Things to Know about Yellowstone

Crowds & Traffic

The crowds got even bigger at Old Faithful as the day went on.

We had lots of positive things that we loved about Yellowstone, but there were a couple of things that we were not super crazy about. The crowds were ridiculous at some of the bigger, more popular spots. Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic Spring and a few others were crazy busy.

Around Old Faithful and some of the other geysers in the area, there is a nice paved path and boardwalk which is awesome for a stroller. However, with the crowds and people standing to watch different spots, it gets a bit tricky to maneuver, especially with a lot of little people. Again, the earlier the better as the crowds don’t start to build until mid-morning.

We passed hundreds of cars entering the park through the West Entrance

With lots of crowds and people comes a lot of traffic. Between people being unfamiliar with their rental cars, others gawking at bears and bison and road traffic, it took forever to get to different spots. Again, the earlier you can go, the better!

Upper Loop & Lower Loop

If you choose to use Chatty, like we did, we ended up doing his recommendation of spreading out our adventures over 2 days. We did the upper loop of the park the first day and the lower loop the park of the second day. Some of the sights included in each loop:

Upper Loop:

• Mammoth Springs

• Lamar Valley

• Tower-Roosevelt

• Sulphuric Caldron

• Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

• Upper & Lower Falls

• Mud Pots

Lower Loop:

• Old Faithful & Old Faithful Inn

• Grand Prismatic Spring

• Geyser Basins