at the north end of Yellowstone. We walked on the boardwalk along the travertine terraces, which were formed from thermal water and limestone. It was so cool, so beautiful, and so weird! The thermal activity in Yellowstone is simply amazing.
We grabbed beer, salad, and pizza at K-Bar. It was ok. The restaurant was very hot and the service wasn’t great, but the food was decent.
On the way back to Slough Creek we saw a cinnamon black bear! At first everyone was saying it was a grizzly, because of the lighter coat; however, once you looked closer at the body it was easy to see that it was a black bear. You could easily spot him from the road, but it was fun to get a closer view through the scope.
Do you see his fluffy rump in the middle of the picture?
Then it was bedtime. The trip was off to a fantastic start!
Yellowstone Day 2
Morning Routine
On most mornings we woke up around 6:30am so that we could get out wolf watching shortly after 7am.
Our typical breakfast consisted of one of two options:
- Milk (dry milk powder + cold water) and granola
- Mountain House Breakfast Skillet on tortillas or English muffin
There was always pour over camp coffee. Always.
Morning Wolf Watching
We spotted a group of people with scopes set up in Lamar Valley and joined them. There were six of the eight members of the Junction Butte pack hovering around a recent bison kill (who died in the rut). Six wolves! There were four black wolves and two gray wolves. It was one of my favorite animal sightings of the whole trip!
Afternoon & Evening Activities
We were driving towards Grand Prismatic Springs and spotted a black bear near the road. It was the same one we saw the previous evening. He just got done doing some swimming in a nearby pond. I don’t blame him, it was hot!
A few miles further we stoped to check out a grizzly bear. As we were watching the bear through the scope some other visitors mentioned that they were just at Hayden Valley, where there was a bison kill site that had both grizzlies and wolves. We immediately packed up our scope and headed that way.
We were able to see three grizzlies and two wolves! The kill was a little over a mile away from where we were standing, so we had to strain to see it through our scope, but we still could make out the animals and it was awesome.
There were also some bison herds running around!
We continued on our drive towards Grand Prismatic Spring, stopping first at the Fountain Paint Pot. There was a .5-mile boardwalk around the area that went through hot springs, bacteria mats, mud pots, fumaroles, and geysers.
Then we made it to the Grand Prismatic Spring, which is the largest hot spring (and most beautiful in my opinion) in Yellowstone and in the US. There was another .5-mile boardwalk that went through the Midway Geyser Basin, so besides seeing Grand Prismatic Spring we also walked by the Excelsior Geyser, Opal Pool, and Turquoise Pool.
The colors around the pools/springs come from all the bacteria. Weird and beautiful. Oh science.
We stopped at Hayden Valley kill again on the way home. This time we saw nine grizzlies and two wolves! So crazy!
Yellowstone Day 3
Morning Wolf Watching
We went to the same place in Lamar Valley as we did the previous morning. This time we saw three wolves around the same kill. They were wandering up and down through the sage brush, which made them slightly tricky to follow. It helps to watch wolves with a group of people. There are so many eyes keep track of them!
Afternoon Hike & Activities
We hiked 6.5 miles on the Slough Creek Trail near our campsite. It was so beautiful and was my favorite hike of the whole trip.
Later in the evening we headed to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The Yellowstone River created the both the canyon and the falls. We went to Artist Point and had a view of the lower falls. Breathtaking.
On the way back to our campground Michael happened to look over and spot a big horn sheep! A) I couldn’t believe he spotted it. And B) I couldn’t believe he spotted it in time to pull over into the turnaround. We set up the scope and spotted a mom with two babies. The cutest darned things!
Evening Wolf Watching
We saw three blacks wolves in the same spot in Lamar Valley! We’ve been so so lucky with our wolf spotting.
Yellowstone Day 4
Morning Wolf Watching
Again, we went to the same spot in Lamar Valley. There must have been a lot of meat on that bison! We saw two black wolves and one gray wolf. Both the alpha male and alpha female from the Junction Butte pack were there.
This is our wolf watching view into Lamar Valley.
Not bad!
Afternoon Hike & Activities
We did the Hellroaring Creek hike, an out-and-back 4.5-mile trail down to a creek near the Tower-Roosevelt area. Unfortunately hellroaring was hella-boring. The beginning of the hike was pretty. We hiked down into a valley filled with wildflowers, went through some woods, and crossed a suspension bridge. Then we ended up walking through mounds of sage brush to the Hellroaring Creek. It was mosquito central! We also felt pretty exposed. You never know what could be hiding on the other side of the rolling hills.
Right after we turned around at the creek to head back to the trailhead Michael spotted a mama bear and her cub about 150 yards away. Yikes! I was so scared! At first Michael thought they were grizzlies since the cub had a more golden coat; however, it turns out they were black bears. Still scary! Luckily they were plenty far away from us and turned around to walk in the opposite direction.
So I guess the hike wasn’t that boring after all. And it was actually a pretty good workout! The hike back up to the trailhead was quite steep.
After the hike we headed to the Canyon Visitors Center area for a lunch of smoked salmon and triscuits. Have you tried the the dill sea salt & olive oil flavor yet?! They are so good. Perfect with salmon!
Anyways, after lunch we went to the camper services area to take a shower and do laundry. I had a lot of sunscreen, bug spray, and sweat caked on my body. The shower was glorious! Clean clothes never hurt either.
We took a quick detour up Chittenden Road near Mt Washburn. It was the cloudiest day we had then entire trip.
Evening Wolf Watching
This evening we didn’t see any people set up with scopes in the normal spot and we weren’t quite sure what to do! So we kept driving through Lamar Valley and spotted a group near the Pebble Creek campground on the east side of the park. I guess there was an elk kill near the creek. Unfortunately we missed a couple of the wolves and it started raining so everyone packed up their scopes. Such a bummer!
As always, we saw plenty of bison.
To Be Continued…
This post is getting long. I’ll continue with the rest of the adventure soon!