Gibbon Falls, Yellowstone National Park

Gibbon Falls, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Yellowstone National Park is not just about geysers and hot springs, it is also about wildlife, waterfalls, and beautiful vast open spaces. Let me first share with you one of the waterfalls we experienced in Yellowstone that is easily accessed by the roadside. This is waterfall without the hike. Later, I will share some waterfalls with the hike.

Exploring Glacier-Yellowstone-Grand Teton National Parks (Part 2 of 4)

This is the continuation of the summary of our Yellowstone-Grand Teton-Glacier National Parks trip. If you missed the first part (which is more on planning for Glacier-Yellowstone-Grand Teton exploring), you can go to Part 1 by clicking this link.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone ( view from the brink of the Lower Falls)

Exploring Yellowstone is much easier because there are 3 road loops in the park that bring visitors to its majestic places of attractions. Let me call these loops: north loop, south loop and east loop ( refer to image below).

Yellowstone Map, courtesy of NPS

 you may click the image above to enlarge

Because of limited time, we only had explored parts of north, south and east loops. In part 1 of the series, we drove from North to Grand Teton via the eastern portion of the north and south loops (or western portion of east loop), and then explored the Old Faithful area on our way to West Yellowstone. In this post, from West Yellowstone, we explored the south loop by going clockwise from Madison Junction. However, we observed later it probably would have been easier had we done the counterclockwise direction (going south of Madison Junction), because most of our stops were in the opposite side. In this post, I will be summarizing what we have covered in the southwestern loop in one day until sun down, and what we had missed in the loop that we needed to go back the next day.
Going clockwise of the southwestern loop....
1. Our first short stop was along the meadows on Highway 89 just a mile or two north of Madison Junction to observe Yellowstone wildlife.

Herd of Bison on a Meadow Along Highway 89 ( about 2- 5 miles North of Madison Junction)

2. Our second short stop was at Gibbon Falls, still on Highway 89. The overlook to Gibbon Falls is only a very short walk from the parking lot.

Gibbon Falls from the Overlook

( this is a handheld shot since we did not bring our tripod so we could avoid checking in our luggage) 

 3. Our third stop was at Artist Paint Pots, about 3 miles South of Norris Junction or 11 miles North of Madison Junction. This is a short easy hike, about 1.5 miles total. I will write a post solely about Artist Paint Pots in my later posts because this has a lot of interesting geothermal features.

Milky Blue Pools at Artist Paint Pot

Artist Paint Pot, Yellowstone National Park

 Peach Colored Soil @ Artist Paint Pot

The Artist Paint Pot is South of Norris Geyser Basin and North of Madison Junction. The trail is an easy hike to several geothermal features which you will also probably see in the other parts of Yellowstone. Unlike Midway Geyser Basin and Lower Geyser Basin, the Artist Paint Pot geothermal features can be observed after about 0.3 mile hike along pine forest. After about 0.3 mile, there is a wooded boardwalk that slowly climbs up and goes around several features in Artist Paint Pot area, such as the mudpot below.  

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Lower Fall from Red Rock Point, Grand Canyon of The Yellowstone River
(can you see the people at the brink of the waterfall?)

In my previous post, I shared about Gibbon Falls, which is a beautiful roadside waterfall in Yellowstone National Park. In this post, I will be featuring two of the more popular waterfalls in Yellowstone, the Upper Falls and Lower Falls which sit at the head of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River.

Midway Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park

Images from Midway Geyser Basin, Excelsior Group, Yellowstone National Park

The Excelsior Group in Midway Geyser Basin is no doubt my most favorite feature in Yellowstone National Park. Maybe, Midway Geyser Basin awed us beyond compare because we already had seen so much beautiful scenery and amazing features in Yellowstone that we thought with all the beauty we had seen, what else was there? Midway Geyser Basin answered us: "there are more!"

