West Yellowstone, MT

Tuesday, October 6

If you ask Tory where she’d like to visit with the RV, she always says Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone was the first place we traveled with our RV two years ago, and it’s a trip Tory still talks about today. And because that was our first big RV road trip, Andi and I have often said we’d do things differently if we re-traced that same route again. We like to think we’ve learned a thing or two about RV travel since then.

So, when Andi and I learned we wouldn’t be driving back to Wisconsin via Nebraska as we planned, we decided to take a more northern path and make Yellowstone National Park happen for Tory. Actually, for both kids as Aden says he doesn’t remember visiting Yellowstone in 2018. He was only 4-years-old then. Now two years older, I hope the kids make some new Yellowstone memories and are able to appreciate what a unique place it really is.

We left Warm River, Idaho early Tuesday, stopping in the city of Rexburg along the way to pick up groceries and do school. Last time we visited Yellowstone, we entered the park through the East Entrance (on the Cody, Wyoming side), so Andi and I weren’t sure what the West Entrance (the town of West Yellowstone, Montana) would be like. We suspected it would be touristy as it’s the only town that butts up next to the physical entrance of the park. Cody, WY is still an hour’s drive from Yellowstone proper, so West Yellowstone, MT is where most people stay if they’re not willing to drive a measurable distance each day.

Just as we assumed, the town of West Yellowstone is a tourist trap. A run-down, not very exciting one at that, sorry to say! I saw a sign that said something like 1,300 people live in West Yellowstone, and 31,000 people visit the town each day. As you can imagine, that means packed restaurants and t-shirt shops on every corner. Sidewalks are lined with people shopping and eating/drinking, and that’s really not our family’s scene.

For as many people as we saw in the town of West Yellowstone, there wasn’t any camping available in and around Yellowstone National Park during the month of October. That’s not to say RV parks were full; almost all campgrounds were closed this time of year. I’m not sure where all the Yellowstone tourists were staying as there are only a few hotels in West Yellowstone. We, of course, didn’t make a camping reservation ahead of time as they often book out months in advance, so Andi and I were banking on the fact that we’d be able to snag a last minute reservation at one of the Yellowstone National Park campgrounds or camp on free dispersed land in a national forest. Unfortunately, all the camping spots inside Yellowstone Park were taken and we found only one designated dispersed camping location about 20 minutes west of West Yellowstone. Andi worried we wouldn't find a spot available to camp on the dispersed land tonight since so much of the other camping in the area is closed. We really didn’t have another option though, aside from driving back to Island City, Idaho.

Camping in the wilderness tonight meant we that we needed to fill the RV up with our own water supply. Andi had a heck of time locating free water in the town of West Yellowstone! Again, due to winterization, most of the water pumps in the area have been turned off for the season. We drove around West Yellowstone for an hour looking for free water spigots before Andi finally asked one of the hotels if we could use their hose out back. Luckily, they agreed.

Now that we were adequately suppled for the night, we decided to go into Yellowstone National Park for the evening. Andi and I have discovered the best times to visit national parks is early in the morning (before 10:00am) and in the afternoon (after 4:00pm) because most visitors are either arriving or leaving the park by those times. That’s not to say there aren’t people in the park early in the morning or later in the evenings because there are still plenty, but the park is less crowded during the off-peak hours. Often times, sunrise and sunset is the best time to see animals as well.

Tory’s biggest Yellowstone wish was to see Old Faithful again, so Andi drove there first. The parking lot near the Old Faithful Visitor Center still looked crowded, so we put on masks expecting to encounter lots of tourists. Right away, two very nice travelers from California approached our RV asking about our Winnebago View. It always makes Andi’s day to talk to people about our RV, so he happily answered the couple’s questions. As he spoke to them, another man approached our RV and asked about our Rad Power Bikes. Now, Andi was really in heaven! We haven’t conversed with that many people on this trip, so it felt good to meet other travelers and share experiences … even if we were standing 6 ft. away from each other in a parking lot! Meeting people and sharing experiences is one of the best parts about RV travel, and we’ve really missed that aspect of travel this fall. For the most part, we’ve kept to ourselves, avoided popular destinations and camped in remote locations to avoid close contact with others. We miss how worry-free travel was before COVID.

The Old Faithful Visitor Center is closed this year (thanks again, COVID), but there’s no stopping nature so Old Faithful still erupts every 90 minutes. We’d just missed an eruption by the time we arrived on site, so the four of us decided to wander around the Old Faithful boardwalk area to wait for the next eruption. There are several lesser-known geysers near Old Faithful, so we headed in the direction of Daisy Geyser. Andi and I commented how lucky we are to live in a country with such nicely done national parks. They are a celebration of nature — a place where even people who “don’t do nature” can visit, learn and enjoy. The boardwalk path around the Old Faithful Geyser is well built and maintained, and there’s lots of signage describing features of the area, things to do, and more.

