Yellowstone: what's the big deal about it?
I would like to ask those of you who think Yellowstone NP is worth 3, 4, 7 or even more days of a vacation, what do you find so interesting there? Maybe I'm missing it, and you can help me know what ...
Forum Discussion
I've been to Yellowstone twice in the past few years. The first time I simply drove from the south entrance to Old Faithful where I hunted for a parking space for 30 minutes, watched the geyser then drove out the west entrance.
The second trip we took our travel trailer and stayed at Fishing Bridge for 3 nights. We drove to all the major tourist sites and took lots of pics. It was a nice place but to be honest, it was disappointing. The tourists (which I was one of) simply made it a mad house at every stop. We witnessed a 5 mile car back up for a grizzly sighting.
I really think that the best way to see the park would be to do overnight backpacking trips into the back country. But I suspect that even that would be more crowded that I would want. I know that there are things to see in Yellowstone that can't be seen anywhere else in the US, but I'd rather spend my time away from the crowds.
Last year after we left Yellowstone we headed out to the Grey's River in the Bridger Teton National Forest. Again we spent 3 days there, but the difference was that we didn't see more than 15-20 people during the entire 3 days vs. the literally thousands that we saw in Yellowstone. Of course even there we couldn't get "away". We set up camp with only one other person in sight and when we returned to camp after a day of fishing and sight seeing a gentleman had setup his tent within 25 feet of our travel trailer.
Everyone should visit Yellowstone at least once, but there are certainly better places to enjoy the beauty and solitude of the area.
The second trip we took our travel trailer and stayed at Fishing Bridge for 3 nights. We drove to all the major tourist sites and took lots of pics. It was a nice place but to be honest, it was disappointing. The tourists (which I was one of) simply made it a mad house at every stop. We witnessed a 5 mile car back up for a grizzly sighting.
I really think that the best way to see the park would be to do overnight backpacking trips into the back country. But I suspect that even that would be more crowded that I would want. I know that there are things to see in Yellowstone that can't be seen anywhere else in the US, but I'd rather spend my time away from the crowds.
Last year after we left Yellowstone we headed out to the Grey's River in the Bridger Teton National Forest. Again we spent 3 days there, but the difference was that we didn't see more than 15-20 people during the entire 3 days vs. the literally thousands that we saw in Yellowstone. Of course even there we couldn't get "away". We set up camp with only one other person in sight and when we returned to camp after a day of fishing and sight seeing a gentleman had setup his tent within 25 feet of our travel trailer.
Everyone should visit Yellowstone at least once, but there are certainly better places to enjoy the beauty and solitude of the area.
