When people, especially RVer’s, bring up the subject of places on their Bucket List, a lot of times you will hear Yellowstone National Park. Bill and I were no different. After Alaska, Yellowstone was one of the top places we wanted to see and explore. We’ve seen so many pictures others have taken, we wanted to stand in those spots. When we were planning our route for this year, we learned that our travel buddies, Steven & Linda were also planning a visit to the area. They, having been to Yellowstone many times, agreed with Bill’s suggestion that we shouldn’t attempt to visit before Labor Day, when the number of guests to the park is significantly reduced.

Our very first visit to the park was from the east entrance near Cody. It was a wonderful day, and left us hungry for more of our country’s first National Park. Cody WY

We left out of Buffalo Bill State Park very early on our departure day, wanting to avoid any potential traffic, and, to be perfectly honest, possibly avoid having to pay a $35 fee to just drive through the park. Since we drive separately, we each would need an America the Beautiful pass to get through without the additional fee. We arrived at the gate just after 8am, and all gates were staffed. Oh well! It’s hard to complain about supporting our National Parks.

We did, almost immediately, run into a bison jam! They were all over the road and I was able to snap a couple of pictures!

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We arrived at the National Forest campground, Bakers Hole, early enough to grab two sites near one another and with open sky for solar, at this first come/first serve location. Unfortunately, we did incur another extra car fee! UGH! In spite of that, the fee was still less than half what other campgrounds in the area were charging.

Our first stop in West Yellowstone was the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. The animals at the center are unable to survive in the wild. We saw grizzlies, wolves and raptors. Next year they are adding an otter house.

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With Steven & Linda as our personal tour guides, we saw so much of Yellowstone. They knew all the best spots, and even talked us into getting up and out BEFORE dawn on two different days, claiming that was the best time in the park. I must say, they were absolutely right! While we we nap ready by mid-afternoon, getting into the park that early was so peaceful and quiet, with hardly anyone else there. As the day would go on, we would see parking areas filling up.

Day one into the park from West Yellowstone

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After a few days, we decided we’d like some hook-ups and a different view, so we left out for Henry’s Lake State Park, just over the border in Idaho. What a difference 15 miles makes! Linda and I arrived at the entrance booth without the rigs, in order to see if there were good sites available, and were given a 5 minute pass. It didn’t take much more than that for us to choose our sites, right next to one another, and get back to pay for them before someone else did. Somewhere along the way there was a mix-up and they charged us the on-line fee, which they aren’t supposed to in person. So, they waived the extra car fee, which I was very excited about. I am about sick of extra car fees this year! We headed back to the guys at Bakers Hole, got packed up and on our way.

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Instead of making another crack of dawn trip into the park right away, we decided to make a right out of Henry’s Lake and visit Harriman State Park/Caribou-Targhee National Forest – we heard there was a waterfall worth seeing!

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Day 2 in Yellowstone from the west entrance:

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One afternoon, I received an email from RV Dreams friends, Bill & Linda. We’ve met up with them many times since hitting the road, and they were writing to say they were in the neighborhood and did we have time for a meet-up? Of course we made time to see them! We arranged to meet in West Yellowstone and have dinner. They suggested Bullwinkles and it was delicious! We were so stuffed that we all passed on dessert. After dinner, they followed us back to Henry’s Lake to continue our visit. It was great to see them and catch up on each other’s travels. They toured the Maritimes this past summer – a place that has a spot on my bucket list. We will probably catch up with them again in FL this winter.

Steven and Linda decided to stay behind and relax the day Bill and I drove back into Yellowstone to check out the Old Faithful Visitor Educational Center and the Canyon Visitor Educational Center. We watched the movies and enjoyed learning about the volcano that is Yellowstone National Park. It was scary to discover that hot magma is only between 3 and 5 miles below the surface in Yellowstone. If the volcano ever blows it lid, it will have Earth-wide consequences. We also were told that the park experiences small earthquakes all the time. These earthquakes serve a purpose in keeping the hydrothermal features from sealing up.

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Yellowstone was all we had imagined it would be, largely due to our tour guides, Steven & Linda, who have spent lots of time in the park and area. Sharing the experience with them made it very special.

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