After our afternoon, evening, and overnight in Cody, WY, we set off to visit Yellowstone National Park. We planned to spend two days in the park and since the road through the park is approximately a figure eight, we would be doing the east side on the first day and the west side on the second, spending the night in West Yellowstone in Montana.
We entered at the East Entrance, followed the road into the center and then around the loop going north and then west, and exited at the West Entrance.
We got the boys Yellowstone shirts the previous day and they wanted to wear them in the park!
We stopped in various places along the way to snap photos and take in the landscape! There are a lot of different types of land features in Yellowstone, including rivers, canyons, forests, springs, and geysers.
We got so excited when we spotted our first bison. Later we laughed…
But he was cute, getting all dusty!
This was our first look at a hot spring area.
It was full of bubbling mud or clay.
Then we came across this amazing herd and you’ll see why it was funny that we were excited by one bison! (One was in the street)
A very interesting area was the Mammoth Hot Springs, which was formed over thousands of years as hot water cooled and calcified.
Another beautiful area we saw was the Norris Geyser Basin. Most of the areas have wooden walkways to follow and keep you away from the hot steam.
One of the last spots we visited that first day was called the Artist’s Paint Pots, where the ground features looked like colorful pots of paint. It was set back from the parking lot so it was a bit of a walk to get there! The area was a great way to wrap up the day.
On the way out the West Exit, we got caught in a huge line of traffic because people were pulling over to see an elk. I thought we’d never get out of there! I didn’t get any photos of where we stayed that night, but Montana was a new state for us! Next week I’ll share what we saw on our second day in the park!