The Intentional Travelers

Traveling Around Yellowstone

Beating The Crowds When Visiting Yellowstone National Park

If you intend to visit Yellowstone, the first thing you need to understand is that the park is larger than the state of Delaware with just nine hotels and a few campgrounds inside the park. For that reason reservations are difficult to come by. Most Park visitors stay at motels in Jackson Hole or West Yellowstone so a lot of time is expended getting in and around the park. As summer advances so do the lines of cars, so getting up early becomes a necessity. Also, if you get into the park late, the parking lots for a number of featured areas can be gridlocked. Not just a lack of parking spaces but serious traffic jams.

Even though the park is vast there are a number of locations that are high on every visitors itinerary. Following is a route map with major attractions marked and descriptions.

See below to download this map in pdf format

#1 Grand Prismatic Spring – Located in Midway Geyser Basin. This area may be small, but it leaves a lasting impression. In addition to Grand Prismatic Spring, there’s Excelsior Geyser, an enormous geyser crater, and the Turquoise and Opal Pools. You reach the field by a bridge across the Firehole River where boiling water flows into the river and steam rises from around the field. This location is very popular and the secret is to get up early and making this your first stop. On most days gridlock begins to set in around noon.

#2 Old Faithful – Located in the Upper Geyser Basin. The area is the largest concentration of geothermal features on Earth. Though the basins other geysers are less predictable than Old Faithful there is one literally going off all the time. There are also miles of walkways and trails thru the basin that need exploring. The Old Faithful geyser is only a short walk from The Old Faithful Lodge with easy access for the handicapped. With the lodges plentiful parking this a great stop anytime of the day and with a number of good restaurants its a great place for lunch or dinner.

#3 Mammoth Hot Springs – The springs is a large complex of hot springs on a hill of mineral deposits that look like an inside out cavern. It was created over thousands of years as hot water from the springs cooled on the surface and deposited calcium carbonate on the hillsides as it flowed. Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District in Yellowstone National Park is a large complex with a good hotel, restaurants and shops and is a good choice as a base for visiting the park.

#4 Lookout Point (Yellowstone Grand Canyon) – The iconic landscape image of Yellowstone is taken from Lookout Point. Only a short walk from the parking area the trail provides spectacular views up the Yellowstone Grand Canyon to the Lower Yellowstone Falls. This is a must see place but can turn into a traffic jam early in the day. Like Grand Prismatic Spring it is highly advisabe to put this on the list of visits early in the morning.

#5 Lower Geyser Basin – This is the largest geyser basin in Yellowstone National Park. It covers an area of over ten square miles compared to the Upper Geyser Basin one square mile. With its large size, the thermal features in the Lower Geyser Basin tend to be in widely spaced groups. Because of the large area and the number of parking facilities and trails it is much easier to visit and find parking at any time of day. In the Lower Basin probably the easiest to get to and most interesting to hike is the Fountain Paint Pot area which features pools, geysers and bubbling mud pots of different colors.

To round out Yellowstone’s list of favorite sights here are another five.

#6 Hayden and Lamar Valleys – Expansive valleys of open meadows excellent for watching animals. Plenty of parking spots throughout both.

#7 Yellowstone Lake – Home to The historic Lake Yellowstone Hotel featuring fishing and tours of the park, Fishing Bridge and visitors center.

#8 Norris Geyser Basin – This Basin is the hottest, oldest, and most dynamic of Yellowstone’s thermal areas.

#9 Tower Falls– This fall on Tower Creek in the northeastern region of Yellowstone National Park plunges 132 feet before joining the Yellowstone river.

#10 West Thumb Geyser Basin – This small, colorful geyser in Yellowstone National Park also features scenic lake views.

The real secret to getting to see what you want is to get up early and know your destination. Also since Yellowstone is the size of Delaware it helps to select accommodations convenient to getting into the park or better yet stay at one of the parks lodges.

Recommended routes into and thru Yellowstone National Park from each entrance for earliest access to primary locations.

