<p>Planning a summer college tour and notice that Yellowstone is on the way. We will be driving past the northern part of Yellowstone, around Bozeman and Livingston. If we can add a day to our trip, can we see “enough” of Yellowstone driving around the park in one day? I realize that isn’t much time but the schedule is tight as it is but I would hate to be so close and miss out. Would it be worth it just to drive around the northern part of the park? I see that Old Faithful is about an hour south of where we will be so it would be nice to see that area too–maybe do a loop through Tower Junction/Canyon, over to Old Faithful and back up around to Monmouth Hot Springs. Is that possible in one day?</p>
<p>Yes, it’s definitely worth it. Make sure that you see Old Faithful, and while there, go inside the Old Faithful Lodge, which is spectacular. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is magnificent too. And anything along the road on the way to either is definitely worth the stop. There are geysers, mudpots, buffalo, bears, herds of Elk, and gorgeous lakes, streams, and vistas. Have a great visit!</p>
<p>Not an expert by any means, but we’ve visited more than a dozen times, so here goes: Yes, but it is pretty ambitious. Traffic on Yellowstone roads is slower than traffic outside the park, and they are forever doing road work since they only have a very short summer season. </p>
<p>But it is an incredible park, and a one day visit would still be amazing, in my opinion. I’d head in early, and possibly skip Mammoth Hot Springs on the way in and head down to Old Faithful. Find out when the next eruption is expected. I think it is about 1:15 between eruptions. If you’ve got some time, the lodge is amazing (nice little ice cream shop inside, coffee place on the second level) and well worth a walk around. Classic “National Park” architecture. Watching Old Faithful erupt from the roof deck over the entrance is a fabulous view. There is also an excellent visitor center there, though since you’re short on time, I don’t know how much time you’d want to spend there. The Old Faithful area has an extensive boardwalk system that is fun to walk, with geysers erupting around you – but it is not fun in the heat of a blazing day. Fountain Paint Pots (about halfway between Mammoth and Old Faithful) are amazing, and if it is a hot, sunny day, I’d probably choose that area rather than walking the boardwalks around Old Faithful. The lake is a nice drive - by, but the falls are definitely worth taking a walk around. There are also areas with exhibits on the great fires, and how those have affected the park, and you’ll undoubtedly encounter large herds of bison. </p>
<p>If you have time (and interest) as you’re leaving the park, Mammoth is there if you exit the way you came in. If your trip planning allows you to instead leave over the Beartooth Highway (towards Red Lodge and Cody) you’ll find that one of the most gorgeous roads in the country. </p>
<p>Some suggestions: Sunscreen. Water. Bring some cold drinks. The garages/shops near the entrance to the Old Faithful area have a lunch counter area with much faster service than places in the Old Faithful lodge or inn. Cheaper, too. Bring a warm sweater or jacket. Weather up on the mesa can vary a lot, and it can be windy too. And please don’t be one of the people walking up to try and pat the bison. </p>
<p>We love Yellowstone – I’d guess one-day trip will leave you wanting to come again in the future.</p>
<p>Just plan on it taking way longer to drive than you think. We had to stop many times for the animals to cross the road. It is so worth the time.</p>
<p>Yes - it’s worth it. But as momof3greatgirls indicated, expect it to take longer to drive than you might think due to slow traffic of lookie-loos, you wanting to stop at pullouts to see what you can see, doing little trails to see geysers, etc. Make sure you don’t skip past too much in an effort to just ‘get through it’. </p>
<p>Take advantage of the long summer daylight and plan to be checking things out well past 5pm. If you have a full day you could go from 7am to 9pm if you’re willing to, with stops for lunch, dinner, short hikes, etc. </p>
<p>Definitely do it though.</p>
<p>The loop is a lovely drive, but you’ll probably want to allow more than just an hour to go from Mammoth to Old Faithful. I’d allow closer to 2 hours. Possibly even as long as 3 hours. In fact, allow extra time for driving any portion of the main route thru Yellowstone.</p>
<p>Some considerations:</p>
