Yellowstone 

 Overview: 

Sit­ting atop the largest super vol­cano in North Amer­i­ca, the serene and stun­ning­ly beau­ti­ful Yel­low­stone Nation­al Park is the largest active geyser field in the world – and a hub for rare and endan­gered wildlife, stun­ning moun­tain peaks, bub­bling mud pools, it’s own grand canyon, colour­ful hot springs, rolling rivers, and lush green hills, val­leys and wood­lands, which com­bine to form the stun­ning scenery of Yel­low­stone Nation­al Park and make it a nat­ur­al nature won­der­land and a true won­der of the world.  

Declared a nation­al park in 1872 – the first estab­lished int the world, the great beau­ty of Yel­low­stone stretch­es across the three north west states of Ida­ho, Mon­tana and Wyoming and stretch­es for more than 3, thou­sand square miles of pris­tine land – and thanks to the south­ern park of the park sit­ting across the con­ti­nent divide and the super vol­cano the park sits atop, Yel­low­stone is home to more than half of the world’s geot­her­mal fea­tures – includ­ing more than 300 stun­ning gey­sers – includ­ing the icon­ic Old Faith­ful and the incred­i­ble Steam­boat Geyser – which when con­di­tions are right is known to send soar­ing steam into the heav­ens more than 300 foot above.  

Along­side the stun­ning gey­sers, you’ll also thou­sands of stun­ning hot springs – which appear in a kalei­do­scope of colours, as well as some incred­i­ble rivers includ­ing the Snake riv­er which flows to the Pacif­ic Ocean and the Yel­low­stone riv­er – which heads to the pacif­ic giv­ing you a true scope of the vast­ness of this won­der.  

There’s also plen­ty of chances to scale the incred­i­ble snow cov­ered peaks in the park – with the Bun­sen Park or the incred­i­bly well named Elec­tric park both eas­i­ly scal­able – as well as the trail of Mount Wash­burn – one of the most famous hikes in the USA that offers incred­i­ble stun­ning views of the beau­ti­ful val­ley below.  

You’ll also have you pick of water­falls — with their being more than 300 dot­ted around the park — includ­ing the Low­er Falls Water­fall that clocks in at more than 300 feet mak­ing it deep­er than Nia­gara Falls and which is one of the high­lights of the incred­i­ble Yel­low­stone Grand Canyon – a vast stun­ning canyon who’s rock based walls stretch on for almost 20 miles.  

Along­side the incred­i­ble nat­ur­al won­ders that dot Yel­low­stone, you’ll also find mul­ti­ple rare and endan­gered ani­mals who call the park home – includ­ing elk, wolves and Griz­zly bears, and with the park being explore through more than 900  miles of amaz­ing hik­ing trails from which the won­ders with­in the park can be explored, and one of the great­est dri­ves on the plan­et – the stun­ning 142 mile Grand Loop Road that takes you past the main high­lights of the stun­ning park – as well as by bike, canoe, on skis and even by snow­mo­bile, the incred­i­ble nat­ur­al won­ders that dot the stun­ning and vast Yel­low­stone Nation­al Park make it not just a geo-ther­mal par­adise but a true won­der of the world.  

Where:

Stretch­ing for more than three thou­sand Square Miles, Yel­low­stone Nation­al Park is found in the North West of Amer­i­ca – with 96% of the Nation­al park being found in the great state of Wyoming, 3 % in Mon­tana and 1% in the state of Ida­ho.  

Getting there:  

By air:

While Yel­low­stone stretch­es for thou­sands of miles, it’s far from any major air­ports so for those out­side the US who want to fly as close as pos­si­ble to Yel­low­stone to being explor­ing the clos­est air­port is West Yel­low­stone in Mon­tana – which you can only reach from the air­ports of either Den­ver in Col­orado or Salt Lake City in Utah and for which you can expect to pay a high far giv­en it’s a spe­cial­ist craft on an unpop­u­lar route.  

So the best advice for get­ting to Yel­low­stone Nation­al Park by air is to fly to Den­ver or Salt Lake City and then hire a Car to reach the park.  

By Car

Hav­ing got your­self to the States, the eas­i­est way to get to and explore the won­der of Yel­low­stone is undoubt­ed­ly by Car, and giv­en its vast size and the fact it cross­es three states you have the lux­u­ry of 5 entrances from which you can enter the stun­ning park based on where you’re approach­ing from: 

The North Entrance (Mon­tana) – found by tak­ing US Route 89 the North Entrance is the only entrance open year round  and is the entrance of choice for those approach­ing Yel­low­stone from the mid-west – with the North Entrance tak­ing you through the Roo­sevelt arch and onto the Grand Loop and being only a cou­ple of kilo­me­tres away from the stun­ning Mam­moth hot springs – for a great place to start your jour­ney through Yel­low­stone.  

The North East Entrance (Mon­tana) – Head­ing from billings Mon­tana and the North East is one of the most scenic routes into the Park – pass­ing through the great Beartooth high­way along US Route 212 and lead­ing you into the base of the Lamar Val­ley – where wildlife view­ings are on con­stant offer. Just be warned that this route is like­ly closed between Octo­ber – March.  

The East Entrance (Wyoming) – Drop­ping you off by the stun­ning Yel­low­stone Lake, the East Entrance into Yel­low­stone  is a great entrance for those who want to get right into the main geo-ther­mal high­lights of Yel­low­stone and have quick and easy access to both Old Faith­ful and the Yel­low­stone Grand Canyon. Tak­ing you through the town Cody in Wyoming – which is a great place to base your­self – you’ll trav­el down Route 14 or 16, just be sure to do so between sum­mer – Autumn as the east route is fre­quent­ly closed by snow­fall. 

The South Entrance (Wyoming & Ida­ho) – a good entrance for those who are skiers – as the South Route hosts the near­by Jack­son Hole Sky route , the south route also lets you take in the great Grand Teton Nation­al Park – a fur­ther stun­ning nat­ur­al place of beau­ty as you trav­el down Route 89 or 191 into Yel­low­stone – with this route again being closed between Novem­ber – May.  

The West Entrance  – The eas­i­est gate for those who fly into Yel­low­stone West air­port, the West Entrance is the busiest of the park – but for good rea­son as you’ll find your­self with­in dri­ving dis­tance o the Nor­ris Geyser basin, as well as the famous Fire­hole Lake Dri­ve area – expect this route ‑whci you can reach from US Route 20 or 191 — to be crowd­ed and fea­ture mul­ti­ple traf­fic jams when curi­ous Elk won­der onto the main road.  

By Bus

For those with­out access to cars, you have the option to also arrive at the Park by Bus, with the famous Grey­hound Ser­vice offer­ing coach jour­neys to the sur­round­ing towns that bor­der Yel­low­stone. While we’d def­i­nite­ly rec­om­mend self-dri­ving if pos­si­ble – for those with­out cars the best towns to head to are Jack­son Hole, Cody or Gar­diner all of which will can get you into the park to begin your jour­ney around this stun­ning won­der.  

Getting Around

(By Car) Once in the park you have a range of options for get­ting around – with the eas­i­est unques­tion­ably being by self-dri­ving around the Park, with the pop­u­lar Grand Loop tak­ing you on a 142 mile incred­i­ble scenic jour­ney around the park to the best of the Nat­ur­al High­lights.  

Along­side the loop, you’ll find the roads with­in Yel­low­stone well guid­ed and sign­post­ed – although often crowd­ed, both as a result of the won­ders pop­u­lar­i­ty and as a result of the maky traf­fic jams that can build up as a result of ani­mal cross­ings and the occa­sion­al bear jam ! – so be sure to bud­get a lot of time to tra­verse Yel­low­stone by car and watch for the occa­sion­al pull out, with many of the dri­vers in Yel­low­stone like­ly to be from for­eign coun­tries unfa­mil­iar with the US road sys­tem.  

If going by self-dri­ve – and we’d rec­om­mend it as there’s no pub­lic trans­port in the park, you’ll get your pick of high­lights and be on you own sched­ule – so long as you avoid the win­ter months between Novem­ber – May where a umber of the roads close on account of heavy snow­fall.   

Yet despite the traf­fic jams and the need to time your jour­ney for the sea­sons, explor­ing Yel­low­stone by Car – and in par­tic­u­lar­ly tak­ing on the Grand Loop is an incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence and ulti­mate­ly the best way to get around this vast won­der of the world.  

By bus – While there’s no pub­lic trans­port avail­able with­in Yel­low­stone, for those with­out cars and who want to get around the park you can get your­self on a bus trip – that will take you round the grand loop and drop you off at the major high­lights of the park.  

