We will be visiting Yellowstone in June. What are the must see areas? What other parks, things worth seeing are within a couple of miles?
Pretty much all of it is worth seeing. I’ve been there several times and depending how long you have, I’d take both loops. You could probably ignore Old Faithful, however, unless you really like standing around waiting for water to shoot out of the ground.
Craters of the moon is awesome. There is another national park, grand tetons, a few miles south as well. You should come to the area around August 21st when the eclipse happens. Yellowstone won’t see totality but grand Teton will.
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I would avoid Jackson like the plague on August 21st!
You think that you are the only one to realize that it is in the path of Totality?
Grand Prismatic Spring.
I’m not sure anything is within a couple of miles. Everything is far apart out there. Even Grand Tetons, which is super close to Yellowstone, isn’t what I would call within a couple of miles. Yellowstone itself being quite big, features within Yellowstone aren’t even within a couple of miles.
The canyon area is definitely worth visiting (my visit was limited so i decided to concentrate in one area, though I did stop by west thumb)
Brian
Castle Geyser only goes off once a day or so, but much more impressive than the more popular Old Faithful.
I guess I’ve got a different perspective since I live near Idaho falls.
It’s all good. Except the traffic.
How long do you have? We usually plan on 3-4 days to hit all of our favorite spots. If you give us a sense of how long you’ve got, and what you’re most interested in, we can guide you appropriately?
For example - geysers? Hot springs? Wildlife? Scenery? Hiking?
We are going to be there for 5 days. We like almost everything, particularly things with water. Hikes are good, but rugged hikes, not so much.
We’ll be there at the end of this week! We will start with a stay in Jackson.
Then we are doing a 2 day guide tour that will take us to see the sights and up to Lamar Valley to see animals (hopefully). We’ll spend a night up in that area.
Then back to Teton Village to breath the mountain air.
Old Faithful Inn is worth a look, if you like rustic architecture. The hotel is the largest log hotel in the world, and by most accounts the largest log building, period.
We’ll be there in July for two weeks, in Montana. We’ve been told the 320 Ranch holds a fantastic pig roast on Mondays. Get there early enough to see the wild horses.
If you could time your visit to coincide with the eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano I think it would be really impressive. Especially when it wipes out most of the life on earth.
You can see I’ve been watching the Smithsonian Channel way too much.
Har. Yellowstone is huge and in June the traffic is slow, always*. Note there is road construction on the road to the north entrance, several miles of the road is gravel now, think 20 mph max (we just left two days ago).
The closest park is Grand Teton National Park, which is our favorite. Depending on where in Yellowstone you are coming from it can take anywhere from 1-6 hours to get there.
*It’s not just the traffic, its the wild-life. When we were driving from Old Faithful to Mammoth last week two buffalo were walking in the southbound lane. The traffic behind them, going at bison walking speed, was backed up for over two miles. In addition whenever interesting animals are on or near the road, traffic comes to a standstill.
Not to put you off, Yellowstone and it’s wild-life are awesome. Take your time. Be patient. You won’t see it all.
I believe that every room is booked for the eclipse in Jackson, Grand Teton and Yellowstone.
If you are going to be in Montana, you have to enter Yellowstone by going to Columbus, then taking the road from there through Absarokee, to Red Lodge. That is one of the most stunning drives in the country. From Red Lodge, you go up the canyon, over Beartooth Pass and down into the Cooke City entrance. Leaving the park, you go out through Gardiner, up to Livingston, another beautiful drive. There is, also, Glacier, up by Canada, but that one is a pain: the nicest drive through Glacier is the Going to the Sun road, but it is only open for a short time in the summer, so it is nearly bumper-to-bumper (to get there, the freeway from Butte to Helena is quite impressive – always take Going to the Sun road from east to west).
There is just not much in Montana that is not good – except for the larger cities.
It’s a little late but I wanted to report back on our trip. The weather was awesome, early in the week the predictions said rain, but it was sunny and warm the entire time. There was still a lot of snow on the peaks, which made for spectacular views and photos, and snow beside the road at higher elevations. Saw lots of geothermal activity, as one does. Old Faithful lodge is quite a marvel to see, as others have indicated. We saw lots of wildlife, both with the naked eye, and through a scope. Saw 8 grizzlies in one day, 5 in one field about 100 yds away. Saw 2 wolf packs through the scope, and one naked eye chasing bison in Lamar Valley. Saw Bison, Pronghorns, Elk, Bighorn Sheep, Mountain Goats, Marmots, Badger, Weasel, Bald Eagle, Osprey, and on and on.
So, a very enjoyable trip all around!
Spectacular aerial photo of Yellowstone. (Maybe you can click on it to enlarge.) Photo by Ramy Yanetz.
