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.
national park
National parks that we have visited.
Yellowstone Old Faithful area
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.
Video: Yellowstone Grant 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.
Yellowstone Grant area
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.
Yellowstone Lake 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.
Fishing Bridge Campground, Yellowstone National Park
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:
- Check in: 2023-07-22
- Check out: 2023-08-05
- 14 nights
Weather:
- Mostly sunny for most of the time, drizzly and thunder storms the last few days
- High temps ranging between 58-80°F, lows around 48-52°F
- Some wind, up to 28 MPH gusts
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train noise
- Not much neighbor noise (kids)
Site:
- #E302, pull-through, concrete
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked in front of coach
- Level
- Concrete pad about 70 feet long by about 12 feet wide
- Grass between sites about 12 feet wide
- Mature trees around campground, few within
- Concrete patio with picnic table
- No fire pit
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 75 PSI water, conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- Starlink: 105-122 Mbps down, 2-10 Mbps up, 75 ms ping
- Verizon: 13-17 Mbps down, 3-6 Mbps up, 75-625 ms ping (unreliable)
- AT&T: 0.5 Mbps down, 0.02 Mbps up, 1500 ms ping
- T-Mobile: no service
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- National Park
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.
Travel from Alpine to Yellowstone, Wyoming
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!
Grand Teton National Park
We visited Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on three days while staying in Alpine, about an hour south of the park.
Passing through Jackson with its antler arches:
A stop at the National Elk Refuge visitor center just north of Jackson (where we didn’t see any live elk):
Entering Grand Teton National Park:
Park map:
Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitor Center:
Colter Bay Visitor Center:
Mormon Row, and the iconic barn:
Bison:
Rockefeller Parkway Visitor Information Station:
Flagg Ranch:
Jackson Lake dam:
Jenny Lake:
A scenic national park.
Olympic National Park beaches and rainforests
Last year we visited some eastern parts of Olympic National Park in Washington state. This year, we visited several western parts of the park, including beaches and rainforests.
Quinault River Ranger Station:
Maple Glade Rain Forest Trail:
Salmon House Restaurant for dinner:
Seabrook, a created town on the coast, aka the hellmouth:
Kalaloch Ranger Station:
Kalaloch Beach:
Tree of Life:
Picnic:
Beach 4 Nature Trail:
Big Cedar Nature Trail:
Hoh Rain Forest:
1.5 hours delay?!
After half an hour in the line, and at least another half hour or more still to go, we gave up and turned around. Not worth that wait.
We stopped at Hard Rain Cafe for a snack:
Mora:
Rialto Beach:
Redwood State and National Parks
The Redwood National and State Parks is interesting, in that it is jointly managed by the National Park Service and the state of California. Their headquarters are in Crescent City, with a small book store (not a gift store, thank you):
We visited several of the component parks, starting with the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, which includes a fun scenic drive through the redwoods:
As part of this park, we did a hike to the Grove of Titans:
A fun tunnel of fallen trees:
It’s a big tree:
Video of ambient sounds:
Continuing the drive through Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park:
Tunnel:
We headed into Oregon for a side-trip:
To the Illinois Valley Visitor Center of Oregon Caves National Monument:
Then back into California:
Though the agricultural inspection station:
Since we’d been to the Redwoods National Park, it was time to add its sticker to our coach:
Another day, heading down the coast:
To Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park:
A strange historical artifact:
360 video hyperlapse of a drive from that visitor center:
Elk on the side of the road:
Thomas H. Kuchel Visitor Center:
Lady Bird Johnson Grove hike:
Video hyperlapse of the Lady Bird Johnson Grove hike:
Coastal drive:
A bear on the side of the road:
