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Yellowstone National Park and "nearby" bits

Holiday Ideas & Foreign Travel
zico
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Yellowstone National Park and "nearby" bits

#6491

Postby zico » November 18th, 2016, 4:33 pm

We visited this in mid-September as it has been near the top of my bucket list for ages, but I'd always thought it was so remote, it would be difficult to fit into a short holiday.

We flew to Denver, then it was a full day of driving (450 miles) to get to Mount Rushmore (the one with the presidents' heads). I'd never heard of Custer State Park before we started planning our trip, but it's just a few miles from Mount Rushmore, has bison roaming and a wildlife loop road where you can see pronghorn antelope, prairie dogs and probably other stuff too. There's a scenic road called the Needles, which goes through 3 narrow rock tunnels and gives spectacular views and is a jumping-off point for hikes. We spent 2 nights in this area, visiting Mt.Rushmore after dark at 8pm for the patriotic flag-lowering ceremony and then at 7.30am to virtually have the place to ourselves. Crazy Horse statue is also just a few miles away, but consists just of a huge head and an arm that looks like a quarry road.

From here, we drove to Red Lodge in Montana (250 miles) via Devil's Tower (as seen in Close Encounters of the 3rd kind) and visited Battle of the Little Big Horn site through fascinating back of beyond scenery. You can see why they call it Big Sky country. There's very little traffic, so you don't have to be on interstates to make good time on the roads. The reason we'd stayed in Red Lodge was to enter Yellowstone Nat Park via Beartooth Pass, rated one of USA's top scenic drives. Next morning the road climbed 3,000 in about 3 miles up the side of a mountain, then at a scenic lay-by, we were told that snow ahead had closed the pass so we had to go all the way back down again. The nearest open route to Yellowstone (Chief Joseph Highway) involved a 30 mile detour, but was a very scenic road with an incredible view from the top of a pass. After 40 miles or so, we finally got to the park boundaries. The way we came, it's about 80 miles from the nearest big town (or small town) to the outer boundaries of Yellowstone - it's just really out in the wilds. The National Park itself is about 60 miles by 50 miles, and there's a figure of eight road that covers the main sights of interest in the park.

The park was great, and we stayed 4 nights in 4 different locations in and around the park. Hotels in the park are really expensive (think £300+) but they also have cabins for around (£150-200) which are just fine inside, though they look grim from the outside. Our favourite location was Lake Yellowstone in the heart of the park, as from there you can get into the park at sunrise and drive around at sunset when animals are most active. We saw a couple of bears (from the car) and lots of bison and elk (which are different from European elks, which are called "moose" in the USA), and heard wolves howling, but didn't see them. The Grand Canyon is Yellowstone is spectacular with 2 massive waterfalls, one after the other. There are no guard rails on any of the roads, but there's nothing really scary in terms of drop-offs.

It's advised to carry bear spray when hiking in Yellowstone, as grizzlies can be aggressive and there is lots of advice about what to do should you meet one - boils down to "don't upset the grizzly". The Old Faithful area was fascinating as there's about a 10-mile stretch of river with active geysers. We stayed at Old Faithful itself, which has the highest concentration of geysers on a mile-long boardwalk. There's about 60-odd geysers here. Four nights is probably about right to see the main sights, though keen hikers could easily stay longer here.

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Yellowstone National Park and "nearby" bits

#6501

Postby UncleEbenezer » November 18th, 2016, 4:48 pm

'Merkin backpackers in many areas go to some lengths to protect against giardia. Was there local advice on whether the water should be processed before drinking? What approach did you take?

How high was the insect-line between getting eaten alive and enjoying the great outdoors intact? I presume September is not so autumnal as to be comfortable even at low level?

jackdaww
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Re: Yellowstone National Park and "nearby" bits

#6519

Postby jackdaww » November 18th, 2016, 5:21 pm

I was there in 1963 while delivering an oldsmobile from detroit to vancouver .

sadly all i can mostly remember is the scenery - wonderful , old faithful and other geysers - wonderful , and bears - scary - i cant believe how far i roamed from the safety of the car .

. :roll:

zico
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Re: Yellowstone National Park and "nearby" bits

#6523

Postby zico » November 18th, 2016, 5:31 pm

"Merkin backpackers"? I'm guessing that's auto-correct at work (possibly using fuzzy logic!).

September was an ideal month because it there was no problem at all with insects, and it was warm enough to have T-shirts and shorts, but not so warm as to be uncomfortable when hiking. October is when the weather closes in and roads can start to be shut due to snow. Dehydration can be a problem because all the park is at fairly high altitude (typically 6,000 - 8,000) and the air is very dry, so you need to carry plenty of water on even short hikes.
We're not proper hikers who camp and drink from streams, we just did day-hikes of 1-3 hours. I believe the insects can be a real nuisance in summer, and I expect the park roads and main sights would be far busier.