While a lit­tle awk­ward as you’ll have one eye on the bus sched­ule and as the bus tours only run in the sum­mer, for those with­out a car or bike – this is undoubt­ed­ly the best option to take in all the high­lights of Yel­low­stone as eas­i­ly as pos­si­ble.  

By bike – A more free­ing option for those with­out Cars, a bike jour­ney through Yel­low­stone is a great way to get up close to the beau­ti­ful nature and expe­ri­ence the full nat­ur­al beau­ty of the park. There’s no cycle roads, so you’ll be cycling along the same roads as dri­vers – and poten­tial­ly be more at risk for ani­mal encoun­ters, but for those the time, plan­ning skills and sta­mi­na to take on Yel­low­stone this is one of the most reward­ing ways to see the increi­d­ble park.  

By foot – While not a trav­el­ling route rec­om­mend­ed to get around – for those going round the park by Car, Bike or Bus Yel­low­stone is home to some of the worlds great­est out­door hikes – with there being more than 900 miles of hik­ing tracks with­in the park that can real­ly get you up close and per­son­al to the many high­lights with­in the park and take you to some stun­ning obser­va­tion and view­points.  

While some of the treks can take you as far as 10,000 feet in ele­va­tion or requir­ing you to camp in the grounds of the park – there’s also gen­tle day hikes and descend­ing stair­cas­es – with the hikes offer­ing a range of options to get close to Gey­sers, Water­falls and of course the great Yel­low­stone Grand Canyon.  

While prop­er gear and plan­ning is of course required, the chance to hike in this incred­i­ble park is a tru­ly awe-inspir­ing expe­ri­ence offer­ing some of the best views on the plan­et of this stun­ning nat­ur­al won­der. For more on the best hikes in Yel­low­stone see the sec­tion below.   

Best time to Visit:  

While Yel­low­stone is acces­si­ble all year round, the open hikes and roads vary with the sea­sons – with the major roads and hik­ing points being closed between Novem­ber and May due to the heavy snow­fall and increased dan­ger of tra­vers­ing on the roads.  

While there’s no doubt the scenery in Yel­low­stone is stun­ning dur­ing the win­ter months, for a warm, eas­i­ly acces­si­ble and like­ly more enjoy­able expe­ri­ence we’d rec­om­mend vis­it­ing between the months of May – Novem­ber – where the warmer tem­per­a­tures will give a bet­ter expe­ri­ence and more acces­si­bil­i­ty.  

How­ev­er giv­en the pop­u­lar­i­ty of Yel­low­stone we’d advise avoid­ing the months of June – August, where roads can grind to a halt due to traf­fic and the hik­ing trails can become too crowd­ed, so for the best expe­ri­ence at Yel­low­stone we’d advise vis­it­ing in either May or between the months of Sep­tem­ber – Octo­ber where you can enjoy the full beau­ty of the park with com­fort­able tem­per­a­tures and when crowds will be at a min­i­mum.  

Explore:   

Stretch­ing from Wyoming and into the lush states of Ida­ho to Mon­tana, the 3,500 miles stun­ning and nat­ur­al park that makes up Yel­low­stone is tru­ly breath-tak­ing, with the park being not only the home of endan­gered and threat­ened species – includ­ing griz­zly bears wolves, bison and elk – but, thanks to the fact it sits atop the largest super vol­cano in Amer­i­ca, also fea­tur­ing incred­i­ble glac­i­ers, mud pools and hot springs that make up the more than 11,000 unique geot­her­mal fea­tures of this incred­i­ble won­der. 

While the stun­ning Old Faith­ful Geyser, com­bined with the Grand Canyon of Yel­low­stone and the incred­i­ble Yel­low­stone Lake are undoubt­ed high­lights, the sheer size of the park means there’s tru­ly some­thing for every­one – with the park explorable on foot, by road and by bike pro­vid­ing plen­ty of chances to get around this incred­i­ble nat­ur­al beau­ty.  

While the park is often divid­ed into Eight major areas to aid explor­ers, the below is our top picks to see, hike and explore when vis­it­ing the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is Yel­low­stone Nation­al Park: 

Sights:  

Yel­low­stone is a tru­ly awe-inspir­ing and nat­ur­al beau­ty, that cov­ers more than 3,500 miles and would no doubt take years to ful­ly explore, it has a series of nat­ur­al stun­ning high­lights – includ­ing tow­er­ing peaks, bub­bling hot springs, and erupt­ing Glac­i­ers that have helped cement the Parks rep­u­ta­tion as a true nat­ur­al won­der – and in our view are not to be missed on any explo­ration of this incred­i­ble won­der.  

 While you’ll need to time your vis­it with the sea­sons to make sure you get there when the high­lights are both open and view­able, and you can – giv­en their immense beau­ty expect crowds at these high­lights, the below sights are the true pin­na­cles of both the won­der of Yel­low­stone and Nature in both the USA and the plan­et.  

So in no par­tic­u­lar order, the below are our 14 top picks to see, wit­ness and explore when vis­it­ing the incred­i­ble Yel­low­stone Nation­al Park: 

Gey­sers: 

As a com­bi­na­tion of being sat on largest Super vol­cano in North Amer­i­ca and it’s Geo-log­i­cal make-up, Yel­low­stone is home to the largest geyser field in the world – with the mul­ti­ple incred­i­ble gey­sers pro­duc­ing an incred­i­ble scene in which clouds of steam erupt into the incred­i­ble Yel­low­stone sky every hour.  

These erup­tions, which can reach 300 feet, are tru­ly stun­ning and one of the main attrac­tions of Yel­low­stone, with the Gey­sers divid­ed into 3 areas as well as two stun­ning indi­vid­ual glac­i­ers, with the below being the undoubt­ed top 5 Gey­sers or Geyser areas to see with­in the park: 

1 Old Faith­ful – The icon­ic Old Faith­ful Geyser is arguably the high­light of Yel­low­stone and is undoubt­ed­ly one of the most famous sights in the won­der. Erupt­ing every 30 to 90 min­utes the Old Faith­ful is eas­i­ly viewed from the board­walk that sur­rounds it with the great clouds of steam reach­ing as high as 190 feet on each erup­tion – mak­ing for a pop­u­lar spot and an incred­i­ble great spot to snap some icon­ic pho­tos.  

For those who feel the crowds are too much, you can also hike to the top of Obser­va­tion Point for a great view of the icon­ic glac­i­er – or take in the icon­ic old faither from the near­by old faith­ful inn – a cab­in dat­ing back to 1903 where you can put your feet up in a tra­di­tion­al set­ting with a warm cup of cocoa and a roar­ing fire – as you watch one of the most famous and incred­i­ble nat­ur­al dis­plays in the world.   

2 Upper Basin Gey­sers–  Home to the high­est ele­vat­ed Gey­sers in the world, the Upper Geyser Basin is a com­bi­na­tion of beau­ti­ful gey­sers packed into one, tak­ing you past Old Faith­ful along a two hour trek on a stun­ning board­walk you’ll be tak­en through an incred­i­ble series of Gey­sers includ­ing the well named Bee­hive Geyser, Grot­to Geyser and Grand Geyser – with the Upper Basin Geyser area nor­mal­ly being incred­i­bly packed – although we’d advise see­ing it in the sum­mer – as the area see’s heavy snow­fall in the win­ter and you’ll need a bond like snow­mo­bile to reach the upper area.  

Along­side the Gey­sers, the Upper Basin Geyser area is home to the stun­ning Morn­ing Glo­ry Pool – a stun­ning­ly beau­ti­ful pool that seems to reflect a kalei­do­scope of colours that makes for a fur­ther stun­ning nat­ur­al beau­ty with­in Yel­low­stone and that reflect to true beau­ty of the won­der.  

3 Mid­way Basin Geyser Area: A fur­ther stun­ning selec­tion of Gey­sers, the mid­way Basin Gey­er area is home to a stun­ning Gey­sers — the Excel­sior Geyser and our favourite hot spring in the whole of Yel­low­stone — the Grand Pris­mat­ic Spring. 

Acces­si­ble by a well-devel­oped board­walk, the stroll along the mid­way Baisin Geyser area will see you get stun­ning pho­tos and view the Excel­sior Geyser – which fires litres of boil­ing water into the below Fire­hole riv­er and the Grand Pris­mat­ic Spring – a 350-foot-wide nat­ur­al spring, which thanks to the incred­i­ble steams above and the great kalei­do­scope reflec­tions of the algae below mak­ing this Grand Pris­mat­ic Spring a colour­ful and beau­ti­ful nat­ur­al sight – and one not to miss.  

