A Word from Your Concierge...

Here's a few things we learned about visiting Yellowstone.

Plan your trip at least a year in advance. No kidding! You'll never see the entire park in one visit, unless you're staying for a month or two, (hmmmm.....) so plan what you want to see in advance, and map it out. You'll thank yourself later. 

Snow greeted up when we arrived at our camp-site

Bring clothes for any kind of weather. When we arrived it had snowed... in June.

Raining on the highway between our campground and the park

The same road but now a serious front was moving in

That front turned to snow - cold and wet - our favorite

Some days were cool and windy, some were hot, and on one day we had torrential rain that turned into snow in the higher areas. 

Don't forget the sunscreen. Lots of sunscreen. More and with a higher SPF than you usually carry. While most of the park is below 10,000 feet, it's still high enough for there to be a noticeable increase in in UV radiation.

You cannot drink enough water to stay hydrated. Between the altitude and being on the leeward side of the mountains, the relative humidity is really low. A good saying to keep in mind is, "If you can see your pee, your not drinking enough." And you want to be peeing a lot!

You really want to do everything you can to camp or lodge inside the park. We stayed at a campground in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest, because we didn't plan our trip far enough in advance to be able to stay in Yellowstone. Our home base was only 27 miles from the West Entrance, and we figured that was close enough. NOT! 

Our campground in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest

Overall a nice campground by too far from Yellowstone NP

Those 27 miles took us right through the town of West Yellowstone. The West Entrance to the park is the busiest entry point, and that makes West Yellowstone one very crowded town. People from all over the world, both in tour busses, rented RV's and cars, vans and every other kind of vehicle known to man clogged the roads, and drove like they would at whatever place they hailed from. There we a lot of non-English speaking visitors who, as you might expect, couldn't read the signage. Once we gained entrance to the park, we still had a 45-minute drive to get to Grand Loop Road, which gets you to almost all the sites to see. When I say "45-minutes", I'm talking about a theoretical drive. 

Some of the traffic we encountered on the road from West Entrance to Grand Loop

The truth is, we encountered wildlife jams every day both inbound and outbound. Yellowstone has traffic jams of course, some quite long, but they also have wildlife jams. 

Yup - You heard right - Wildlife Jams

A Bison Jam

These can be bison jams, elk jams, bear jams, moose jams, wolf jams, deer jams or any other wildlife that shows itself or wanders onto the road. They can happen anywhere, but if your staying in the park, you don't have to worry about any on your way in or out. All the camping and lodging is near or on Grand Loop Road, so you have more time to enjoy this wonderful place instead of sitting in traffic just getting to it.

A Bear Jam - over a mile long

Nuthun' to do but watch and wait

We sho' nuff didn't wanna get out of the truck anywhere near these big suckers

Mid-day crowds at Old Faithful

Another reason to stay in the park is having the ability to see the site at less popular times. You can get up early and enjoy things before the biggest crowds venture out. Same goes for evening. You can be out while most folks are having supper. Mid-days are NUTS, so that's a good time to go enjoy some quiet time, maybe even get in a nap...

Mid-day crowds at Celestine Pool

Artist Paint Pots parking lot at Mid-day

Penny blocked for me on the boardwalks ...

... so people taking selfies didn't knock me off into a hot spring...

Again, there are people from every state, and quite a lot of different countries, and different people from different places act differently. This can be a concern when you're in a crowd. Getting bumped and jostled can be inconvenient, scary, dangerous and even deadly. Penny actually blocked for me while I took pictures on the boardwalks that are the only way to see some of the geothermal features of the park. People stepping back to get that perfect selfie don't look behind them, and getting bumped off a boardwalk into a hot spring would be fatal. 

... or get stepped on

My camera almost went over the edge here

I had a guy ram into my right elbow while I was at a waterfall. My camera almost went over a cliff and into the bottom of a waterfall. When I cried out, he gave a shrug and mumbled an insincere "sorry". 

Here's some disclaimers:

• Sorry it took so long to get this posted. Between having to cull literally thousands of pictures, and having next to no free time in the second part of 2017, there was just no way to get through it all. Now that that's behind us the rest of the trip should follow more quickly.

• Penny was the primary photographer on this trip, so she gets most of the credit for the beautiful pictures. 

• Some of the pictures were taken with Penny's phone from inside the truck, so please excuse any windshield reflections or blurriness on those.

• As always, clicking on a picture will link you to larger images.

Lot's more to follow!