05/10/2017
The route to Yellowstone goes up Interstate 15, past the Great Salt Lake and the Wasatch Mountains, before entering Idaho. At Idaho Falls you will leave the freeway behind, and start making your way through rural parts of the state. About 10 miles (16 kilometres) from West Yellowstone you go over the Continental Divide and into Montana.
Yellowstone – The roads running through Yellowstone make up a massive figure of eight. The lower loop of the figure of eight comprises most of the thermal features that are to be seen in Yellowstone, including, of course, Old Faithful!
From West Yellowstone we’ll follow the Madison River to Madison Junction, where we’ll turn right, or south. Depending on the time of the year, this area is often teeming with wildlife. With any luck you will see bison, elk, Trumpeter Swans and other animals and birds. A special treat in the spring is the baby bison calves.
At Madison Junction we will turn right, or south, and follow the Fire-hole River which runs through the thermal areas of Yellowstone northward. The Fire-hole is famous amongst anglers for its pristine beauty and selection of brown, brook and rainbow trout.
The first main thermal area we will be visiting is the Lower Geyser Basin, and Fountain Paint Pots. There is a boardwalk system running around and through the Fountain Paint Pots area, and it is a great place to go for a stroll, if the bison haven’t got there first! Apart from the paint pots, there is also a selection of other thermal features in the area, including a number of geysers, one or other of which almost always seems to be erupting.
The next stop is the Midway Geyser Basin, home to Grand Prismatic Spring – one of the largest anywhere in the world – as well as Excelsior Geyser, now dormant, but discharging thousands of gallons of water every minute.
It is a short drive to the Upper Geyser Basin, home of Old Faithful, the world’s best known and most reliable gusher. There is also so much more to the area than just Old Faithful. Old Faithful Inn, a wonderful old building – recently renovated – is located there – and a system of boardwalks will take you around the various other geysers in the area.
Yellow stone National Park, the world’s first national park, was established in 1872 around the large tributary that joins the Missouri River near the present Montana-North Dakota line
The park is located on the river’s headwaters in the northwestern corner of Wyoming southwestern Montana and eastern Idaho. In Wyoming, the park is divided between Park and Teton counties. Larger than the combined states of Rhode Island and Delaware, its area covers more than 2.2 million acres, nearly 3,500 square miles. It is 63 miles long north to south and 54 miles wide.
Evidence of human occupation of the Yellowstone Plateau dates back approximately 11,000 years. A few miles east of the park, near the Shoshone River, Mummy Cave was excavated in the 1960s. That site shows evidence of continual habitation back to 7280 B.C. and counters an earlier belief that the early inhabitants feared the geysers and stayed away from the area.
OVERNIGHT AT YELLOWSTONE