4 Low­er Basin Geyser Area: Home to the Fire­hole Lake Dri­ve and the stun­ning Great Foun­tain Geyser which has been known to blast steam high­er than 200 feet the low­er basin Geyser area is the place to go to see fre­quent roar­ing steam erup­tion from Gey­sers – with the great Foun­tain Geyser offer­ing one of the most stun­ning erup­tions and nat­ur­al sights in the whole of the park.  

A tourist hotspot, we’d advise to get here ear­ly – and if you have the time head to the bub­bling mud flats of paint pots which are just next door giv­ing you incred­i­ble con­trast­ing nat­ur­al beau­ties that reflect the best of Yel­low­stone.  

 5 Nor­ris Basin Geyser Area – The most active area for Gey­sers in Yel­low­stone, the Nor­ris Basin Geyser Area offers a dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ence that sim­ply walk­ing along a board­walk to see the won­ders of Yel­low­stone – as you can walk through great wood­ed fields to reach the incred­i­ble back basin, as well as take in the Porce­lain Basin with it’s famous vine­gar like aro­ma.  

But the high­light of the Nor­ris basin is undoubt­ed­ly the world record set­ting Ech­i­nus Geyser – which holds the record for being the largest acid water Geyser (don’t put your fin­gers in it) and the incred­i­ble Steam­boat Geyser – the largest geyser in the world that can when the con­di­tions are right send­ing soar­ing steam into the heav­ens more than 300 foot high – a tru­ly stun­ning spec­ta­cle.  

Grand Canyon  

A stun­ning nat­ur­al won­der, the Grand Canyon of Yel­low­stone is a tru­ly awe-inspir­ing sight, stretch­ing more than 20 miles in length and offer­ing depths of more than a thou­sand feet the Canyon fea­tures a series of incred­i­ble water falls – includ­ing the stun­ning upper and low­er falls and offers one of the most serene, hike able and stun­ning spots in the whole of Yel­low­stone.  

 View­able from a series of obser­va­tion points, that give you tru­ly incred­i­ble views of the canyon, the canyon was formed by thou­sands of years of grad­ual geo­log­i­cal ero­sion with the riv­er with­in it believed to flow for more than 650 miles – mak­ing it the longest riv­er in the whole of the USA – with the stun­ning cliff edges that twin­kle gold and orange in the morn­ing sun offer­ing not just clues of the evo­lu­tion of Yel­low­stone but con­tain­ing marked areas of Gey­sers and dried up water­falls that mark the con­stant­ly evolv­ing state of the Canyon.  

 Fea­tur­ing a North and South Rim, the Canyon is also a key stop on the Grand cir­cuit tour, and fea­tures one of the best camp­sites in the whole of the park, with the canyon being eas­i­ly hike able and explore – mak­ing it one of the best stops and sights in the whole of the won­der.  

 Upper and Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon: 

While the canyon itself is tru­ly stun­ning it con­tains two jew­els wor­thy of explo­ration on their own – the upper and low­er water­falls of the Grand Canyon.  

The Low­er Falls is undoubt­ed­ly the most pop­u­lar of the falls as you can take the easy stair­case down on the low­er falls trek and wit­ness this incred­i­ble water­fall plung­ing 308 foot down deep into the canyon below – and for those who dare feel the incred­i­ble plung­ing water splash against your face as you hear the roar of this pow­er­ful and beau­ti­ful water­fall.  

Twice as big as the won­der of Nia­gara Falls the low­er falls is also view­able up close on the south rim trail – with the best pho­to shots in our view com­ing from look­out point, Red Rok point – or the incred­i­ble Artist point.  

For the Upper falls that clock in at 110 feet to the base of the Canyon, while not as big they are much more acces­si­ble and offer again stun­ning views of this incred­i­ble water­fall, with the Upper falls being eas­i­ly accessed and viewed by one of our favourite hikes in the park – the Uncle Toms Trail – for a tru­ly incred­i­ble won­der with­in Yel­low­stone.  

 Wildlife 

Along­side the stun­ning nat­ur­al won­ders of Yel­low­stone, the park is actu­al­ly a par­adise for wild, rare and endan­gered ani­mals – who freely roam the great grass­lands of the park and are always curi­ous about vis­i­tors and help make Yel­low­stone one of the biggest areas in North Amer­i­ca where you can spot such ani­mals in their nat­ur­al habi­tat.  

While you’ll like­ly see Elk, Moose, wolves and eagles on your trav­els through Yel­low­stone, the icon and famous natives are the large packs of griz­zly bears that roam the nature of the park – while we’d encour­age you to take pre­cau­tions and be safe when spot­ting bears – the chance to see this stun­ning crea­tures in their nat­ur­al habi­tat is a true priv­i­lege and some­thing that makes Yel­low­stone not just a nat­ur­al won­der, but an impor­tant ani­mals preser­va­tion spot and a chance to have unique encoun­ters with endan­gered ani­mals.  

The Lamar Valley 

For those who tru­ly want to see wildlife, the best spot in our book is the stun­ning Lamar Val­ley – known to fea­ture herds of Griz­zlies as well as Bisons, elk and wolves who will freely hunt and roam on the wide val­ley grass­land – and for those tak­ing on the grand loop will have no prob­lem stop­ping traf­fic and approach­ing your car for a true safari expe­ri­ence.  

Found on the North side of the park, the Lamar Val­ley is a wide open field fea­tur­ing incred­i­ble grass­lands and stun­ning forests – and is also home to the famous Roo­sevelt Lodge – a cab­in named after the pres­i­dent who declared Yel­low­stone a nation­al park, as well as the incred­i­ble Tow­er Falls – anoth­er top sight with­in Yel­low­stone.  

Tower Falls 

Anoth­er stun­ning water­fall with­in Yel­low­stone – and the sec­ond most pop­u­lar behind low­er falls, Tow­er falls clocks in at an incred­i­ble 132 foot plunge as the cas­cad­ing water bar­rels down to the val­ley floor below in an incred­i­ble dis­play of the raw pow­er and sheer beau­ty found with­in Yel­low­stone.  

Although over crowd­ing and ero­sion means a hike to the bot­tom of the falls is now off lim­its, you can still grab incred­i­ble pho­tos of the falls and wit­ness them in their glo­ry from a series of view­points from the Tow­er Falls look­out – a gen­tly but stun­ning hike that gives you an incred­i­ble van­tage point to wit­ness the beau­ty of the Tow­er Falls water­fall.  

Mammoth Hot Springs  

Anoth­er stun­ning exam­ple of the incred­i­ble Geo-ther­mal won­ders in Yel­low­stone Nation­al Park, the Mam­moth Hot Springs are a col­lec­tion of more than 60 stun­ning hot springs that sit just below the peak of the 8,000-foot-high Ter­race Moun­tain.   

Formed out of Lime­stone, which give an impor­tant geo-log­i­cal link to the ori­gins of Yel­low­stone, the var­i­ous hot springs offer not just a warm spot (they vary between 60 – 150 degress) but also an incred­i­ble pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty with the var­i­ous hot springs known to turn an incred­i­ble share of dif­fer­ent colours, cre­at­ing an almost Kalei­do­scope of colours that shine against the back­drop of Yel­low­stone for­est and the great Amer­i­can sky for a tru­ly stun­ning sight.  

Mount Washburn 

Along­side being one of the great­est hikes in both Yel­low­stone and argubu­ly the world, Mount Wash­burn  is a tru­ly spec­tac­u­lar sight on it’s own, rep­re­sent­ing the absolute best of Yel­low­stone and giv­ing you tru­ly incred­i­ble views of the splen­dour of Yel­low­stone below.  

Ris­ing to 10,240 foot (don’t wor­ry you don’t hike it all) Mount Wash­burn is the cen­tre point of the Wash­burn range moun­tains that tow­er of Yel­low­stone and give it it’s spec­tac­u­lar scenic back­ground, with the moun­tain also being home to some incred­i­ble flo­ra and some of the best wildlife in the whole of the Nation­al Park – mak­ing Mount Wash­burn one of the absolute must see top sights in Yel­low­stone to grab incred­i­ble pho­tos and drink in the full beau­ty of this won­der of the world.  

Hayden Valley 

Found in the dead cen­tre of Yel­low­stone, the Hay­den val­ley offers stun­ning views of rolling fields, large grass­lands and the lush Yel­low­stone riv­er – with the val­ley being an incred­i­bly pop­u­lar spot to spot the many wildlife that call Yel­low­stone home and being a great spot on the famous grand loop as you enter into the real Yel­low­stone area with plen­ty of wildlife com­pa­ny.  