Part 2 of Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park

Sawmill Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park

In my previous post  Upper Geyser Basin (part 1), after watching Old Faithful geyser erupt, we followed the paved trail and some elevated board walks to Geyser Hill. After Geyser Hill, we continued walking North. The first erupting geyser we saw after Geyser Hill was Sawmill Geyser. If you look at the picture above, Sawmill is a fountain type geyser. The bursting water stream comes through a pool of water. Sawmill's eruption can exceed 35 feet. Eruptions commonly last 30 to 50 minutes but can last from as little as 9 minutes to over 4 hours. At the time we were there, it definitely lasted more than 30 minutes. 

Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park (Part 1)

Old Faithful Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park

There is more to Old Faithful area than Old Faithful Geyser. However, coming to Old Faithful with limited idea what was around, except Old Faithful, we started by following 95+% of the tourists. We crowded near the Old Faithful area waiting for Old Faithful to erupt. Though I was quiet at all times during the wait, but deep inside me, I was like the whining kids, crying to their mom, "MOM, I am bored! Can we do something else?" And mom had to explain, "shhhh, let us wait a little bit, for in just a short while, Old Faithful will erupt!"

chipmunk (?) entertaining us while waiting for Old Faithful to erupt

String Lake Trailhead to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point, Grand Teton

Hidden Falls, Grand Teton National Park, WY

Hidden Falls is a 200 ft cascade found at the Cascade Canyon of Grand Teton National Park. There are three options that I know of to reach Hidden Falls and the Cascade Canyon Trail, which is probably the most popular trail system in the park, therefore, expect company in your hike. 

Grand Teton Without The Hikes

Let me start this post with this travel quote from Lao Tzu: "A good traveler has no plans, and is not intent on arriving."

Wild Sunflowers at Jackson Lake, Wyoming By The Roadside

When we explore other places, especially National Parks, hiking is always in our "must do" list. Hiking allows us to see and experience places that are not ordinarily seen unless one leaves the main road. It also allows us to experience deep peacefulness in nature. Sharing nature with other nature lovers as well is very inspiring because you get to see the efforts other do to experience and preserve nature. 

However, it does not mean we do not open our eyes and other senses to the majestic scenery and sounds around us if we are simply on the road. Whenever we are on the road, we do not focus on our destination, but rather we enjoy seeing scenery one moment at a time. If we need to stop, we would, as long as there is a safe turn-out, or there is a legal parking by the roadside. And the pictures here of Jackson Lake is by the look-out point which has legal parking lot. While photographing this scenery (all landscape shots here of Jackson lake were taken by cell phone), some cars stopped, looked around, and one asked me, "what did you see?"

Part 3 of 4: Exploring Glacier-Yellowstone-Grand Teton National Parks

This is the continuation of the summary of our Yellowstone-Grand Teton-Glacier National Parks trip. If you missed the first two parts, and is interested to learn more about:

1. Planning for a Yellowstone-Grand Teton-Glacier National Parks itinerary with some of the sights- please visit Part 1 of this series.

2. Sights to see in the south loop of Yellowstone National Park - please visit Part 2 of this series.

The previous day, we explored the south loop going North from Madison Junction to Canyon Village and Lake Village, ending at sunset in the Old Faithful area. Since we already have covered the eastern part of the north loop on our first day, we decided to take some time to explore some parts of the south loop that we had missed before proceeding to explore the western part of the north loop.

wanted to share this blue to my dear friend, Kulasa of The Letters of November

Part A: Lower and Midway Geyser Basins in the south loop.

1. Coming from West Yellowstone, before turning left to go North from Madison Junction, we turned right to continue our exploring of the south loop. Out first right turn was at the Firehole Canyon Drive.

Hot Spring Next to the River

Exploring Glacier-Yellowstone-Grand Teton National Parks (Part 1 of 4)

Field of Canola Flowers, Montana

Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park are two parks which are right next to each other where visitors can experience some interesting places of both parks in one day. Glacier National Park on the other hand is quite a drive from Yellowstone National Park, about 7 hours (400 miles). However, Great Falls International Airport in Montana is quite strategically located right in the middle of Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, thus, it allowed us to experience all these majestic parks in 7 days by dividing the drive into smaller segments. Also, the drive from Yellowstone to Glacier was never boring because of the scenery, we had to pull over so many times because of the sights.

Great Falls, MT from our airplane window