Our plan for our second day in Yellowstone was to see the famous Old Faithful, then cover the western half of the park on our way up to Montana. We’d spent the night in West Yellowstone, so our first stop on the way was at Grand Prismatic Spring.
I honestly have never seen anything like it in my life! The rainbow colors that it produces are absolutely amazing. There’s a series of boardwalks that allow you to walk out to the spring, and it’s an incredible sight.
I’m just amazed by the vivid colors!
We hurried over to Old Faithful and claimed our spot to see it erupt. It’s about an hour and a half in between each eruption, so we looked up the schedule of predicted times online and got there a little bit early just in case. Soon hundreds of others were crowded around waiting with us, and we were able to snap a photo when it went off!
We were excited to see this bald eagle!
We loved Grand Prismatic Spring so much that we wanted to see it from above! There’s a short hike nearby that we climbed to get this view. It’s not really a marked trail – more like scrambling up a dusty hillside til you get the view you want. It was a little tricky coming down, but well worth the effort.
Then we began our journey north, stopping at a few more geysers along the way.
These crazy people ignored all the signs to stay on the path and walked right up to the edge of the steaming geyser in their flip flops… Anything for a picture, I guess?
We eventually made it to Mammoth Hot Springs, in the north west corner of the park.
We loved these elk just hanging out in the median by Fort Yellowstone!
We crossed into Montana on our way out of the park…
…and also took a picture with the other side of the sign, since we hadn’t gotten a Wyoming state line pic when we were coming from South Dakota!
Yellowstone was the first National Park, established in 1872. The Roosevelt Arch is still here, marking the northern entrance to the park!
From here we drove about two hours to Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park, where we were camping for the night. We saw a beautiful sunset on the way!
Here’s the view from our tent!
Day 9 Map ~ 220 miles:
Road Trip Recap:
Day 1: Indiana to South Dakota
Day 2: Across South Dakota: Badlands National Park, Mount Rushmore, Iron Mountain Road, Needles Highway, and Crazy Horse
Day 3: Wind Cave National Park, Devils Tower, and across Wyoming
Day 4: Grand Teton National Park
Day 5: Cascade Canyon
Day 6: Jackson Hole
Day 7: Amphitheater Lake
Day 8: Yellowstone National Park
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