Known to have large con­cen­tra­tions of bears, bison and wolves, the Hay­den val­ley is also an incred­i­ble spot to wit­ness sun­rise in Yel­low­stone – with the shin­ing sun not only illu­mi­nat­ing the incred­i­ble ani­mal life, but reflect­ing off the lush green mead­ows and sweep­ing hills and moun­tains for an incred­i­ble start to a day explor­ing the won­der of Yel­low­stone.  

 Yellowstone Lake

A stun­ning lake found in the heart of Yel­low­stone, the Yel­low­stone lake is not only the start of a series of stun­ning treks but is a unique won­der in itself with the vast lake offer­ing stun­ning water scenery and hav­ing the hon­our of being the largest high­est alti­tude lake in the whole of North Amer­i­ca.  

Fea­tur­ing an almost high­light reel of Yel­low­stone – includ­ing mini Gey­sers, Mud pools and hot springs, the lake is incred­i­ble scenic with its clear water being home to numer­ous aquat­ic life – and seen as a fisherman’s par­adise, the lake is a focal point for camp­sites and motels near­by and makes for a great base point from which to explore Yel­low­stone, with the evening sun­set illu­mi­nat­ing the very best of both the lake and Yel­low­stone and allow­ing you to cap­ture the full beau­ty of both the lake and this stun­ning won­der.  

Hiking in Yellowstone:  

While the Cir­cle tour and the nat­ur­al high­lights of Yel­low­stone are tru­ly incred­i­ble won­ders, the best way to tra­verse this incred­i­ble nat­ur­al par­adise is undoubt­ed­ly on foot – with Yel­low­stone offer­ing not just some of the best nature hikes in Amer­i­ca but on the plan­et.  

Giv­en the vast 2.2 mil­lion of acres of wilder­ness that make up the incred­i­ble won­der, the hik­ing trails are dis­persed across the great park and cross the bound­aries of all three of the states (Ida­ho, Mon­tana and Wyoming) in which the park sits, with there being a range of day hikes and mul­ti day hikes to suit all explores sched­ules and give you a more inti­mate expe­ri­ence and allow­ing you to explore the incred­i­ble nat­ur­al beau­ty, hit springs, Gey­sers, lush green fields, rivers, lakes, canyon and wilder­ness detailed above of this incred­i­ble won­der.  

Before you set off, we’d of course advise you come pre­pared with appro­pri­ate gear, water bot­tles, a GPS on your phone, and bring appro­pri­ate pro­tec­tion and be aware of some of the stun­ning wildlife you’ll like­ly encounter on your hike – includ­ing wolves, Bears, Elk, Bison and Eagles – who all while being stun­ning ani­mals have been known to inter­act with hik­ers.  

While there are some 1,300 ded­i­cat­ed miles of defined hik­ing tracks in the park – our rec­om­men­da­tion would be for explor­ers to take on a cou­ple of day hikes over a series of days – giv­ing you a chance to take in the beau­ty of the park from dif­fer­ent angles whilst also have a secure and safe nights sleep. In no par­tic­u­lar order the below are our top picks to explore the incred­i­ble Yel­low­stone Nat­ur­al Park,  

 1  Bunsen Peak Hike 

Dis­tance: 4.3 miles round trip.  

Time:  4 hours

Dif­fi­cul­ty: Easy. 

The incred­i­ble Bun­sen Peak hike is one of the best day trips in Yel­low­stone – and takes you to some incred­i­ble views of the tow­er­ing Wash­burn moun­tains and the geo­log­i­cal for­ma­tions of Cathe­dral Rock – as well as the immac­u­late Bun­sen Peak., while let­ting you see the dev­as­ta­tion caused by the 1988 for­est fires that tore through the won­der.  

Begin­ning near rus­tic falls, you can expect to tra­verse over forests, grass­lands and encounter the occa­sion­al ascend­ing rocky series of steps, with the trail begin­ning down a dirt road and tak­ing you to an incred­i­ble look out point of the mam­moth hot springs and the great cathe­dral rock ‑that makes for stun­ning and unique pho­tographs.  

Con­tin­u­ing onwards through the scenic grass­lands of Yel­low­stone and through a cou­ple of switch­backs, you’ll begin to spot the snow-capped Gal­latin Moun­tain Range in the dis­tance – and come upon the scenic swan lake flats, before arriv­ing at the Nor­ris Geyser Basin – where you can watch the great steam ascend­ing into the heav­ens and mar­vel at the eco­log­i­cal and geo­log­i­cal won­der of one of Yellowstone’s best Gey­sers.  

Mov­ing fur­ther down the trail you’ll pass through new grass­lands and open clear­ings – a throw­back to the unfor­tu­nate fires of 1988 and a stark reminder of the dev­as­ta­tion that rag­ing fire can have an nat­ur­al beau­ty. Mov­ing down the trail fur­ther you’ll come to the pic­turesque and famous Yel­low­stone Riv­er before arriv­ing ascend­ing up the Bun­sen Peak view top where you can take in incred­i­ble panoram­ic views of the Gold­en Gate Canyon and the stun­ning wav­ing fields, lakes and beau­ty of Yel­low­stone Nation­al Park below you.  

While we’d advise doing the Bun­sen Peak Hike ear­ly in the morn­ing – as not only will it be qui­eter but you’ve or more chance of spot­ting wildlife, the incred­i­ble trail is in our view the trail to start with in Yel­low­stone, offer­ing stun­ning views being mod­er­ate­ly eas­i­er and giv­ing you both a flavour and the best of the nat­ur­al beau­ty of this incred­i­ble won­der.  

 2 Electric Peak Hike 

Dis­tance: 20.6 miles 

Time: 12 hours – or 2 days. 

Dif­fi­cul­ty: Mod­er­ate 

A true full day hike that takes you through and across the absolute best of Yel­low­stone, allow­ing you to explore the won­der in depth, the Elec­tric Peak hike see’s you not only ascend to the incred­i­bly well named Elec­tric Peak at 11,000 feet for stun­ning panoram­ic views of the won­der of Yel­low­stone park – but also see’s you cross state lines – with the hike begin­ning in Wyoming and end­ing in Mon­tana – a tru­ly unique expe­ri­ence ! 

Offer­ing some of the best scenery – includ­ing lush green grass­lands, forests, mead­ows – and yes the occa­sion­al ascent up the moun­tains, the hike begins near the King­man Pass and takes you along the stun­ning Glen Creek through the best nat­ur­al scenery in the nation­al Park and head­ing 10 miles along the well-marked elec­tric peak walk­way – with there being rivers, lakes and gey­sers in the val­ley below.  

Con­tin­u­ing along the Elec­tric Peak trail you’ll go through For­est and a series of switch­backs with stun­ning views on either side before you find your­self above the tree­lines and it’s time to begin the ascent up the top of Elec­tric Peak. As you ascend upwards, you’ll find that the path begins to dis­ap­pear a lit­tle – and it’ll be a case of scram­bling up some steep rock, but after a good scram­ble you’ll even­tu­al­ly come to the well-marked 11,000 foot sum­mit of – where you can enjoy incred­i­ble panoram­ic 360 degree views in every direc­tion that stretch across the beau­ty of Yel­low­stone Park – for a tru­ly unique and awe-inspir­ing (and prob­a­bly breath­less after the ascent) view!  

While the sum­mit offers one of the best and most scenic views in the entire nation­al Park – do be sure to come pre­pared for the ascent with appro­pri­ate footwear and be on your guard for Bears and Wolves who are known to fol­low hik­ers along the trail – as well as the occa­sion­al thun­der­storm which can­not only make you a bit wet – but take the edge off the view at the sum­mit, so time your jour­ney well.  

For those who don’t fan­cy going up and back in one day – which is a total dis­tance of 10 miles, the Elec­tric Peak is often com­bined with camp­ing in the nation­al park, to break the trip into a more man­age­able 2 days, with their being mul­ti­ple camp sites avail­able includ­ing direct­ly on the trail at the Gar­diner Riv­er – which gives you a good chance to rest before tak­ing on the ascent with the sun­rise the fol­low­ing day.   

 3 Avalanche Peak.  

Dis­tance: 4.2 miles 

Time: 3–4 hours 

Dif­fi­cul­ty: Tough 

A tough ascent up some 2000 feet in as lit­tle as 2 miles Avalanche peak is not for the faint heart­ed and will cer­tain­ly test you hik­ing abil­i­ty – but for those who man­age to sum­mit the peaj you’ll be reward­ed with incred­i­ble scenery and stun­ning pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties of the great­est peaks in the whole of Yel­low­stone.  

