Yellow Stone National Park

My husband and I planned this trip with our besties. This trip to Yellowstone National Park was part of our trip to Mt Rushmore and Badlands. I carried my Canon 80D and my two lens  Canon EF-S 18-55mm and Tamron 70-300mm. All of us choose to meet at the Salt Lake City airport. These are the itineraries I made before we started for the trip.

 

Best Time to Visit: If you prefer to experience the park with fewer tourists, consider visiting in May or September. Pack some cold-weather clothes just in case, because we dint carry our jackets and it was cold. If you don’t mind the crowds I would recommend June-August when the weather is warm and allows you to camp outdoor.

On the first day we landed at 10am in Salt Lake city and had our early lunch in an Indian restaurant which I don’t recommend because the food was so bad. We headed to Bonneville Salt Flats which was about 2 hours drive from the airport.

The Bonneville Salt Flats is a densely packed salt pan in Utah. The formation of the Salt Flats began at the end of the last Ice Age, when the waters of Lake Bonneville began to recede. Lake Bonneville covered approx. 2/3 of Utah and was almost 1000 feet deep in the area of the Salt Flats. When this large amount of fresh water slowly disappeared over time, large concentrations of dissolved minerals were deposited in the soils that form the watershed for the Bonneville Salt Flats.

We spent about an hour taking pictures making weird poses. before we started our drive to YSNP. I, initially dint have Shoshone falls on my itinerary, but included a stop at Shoshone falls on our way which isn’t a big detour. It is also called the Niagara Falls of the west for a reason and I strongly suggest you visit it. We also made a quick stop at Perrine Bridge. This may be the only man-made structure in The USA which allows base jumping all through the year without a permit. We saw about 2-3 people jump off while we made a quick stop for 10mins.

 

Shoshone falls are located at the edge of Twin Falls and is a natural beauty on the Snake River. At 212 feet, the falls are higher than Niagara Falls.  I have seen many blogs that suggest visiting Idaho falls, but I replaced Idaho with Shoshone falls which I don’t regret.

 

After the falls we headed directly to Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel where we booked our stay. Book your hotels much ahead of time if you are sure of visiting YSNP. We had free breakfast which included over 20 breakfasts in the buffet. The views from the hotel were beautiful. The mountains covered with snow reminded me of Kashmir, India.

We reached the hotel at around 2am in the morning the second day. Do not drive during  late hours like we did. The roads are narrow we regretted the drive.

On the second day we toured few places in Yellow Stone National Park. The places I covered were Mammoth Hot Springs, Norris Geyser, the Canyon Village, Yellow Stone Lake, Grand Prismatic and Old Faithful.  Mammoth Hot Springs being 6miles from our hotel was our first stop.

 

Then we went to the Norris Geyser which I could not appreciate that much, then the Canyon Village where we had our lunch at the Canyon lodge.

 

After lunch we went to the Yellow Stone Lake which is also called the Grand Canyon of YSNP.  We had to stop at many places to get a proper view. There are trails all over the place. One of the hikers slipped calling for an emergency while we were at the Grand View, so be mindful while walking on the trails. We passed by creeks, water falls, and a lot of different views which we stopped at, every now and then.

The second half of the day we had time only for the Grand Prismatic Springs and the Old Faithful Gyser. On our way to Grand Prismatic Springs it started raining really bad which left us all in disappointment. We decided to go anyway. The rain stopped by the time we reached but it was really cold and the dress I choose to wear was not appropriate for the climate. You can see in one of the pictures where everyone was wearing a jacket.

 

Our last but the best stop for the day was the Old faithful geyser. It is said that Old Faithful erupts every 35 to 120 minutes for 1 1/2 to 5 minutes. As I said its worth the wait and if you have time, I strongly urge to make time to see the eruption. While we waited we got coffee from Yellow stone Ice cream and cafe.

 

Finally, I have searched many blogs hoping to see what to wear when in Yellow Stone National park and I found nothing. So I have decided to play and experiment with colours on my friends. Sky blue looked really beautiful in Bonneville Salt flats. I wore a yellow top with  white pants and I liked how it looked in pictures. My husband wore a white shirt and I am sure he stood out in the pictures. You can also try wearing a bright pink at the geysers. If you are going in winter, carry a bright coloured Jacket. Check out these pictures for colour suggestions.

I hope you now know what to expect, what to see and what to wear, Happy travel !

Mt Rushmore & Bad Lands is on the other post on my blog.