The Mountains Called...and WE went to Yellowstone!

 We knew we wanted to spend one day in Yellowstone, and the weather and our jet lag told us it would be day 2! So...follow along on our 14 hours in Yellowstone National Park.

We started our day before sunrise at 6:30 am. The dark sky was beautiful, as was our lodge. I love the lights and year-round ambience of the Teton Mountain Lodge. It was about 30 degrees as we left for the day. 

We left and unfortunately, Don's favorite shortcut into the park is closed for construction so we had to take the "long" way into the Tetons. It wasn't long before we encountered our first morning mammal. This moose was enjoying a solitary walk through the field at sunrise. 

To get to the south entrance of Yellowstone, you have to drive through Grand Teton National Park first. It's about a 2 hour drive through the Tetons to get to the Yellowstone entrance. We thoroughly enjoyed the sunrise drive.

Sunrise lighting up the Tetons

On our way to Yellowstone

We stopped at another favorite spot for sunrise pictures on the way.

The Aspen trees are also beautiful as the leaves are changing to a bright yellow.

Moving on closer to Yellowstone.

We have arrived. The sign is photobombed by the snow stakes. Yellowstone is getting ready for their winter season. The stakes are throughout the park and if the heavy snow comes, the stakes will be just about buried and the roads will be closed to all traffic except for over snow vehicles and tours.

Another highlight on our visit,

Our first stop was at Old Faithful Inn for breakfast and some geyser watching. 

This lodge is amazing. On one of our visits, we spent one night here and it was a definite trip back into time, very rustic and authentic. For Disney fans, the Wilderness Lodge at Disney World is modeled after this  inn. 

We enjoyed their breakfast buffet before heading out for the rest of our day.

After a filling breakfast, we were ready for our day. We spent some time walking the 2-3 mile Geyser Basin across from Old Faithful Inn.  This is a boardwalk "stroll" through many smaller named geysers and also a view of Old Faithful.

a distant view of the Geyser Basin

We lucked out and got a great view of Old Faithful erupting.  This happens frequently throughout the day and inside the lodge, they have a clock that gives you an estimated time of the next eruption. We had seen this many times before, so we didn't plan our trip to see it. We did luck out and get the view from the Geyser boardwalk.

We made our way back to our car and continued on our journey.

Our next stop was to try and get a do-over for our summer 2021 adventure. We hiked up to see Grand Prismatic Spring from above and this was our July, 2021 view:

We definitely had a better view this time. It was beautiful and the temperature was starting to rise. We enjoyed the 1 1/2 mile round trip to get to see this view.

We hiked back down and continued on. We encountered a traffic backup and assumed it was because of animal sightings. We were right, and we were too late. As we started moving again, we saw a few bison down behind some trees. They had most likely crossed the street in front of the cars, hence the backup.

A bit later, we did get to see some of these guys walking along the side of the road. They were kind and stayed on the side, instead of trying to stop traffic and make their way across. 

One of our favorite parts of these trips is "animal hunting." Hunting to mean: hunting for wild animals to view in their natural element. :) 

We had initially thought we would explore ALL of  Yellowstone in one day and visit all of our favorite spots. That idea quickly changed as we realized it was already  almost noon and we hadn't even made it to the center of the park yet.

Yellowstone is a figure 8 and we have previously explored all parts of the 8. We have stayed overnight in all the corners/entrances to the park and it is amazing. 

We decided to revise our plan and focus on the bottom circle of the 8. 

Our next stop was in Canyon Village for some snacks, souvenir shopping and a stretch break.

We then decided to find the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and see if we could take another picture of the falls that lead into the canyon. 

distant view of the falls in the far back of this photo

Some shots of the "Grand Canyon." We were still trying to find the hike to get close up to the falls. We had been there before and it was beautiful.

We gave up and decided, "Been there, done that and have the framed photo to prove it." And we moved on.   

Don wanted to get to Hayden Valley, a spot around the lower circle of the 8 that is home to herds of Bison. 

We found them. For the most part, they were in the distance and we found a few that were causing a traffic jam.

After hanging out with the Bison for a bit, we continued on and made a stop at Yellowstone Lake. It was beautiful and amazingly, about 65 degrees outside. 

Right across from the lake is the lodge. It is currently closed for the season and every one of those windows has a view of the lake!

We moved on and were getting closer to the south entrance/exit of  Yellowstone. It was about 4:30 and it would be another 2 1/2 hours to get back to dinner in Jackson.

Our plan was to power through unless we saw something worth stopping for. Well.....this guy was hanging out on the side of the road eating grass and we had to join all of the others that were taking pictures.

You can see from the photos above how people stop to "capture" the perfect animal shot. Some practice safe animal photography and some...not so much! I will have to admit that Don Rahn definitely follows all of the rules, especially distance from animals. That is what Zoom lenses are for. :) 

We exited Yellowstone and continue our 2 hr trip through the Tetons for dinner. The sun was beginning to set and was lower in the sky. We had to stop at Oxbow Bend again on the way out to capture the beauty of this spot in different lighting.

We moved on and Don commented that we were entering bison territory in the Tetons and sure enough, there was the Teton herd. Some of them were very close to the road and of course, lots of cars stopped to capture photos.

I had to capture this photo below. This poor mom was trying to corral her 4 young kids and at the same time, had a very fancy camera taking pictures. I thought for sure that the bison would NOT appreciate the antics of the kids. Luckily, no one was hurt and the mom got them all safely back into her car. 

Don among the bison, at a safe distance.

We were getting closer! No other distractions and we exited Grand Teton National Park about 12 hours from when we entered it. Onward to dinner!

We were exhausted and had a quick dinner at Liberty Burger in the town of Jackson. We're saving the shopping and Antler Arches for another day.

We headed back to the Lodge by 8:00 pm and quickly facetimed the girls and off to bed to prepare for another day!

Stay tuned for Day 3 - Don goes his way and I go mine in the morning. We reconnect for lunch and another adventure! Will we finally see "Quaking Aspens?" 

It's Seldom A Dull Moment with the Rahns out west!!