Yellowstone: America’s Remote Wonderland

Even in summer, it gets damn cold in Yellowstone National Park. While it’s not uncommon for nights to drop into the low single digits, that bodes well for those prepared to rise with the sun as there is nothing quite like driving through the park early on a frigid morning. Every geyser, hot pool, fumarole, vent, and fission, screams its presence through a thick trail of rising steam. When the warm thermal steam meets the atmospheric chill it not only extenuates the rising condensation, but generates blankets of mist that settle over the low-lying waterways and meadows.

Located in the western United States, Yellowstone National Park occupies the northwest corner of Wyoming and creeps across into both Montana and Idaho. Native Americans occupied the region for over 11,000 years with 27 different tribes having ancestral connections to the area. The park was established in 1872 when President Ulysses S Grant signed into law the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act. It was not only the first national park to be created in the United States, but also one of the first in the world.

Spanning almost 9,000 square kilometers across three states and encompassing vast thermal areas, lakes, canyons, rivers, waterfalls, and mountain ranges, it’s difficult to know where to start when visiting Yellowstone. For many, that is West Yellowstone. Situated on a slither of southern Montana, nestled between Wyoming and Idaho, the town is widely regarded as the gateway to Yellowstone. Having grown into something of a tourist mecca, the town is filled with motels, restaurants, adventure outfitters, and attractions ranging from Big Gun Fun, an indoor live-gun range, to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center.

The Three Bear Restaurant in downtown West Yellowstone is the perfect place to kick-start a day of exploring the park. Famous for its house-made elk and bison sausage, there is no better way to sample the fare than within its biscuits and sausage gravy. Brought west from Southern Appalachia by the pioneers, biscuits and gravy is a western staple and you won’t find any better than what’s served up at Three Bears.

Once on the road, for the best early morning Yellowstone experience head east from West Yellowstone to Madison. From Madison you can either turn left to Artists Paintpots and Norris Geyser Basin or go south along the Firehole River through Midway Geyser Basin, Biscuit Basin, and Black Sand Basin. Each route is equally impressive, but the benefit of venturing south is that it ultimately places you at the foot of Old Faithful. And, should you choice to head south, you can loop back to Madison via Lake Village, Canyon Village, and Norris, but in the summer traffic it can be very slow going.

One of the most impressive stops along the Firehole River is Grand Prismatic Spring. And, if you time your visit right, you might even encounter some of the park’s 4,500 wild bison wandering the nearby river banks. Grand Prismatic is the largest hot spring in the United States. Its deep blue waters are ringed by a rainbow of extruding colors, produced by the many different types of microbes that inhabit the thermal waters. As breathtaking as it is to traipse the boardwalk that traverses the edge of the spring it’s even more impressive to view it from above. Grand Prismatic Overview Trail climbs 105 feet over one kilometer from Fairy Falls Trailhead to a ridge above the spring and the view is nothing short of spectacular.

While Old Faithful Geyser is not the highest, longest, or even loudest geyser in the world, it is the most dependability. The geyser erupts on average every 92 minutes, but the time between eruptions can be anywhere from 35 to 120 minutes depending upon the size of the previous eruption. And with 30,000 liters of boiling water being forcefully jettisoned 55 meters into the air, an eruption is a complete sensory experience as you can feel the ground shake as the water roars skyward before showering onlookers in its cooling spray.

After a long day in the park – in summer the sun rises around 5:40am and set at 9:10pm – there is no shortage of accommodation options. The hotels and lodges inside the park book out months in advance as do many of the surrounding resorts and hotels, leaving West Yellowstone is your best bet to find an affordable motel. A little out of town there are also a couple of glamping options that are well worth exploring. Both Yellowstone Under Canvas and Wander Camp Yellowstone offer canvas tents situated in the middle of the western landscape in all glory. The tents come with warm comforter endowed beds and at Yellowstone Under Canvas you even get your own wood-burning stove to chase the chill out of the tent.

Before tying down the tent flaps for the night, you will find plenty of dining options in West Yellowstone. Venture down Canyon Street and you’ll encounter the giant white bus of Las Palmitas affectionately known as the Mexican Taco Bus. There’s also no shortage of barbecue in town, including Firehole Bar-B-Que, Beartooth Barbecue, and The Buffalo Bar, which is the perfect fit for those folk electing to glamp. And reflecting the affinity between Yellowstone and tourism from China, you will also find no less than six Chinese restaurants in the small town.

Having explored the southern section of Yellowstone, no visit is complete without visiting the park’s northern most points. Gibbon Falls and Artist Paintpots are must-sees along the road north from Madison as is a thorough exploration of Norris Geyser Basin. For a short tour of Norris try the Porcelain Basin loop while those wanting a longer hike can traipse the Back Basin trails. There you’ll also see Steamboat Geyser which, when it erupts, dwarfs Old Faithful. From Norris, it’s then a short drive east to Canyon Village where you will find Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Immediately south of Canyon Village, the Yellowstone River swirls over two major waterfalls, firstly plunging over the Upper Falls before traveling 400 meters downstream to the Lower Falls before tumbling into the 300-meter-deep canyons of the Yellowstone. Grand View and Inspiration Point offer great vantage points on the canyon’s north rim while Artist Point on the South Rim presents a spectacular vista through the canyon to the Lower Falls. Set against a backdrop of the pounding falls, in the late afternoon as the sun sinks into the west, the last rays of sunlight glisten on the river bringing a magical aura to the canyon.

Exiting the park through the north gate will take you to Gardiner and then onto the Montana towns of Livingston and Bozeman. But before departing be sure to stop at Mammoth Hot Springs where massive travertine terraces that have been forming over thousands of years. There are two terrace boardwalks, with the upper and lower each offering very different perspectives of the terraces. There are also around 50 hot springs scattered around the Mammoth area. Once done exploring, the best way to round out a visit to Yellowstone National Park is with a scoop or two of Huckleberry ice cream. Huckleberry grows wild in northwestern United States and is the state fruit of Montana and Yellowstone Perk and Yellowstone Ice Cream in Gardiner are both more than happy to be your huckleberry.

* Brett Leigh Dicks is an American/Australian photographer and writer based in Fremantle. He has written and photographed for The New York Times, VICE, The Sunday Times, Santa Barbara Independent and spent two years photographing in Yellowstone National Park for the book, Seen & Unseen: Discovering the Microbes of Yellowstone (Globe-Pequot Publishing; 2005).

** For more Fine Photography and fine writing from Brett Leigh Dicks here on Fremantle Shipping News, including Fine Photography podcast with Brett Leigh Dicks look here

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