Begin­ning at the east entrance, the hike begins as it goes on – by being steep – and you can expect snow and a large con­tin­gent of bears to be on the trail (avoid hik­ing the trail in Novem­ber – March for this rea­son) with the trail tak­ing you through thick for­est and arriv­ing at the base of the peak after a mile – with the fol­low­ing three miles tak­ing you high­er above the tree line and the next two see­ing you ascend to the top of the 10,568 foot peak – leav­ing you both breath­less and in awe of the incred­i­ble views below you.  

While the sum­mit itself is not pic­turesque the views below you cer­tain­ly are – as you’ll have an incred­i­ble sweep­ing view of both the great Yel­low­stone lake below you and the oth­er peaks of Yel­low­stone above – for a chal­leng­ing but tru­ly reward­ing climb that lets you take in the absolute best of the unique won­der and beau­ty of Yel­low­stone.  

 4 Mount Washburn (via Chittenden Road trailhead or  Dunraven Pass) 

Dis­tance: 6 miles – Dun­raven pass 5 miles Chit­ten­den Road 

Time: 5 — 6 hours 

Dif­fi­cul­ty: Mod­er­ate 

The most pop­u­lar hik­ing spot in Yel­low­stone – and for good rea­son, the Mount Wash­burn hike and sum­mit offers stun­ning sweep­ing views of the Grand Canyon of Yel­low­stone, the Hay­den Val­ley, and Grand Teton – as well as the famous Old Faith­ful Geyser – the icon of Yel­low­stone.  

Hike­able from either the Chit­ten­den Road trail­head or the Dun­raven Pass, the hike up Mount Wash­burn is chal­leng­ing, but you’ll find your­self begin­ning by strolling through wild­flow­ers if you take on the trek in the sum­mer, and see’s you ascend up 1,500 feet through an old 20th cen­tu­ry wide road, brin­ing you to a series of switch­backs  which give you great panoram­ic views of the val­ley below and the famous Yel­low­stone lake in the dis­tance.  

Con­tin­u­ing fur­ther – and you’ll spot a fire tow­er on the sum­mit which is the sum­mit of your hike, with the tow­er being con­tin­u­ous­ly staffed to ward off the events of fire – a last­ing reminder of the impact and pre­pared­ness fol­low­ing the great fire in 1988 that tore through the won­der. Ascend­ing high­er and you’ll go from one stun­ning view to the next even­tu­al­ly com­ing to scenic panoram­ic view of the Hay­den Val­ley and the grand Teton – as well as even­tu­al­ly reach­ing the great look­out point for the Grand Canyon.  

As you climb high­er, you’ll even­tu­al­ly reach the top of Munt Wash­burn sit­ting at 3,116 m – where you’ll have tru­ly incred­i­ble views from the look­out point – with the lush green val­leys, icon­ic Old Faith­ful, snow-capped peaks and the incred­i­ble beau­ty of Yel­low­stone Nation­al Park laid out before you – leav­ing you breath­less! 

Hav­ing tak­en as many snaps as you can man­age it’s time to head back down, pass­ing no doubts crowds of explor­ers who’ll be mak­ing the same ascent. While the Trek up Mount Wash­burn is chal­leng­ing we’d advise tak­ing it on ear­ly doors as you’ll find the crowds reduced and you’ll be able to skip the morn­ing sun – just be sure though regard­less of the time you ascend to look out for bears and pace your­self as while the trek up does pro­vide incred­i­ble views – the six mile round trip can be chal­leng­ing.  

5 Brink of the Lower Falls Trail 

Dis­tance: 1 mile 

Time: 1 hour 

Dif­fi­cul­ty: Mod­er­ate  

The short­est main trail at Yel­low­stone, the Brink of the low­er Falls trail offers stun­ning and a close up view of the tallest and most beau­ti­ful water­falls in Yel­low­stone – the low­er falls.  

Found on the North rim, the low­er falls see’s thou­sands of Gal­lons of Yel­low­stone Glacial water go crash­ing down into the 300 foot deep canyon below, and you can get up close and per­son­al to it on this hike begin­ning on the North Rim (look for the well named Low­er Brink Falls Park­ing lot) the hike begins with a short trek through For­est and takes you through mul­ti­ple switch­backs – with each one giv­ing you a bet­ter view of the falls – until you descend to the base of the falls and to an obser­va­tion deck – where you can get stun­ning views of the incred­i­ble falls.  

While the route back up will test you – with you hav­ing to ascend up 250 foot to get back to ground lev­el, the chance to see the pow­er and beau­ty of the falls up close is tru­ly stun­ning and gives you a great chance to see, feel and pho­to­graph one of the most scenic spots in the whole of Yel­low­stone nation­al park.  

6 Fairy Falls Trail  

Dis­tance: 6 miles (Round Trip) 

Time: 3 hours 

Dif­fi­cul­ty: Easy 

Tak­ing you to the stun­ning Impe­r­i­al and Spray Gey­sers (which in our view eas­i­ly rival old faith­ful) and to the majes­tic Fairy Falls –, the Fairy Falls Trail is a gen­tle easy hike along a well defined trail that will take you through beau­ti­ful lush green­lad­sn and for­est and to a series of incred­i­ble van­tage points – before let­ting you come face to face with the 200 foot tal­ly Fairy Falls.   

Begin­ning at the Fairy Falls Trail­head Park­ing Lot near the Mid­way Geyser Basin, the trek begins with a gen­tle stroll over flat ter­rain and after tak­ing on half and hours trek you’ll come to the an over­look of the largest hot spring in Amer­i­ca – the Grand Pris­mat­ic Spring – where you can snap some tru­ly incred­i­ble pho­tos of the kalei­do­scope and rain­bow colours that lie above this nat­ur­al won­der – and of course take on the 360 board­walk expe­ri­ence which gives you a tru­ly unique chance to observe the spring from every angle. 

Car­ry­ing on you’ll go through pine wood­land – until you begin to hear the rush­ing sound of the falls, and even­tu­al­ly come upon them whewre you can mar­bel at their pow­er and beau­ty as the 200 foot falls cas­cade down into the val­ley below you – where you’ll like­ly spy bears look­ing for a snack. Hav­ing tak­en time to take in the beau­ty of the Fairy falls – we’d advise con­tin­u­ing on for anoth­er 20 min­utes where you can come to the incred­i­ble Spray and Impe­r­i­al gey­sers – which rival Old Faith­ful her­self and where if you’re lucky you’ll spot the steam ascend­ing high into the sky – as one of the best ther­mal fea­tures in the park stands before you.  

7 Uncle Tom’s Trail 

Dis­tance: 328 steps 

Time: 30 mins 

Dif­fi­cul­ty: Easy (very) 

Descend­ing 500 ver­ti­cal feet – the 328 steps of Uncle Tom’s Trail takes you from the top of the incred­i­ble Grand Canyon of Yel­low­stone all to the way to base of the incred­i­ble 300 foot Low­er Falls below you – giv­ing you the stun­ning views of the Canyon com­bined with the immense pow­er and stun­ning beau­ty of the low­er falls.  

More of a stair­case than a trek, the Uncle Tom’s Trail begins on the mid-way point of the artist Point Road – and you can eas­i­ly park up in the Artist Point Park­ing spot before fol­low­ing the signs for the Uncle Toms trail – where you can get great views of the canyon before tak­ing on the steps down to the low­er falls.  

While you’ll want to grab as many pho­tos as pos­si­ble, you’ll also find that the easy trip down – means you have to then make the ascent up – which is where the dura­tion of your jour­ney will come in, so we’d advise head­ing straight down to the base before com­ing back up while stop­ping at var­i­ous bench­es and look out points on the way back up to give your­self both a breather and a chance to snap great pho­tos of the top of the Canyon and the falls below.  

8 The Beaver Ponds Trail 

Dis­tance: 5.5 miles  

Time: 2 — 4 hours  

Dif­fi­cul­ty: Easy 

A gen­tle trail, the beaver ponds trail takes you to one of the best ponds in the whole of the nation­al park on a loop cir­cuit – but best of all it gives great wildlife oppor­tu­ni­ties and lets you take in the serene beau­ty of Yel­low­stone in a qui­et envi­ron­ment – with this loop being rel­a­tive­ly unknown and off the tourist route.  