<p>1) If you’re going early in the season (before Memorial Day) there is still usually substantial snow in the passes between Canyon and Towers. Also between Canyon and Norris. Check to make sure all the passes have been plowed and are open before attempting that portion of the loop. NPS tries very hard to have the passes plowed after Memorial Day, but avalanches are not uncommon until late-June.</p>
<p>2) Traffic can be brutal. Lots of slow RVs and single lane roads without passing lanes can slow traffic to a crawl on any part of the Loop, but particularly around Old Faithful, and in any of the moutainous areas (Canyon to Towers, WestThumb to Tetons, Norris to Canyon).</p>
<p>3) Buffalo-jams (as D2 who worked in Yellowstone for a couple of summers calls them). Wildlife can encroach on the road and if it’s a buffalo, it isn’t about to move to suit your schedule. Any wildlife sighting (esp griz, wolf, moose and buffalo) will have a resulting traffic backup as tourists stop to gawk and block the road.</p>
<p>4) Eternal road construction! Because the season is so short, some part or other of the road system is undergoing repairs from May 15 until first snow in early Sept. Check at the park entrance for locations and expected delays.</p>
<p>BTW, Boseman is about 2.5 -3 hours from Yellowstone’s west or north gates–not exactly on the way. Livingston is about 2.5 hours from north gate.</p>
<p>Depending on where going you’re to and from, you can come into the Park from the North Entrance, do most of the the loop going eastward first then leave thru West Yellowstone (West Entrance via Madison), then take some very good (and definitely scenic) state roads back to Bozeman through the Gallatins. Or vice versa. Leaving/entering thru West Gate means you will miss part of the Geyser Basin, though.</p>
<p>Doing the Loop in one is certainly possible, but adding the extra driving to Boseman and/or Livingston will definitely make it an all day effort. (And that’s assuming minimal out of the car sightseeing time.) </p>
<p>If you want to see geysers-- do Mammoth to Old Faithful. If want wildlife, do Towers to Fishing Bridge. There will be trumpeter swans along the Madison River after June 15 or so.</p>
<p>Elk are common around North Gate. Wolves, Golden and Bald Eagles are found along the Lamar Valley (east of Towers toward the Northeast Gate.) Wolves and bald eagles are also in the Yellowstone River Valley between Fishing Bridge and Canyon.</p>
<p>I’ve seen griz around West Thumb-Old Faithful, along the lower Yellowstone Valley and right below Madison. Mountain goats are most likely found around Towers.</p>
<p>If you have any specific questions, please ask. (And if I don’t know, I’ll ask D.)</p>
<p>SteveMA, you’re going to hate me for this, but you really should add three more days on to your trip. We loved Grand Teton National Park and specifically the Jackson Lake Lodge. You can’t miss Old Faithful or Mammoth Hot Springs. </p>
<p>As far as colleges, we just returned from Montana. We liked Montana State, but we loved the University of Montana. I hope you’re including that on your trip. It’s 3 hours NW of Bozeman.</p>
<p>Not an expert, but I was there for two weeks last fall. Definitely not something to miss, even if you can only swing through part of the park. I’m going to buck the trend and say skip Old Faithful, unless you find the idea of sitting on bleachers with hundreds of tourists exciting. (The Old Faithful Lodge is indeed gorgeous, though.) I would try to fit in at least a short hike instead of sitting around on the bleachers waiting for Old Faithful with people eating ice cream cones. The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is spectacular, and you can walk short segments of it and see some fabulous views, but it isn’t really close to the Montana side. The Lamar Valley to North Gate route will take you through lots of wildlife, notably herds of bison and elk–the wolves are hard to spot, but you might see them-- can stop in Mammoth Hot Springs and see some geothermal features if that interests you. The road through the mountains to Silver Gate is gorgeous in and of itself.</p>
<p>I highly recommend a National Geographic guide book called Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks Road Guide. It’s small (about 90 pages) but it has good maps and tells you exactly where to stop to look at things as you are driving along. We spent a week there and it was so helpful. It also points out spots that are good for animal watching, something of great importance to my family! You’ll have a fantastic time. Both my kids say it was their favorite vacation ever!</p>