Yellow – West Entrance and Yellowstone Village to Midway Geyser Basin and on to Old Faithful.

Blue – East Entrance and Cody to Lookout Point and Grand Canyon trails

Orange – North Entrance and Gardner to Mammoth Warm Springs on to Midway Geyser Basin or alternately to Lookout Point.

Green – Alternate route from Mammoth Warm Springs to Lookout Point and Old Faithful to Yellowstone Lake and Lake Village.

The Old Faithful Lodge is a historic site sitting in the middle of the largest concentration of geothermal features in the world (see our Lodge review HERE). The Old Faithful Lodge is situated in a geyser field where half of the world’s active geothermal features are located within one mile of the Lodge itself. The architecture is rustic and grand and the location is difficult to wrap your head around. The grand lobby of the massive log structure stands five stories high, but the guest rooms are primitive by modern standards: no air-conditioning, television or wifi, with spotty cell service and a real 1950s look. Ours had one double bed with a small bathroom featuring a pedestal sink (not much room for toiletries). We didn’t come looking for a resort and the real draw is simply the location.

For information on booking at The Old Faithful Inn click HERE.

DOWNLOAD YOUR YELLOWSTONE MAP

Broad River Inn Chimney Rock, NC

front of Broad River Inn Chimney Rock — Broad River Inn Chimney Rock

Not long ago we planned a trip thru the Blue Ridge and Smokey mountains of North Carolina and made reservations for a couple of days at the Broad River Inn Chimney Rock. Chimney Rock and nearby Lake Lure are somewhat isolated and have virtually no major chain hotels, so you have to pick from small local accommodations.

looking up at Hickory Nut Falls — Hickory Nut Falls

We made our selection based on a few reviews and what a great choice. The reviewers didn’t give the Broad River Inn enough credit. It seems the owner and family are new to this property and they are putting in a lot of effort to fix up the place and make guests feel welcome.

Our room was beautifully decorated, our bed was very comfortable and the owners placed a chilled bottle of wine in our room along with some chocolates and snacks.

Bedroom at Broad River Inn Chimney Rock — A room at Broad River Inn Chimney Rock

They include with the room a cooked-to-order breakfast and a daily speciality coffee from their attached coffee shop. Not to overstate anything the breakfast was incredible. Eggs, bacon or sausage and cinnamon monkey bread was our choice the first morning along with a yogurt parfait. The next morning – cinnamon bun french toast. The breakfast was almost worth the cost of the room.

Looking up the main street of the small tourist town of Chimney Rock — The small tourist town of Chimney Rock

Chimney Rock is a small tourist town nestled down in Hickory Nut Gorge with the attraction being the namesake rock formation standing on a cliff above the town. The buildings on the main street seem to alternate between small restaurants and souvenir shops. The Broad River Inn also runs an attractive miniature golf course along the edge of Broad River and you will find a good day of hiking and exploring at Chimney Rock Park.

The town of Chimney Rock runs into the end of Lake Lure which features its own collection of accommodations, restaurants, boating and a nice sand beach. While out of the way this area has enough to do to keep a family entertained for a few days. Broad River Inn Chimney Rock is also a good anchor for touring the wider areas growing selection of good wineries.

Some convenient links for more information:

Hiking Mendenhall Glacier

One of the worlds most accessible glaciers, Mendenhall is a short bus ride out of Juneau Alaska with great hiking trails for casual walks or good hikes.

In A Halifax Cemetery

A Short Story

Halifax Nova Scotia and and visiting the famous Fairview Lawn Cemetery with a section of graves from a hundred year old disaster.

More Talking About Photography

I’ve spent much of my life behind a camera. Maybe it started in 1961 when my Father couldn’t seem to get good pictures out of his first 35mm camera and in frustration he gave it to me. It didn’t take long before I was developing my own film and making prints in an improvised darkroom. Years later, in the service, I spent some time with some photojournalists and decided that would be a great career. I came back and went to college to study photography and over the years I picked up several degrees in the field. While I was still interested in traveling the world as a photographer with news agencies or National Geographic, I realized it wasn’t that compatible with settling down to a normal life. Choices and compromises at every fork in the road of life. No real regrets though.