Begin­ning at the stun­ning Mam­moth hot springs you’ll find your­self fac­ing a steep ascent upwards at the begin­ning before the trail relax­es into a more gen­tle even ter­rain and car­ries you gen­tly to the beaver ponds – a series of stun­ning and wildlife full ponds that give you a chance to spot some of the less­er seen wildlife at Yel­low­stone and take in the quaint and pic­turesque ponds‑a anoth­er stun­ning nat­ur­al fea­ture of Yel­low­stone.  

Hav­ing spend some time at the ponds, had a trail snack and grabbed some beau­ti­ful and stun­ning pho­tos – you can enjoy the rest of the looped trail in rel­a­tive peace with a small taste of the wilder­ness and quiet­ness of raw Yel­low­stone absent fel­low explor­ers, before retun­ing back to the hus­tle and bus­tle of the Mam­moth hot springs and explor­ing the won­der of Yel­low­stone fur­ther.  

9. The Sky Rim Loop 

Dis­tance: 21 miles 

Time: 14 hours 

Dif­fi­cul­ty: Hard  

A tough day trip, the Sky rim trail offers incred­i­ble views as you trace the link between Yel­low­stone and the neigh­bour­ing Gal­latin Nation­al For­est and get into the wilder­ness of the real Yel­low­stone.  

Hike able as a day trip in a loop, the Sky rim loop, see’s you start from the Dai­ly Creek Car park and take on the Daly pass before head­ing onto a soft trail where you get incred­i­ble views of the 9,900 Horn Peak – as well as the Elec­tric Peak, Madi­son Range and if you are there on a clear day and your eye­sight is strong enough views of the Tetons – for a tru­ly stun­ning panoram­ic pho­to shot.  

Mov­ing onwards you’ll walk through lush green fields, the Yel­low­stone wilder­ness and pass lakes and rivers – all of which will help you immerse your­self in the nature and ter­rain of Yel­low­stone before you come to the stun­ning sight of the North­ern Range moun­tains. From here you’ll find your­self loop­ing back round – again through incred­i­ble for­est, trees and wilder­ness before you return not doubt exhaust­ed but accom­plished back to the Dai­ly Creek Car park for a well earned rest and Amer­i­can meal.  

While a tough hike, the Sky rim loop gives you incred­i­ble and tru­ly off the beat­en track views and is one for those who want to get tru­ly in touch with the heart and wilder­ness of Yel­low­stone.  

 10.  The Upper Yellowstone River & South Boundary Trail

Dis­tance: 70 miles 

Time: 4 Days 

Dif­fi­cul­ty: Hard  

The great­est hike in the park and one of the great­est hikes in Amer­i­ca the Upper Yel­low­stone Riv­er & South Bound­ary Trails offers you the absolute best of Yel­low­stone – tak­ing you by the stun­ning Yel­low­stone riv­er, past incred­i­ble Gey­sers, the stun­ning peaks of the Madi­son Range and deep into the spir­i­tu­al heart of the incred­i­ble ter­rain of Yel­low­stone.  

You’ll need to break this hike up into at least 4 days, and you’ll begin on the shores of the incred­i­ble yel­low stone lake – where hav­ing tak­en a series of pho­tos of this incred­i­ble Yel­low­stone attrac­tion you can make you can fol­low the lake down towards its source and hike along the incred­i­ble Absaro­ka Moun­tain range – giv­ing you a view of some of the most stun­ning moun­tain ranges in Wyoming and the whole of the USA.  

Hav­ing spent the night camp­ing under the shad­ow of the moun­tains, your path will then con­nect with the Stun­ning south bound­ary trail where you’ll find your­self trekking in for­est with mul­ti­ple types of beau­ti­ful Flo­ra and some stun­ning grass­lands and scenery before your route takes you to the snake riv­er – which you’ll ulti­mate­ly have to cross – before you reach the big game ridge where you’ll find a large pop­u­la­tion of bears with the road wind­ing inwards to the south entrance to Yel­low­stone – where the track ends.  

A tough trek and one that will require you to spend some nights camp­ing in the wilder­ness, be sure to come pre­pared for the Upper Yel­low­stone Riv­er & South Bound­ary Trail with appro­pri­ate camp­ing gear and ade­quate food and water sup­plies – and be on your guard for bears that call this wilder­ness home.  

Still offer­ing stun­ning views, a chance to real­ly con­nect to Yel­low­stone and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to immerse and expe­ri­ence the wild and incred­i­ble ter­rain of this won­der of the world, the Upper Yel­low­stone Riv­er & South Bound­ary Trail is an absolute­ly fan­tas­tic hike and one we’d real­ly rec­om­mend for those who want to go beyond the typ­i­cal expe­ri­ence of Yel­low­stone.  

There­fore, regard­less of your sched­ule or hik­ing abil­i­ty the range of hik­ing options with­in Yel­low­stone offer some­thing for every­one, with a chance to explore the incred­i­ble high­lights and nature that this stun­ning won­der of the world holds – whether it be by ascend­ing to the majes­tic Low­er falls, hik­ing to the stun­ning views offered by the Elec­tric or Avalanche peak or tak­ing on a mul­ti-day trek to real­ly explore and under­stand the wild ter­rain and beau­ty of Yel­low­stone, the incred­i­ble and mul­ti­ple hik­ing trails offer not just stun­ning views but help make the Yel­low­stone Nation­al Park an eas­i­ly explorable and tru­ly beau­ti­ful won­der of the world.  

 Driving Yellowstone: 

For those who want to hit the high­lights of Yel­low­stone and of course make it prac­ti­cal to et around the 3,500 miles of the Nation­al Park, there are for­tu­nate­ly 251 miles of gor­geous and incred­i­ble scenic roads that help explor­ers get around Yel­low­stone in what has to be con­sid­ered one of the great­est dri­ves on the plan­et.  

While the open­ing of roads does vary based on the sea­son – you’ll need snow tyres to hand – the North Entrance in Mon­tana remains always open – with the oth­er roads when open hav­ing no clo­sures – allow­ing trav­ellers to come and go at night if required – with it being strong­ly advised to check the state of roads before you set off on your explo­ration.  

Giv­ing easy access to the high­lights of the park, dri­ving Yel­low­stone is undoubt­ed­ly one of the best ways to dis­cov­er and cov­er this won­der – even if the traf­fic does build up in the sum­mer – with the many roads able to take you to the numer­ous stun­ning sights with­in the park, how­ev­er for a tru­ly incred­i­ble dri­ve we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend tak­ing on the great Grand loop road – a stun­ning 142 mile fig­ure eight road that takes you to the absolute best of Yel­low­stone.  

The Grand Loop

Undoubt­ed­ly one of the best dri­ves on the plan­et, the 142 mile Grand loop – that is in the form of fig­ure 8 – takes you right into the heart of Yel­low­sonte and to some of the most incred­i­ble nat­ur­al won­ders, includ­ing old faith­ful, the Yel­low­stone lake and the Grand Canyon – and gives you tru­ly stun­ning views of this incred­i­ble won­der from the com­fort of your car.  

Built in 1915, the loop offi­cial­ly starts a the North Entrance Road  — and will take you straight to the bub­bling Mam­moth Hot Springs before tak­ing you to see the icn­rei­d­ble Gold­en Gate Canyon – where you can eas­i­ly take on the low­er falls trail and hike along the rim – before ascend­ing almost 7,000 feet across the King­man pass where you can stop and take in the Bun­sen Peak – or for those who wish to stretch their legs you can eas­i­ly sum­mit this sun­ning peak.  

Fol­low­ing the loop fur­ther round you’ll head into the stun­ning Gard­ner val­ley – with it’s incred­i­ble and immense grass­lands, before tak­ing in more cliffs and moun­tain peaks, before spot­ting Obsid­i­an Cliff – and then the stun­ning Nor­ris Geyser Basin, where it real­ly is worth exit­ing the car to watch the ascend­ing steam reach the heav­ens.  

If the Nor­ris Geyser Basin wasn’t enough, if you enter into the sec­ond loop at Madi­son Junc­tion, you’ll then come to the great Gey­sers of  Low­er Geyser, Mid­way Geyser and the Upper Geyser – before arriv­ing at Old Faith­ful her­self  — where you’ll want to watch the stun­ning and tru­ly icon­ic ascend­ing steams of the most famous spot of Yel­low­stone.  