Bears aren't that much of a problem. I checked the stats and they only kill/maim 1 person every year in Yellowstone - given the millions of visitors, that means you'd have to hike every day in Yellowstone for 500 years before being killed/maimed by a bear.

Jack - I bet it was great in 1963, did you see bears?

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Re: Yellowstone National Park and "nearby" bits

#6576

Postby Lootman » November 18th, 2016, 7:38 pm

zico wrote:
The park was great, and we stayed 4 nights in 4 different locations in and around the park. Hotels in the park are really expensive (think £300+) but they also have cabins for around (£150-200) which are just fine inside, though they look grim from the outside.

Most National Parks in the US do not have any hotels in them for the very good reason that, unlike national parks in the UK, they are really attempts to preserve wilderness. In the UK we really don't have any wilderness any more, and national parks are private lands with restrictions, and people live and work in them. In the US the park lands are all owned by the federal government and there quite simply isn't any development and barely any commercial enterprises.

The most popular NP's do have hotels, like Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon and Yosemite. I stayed at the Ahwahnee Hotel once in Yosemite and it was $600 a night - call that £500 a night. But you camp there for $20 a night. Camping is the only way to stay in most NP's - otherwise you end up having to stay in one of the ugly encampments of motels just outside the NP boundaries.

And in my opinion, camping is the best way to visit any national park, as well as certainly being the cheapest.

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Re: Yellowstone National Park and "nearby" bits

#6687

Postby Percol351 » November 19th, 2016, 10:11 am

I've been twice once at the end of September it started to snow when we were there and in March when the park was full of snow and drove skidoos fron the park entrance to Old Faithful and back about 40 miles each way.

On the september trip stayed in Cody and went in on the eastern entrance and then stayed in West Yellowstone on the west side entrance to the park and finished up in Jackson. Saw 2 bears, a couple of moose, plenty of bison and one of those white mountain goats.

On the march trip stayed in Jackson part of a skiing holiday, had to drive skidoos ourselves remember driving round a corner and twenty feet in front of us were 2 bison.

On both occasions saw Old Faithful blow but was bit disappointed as both times they weren't the big eruptions (only about 50 - 60 ft).

The september trip was part of a big tour so saw similar stuff to yourself such as Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Badlands, Deadwood etc. But it was a couple of years ago when the National Parks went on strike half way through the tour so didn't see Arches Park, Bryce and Zion and a few others. Planning to go back next year to complete those and fancied a look at the Devil's Tower, the nearest we go to it was about 10 miles away and you could see it in the distance, is it worth a visit?

Regards,

Percol

zico wrote:"Merkin backpackers"? I'm guessing that's auto-correct at work (possibly using fuzzy logic!).

September was an ideal month because it there was no problem at all with insects, and it was warm enough to have T-shirts and shorts, but not so warm as to be uncomfortable when hiking. October is when the weather closes in and roads can start to be shut due to snow. Dehydration can be a problem because all the park is at fairly high altitude (typically 6,000 - 8,000) and the air is very dry, so you need to carry plenty of water on even short hikes.
We're not proper hikers who camp and drink from streams, we just did day-hikes of 1-3 hours. I believe the insects can be a real nuisance in summer, and I expect the park roads and main sights would be far busier.

Bears aren't that much of a problem. I checked the stats and they only kill/maim 1 person every year in Yellowstone - given the millions of visitors, that means you'd have to hike every day in Yellowstone for 500 years before being killed/maimed by a bear.

Jack - I bet it was great in 1963, did you see bears?

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Re: Yellowstone National Park and "nearby" bits

#6912

Postby jackdaww » November 20th, 2016, 8:36 am

Percol351 wrote:I've been twice once at the end of September it started to snow when we were there and in March when the park was full of snow and drove skidoos fron the park entrance to Old Faithful and back about 40 miles each way.

Regards,

Percol

zico wrote:"Merkin backpackers"? I'm guessing that's auto-correct at work (possibly using fuzzy logic!).

Bears aren't that much of a problem. I checked the stats and they only kill/maim 1 person every year in Yellowstone - given the millions of visitors, that means you'd have to hike every day in Yellowstone for 500 years before being killed/maimed by a bear.

Jack - I bet it was great in 1963, did you see bears?


=========================

thanks - yes i saw bears there - and i would not like a close encounter with one - you only need to get killed/maimed once!

this thread encourages me to dig out my boxes of kodachrome transparencies from that time .

i was working in the arctic at the time , and while seeing foxes , hares and a lemming (dead - not at the bottom of a cliff) , did not see a polar bear except tracks in the snow and tannoy alerts that one was around.

. 8-)

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Re: Yellowstone National Park and "nearby" bits

#30699

Postby Arizona11 » February 11th, 2017, 7:46 pm

Went a few years ago to Yellowstone. I admit it was raining most of the day. I thought Old Faithful was a big disappointment. However, the wildlife was great, especially the bison crossing the road in front of us. I suggest you book a hotel at the nearest town outside the park in advance as they all get fully booked up and it is a very long drive between towns after a long day in the park.


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