National parks that we have visited.
Halfway up the west side of Yellowstone National Park is the Norris Geyser Basin; like many of the areas along this side of the park, it is very popular, with a long wait for parking during the day; we visited on a couple of evenings, when things are much less busy:
Another nearby geyser basin is Artists’ Paintpots:
Next up, a video from this area.
Some video footage of the Madison area of Yellowstone National Park, from our visit in 2023. See the accompanying blog post for lots of photos.
Heading north from Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park takes us to the Midway Geyser Basin (including one of our favorite places, the colorful Grand Prismatic Spring), Lower Geyser Basin, and Madison:
The tiny Madison Information Station:
Madison amphitheater:
Firehole Canyon waterfall:
Firehole river:
Fountain Paint Pots area:
Nez Perce picnic area:
Midway Geyser Basin:
Grand Prismatic Spring:
Grand Prismatic overlook via Fairy Falls trail:
Biscuit Basin:
Next, see a video from this area.
Some video footage of the Old Faithful area of Yellowstone National Park, from our visit in 2023. See the accompanying blog post for lots of photos.
We continue our tour of Yellowstone National Park with the popular Old Faithful area:
Old Faithful Visitor Education Center:
Old Faithful General Store:
Old Faithful Inn:
We had dinner at the Old Faithful Inn dining room, another reservation-only restaurant:
Beverage menu:
Dinner menu:
Appetizers:
Mains:
Dessert menu:
Dessert:
Old Faithful Post Office, where we mailed a Grand Prismatic Spring postcard to Mom:
Old Faithful geyser:
On another day:
A bison wandering through near the geyser:
Looking back at the inn from Old Faithful geyser basin:
Hiking around the geyser basin; there’s more to the Old Faithful area than that popular geyser:
The Black Sand Basin is also nearby:
See also a video from this area.
Some video footage of the Grant area of Yellowstone National Park, from our visit in 2023. See the accompanying blog post for lots of photos.
I mentioned yesterday that we spent two weeks in Yellowstone National Park. Starting from the Lake area, we next turn to the Grant Village and West Thumb area:
Grant Visitor Center:
West Thumb Park Store:
We had dinner at the Grant Village Restaurant, one of the restaurants that require reservations:
The menu:
Beverages:
Appetizers:
Mains:
We saved room for dessert:
After the restaurant, we walked around the West Thumb Geyser Basin:
Next, a video from clips captured with my 360 camera of this area. Tomorrow, the famous Old Faithful area.
We spent two weeks in Yellowstone National Park (staying at the Fishing Bridge RV Park), going out and exploring the park pretty much every day. So I’m going to post about each area of the park for the next week or so, moving clockwise around the park, rather than following our activities in chronological order. That should make these posts a useful resource for people planning to visit the park, but only have time for one or two areas.
Here’s a map of Yellowstone (click to go to the interactive maps on the NPS site):
A PDF edition (best viewed in light mode; there’s a toggle in the upper-right corner of the web page):
Since we were staying at Fishing Bridge, let’s start with the Yellowstone Lake area. Here’s a map of that area:
On our first day we stopped by the nearby Fishing Bridge Visitor Center, one of the smaller visitor centers:
The Fishing Bridge:
Yellowstone Lake:
We took a drive out east to Sylvan Lake:
Back to the Lake Butte overlook above Yellowstone Lake:
Lake cabins:
Lake lodge:
Lake Village General Store:
Lake Yellowstone Hotel:
A pelican on the lake:
Fishing Bridge General Store:
Fishing Bridge gas station:
A bison on a hill by the Fishing Bridge, and a couple of tourons — tourist morons, too close to the bison:
Bison strolling down the center of the road:
Tomorrow, we head south to West Thumb and Grant Village.
We stayed at Fishing Bridge Campground in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Our third stay in Yellowstone, though the first in our coach; our first stay was in a cabin back in 2011, and our previous stay was in a rented trailer in 2021 (while our coach sat back at our homestead, as the campground we stayed at, Madison, wasn’t big enough; a trip planned before we bought our coach). See the Yellowstone trip posts for details. That’s for the two of us; Jenn practically grew up in Yellowstone, visiting several times as a kid.
The Fishing Bridge campground (at 7,790 feet elevation) is the only one big enough for us in Yellowstone, and was recently significantly overhauled to include nice big paved sites in the E loop.
Dates:
Weather:
Noise:
Site:
Utilities:
Internet (in usage priority order):
Amenities:
Our review on Campground Reviews:
FHU in Yellowstone? Yes Please!
I’ve been coming to Yellowstone since before I could walk. I’ve camped in the rustic campgrounds and stayed in lodges. The only other option if you have a big rig and need full hookups is to stay outside the park and wait in traffic every day to get in, so for for my money, this is the best option around. We had a nice pull-through site in the new section and were very impressed with the concrete pads. The site was level and had excellent hookups, even if the water spigot was a bit weird. There are few trees around the campsites, so there was a good Starlink connection if you need to stay connected. We camped at Fishing Bridge RV Park in a Motorhome.
The campground map:
An interactive map, still showing the old layout of the campground as I write this:
Our site:
On a non-rainy day:
We were very glad for our Starlink dish and flagpole, as there was little cellular coverage:
Check in area:
Other sites:
A nice campground, and with a park the size of Yellowstone, certainly beneficial to be able to stay within the park. We’ll definitely stay here again in the future.
We drove our coach 270 miles, over four hours of very scenic driving, from Alpine, Wyoming to Yellowstone, Wyoming.
Here’s the map route, heading north:
An interactive map, with potential stops; we only actually stopped at Flagg Ranch:
Leaving our site:
Leaving the RV park:
Alpine:
Snake River:
Interesting rocks:
Snowmobile:
Jackson:
HQ of the rafting company we patronized:
Entering Grand Teton National Park:
Paladin in his safe space:
For some reason, the entrance station for Grand Teton National Park is nowhere near the entrance:
The built-in GPS in our coach claimed that no RVs were allowed (and the wrong speed limit); bad data:
We stopped at Flagg Ranch for lunch, since it had a huge mostly empty parking lot:
Paladin on upturned dining chairs:
Entering Yellowstone National Park (with people taking selfies in front of the sign, thanks for that):
The Yellowstone south entrance station:
Lewis River:
Roadworks:
Continental Divide:
West Thumb of Lake Yellowstone:
Fishing Bridge over Yellowstone River:
Yellowstone General Store:
Checking in to Fishing Bridge RV Park:
Arriving at our site for the next two weeks:
Such a scenic drive!