Mov­ing on from Geyser’s you’ll ascend up the great Craig’s pass – before you come to the stun­ning Yel­low­stone lake – again anoth­er pic­turesque and tru­ly stun­ning spot – and one that the road loops and fol­lows round giv­ing you a tru­ly beau­ti­ful dri­ve (just make sure you’re on the left hand side for the best views) as the great loop winds round tak­ing you back to the Canyon and allow­ing you to take in the upper falls – before you cross the mighty Dun­raven pass at almost 8,900 foot – you’re high­est point on the loop and get to the base start­ing point to take on the incred­i­ble Mount Wash­burn hike – for per­haps the best hike in the whole of the park – with tru­ly stun­ning and scenic views.  

Con­tin­u­ing back on the loop and you’ll notice the road bends back down as you slow­ly begin to come to the end of the loop pass­ing the Mam­moth Hot Springs once more and com­plete what is one of the great­est and scenic car dri­ves in the world.  

While the grand loop is stun­ning and offers tru­ly unique and incred­i­ble views of this immense won­der, it’s also good to know it gets crowd­ed in the sum­mer – so it’s best to start off at sun­rise if you’re there dur­ing peak sea­son. IT’s also not one for ner­vous or inex­pe­ri­enced dri­vers, as the road winds round and cut­backs often – and you can expect a series of steep ascents as well as ascents that will test your clutch and hand­brake starts.  

Yet for those who do take on the loop you can expect a stun­ning dri­ve – that will like­ly take you all day – as you encounter not only the incred­i­ble wildlife – who will no doubt approach you or block your path on the road, but also as you wind road some tru­ly stun­ning roads and stop at the well main­tained view­points and stun­ning nat­ur­al beau­ties of Yel­low­stone that the Grand Loop takes you on – with this 143 mile loop being our pick for the way to explore Yel­low­stone and being one of the great­est dri­ves on the plan­et and giv­ing you a tru­ly stun­ning way of explor­ing the incred­i­ble won­der that is Yel­low­stone nation­al park.  

Camping 

To get tru­ly in touch with the beau­ty of Yel­low­stone – and for those tak­ing on a trekking chal­lenge the chance to camp inside the nation­al park and take in the incred­i­ble night time stars above you is an expe­ri­ence not to be missed as you spend a night in the serene nature and tran­quil set­ting of Yel­low­stone.  

While many trav­ellers opt to stay in a rent­ed camper­van, or book a reser­va­tion in onf of the many hotels or trav­el lodges — all book­able online – for a camp­ing expe­ri­ence you’ll find mul­ti­ple camp sites along the trail and at the entrances of the park – with the top 5 that we’ve stayed out in the Nation­al Park being: 

The Canyon Camp­site —  An incred­i­bly pop­u­lar camp­ing site, the Canyon camp­site lets you actu­al­ly camp close to the Canyon – with their being mul­ti­ple camp sites (over 250) and giv­ing an authen­tic and real feel for camp­ing in the wilder­ness — with there being cook­ing facil­i­ties, toi­lets and no run­ning elec­tric­i­ty – for a true nature expe­ri­ence.  

The Madi­son Camp­site – A pop­u­lar spot for RVs and Trail­ers, the Madi­son Camp­site is close to the Madi­son Riv­er and fea­tures occa­sion­al Bear Sight­ings, with there being easy access from this camp­site to the stun­ning Low­er, Mid­way and Upper Gey­sers – which are par­tic­u­lar­ly stun­ning at night. With a range of facil­i­ties, the camp is well equipped to give you an authen­tic camp­ing expe­ri­ence at the park.  

Nor­ris Camp­site – A spot with­out book­ings, the Nor­ris Camp­site is extreme­ly pop­u­lar with fam­i­lies and chil­dren as the well devel­oped and stocked camp­ground see’s evening activ­i­ties and camp­fires songs arranged for fam­i­lies and campers – with the site also known to hav­ing elec­tric­i­ty and flush­ing toi­lets – some­thing that will make those evening with Kids all the more eas­i­er.  

Mam­moth Springs Camp­site – The camp­site for any occa­sion, the Mam­moth Springs camp­site – found at the start of the Grand Loop is open year-round – although we wouldn’t advice camp­ing in the win­ter. Devoid of elec­tric­i­ty but fea­tur­ing flush­able toi­lets, the camp­site is lim­it­ed in num­ber com­pared to the oth­er sites – the Mam­moth springs camp­site does have one amaz­ing fea­ture – it’s close to the Mam­moth Hot Springs which can offer a great spot to warm your bones after a long day hik­ing.  

Tow­er Falls Camp­site – Our favourite camp­site, the Tow­er Falls offers incred­i­ble scenic views – as after a tough climb up a hill you find your­self camp­ing with a view over the incred­i­ble Lamar Val­ley and Tow­er Creek – wak­ing up to a tru­ly stun­ning Sun­rise.  

Lim­it­ed in size (the camp­site has only 30 spots) that adds to its charm, the Tow­er Falls camp­site offers a tru­ly raw and nat­ur­al expe­ri­ence – with it being a great place to kick back with stun­ning scenery and lie back in your tent with the beau­ty of Yel­low­stone below you.  

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While any of the above camp­ing spots are idyl­lic and offer a real raw expe­ri­ence to con­nect to nature and take in the stun­ning night sky of Yosemite – just remem­ber to come equipped with decent camp­ing gear, water and food (you can pick this up in the park) as well as get­ting back­pack­ing per­mits in advance from the offi­cial Yel­low­stone web­site and book­ing in advance to ensure you don’t get turned away from your camp­site.  

For those who don’t fan­cy camp­ing – or who are going to the won­der in win­ter – we’d rec­om­mend a Trav­elodge inside the park – or in one of the clas­sic cab­ins that dot the park, with there also being cheap­er and eas­i­ly acces­si­ble accom­mo­da­tion in the town of Gar­diner for those on a bud­get.  

Regard­less of where you stay – mak­ing your trip an overnight expe­ri­ence is a tru­ly spe­cial expe­ri­ence and gives you a chance to take in the stun­ning con­stel­la­tions, stars and night time scenery of Yel­low­stone.  

Yellowstone at Night 

As well as being a true nat­ur­al par­adise dur­ing the day, the views in Yel­low­stone at night are tru­ly stun­ning, with the night sky – illu­mi­nat­ed thanks to the parks geo-loca­tion and due to the min­i­mal pol­lu­tion – being incred­i­bly clear and offer­ing stun­ning views of the stars, con­stel­la­tions and on tru­ly spe­cial nights the Galax­ies and Aurea Boils are vis­i­ble.   

Best seen away from the camp­sites, with the Mam­moth Hot Springs, Grand Canyon – and for those who dare take on the trek in the evening – Mount Elec­tric and Mount Wash­burn being some of the best spots to go Stargaz­ing in Yel­low­stone – the chance to see the incred­i­ble night sky lit up in Yel­low­stone is a tru­ly awe-inspir­ing and roman­tic site, with those bring­ing binoc­u­lars and night-time cam­eras in par­tic­u­lar­ly in for a treat – with the incred­i­ble night time sky mark­ing a per­fect end to an incred­i­ble day spent explor­ing the nat­ur­al beau­ty and won­der that is Yel­low­stone Nat­ur­al Park.  

How long to stay:

While the grand loop makes it pos­si­ble to see the high­lights of Yel­low­stone in a day – we’d advise spend­ing at least four days in the incred­i­ble park. This will give you enough time to com­plete the entire loop, while also tak­ing on some of the incred­i­ble hik­ing treks that the park offers, and get­ting the incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence of camp­ing in the park under­neath the incred­i­ble night sky.  

Of course for those with more time and a hefty bud­get there’s no rea­son why you couldn’t spend weeks tra­vers­ing, explor­ing and get­ting off the beat­en path of the incred­i­ble won­der of Yel­low­stone Nation­al Park.

Top Tip: 

While Yel­low­stone is an undoubt­ed won­der of the world, it is also a nat­ur­al and raw won­der, so there’s a series of top tips you need to be aware of before enter­ing the park of tak­ing on a hik­ing chal­lenge with­in the park: 

- First­ly be sure to come pre­pared with the right cloth­ing – even in the sum­mer months storms and rain bursts are known so come with a change of clothes, an umbrel­la and some water­proof clothes – espe­cial­ly for those camp­ing when the tem­per­a­ture at night can drop.   

- Also as ele­men­tary as it may sound, be sure to come pre­pared with some sol­id pair of walk­ing shoes for those tak­ing on hikes, even those tak­ing on the short­er hikes, Yel­low­stone is a wild envi­ron­ment so you need to be pre­pared for wild fau­na, riv­er cross­ings and even ani­mals test­ing the stur­di­ness of your footwear.  