I have a picture from 2018 of Tory and Aden standing near the Old Faithful sign, so of course we had to snap the same picture in 2020 to compare how much the kids have grown. Masks, and all.

Somewhere along the boardwalk, we passed a sign for Observation Point — a .5 mile hike up the hillside to a viewpoint overlook of Old Faithful. How cool! We still had 20 minutes to kill before Old Faithful erupted again, so we decided to follow the short, steep trail to the overlook. I’ve never seen Tory move so quickly! She was not about to miss the eruption, so she all but ran to the top. I finally caught up to her and asked, “Aren’t you winded? Especially wearing your mask?” Tory confessed that she was, but said she’d promised Mya (her American Girl doll) she’d see Old Faithful erupt on this trip and Tory wasn’t about to let her down. How cute is that?!

We passed a handful of people on the trail, but for the most part we had the path to ourselves. Sure enough, as the sign suggested, Observation Point was a beautiful overlook of Old Faithful, already bellowing big clouds of steam from its hole in the Earth. We made it to the overlook with 10 minutes to spare, so the four of us perched ourselves on a log and took in the sight below. Right on cue, Old Faithful erupted at 6:55pm. We could see it clearly from our lookout on top of the hill, so imagine how tall the water spurts up from ground-view. The bleachers surrounding Old Faithful were full of spectators watching below.

Now after 7:00pm, Andi and I decided to make our way out of the park. Andi said he preferred not to roll into the dispersed camping site in the dark because the roads are often in bad condition. It’s easy to forget how big Yellowstone Park is; we had a 30-minute drive ahead of us from the Old Faithful Visitor Center in the southwestern corner of the park to the western entrance gate, and another 20-minute drive from West Yellowstone to the dispersed camping land. That’s all without traffic! Yes, believe it or not, there is traffic inside Yellowstone National Park which we unfortunately what we encountered on our drive to camp. We weren’t sure what the hold-up was (maybe an accident?) that caused us to sit in dead-stop traffic for over 30 minutes. Andi’s hope of getting to camp before the sun set was out the question now because night fell while we were parked on the entrance road inside of Yellowstone. Fortunately, we travel with our “house” so I got up and made the kids dinner, changed them into their pajamas and transformed the table into Aden’s bed while Andi waited patiently from the driver’s seat for traffic to move on the road. Eventually, we discovered a herd of bison had made their way onto the roadway and weren’t moving. If the bison don’t move out of the way, neither does the traffic building up behind them.

By the time we arrived in the town of West Yellowstone, it was 8:30pm. Andi suggested we grab something in town for dinner so we didn’t have to cook when we arrived to our camping spot in the woods. The few restaurants in West Yellowstone were packed though, with lines wrapping out the doors. Fast food choices like Subway were already closed for the evening, so Andi pulled into the grocery store to see what he could find there. He returned with two bowl of Ramen, a can of chicken noodle soup and a package of ravioli. Apparently, the food choices were pretty scrappy.

We finally pulled into camp around 9:00pm, in the dark, exactly as Andi had said he did not want to do. Fortunately, the half-mile dirt road leading to the dispersed camping land was in fairly good condition until we arrived in the parking area which was full of ruts. The parking area was also full of cars and campers already, so we snagged the first spot we found. I put on a headlamp and directed Andi over the huge dirt ruts, careful not to pull off one of our electric jacks or our bumper in the process. He said he couldn’t see a thing since it was so dark outside.

We ended up boiling the pasta Andi bought at the grocery store for dinner, throwing some jarred pesto sauce on top, and pairing it with a salad. Andi said he was pretty excited about eating the Ramen bowls — he couldn’t believe I wasn’t?!

Wednesday, October 6

We pulled into our dispersed camping spot after dark last night, and we pulled out before sunrise this morning. If there’s anything we’ve learned about national parks, it’s that you need to arrive early to beat the crowds.

It was a chilly 38 degrees this morning, so Andi and I decided driving around looking for animals might be a good thing to do before hiking. Once inside the Yellowstone National Park entrance (thanks, Tory, for getting us into another national park for free with your 4th Grade “Every Kid in a Park” pass!), Andi drove us to Canyon Village area. This part of the park is often congested with limited parking, so it’s better for us to visit in the morning when navigating around with our 25” RV is easier.

