Yellowstone and Grand Teton

Stage 1: Canyon Campground, the Lamar Valley, and Hayden Valley

We entered the park via the Northeast Entrance and came down the Lamar Valley towards our first campground at Canyon. One of my only regrets is that we only came through Lamar in the afternoon on our first day. That meant we had no real chance of seeing wolves as you need to be there early or late, and that just wasn't going to work out with Lily.

We did see our first Yellowstone bison in Lamar. Hilariously, we couldn't tell if the first one we saw was a bison or bear because it was so far away and then we drove a few hundred yards down the road and found a whole heard of bison, which solved the mystery.

Our first two nights were spent in Canyon, adjacent to the Yellowstone River and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone with its two primary waterfalls. We visited the South Rim the first day and the North Rim on the second, including hiking down and back up to the brink of the lower falls. Lily played tour guide and did a nice job hiking.

The highlight of the first 2.5 days was either the North Rim view, or our trip through Hayden Valley. Lily loved her first encounter with the thermal features of the park, including the stinky, steamy springs at Mud Volcano. They're not as famous as the features on the other side of the park but you get closer and they're more constantly active. We also had a coyote run right across the trail in front of us. A park ranger we talked to was surprised we saw one there. It ended up being the largest carnivore that we saw in the park. The valley did also show us more bison, our first elk (that we thought at the time was a deer) another marmot, and a pelican.

Stage 2: Madison Campground, Albright Visitor Center, Norris Geyser Basin, Old Faithful, and Grand Prismatic

Leaving Canyon, we headed to the western part of the park where many of the most famous park features reside. We stayed two nights in Madison campground but stopped at the Norris Geyser Basin on the way. Norris is the largest area of thermal activity in the park and include the "Whale's Mouth" hot spring which Lily found interesting. She asked a ranger how deep it is because you can't see to the bottom and was told "we don't know but it's deep!" by a friendly ranger.

We also went over to Steamboat Geyser, the largest geyser in the world, which was just about due for a full eruption. Major eruptions can spout water 300+ feet into the air but it only goes off roughly every 50 days and can sometimes go years between them. We didn't see a major eruption but were lucky enough to arrive just as a relatively rare minor eruption of 20+ feet began. The ranger was surprised when we told her it had started erupting. The major eruption came ten days later.

We headed to the campground that afternoon and found that the Madison River was in walking distance from our site and that kids from the campground could go down and play in it (despite that technically not being allowed in the park).

After setting up our tent we drove out through the Madison Valley. This is the least traveled of the three major valleys in the park because it has less wildlife than the other two, particularly fewer large predators.

We saw some elk, that we once again first mistook for white tail deer before we learned that they are much less commonly seen than elk. We also had a couple close encounters with bison and saw a pretty sunset over the mountain ridge.

Our full day at Madison was spent seeing the most famous sights of the park. We arrived at Old Faithful just after an eruption and so took the opportunity to have Lily sworn in as a Junior Ranger. She had done more of the activities than were necessary to get her badge but wanted to receive it at Old Faithful. After that she listened to a ranger presentation about animals that "migrate, tolerate, or hibernate the Yellowstone winter" and then we joined the crowd to see the geyser erupt. After that we had lunch in the beautiful old lodge; a massive multi-story log cabin.

From there we went to Midway Geyser Basin, home to Grand Prismatic Spring. Lily proudly wore her new vest and badge and told anyone who would listen about what she had learned about the color and temperatures of the water.

On the way out of the park she made friends with a little girl and dipped her feet in the river, a little upstream from where the boiling water pours into it.

Stage 3: Grant Campground, Yellowstone Lake, and exiting Yellowstone

From Madison, we headed south to Grant Village for our final campground. We took a boat tour on the lake and had a nice dinner for our final day in the park. Lily made friends with a big family after dinner and even joined their family photo.

The next morning we cleaned up, packed the car, and continued south out of the park and into Grand Teton as the rain clouds gathered. Lily was the first to spot the elk walking along the side of the road leaving the campground.

Stage 4: Grand Teton, Jackson, and the trip home

Our trip plan had us camping for one night in Grand Teton but the forecast was for rain and we didn't feel like packing everything away for the trip home wet, so we gave up our site at Lizard Creek and instead got a last minute room at the Jackson Lake Lodge. We stopped at the campground, which was secluded and beautiful, but had few regrets about the change to luxury accommodations. Unfortunately, the rain also meant that the famous views of the Tetons were obscured by rain clouds that lasted until just after our plane took off.

For that reason, our memory of Grand Teton will not be of sight but smell. The rains made the whole park smell strongly of the wonderful giant sage that covers everything.

We had hoped to canoe on one of the lakes in the park but the weather also shut that down. Lily joined the staff at the marina for some dancing and we drove around the park stopping at the scenic pullouts looking for wildlife and spotting the mountains whenever the clouds shifted.

We only stayed one night in Grand Teton and so the next morning we continued our southward journey. It was still raining which we had hoped would make Jenny Lake less crowded but it went the other way and had a line of dozens of cars waiting just to get into the parking lot. We went a few miles back up the road and found a nice hike along String Lake instead.

After the hike we went to the National Museum of Wildlife Art. We had a nice lunch but Lily wasn't in the mood for an art museum so she played in the children's room while Caroline and I switched off playing with her and wandering the galleries. The museum is beautiful and interesting.

We had one full day in Jackson but the rain continued and the little town was full of tourists. Like many towns out west, Jackson has a huge public pool. Lily spent the afternoon swimming and going down the water slides. That night we had a good dinner and then repacked everything for the flight home.

The next morning a mule deer greeted us outside our balcony and the clouds started to part just as we boarded the plane. Lily, who had said at the outset of the trip that she wanted to see a rainbow, got one all the way across the sky as we descended towards home.