- For those tak­ing on the sum­mit­ing of the moun­tains and in par­tic­u­lar­ly the feat of Eagle Peak that tow­ers more than 11,000 feet above ground lev­el, it’s a good idea to come pre­pared with some alti­tude expe­ri­ence and some med­i­cine to cope with the effects, espe­cial­ly bear­ing in mind this peak is high­er than one of the sev­en sum­mits.  

- Come pre­pared for the wildlife, while this means invest­ing not only in mos­qui­to repel­lent and bug bites, but also being con­scious of the ani­mals that call Yel­low­stone home – while the Griz­zly bears won’t nor­mal­ly approach humans it’s still a good idea to tread care­ful­ly around them – being sure to avoid direct eye con­tact, slow­ly back away and not to threat­en or pro­voke them.  

- Final­ly be sure to plan your trip well in advance, espe­cial­ly for those who don’t want to encounter the tough win­tery con­di­tions and who don’t want to risk turn­ing up at the park only to find the entrances closed – so we’d advise to have a decent plan as to what sites you want to see and be sure to head to the park in either May or Sep­tem­ber – Octo­ber when the ful­ly beau­ty of Yel­low­stone will be on dis­play.  

 Cost:  

Although Yel­low­stone is a nation­al park trips to it can be expen­sive, so it’s advised to bud­get in advance before set­ting off.  

For those with­in the Unit­ed States you can expect to pay $300 Usd for a flight to Salt Lake City and then have a choice of between $25 Usd — $250 Usd per day for your car rental – depend­ing on the lev­el of lux­u­ry and com­fort you require.  

Once you get to the nation­al park, you’ll need to pay an entry fee of $25 Usd per car – or $12 usd if you’re on foot or cycling, which will cov­er you for 7 days with­in the park.  

From here, you’ll need to fac­tor in accom­mo­da­tion, which can cost between $15 Usd — $45 Usd per night if camp­ing or start from $100 Usd — $800 Usd for a B & B or near­by hotel.  

You’ll then have your hik­ing gear – which we’d advise to bud­get $100 usd for, and your food costs and dai­ly expens­es which nor­mal­ly aver­age between $150 usd — $200 Usd  per day – as you’ll find food and drink costs are a lit­tle more expen­sive in Yel­low­stone and the sur­round­ing towns. 

So per per­son you can aver­age a trip to Yel­low­stone at Around $800 Usd as a base price for a sin­gle day trip, with each extra day like­ly to cost $350 Usd – mak­ing a four day trip come in at around $1850 – which can be reduced if you plan ahead and time your vis­it for May or Octo­ber – Sep­tem­ber.  

While the cost of vis­it­ing Yel­low­stone can add-up and be a lit­tle on the expen­sive side, spend­ing a lit­tle extra to give your­self a nicer expe­ri­ence self-dri­ving and in the evening is well worth it to explore the incred­i­ble won­der of Yel­low­stone at a com­fort­able pace.  

Fun Fact:

Before Yel­low­stone was made a nation­al park in 1872, it was with­out a name – so on account of it’s incred­i­ble beau­ty and main unique nat­ur­al won­ders the locals named it ‘Won­der­land’ – which giv­en the stun­ning sights is a well deserved title that Yel­low­stone con­tin­ues to earn to this day.  

Best photo spot: 

Giv­en Yellowstone’s vast size and mul­ti­ple scenic and nat­ur­al beau­ties there’s a range of incred­i­ble obser­va­tion points and pho­to spots that offer incred­i­ble and stun­ning views.  

While it’s hard to nar­row down one par­tic­u­lar­ly won­der or scenic spot that stands out – as it is very much sub­jec­tive – the below are in our view the top eight obser­va­tion points and scenic won­ders to grab a shot off that tru­ly demon­strate the incred­i­ble beau­ty and won­der of Yel­low­stone: 

Artist Point (sunrise)

The apt­ly named artist point sits on the South Rim on the Grand canyon with an incred­i­ble view of the won­der­ful Yel­low­stone Grand Canyon, with sun­rise in par­tic­u­lar­ly being mag­nif­i­cent here – as the ris­ing sun lights up the cliff faces and makes the stun­ning low­er falls twin­kle as it rush­es down into the great riv­er below – offer­ing tru­ly stun­ning views of one of the great­est spots in the whole of Yel­low­stone park.  

Summit of electric peak

While it may be a chal­leng­ing hike up to the top of the 11,000 foot high sum­mit of elec­tric peak – the views from the top are breath-tak­ing, with their being incred­i­ble panoram­ic views of the full beau­ty of Yel­low­stone – with the incred­i­ble lush green hills, val­leys and forests below stretch­ing for as far as the eye can see ! 

A hike that takes you across state lines, the Elec­tric peak hike will also take you along the scenic Kings­man pass – where fur­ther incred­i­ble pho­to shoots await for you, with the stun­ning moun­tains, accom­pa­ny­ing gey­sers and immense nat­ur­al beau­ty of Yel­low­stone that the sum­mit affords mak­ing this one of our favourite pho­to spots.  

Grand Prismatic Overlook

A great way to see one of the won­ders of Yel­low­stone with­out get­ting cov­ered in Steam ! – the Grand Pris­mat­ic over­look takes you on a short hike to a stun­ning obser­va­tion point where you can look out over one of the worlds Great­est Gey­sers and wit­ness the incred­i­ble Kalei­do­scop­ic hot spring in all its glo­ry – for a tru­ly stun­ning shot we’d advise get­ting there around sun­set to see the beau­ty of the sun reflect­ing back off the many hot springs.  

Mount Washburn Summit viewpoint

A pop­u­lar hike, the incred­i­ble route up Mount Wash­burn offers not just a series of stun­ning obser­va­tion points on the jour­ney up, but also one of the best panoram­ic view­points at the top of the Moun­tain where you can look out over the incred­i­ble moun­tain peaks, lush green val­leys and rolling hills below – it’s one of the icon­ic pho­to spots in all of Yel­low­stone and well worth the steep hike up for the stun­ning views.  

Mammoth Hot Springs at Sunrise 

While the mul­ti coloured mam­moth hot springs offer stun­ning pho­tos at any time of day, there’s some­thing mag­i­cal about them if you arrive at sun­rise, where the morn­ing sun which peaks over the moun­tain peaks giv­ing warmth and colour to these incred­i­ble springs for a tru­ly beau­ti­ful and icon­ic shot  ‑just be sure to wrap up warm if vis­it­ing at sun­rise as despite the name it does take a while for the heat to reach the sur­round­ing areas.  

Yellowstone Lake

The water high­light of Yel­low­stone Nation­al Park, the great Lake is an incred­i­ble beau­ti­ful spot at sun­rise and one that Is very much acces­si­ble with the great Grand Loop tak­ing trav­ellers to mul­ti­ple dif­fer­ent obser­va­tion points – and with the lake fac­ing the sun it gets excep­tion­al­ly beau­ti­ful at both sun­rise and sun­set where the beau­ti­ful sun lights up one of the majaor nat­ur­al beau­ty spots in Yel­low­stone for an incred­i­ble shot.  

 Great Fountain Geyser at sunset 

Along­side being one of the best Gey­sers on the plan­et, the great foun­tain Geyser is out pick for sun­set pho­tos of the incred­i­ble won­ders at Yel­low­stone, as thanks to its unique posi­tion you can see the sun set­ting behind this Geyser – which makes the steam erup­tions that cas­cade out of the Geyser tru­ly beau­ti­ful as the set­ting sun illu­mi­nates them – mak­ing for a tru­ly beau­ti­ful sun­set pho­to.   

Old Faithful

Final­ly no trip to Yel­low­stone would be com­plete with­out a vis­it to and a pho­to of the incred­i­ble Old Faith­ful Glac­i­er – who’s incred­i­ble steam shoots into the great Yel­low­stone Sky mak­ing for a tru­ly spe­cial nat­ur­al won­der. While a pho­to at its base is always spe­cial for those who want a tru­ly unique pho­to and wish to cap­ture this icon in all its glo­ry we’d advise head­ing up to the top of the Old Faith­ful obser­va­tion point – a rough­ly mile climb – where you can sit on one of the cliff edges and watch this incred­i­ble and famous won­der erupt against the back­drop of the stun­ning Yel­low­stone Nation­al Park.  

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While these are out top eight picks – and sights that we’d advise you def­i­nite­ly don’t miss out on for stun­ning pho­tos that cap­ture the best of Yel­low­stone, there’s no doubt that there are many fur­ther incred­i­bly scenic won­der spots across the whole of Yel­low­stone that will leave you breath­less and inspired, as you explore and jour­ney through the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is Yel­low­stone Nation­al Park.