Tory and Aden were crammed on my lap in the passenger seat as we watched out the window for animals. We stopped at a few look-out points, like the South Rim Falls and Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We were all still in our pajamas having literally gotten out of bed and driven to the park, but no worries. There was hardly anyone around at 7:00am.

Andi and I decided we’d better bite the bullet and go for a quick hike this morning. Temperatures were still in the low 40’s but the sun was shining, so we knew it would eventually grow warmer as the day progressed. Andi parked the RV in a parking lot near the Glacial Boulder trailhead, then the four of us got dressed for the day and ate breakfast inside the RV. Feeling indecisive, we decided not to hike the Glacial Boulder trail after all, and drove to the nearby Artist Point parking area instead. We planned to hike Uncle Tom’s Trail, but after walking along a couple paved switchbacks decided to turn back toward the RV. It was still cold outside this morning, and none of us were particularly in the mood to hike. The views were pretty, though! We could lots of people across the canyon hiking the popular South Rim trail.

Next, we ventured over to the Mud Volcano thermal area of Yellowstone. I remember this being a really cool area filled with muddy hot springs and fumaroles, so we decided to turn into the parking area to check it out. Tory and Aden both said they didn’t remember the mud pots from our last visit, so seeing them experience it was like watching the magic of Yellowstone light up their faces all over again. Mud boiling directly from the ground is amazing in itself. Listening to the kids grunt and groan about the stinky smell of sulfur gas billowing from the hot springs takes the experience to the next level!

There’s a series of mud volcanoes and fumaroles along a one-mile boardwalk, so our family headed left on the paved walkway up a steep hill in an effort to keep our distance from the crowd gathering near the parking lot. Andi and I have learned that most national park visitors take the path of least resistance, walking directly to the closest and easiest viewing area. Therefore, if we skip past the first viewpoint or choose to walk up a hill vs. down, we usually have the trail to ourselves.

As we walked, we wondered what the animals in Yellowstone National Park think of this area. Do they come here to graze? Or, what did early explorers think when they were the first to come across bubbling mud and steam billowing from the ground during their travels? Surprisingly, most of this area has trees growing around it. There’s also areas burned by mud volcanic eruptions as recently as 1948.

After viewing the Mud Volcano area, we decided to find a pretty place to park the RV and make lunch. Andi picked the Sedge Bay picnic area overlooking Yellowstone Lake. The convenience of pulling over to make lunch anywhere is one of our favorite perks of RV travel. We ate a fancy lunch of grilled fish with salad today since it got too late to cook the fish for dinner last night.

We’re staying in Cody, Wyoming tonight, so Andi and I selected an afternoon hike near the east entrance of the park. As we drove to the Storm Point trailhead, all four of us crowded into the front cab of the RV looking for animals. We didn’t see any, but we did read that there’s been a few bear spottings on the Storm Point hiking trail we were hiking this afternoon. Good thing we have two noisy kiddos hiking with us to scare them away!

The Storm Point trail transitioned from big, open meadow to forest to lake views. It was a gorgeous 2.3 mile loop and we practically had the place to ourselves. We only saw one other couple on the trail.

After our hike, we loaded back into the RV and continued our drive toward the East Entrance. Along the way, Andi noticed a strange shadow flapping up and down in his driver’s side mirror so we pulled over to investigate. Somehow, the small window on the side of Tory’s bed above the cab came loose and the wind ripped the arm that connects the window to the RV off. The window was flapping in the wind making the shadow Andi noticed as he drove down the road. Andi crawled on the roof of the RV and taped the window down for now.

Tonight, Andi made us a reservation at Ponderosa Campground in Cody, WY. We arrived around 3:00pm, checked into our camp site, and then hung out there until dinnertime. Once Tory and Aden are given access to the internet, there’s no peeling them away for any other activity.

Neither Andi or I felt like cooking tonight, so we decided to drive around the town of Cody to find something to eat. We were impressed with what a cute downtown area it had. I imagine during the summertime it’s bustling with tourists and activities. Today, during the off-season, Cody looked like a nice place for anyone to live.

Andi and I settled on a taco truck for dinner. I can’t count the number of taco trucks we’ve eaten at on this trip which is so unlike us! Andi ordered pork tacos for me, pastor tacos for himself and a cheese quesadilla for Tory. We took our food to-go and picked up Dairy Queen chicken tenders for Aden on the drive back to the campground.

Andi scheduled a RV maintenance appointment on Monday in Forest City, Iowa so we’ve got a lot of miles to cover in the next four days. Tomorrow, we’ll drive across the state of Wyoming and plan to spend the weekend in the Black Hills before making our way to Iowa.