What’re we going to do?

Yellowstone is a huge park, and we’ll only get to visit a small part of it. We’ll split the days between three areas: nights at Canyon Village, and one day in the Old Faithful area and one day in the scenic northern section of the park near Mammoth Hot Springs.

Things to do at Canyon

Canyon Village is named for the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, a large canyon of multicolored rock that hosts several large waterfalls, including the tallest high-volume waterfall in the Rocky Mountains. The hotel and campsite are a quick drive from twin scenic roads that overlook the canyon and the waterfalls. Canyon Village is also adjacent to the Hayden Valley, one of the two large, wildlife rich valleys in the park. A short drive out into the valley, especially in the morning or evening gives the potential to see herds of bison, elk, and potentially the resident wolf packs. The area around Canyon is also a favorite of both grizzly and black bears, so hopefully we get lucky and spot a few! At night we can chill around the campsite, drink beer and make s’mores. There is also a restaurant and bar at Canyon Village that we can hang out at in the evenings. Nerds can go to evening ranger talks if they wish.

Things to do at Old Faithful

Old Faithful is about 40 miles away from Canyon, and we’ll drive over and spend one day exploring over there. The drive to Old Faithful will take us along the most hydrothermally active corridor of the park, and past a few lovely waterfalls, open meadows where we can spot wildlife, and ancient lava flows. At Old Faithful, we’ll spend some time hiking around the various geysers and hot pools there, hopefully catching eruptions of some of the largest geysers in the park. We can hike up to scenic waterfalls, or if we get tired or the weather turns on us hang out in the historic Old Faithful Inn, drinking and playing games on the veranda that overlooks Old Faithful. If the weather is nice, we can stop at the swimming hole on Firehole Canyon Drive on the way back to Canyon for the night and enjoy swimming in the hot-spring warmed river as it winds down a rhyolite canyon.

Things to do at Mammoth

Mammoth Hot Springs is in the northern section of the park, which is more mountainous and scenic than other sections of the park. It also is home to the eponymous Mammoth Hot Springs, some of the largest hot spring terraces in the world. There are a number of beautiful hikes here that should provide something for everybody: hikes up old volcanic peaks to vistas of the surrounding wilderness, down canyons to secluded waterfalls, through forests to active beaver ponds overlooking the Absaroka mountains, or walking the boardwalks at the hot spring terraces. There are also the hot springs of the Boiling River to soak in, and the historic Fort Yellowstone and Mammoth Hotel, recently renovated where you can sit in the lounge and watch elk on the lawn. The drive between Canyon and Mammoth also takes us through some of the best moose habitat in the park, and past the world’s largest geyser.

Additional Time

One or both of us will probably stay in the park for a couple days longer than this long weekend, and if you want to stay too you should! Ben tries to see a new waterfall every trip to the park, and he’d love to have anybody who wants to join him come along. There is also always the potential for unusual geyser activity, so if sitting in the same place for 12 hours looking at a pile of steaming rocks seems like your idea of a good time we would love to show you some of the deep cuts of geyser gazing. If you want to explore parts of the park we won’t get to, go backpacking, or see the Tetons or the Winds, we would be happy to help you plan an extension for your trip.