Yellowstone 2018

I don’t know about you but one of my favorite things to do is go hiking and unplug from the world of technology! Personally, it means even more to me because I am constantly around people, in a plane or hotel room with recycled air, or in an airport. Getting outside and giving my body fresh oxygen and a chance to enjoy the beauty of nature is extremely important. I got very lucky and had a chance to get the local tour of Yellowstone because my little sister worked at the park for a while and I had some time off to go visit during that time. Here was my journey:

I woke up in San Diego and hopped on my airline up to San Francisco at 5am. Once I was there, I hopped on a United flight to BZN (Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport) at around 11am. The flight was pretty empty so I had a whole row to myself! (Pro Tip: The gate agents said the beginning of June is pretty slow to/from Bozeman but its picks up quickly around the 2nd week!) The crew was amazing and took great care of me, as always. Once I landed there, I got myself to the rental cars and grabbed my car to head out. The drive from BZN to the Old Faithful Lodge (where I was staying), was about 2.5 hours. And honestly, that drive was AMAZING! It is so incredibly beautiful to drive thorough. I put on some of my favorite podcasts and just enjoyed the solo drive.

I arrived around the time my sister was getting off of work and we grabbed some lunch at the local cafe. At this point, I had no cellphone service and the wifi is pretty steep in price so I just turned my phone off (Pro Tip: before you lose service, download the map of Yellowstone on Google Map to your phone. This will ensure that you know where you are going even if you lose service). My sister wanted to show me some cool things right when I showed up so we started out at the Grand Prismatic Spring. Now, you can park in the main parking lot and just walk a few minutes up to it, which we did, but we also hopped back in the car and did the quick 20 minute hike up (its about 1 mile) to a small hill that overlooked the spring to get a better view. Pro Tip: During June, be cautious of mosquitos because we walked through a HUGE cloud of them on the observation hike and all got but about 5 times each:

The next day, while my sister was working, I got my day hiking pack all ready and headed out with no plans. I started out at the Visitor Center at Old Faithful Village and read some interesting facts about the park in general and the geysers/hot springs there. In addition to Old Faithful (which goes off every hour and a half or so), there is a boardwalk hike to go see all of the smaller geysers and hot springs around the village. I ended up walking around and viewing a bunch of them. Some of them were going off, while others were just steaming.

I decided to drive around the park a bit. First, I headed to Black Sand Basin. I thought it would be black but actually, it just looks a lot like the other geysers around Old Faithful Village so….that was a little disappointing.  I got back in my car and drove south towards West Thumb, and pulled over a few times to see some quick waterfalls like this one (Kepler Cascades). The photo really doesn’t even do it justice. This waterfall was HUGE and the observation point was right at the top of it so if you are scared of heights, this might get your heart pumping a bit:

Once I got to West Thumb, I viewed the lake and honestly it was a lot bigger than I thought it would be! On the way, I found Grant Village (which in my opinion had better food stores than Old Faithful Village). One of the things you’ll see a lot in Yellowstone are Huckleberry products. I had never heard of Huckleberry but apparently its popular in that area. Its a purple berry that is similar to blueberries but sweet. I bought some Huckleberry truffles and tried some Huckleberry lotion. The lotion honestly smelled like Boysenberry but I’m not a berry expert so, what do I know? Anyway, on my way through West Thumb, I had some snacks and a coffee and enjoyed the view:

I headed back to Old Faithful Village to meet up with my sister. She wanted to take us to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone before the sun went down. From Old Faithful Village to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was about an hour but there was a lot of construction going on (Pro Tip: just make sure you ask the park rangers about the route to take because the route you want to go might be closed). Again, the picture really doesn’t do this place justice. This waterfall was insane!:

The next part of my day was actually one of my most memorial, and like all memorable times of my life, I didn’t have my camera ready! On our way back to the village, we saw a TON of wildlife. It was dark by the time we got back onto the road and the roads are quite scary. You HAVE to use your bright lights but there were ton of Elk and bison crossing the roads and coming out from the forests suddenly so the drive was a bit stressful, to be honest. We even saw a small black bear crossing the road! It was EXTREMELY difficult to see at first. The bear actually looked like a walking shadow across the road; thats how dark he was! We slowed down a bit and watched him climb up a tree as he noticed we were slowing down. It was incredible. Unfortunately, I have no photos of it.

The next day was my last full day in Yellowstone and of course, it was raining and cold! I decided to start out my morning by grabbing some breakfast at a cozy little general store in the Village. Their food is reasonably priced and honestly starting off the day with this full breakfast was the best:

It was still raining after I finished my breakfast so I decided to check out some museums in the area.  I ended up going to the  Yellowstone Historic Museum and let me tell you! This place is SO FREAKING ADORABLE! I learned so much about how Yellowstone was founded and the crazy stories of people who made it what it is today through hard work and perseverance. It really puts everything into perspective for you to understand how important it is to keep our parks and just how much effort people have put into keeping it going. If you are anywhere near this adorable little museum, definitely check it out! However, make sure you are going when its open season.

While I was in the museum, I read about about the historical Soda Fountain in Eagle’s Store that was conveniently right across the street. I had never been to a soda fountain before so I figured I would try it out. The store was pretty huge and you could buy anything you would need to camp, hike, and enjoy Yellowstone. The employees were SO sweet and I ended up sitting at the bar in the soda fountain and exchanged some stories with the very young worker that day. One of them was only 15! He had grown in Wyoming and had a ton of cool stories about his times inside the park. He told me all about the soda fountain as well; the bar stools and tile are all original from 1910!

That was my last full day in Yellowstone! On the way out to the airport the next day I got to encounter a road block, Yellowstone style!

One last recommendation! Once I got near the airport in Bozeman, I was pretty hungry and wanted some good breakfast. I happened to pull up to an adorable little local place called Rise and Shine Cafe where the line was a few people out the door and the locals were SO sweet! I ended up having a conversation with a nice gentleman who lived close by and he said this was his favorite place. I got the Montana Redneck breakfast burrito and all I can say is it seriously hit the spot before a long trek home! It’s only about 10 min from Bozeman International Airport and its quick to stop by! Don’t miss it.

All in all, Yellowstone is an amazing place to clear your head, put your life into perspective, and meet some super cool people! Hopefully this won’t be the only time I get to enjoy such an incredible park.