Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park 2024
My trip started end of October from Munich over Chicago to Bozeman Montana, a long trip and I almost missed the connection to Bozeman in Chicago, so plan for sufficient transfer time! Over Montana from the plane, you see a LOT of uninhabited countryside. I stayed at the Lark Hotel for two nights to get over my jet lag, a nice hotel on Main Street. Bozeman was a western town on the frontier and the Gallatin History Museum is interesting to see in that respect. I also visited the Museum of the Rockies - great to see all the different dinosaurs found in the region.
I went with a photography guide in a small group, which worked out great - everybody very nice and not complicated. I met our guide in Bozeman and it is about a 1 1/2 hour drive to West Yellowstone, where we stayed at the Stagecoach Inn for a few nights. First stop was Mammoth Hot Springs in the North Western corner of the park, where we saw our first bison and a lot of elk in supernatural-like surroundings. It was rutting season for elk and moose.
Every day, we drove into the park through the West Entrance well before sunrise and came back after sunset, spending the whole day in the Park. We grabbed a quick McMuffin and coffee in the morning, not to loose any time. Next highlights were Swan Lake near Mammoth Hot Springs - nomen est omen with trumpeter swans - and a juniper tree near the Albright Visitor Center with beautiful birds. For the afternoon drive to Yellowstone Lake, we hardly sighted any animals - sometimes that can also happen too.
Next highlight was the Lamar Valley, driving all the way to the Northeast Entrance and Silver Gate just outside the park, where I enjoyed a bison hot dog and cole slaw according to grandmother's recipe for lunch. On the way, near Tower-Roosevelt, there is a petrified tree. The Lamar Valley is also called the Serengeti of the United States, and one could really believe so! Sometimes the road was blocked by animals.
On two different days we saw a grizzly bear with a cub near Lake Butte Overlook on Yellowstone Lake and a black bear not far from the Albright Visitor Center in the North of the park. There was always a crowd with rangers taking care that the bears were far enough away posing no danger to the viewers and photographers - not really ideal for great photos.
Next stop was Hayden Valley and the Yellowstone River in the center of the park. We saw coyotes, many birds and wolves (very far away). The landscape is beautiful, especially at sunrise! It was a truly unforgettable experience amidst nature's wonders, including Firehole Falls and the Falls in Yellowstone Canyon.
It was time to move on to Grand Teton National Park. We encountered a red fox on Jackson Lake at a picknick stop just North of Arizona Island. Our Hotel was in Jackson, where we stayed for two nights. Finally moose encounters! We saw them most of the time near Gros Ventre Camping Grounds on the Gros Ventre River. The autumn colors were awesome. We had spectacular views of Mount Moran from the Snake River near the Oxbow bend Road in the early morning and saw an Otter Family near the Jackson Lake Dam.
On the last day, we drove back to Bozeman through Yellowstone and visited the Midway Geyser Basin, seeing stunning geothermal activity in the caldera of the Yellowstone super volcano. I tried to summarize my impressions in the following video, including Artists Paint Pots, where we marveled at the colorful hot springs and bubbling mud pots:
