Western Expedition Stop 4: Yellowstone

I wouldn’t love roadtrips so much if I didn’t love the driving part of it, and today’s post showcases some of the best scenery of our entire trip. Today, I’ll discuss our drive from Mount Rushmore to Yellowstone National Park, what we did our first day and where we stayed. (Plus one big tip on what NOT to do!)

How to Drive from Mount Rushmore to Yellowstone

The next stop on our grand tour of the American West was three nights near Yellowstone with a day to visit Yellowstone and a day to visit the Grand Tetons. Leaving Mount Rushmore, our next place to stay was beyond the far side of Yellowstone, which #1, was a huge mistake (I’ll discuss this later) and #2, made our drive today over nine hours long, which was rough.

But as long as it was, the drive was absolutely beautiful! We took 16 west out of Custer, South Dakota, which was a lovely, secluded drive. I wrote in my journal that “it was solitude in the most glorious sense.” Which tells you a lot about me… 16 joins Interstate 90–which was far less glorious–but then we turned off onto 14 to go up and over the Big Horn Mountains.

Shell Falls Oasis

Before leaving the Bighorn National Forest, we came across the Shell Falls Interpretive Site. Here, we found a powerful waterfall! You have to understand, by this point in our journey west, the prairie felt pretty much like a desert compared to the lush forests of Tennessee. Finding this amount of water in the desert was a huge surprise and a welcome relief for the senses.

There is a generous parking area here and boardwalks to get a better view of the waterfall and the surrounding landscape. And there are plenty of interpretive signs around to let you know what you’re looking at. For southern folks looking at sagebrush for the first time, this is really helpful! There are also restrooms and maybe even a little concessions area if I remember right.

Entering Yellowstone

On route 14, we entered Yellowstone through Cody, Wyoming by the afternoon. The park is SO HUGE. I felt like we drove through dense forest forever before getting to the “heart” of the park at Yellowstone Lake. We stopped to look around at the Fishing Bridge (which you can no longer fish from) and the visitor’s center and gift shop/commissary for the nearby campground. The road here skirts around the massive lake and we began a hunt for a nice dinner.

Dinner at Lake Yellowstone Hotel

After a failed attempt at finding dinner at the Lake Lodge (but seeing a huge field of Bison instead), we found our way to the historic Lake Yellowstone Hotel. I have heard that this is the best place in the park to eat. I had a waitress-recommended quail dish and it was delicious, but Mom & Dad didn’t fare as well with their salmon dishes, so maybe it’s hit or miss.

West Thumb Geyser Basin

After dinner and a rest, we drove past the West Thumb Geyser Basin and were lucky enough to be rewarded with sunset views while viewing geysers next to the lake. This is a small area, easily walkable in an hour or less.

UPDATE: I found a fun video of a geyser next to the lake

Island Park Cabin

This is the part where I tell you about our (MY) biggest planning mistake of the trip. I had turned to one of my trusted websites, VRBO.com to book our three-night stay near Yellowstone. I found a little cabin for not too much in Island Park, Idaho. Since we wanted to visit both Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, I thought a place that was more towards being between the two would be a smart move.

It is not. It is not smart. Had I paid more attention to Google Maps, I would have noticed that you can only access the park through five gateway cities and the nearest one to us was West Yellowstone, Montana, about a 30-minute drive away. Anytime we wanted to go into the park, we had to make this drive, plus the long drive to get wherever we were going within the park. In effect, it felt like we lived an hour away from everything.

I’ll cover this in more detail in my next post, but it would have been far better to stay in a gateway city, or inside the park itself.

Next Up

In the next few posts, I’ll talk about some things to do (and better places to stay) in Yellowstone, plus our fantastic trip to the Grand Tetons. Stay tuned!