PART 2 • It’s All About The Light

One of the biggest steps you can take to improve your outdoor photographs is to start seeing what the light is doing to the scene. Just as important as the subject of your picture is the light and how it adds (or subtracts) from the environment.

The light in your photograph directly affects the mood and can add drama but can also damage your results. It doesn’t matter if it’s natural sunlight or an artificial light source – you need some type of light to produce an image. From the beginning with photographic film to todays digital pixels the only thing that is being recorded is the light reflecting off the scene or emanating directly from it or a combination of both. Between the scene and your camera there are a number of things that can interact with the light. Fog and mist can diffuse it, smooth surfaces, like water, can add reflections to it and environmental conditions and the time of day can alter its intensity and color.

Here’s a secret I’ll share. Most of the time, when dealing with natural light and outdoor scenes even the best photographers aren’t sure what results they’ll get. Learning what to expect under different circumstances is a process that requires the taking of hundreds and thousands of photographs and studying the resulting images.

When I was starting out in photography every one of those individual photographs had a price attached to it and it wasn’t inexpensive. A couple of times I had jobs where the film and processing costs were paid by my employers, but even then my results were judged against those costs. Today we live in an age of miracles where those pixels have no real costs associated with them. We can now shoot hundreds of images, view the results instantly and keep only the pictures we like. Considering this there is no excuse to not shoot, experiment and play with all sorts of lighting situations.

The best natural light for outdoor photography appears during the golden hours, which is an hour after sunrise, and about an hour before sunset. Most photographers will look to shoot during the golden hours, as it often produces the most stunning outdoor images.

Just as the day has times for the best light there are also times for the worst. Often natural light can be the photographers worst enemy. Bright mid-day Sun, especially in stark environments can be a severe challenge. High contrast scenes with deep shadows next to bleached out areas in direct sunlight. Probably the best trick you can put in your arsenal for just such times is a polarizing filter*. Putting on the filter and rotating it can cut the intensity of reflected and scattered light by over half. It causes the sky to darken and reduces the harshness of the sunlight reflecting off the scene.

Night photography is actually my favorite because of the stunning effects produced by the play of illumination on buildings, lit up cityscapes and nighttime events (fireworks etc). There is often something magical about night lighting that you just won’t see in daytime.

My Camera Gear – When I travel I carry a compact camera in addition to my cellphone. Considering the quality of the newer models of cameras and the capabilities of the new cellphones, I just can’t see hauling around a larger camera. While I have to admit lately that my cellphone takes incredible pictures often handling unusual lighting situations better than my Nikon, I still carry the camera because it has better control of shutter speed and aperture and has a really good zoom lens (35X).

*Polarizing filter – Because of the small size of modern cellphone and compact camera lenses all you need is a small piece of filter. Since there is no convenient filter holder for phones and compacts available I simply carry a small sheet of filter in a pocket case and simply hold it in front of the lens. You can buy a large sheet of optical grade film from Amazon (link below).

Nikon A900 is my favorite camera. Compact with lots of control over how you take photographs and with a 128 SD card it will store thousands of images or forty minutes of 720p video. Find it on Amazon HERE.

Nikon A1000 has a greater telephoto and a few more pixels but is about 20% bigger. More info or to buy on Amazon click HERE.

Polarizing film comes in a large sheet you can cut down to a number of smaller filters. To buy on Amazon click HERE.

The bottom line today with those virtually free pixels is – look, see, shoot. You can always erase the picture if it didn’t work out but if you don’t shoot you’ll never know.

Available now is our guide to Taking Better Pictures including the first three sections featured on this website. Download your free pdf copy now by clicking here.

Taking Better Pictures