“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson
Yellowstone has been my dream destination ever since I heard about it. This trip was the most awaited one for me personally and I wasn’t disappointed at all. The sheer beauty and the pristine scenes were exciting, calming and meditative.
The journey started with a lot of excitement as we almost missed our flight due to traffic delays.We planned our journey around the labor day weekend in 2012. We flew in and out of Salt Lake City, landed on Thursday, spent the night there and embarked on our 4 day trip (5 days with flying back).
Day 1: Salt Lake City to Grand Teton
We started the 4.5 hour drive to Grant Teton on Friday morning at 10.30am and reached Jackson around 3pm with some breaks. Jackson is a major gateway for people visiting Yellowstone from the south and is 20 minutes drive from Grand Teton. Jackson has many restaurants and hotels and would be a perfect place to stay for a night.
We had our late lunch at Lotus Cafe (the only one that said served close to Indian food). The menu was unique but it did not satisfy my craving for Indian food. We walked around the town and found a sidewalk style Indian Tandoor place on N. Cache Street and packed some food for the night.
We rented our camping gear from Teton Mountaineering on N. Cache street and started driving towards Grand Teton (N.Cache Road becomes Jackson Highway – a direct route to Grand Teton). We had booked a cabin for the night at Colter Bay inside Grand Teton near Jackson Lake.
One of the most spectacular sights that welcomes you to Grand Teton is at Moose Junction on Jackson Highway. A few yard from moose junction was a viewing area which is a perfect spot for photography enthusiasts.
It was a perfect day other than some isolated thunderstorms (which is common in September) but it made the view all the more grand with beautiful cloud cover just over the mountains that was only enhanced by the colors of sunset.
Day 2: Grand Teton hiking and drive to Yellowstone for Camping
We woke up early and started driving to Jenny Lake after checking out of Colter Bay cabin. The drive to Jenny Lake is very scenic. We stopped at Jackson Lake dam with another view of the mountains against Jackson lake which was a early morning treat that made our day. We had our breakfast at Signal Mountain Restaurant and headed toward Jenny lake for the hike to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. There are 2 ways of reaching inspiration point – either take a hike around Jenny Lake (2.4miles) or use a shuttle boat. We took the shuttle boat and hiked to Hidden Falls and then Inspiration Point (total 2.2 miles round trip if you use a shuttle boat else 4.8 miles). The strenuous hike up to inspiration point was totally worth it. Then we started hiking towards cascade canyon (supposedly 4.5 miles) and realized that we may run out of time and hiked back to Jenny Lake shuttle. This took about 3 hours with enough time for photography and rest. Below is a trail map:
By the end of the hike my mind and soul were satiated and the post hike lunch at Signal Mountain satiated my hunger.
After some more driving and sight seeing we started our drive to Yellowstone. Dark cloud cover with lightning and beautiful sunset colors at Hayden Valley and a herd of bison en-route invited us to Yellowstone. We reached our campsite at Canyon Village around 7pm and it had started raining by the time we got there and we rushed to Fountain Grill for dinner. After waiting for an hour or so we decided to pitch our tent in the rain. The sleeping pads that we rented saved our day (or should I say night!) (if you are renting camping gear I would suggest also renting sleeping insulation pads to place below the sleeping bags).
Day 3: Yellowstone – Lamar Valley and Grand Loop
This was the longest day in our whole trip. We started driving towards Lamar Valley at 6.15am. The best time to view wildlife is during dawn or dusk and Lamar Valley is known for its wildlife. We stopped at Tower Falls on the way which was a pretty sight.
There is nothing like a drive through Lamar Valley at daybreak – the colors, the morning rays of the sun, the fog – hmm..just breathtaking. Among wildlife – bison is the most common, we were also able to spot deer and coyote in Lamar Valley. The most exciting part of the drive was when a herd of bison was rushing towards us on the road on our way back from the valley and we almost started backing up only to realize that they were running away from incoming cars. We stopped and enjoyed a close view (from the safety of our car) of the bisons as they passed us.
Traversing Yellowstone is the easy part. It has one grand loop that covers most of the famous spots (springs, geysers etc.) and a 5 branches which takes you the various entrances (south , north , north-east, west and east)
After Lamar Valley we stopped at Tower Roosevelt for breakfast and drove towards mammoth springs on the grand loop. Mammoth Springs is about a 45 min hike up and down to the view point. Personally nothing much to say about it other than sighting a bull elk. Our next stop was Norris which was unexpectedly a good experience. The hiking route takes you through a series of springs and geysers; the landscape is unusual – it is literally like walking over a volcano and you see fumes coming out of the ground in many spots. This was a surreal experience and for the first time I actually realized that I was standing on a super volcano (that can erupt any time :O). Madison is a place where 3 rivers meet – something that can be skipped if you run out of time.
After Roosevelt the only place to eat was at Old Faithful Geyser; so we drove all the way to old faithful for lunch and came back to see Lower Geyser Basin, Firehole lake and Middle Geyser Basin. Middle Geyser was grand and had one of my favorite spots in Yellowstone – the Grand Prismatic Spring – the colors, the size and the serenity and landscape left me spell bound and it is definitely one of its kind.
We came back to old faithful and watched the good-old-faithful geyser erupt at around 7pm. Its one of those things that you do not want to miss cause its the most famous spot but Yellowstone has many unique beautiful spots that I found to be more attractive.
Thinking of retiring for the day we started our drive back. Little did I know that we would stop over at one of most serene spots in Yellowstone (or maybe it was so because of the time of the day) – the Yellowstone lake at West Thumb Geyser Basin just after sunset with colors like I have never seen and calmness that I had only sensed at Horseshoe bend.
With great satisfaction we went to check in at Yellowstone Lake Hotel and had a sumptuous dinner at the best restaurant in Yellowstone (located in the hotel).
Day 4: Yellowstone – Canyons and hike to lower falls
Our day started at 5.45am – we drove through thick fog cover at twilight and were able to experience sunrise at Hayden Valley. We drove through the canyons and hiked down to watch the lower falls (about 30 min overall).
After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and headed back to Salt Lake City and drove through Grand Teton again through all the scenic routes and bid a final good bye to the parks.
Highly recommend Bombay House near Salt Lak City downtown which serves amazing Indian food where we stopped for dinner that night which was icing on the cake.
Flew back home the next day from SLC.
A true vacation indeed !!
Picture courtesy Siddharth Sharma who was a co-traveller and photographer – enjoy more visuals below:
Some tips:
- Carry lots of snacks and water – even tough there are restaurants and general stores they may not be as frequent
- If camping carry the sleeping pads
- Stay within the park if possible – book a year in advance -or wait for last minute cancellations like we did
- Take early morning drives for best view and wildlife spotting
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