Vacationing at Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks

Entrance Sign

In August we take a week's driving vacation, and most of the time it is visiting a state we have never been to, or a national park.  We visited Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks many years ago, and loved them so much we decided to go back for a visit.

Bison Herd

We have seen more wildlife at Yellowstone than at any other national park we have visited.  Herds of bison and elk can be seen in many of the open meadow areas of the park. You can also see black and grizzly bears, moose, pronghorn, wolves, big horn sheep and mule deer.

Old Faithful Geyser

There are many geysers in the park, but the most famous is Old Faithful, called that because it has a fairly regular daily eruption schedule.  The eruption can last for 5 minutes and can expel 8,400 gallons of boiling water and reach a height of 180 feet.

Terraces

At Mammoth Hot Springs area of the park you can see terraces of different colors that form from the 50  underground hot springs that seep through the surface carrying carbonic acid and dissolved limestone  that when it is exposed to air is deposited as travertine. 

Mud Volcano

This is a photo of a boiling mud pot called mud volcano because in1873 it violently erupted 30 feet high and wide covering trees with mud. It has been much tamer since, just bubbling and boiling. Sulfuric acid is formed from the hydrogen sulfide deep in the earth here and dissolves the surface soils around it. The sulfur makes this a mud pot rather than a hot spring, and gives off that infamous aroma.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River

The present appearance of the canyon dates from about 10,000 years ago at the end of the last glaciation.  It is 20 miles long, and up to 1,200 feet deep. There are falls. The upper falls are 109 feet, and the lower falls are 308 feet.

Entrance sign

We also visited Grand Teton national park which is right next to Yellowstone national park.

Teton Range

Ten million years ago the Teton Range rose abruptly from massive earthquakes along the Teton fault.  Erosion from glaciers sculpted the landscape.

Teton Glacier

In this photo the white spot in the center is what remains of Teton glacier. The Teton peak in this photo tops out at 13,775 feet.  Many of the mountain range peaks are over 12,000 feet.

Jenny Lake

Jenny Lake is as clear and beautiful as it was when we visited many years ago.  It is one of the most visited spots in the park.

Teton Range

The mountains seem as dramatic and stark to me as they were years ago.  Grand Teton park has much of the same wildlife as Yellowstone park (bison, moose, elk).  Yellowstone is much much larger and has all the exciting geysers, boiling lakes and mud pots, while Grand Teton has such beauty in the stark mountains, sagebrush flats and valley meadows.  The big difference I noticed this visit is that it is much more crowded at both parks, and with repairs delayed because of budget cuts, parts of the park are in disrepair.