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You can’t do that! That’s too much like going to Paris and skipping the Eiffel tower or San Francisco and skipping the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s true that there are other geysers in the park and they’re less crowded but as long as you’re there I think you should see old faithful if you’ve never seen it before. Do be prepared for the crowds at that area though. It’ll help you appreciate the other less crowded geysers even more.</p>
<p>toledo–If it were up to me I would plan about 3 weeks for this trip, but we just don’t have that much time. Worse yet, it’s the week of 4th of July. I’m waiting to hear back on one thing the week before that and if that doesn’t materialize, we can add more time. I think the plan right now is to fly into Bozemen and do the college loop and then drive down to Yellowstone. Trying to fit all of this into 4 days, not sure if we can.</p>
<p>There are better geysers to see than Old Faithful, especially if your timing is off. Bozeman has an excellent dinosauer museum with top notch recent research ideas, not just a collection of fossils. We stayed in Bozeman and drove in after taking the Bearclaw highway- still snow the end of June that year. Definitely get some library books before you leave and choose some sights. Don’t forget accident detours as well- we had to backtrack because of one closing a road.</p>
<p>^^ Old faithful is iconic - hence why it should be seen if one is there for the first time. It’s not a matter of ‘better geyser’ IMO although it’s a pretty good one.</p>
<p>Eh, Old faithful goes off every hour or so. There is a resteraunt near it (iirc) if you miss it.</p>
<p>The lobby of the Old Faithful Inn is kind of interesting as well so that’s worth wandering in to check it out and yes, there are restaurants there - it can be a good pit stop. However, in an area like Yellowstone, think about picking up something and eating it elsewhere at a picnic table in a more quiet and scenic setting.</p>
<p>We thought about planning an impromptu trip to Yellowstone Park this summer, and every hotel in the vicinity I checked was booked for the entire summer. I admit I didn’t spend hours scouring every last hotel in the state, but it seemed pretty discouraging at first look.</p>
<p>Did you try lodges in the park? We used to go there every summer for 2-3 weeks. We always managed to find rooms.</p>
<p>Agree with GladGradDad If you go to Yellowstone, see Old Faithful. I worked at Yellowstone in the late 70’s before graduate school. Worked in the Old Faithful Inn (in the gift shop that sold Navajo rugs, Zuni pottery, silver jewelry,etc , really expensive stuff that we were educated about-not the bigger gift shop that sold postcards and souvenirs). Loved it and saw Old Faithful from the shop window . Touristy ,probably, but iconic and still worth seeing. Bozeman, Livingston and Jackson Hole are all cool towns.</p>
<p>Check your plans against constuction schedules. When we were there, some of the roads were closed.
[Road</a> Construction Delays and Closures - Yellowstone National Park](<a href=“http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/roadclosures.htm]Road”>http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/roadclosures.htm)</p>
<p>We enjoyed our trip to Yellowstone. In mid June the traffic was not to bad. It’s probably much worse in July.</p>
<p>NOTE - AAA does is NOT allowed to do service in the park. There are special park services. We learned that the hard way. Evidentally the local AAA service attendant did not know that… so we lost several hours waiting for him. Communication was tricky due to lack of cell phone service (that was in 2004 - it may be better now.)</p>
<p>^^ Cell phone service is still spotty (as of 2010) and likely will always be due to the distances and rugged terrain. </p>
<p>YPSS has an exclusive contract with the Yellowstone NPS to provide automotive services and gasoline sales in the Park.</p>
<p>Agree with sevmom that Bozeman, Jackson and Livingston are all cool towns. And Cody is a real, honest cowboy town (though it now has a WalMart and Subway Sandwich shops). Cody has several hotels and its room are less likely to be booked than Jackson, West Yellowstone or Gardiner (North Entrance). But Cody will be way, way out of your way.</p>
<p>The Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman is the dinosaur museum mentioned up-thread. Some of best the tricertaops and T-rex fossils in the US. It’s home to Jack Horner, of Montana State, who is a rockstar of palentology. (When I was there last, the museum was closed for half a day so 60 Minutes could interview Horner.)</p>
<p>Old Faithful is a must!</p>