First for the tips.
Always carry bear spray when you hike. And make sure you know how to use it. There are always stories floating around with the folks that work there about others who have died or had close calls. Grizzlies are no joke. We stayed in Jackson at the beginning and end, and borrowed a can from the hotel that we returned at the end of the trip. You can’t fly with the stuff and it costs nearly $50.
Download the Gypsy app for your phone. It was the best $5 we spent on the entire trip! It works off of GPS and did the very most to enhance our trip. It guided us on where to stop to catch interesting areas that we would have never found on our own. And it doesn’t try to have you stop at every single spot – the creators were discerning.
Take one late night to drive out between the villages or even drive towards the exits of the park. We went on a new moon and could see the MilkyWay from horizon to horizon. It was amazing!
Yellowstone is a driving National Park. We put over 1200 miles in 11 days! You’ll want to drive the full figure 8 (perhaps over the course of a few days if you are going to mix in hikes and activities). You’ll also want to take each of the roads that lead out of the park – on our way out to Cody we saw Grizzlies (from a distance of course). Gypsy won’t be on out here, but each of the roads is worth check-out. Lamar Valley is on the way out and it was the best Bison and Pronghorn watching that we had!
Activities:
- If you like fishing I highly recommend going out for at least a half day for fly fishing – Arrick’s out of West Yellowstone was great! Some of the most fun hiking we did was walking where there was no trail at all to get to the river
- We also enjoyed getting a boat to do some Lake Trout fishing – do that through Yellowstone Parks. If you don’t love fishing though, I wouldn’t just go out on the lake – it’s pricey
- Don’t do the wildlife tours – they are pricey and you learn just as much about the critters from Gypsy. You’ll typically see folks pulled over and you just jump in to see what they are looking at. Don’t be shy – folks love to tell you what they are seeing. Tons of Bison and pronghorn are out in Lamar Valley if you don’t see them other places.
- If you love wolves, you’ll want to find the Wolf Watchers – they are out at dusk and dawn set up with their long range scopes and cameras. The folks in the hotel can probably tell you where they are setting up. Our Wildlife Tour guide did get us out to see the wolves because we didn’t know who or what to ask for to find them. It was worth the price for us to have just that one experience, but I think you can find them if you just know to ask. You’ll need binoculars as the wolves are not going to be right by the road – they are usually about a mile away.
- The Cowboy Cookout through the parks is a really fun experience! Yummy steaks, a fun history, and we saw coyote, bison and pronghorn from the wagon. You can also ride horses out if you book early. The advantage there is you get to eat first :). And of course you get to ride horses – always an adventure!
- White Water rafting is also super fun! We did it with Barker Ewing in Jackson and had a blast!
- We couldn’t see wolves and bears up close in the wild, so we really enjoyed the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone. The animals there are rescues and were a lot of fun to watch as they played.
- In Jackson, there is a tram you can ride to the top of the mountain. It’s called Big Red and was totally worth the time. At the top you can get yummy waffles and wine. I’m not sure those things typically go together, but I was sure happy!
In Jackson, we highly recommend eating at Pinky G’s – they had really yummy pizza. We found them through an article in USA Today.
For my next post, I’ll work on putting together our itinerary. It was a busy but amazing trip
Traveling with Trisha 