Yellowstone National Park (Continued)

Day 5: Yellowstone National Park (Continued)

Our plan was to cover Yellowstone National Park in 1.5 days. Considering the vastness and beauty of the park, we decided to spend one full day. Also there was a drastic change in the weather. From snowy and cloudy, it had become all clear and sunny. We then decided to reach Teton Village by late evening.

We checked out of hotel at 8 AM local time and moved towards the West Entrance of the park. Then we stopped by a beautiful creek, took some photos and continued driving.

We stopped to see Gibbon Falls on the way.

Our next stop was the famous, Norris Geyser Basin. We reached there at around 9:45 AM. There were lots of small geysers and beautiful view of mountain.

Our next attraction on the list was Mammoth Hot Springs which is a large complex of hot springs on a hill. One can see terraces made of crystallized calcium carbonate while walking on the boardwalks.

There are 2 decks – Upper and Lower. We took the boardwalk from upper terrace to the lower terrace and back as our car was parked at the upper terrace.

View of Mammoth Hot Springs Upper Terrace

View of Mammoth Hot Springs Lower Terrace

It was around 1:00 PM when we left from Mammoth Hot Springs towards the Canyon Village. On our way, we stopped by a small pond (Blacktail Pond) to take pictures.

It took around an hour and 30 mins to reach Tower Falls located in the Tower-Roosevelt area. It’s a 132 ft drop of tower creek framed by eroded volcanic pinnacles. It’s around 0.25 miles walk from the parking lot to the point from where the waterfall can be seen.

Canyon Village was another beautiful attraction. It gives a view of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. It has 2 other waterfalls namely Lower and Upper Falls.

View of Grand Canyon of Yellowstone (Canyon Village)

Few miles from Canyon village, was the Inspiration point located at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

It was 5:00 PM in the evening and we now decided to give ourselves another chance to check out the Grand Prismatic Spring view, hoping to get a better view this time. We reached there around 6:15 PM and could see no much difference in the view than Day 4. We took few more pictures and headed towards Teton Village around 7 PM local time.

It was quite a long, 2.5 hours drive to the Teton Village. To save some time, we took a detour at Moose Junction. The route was shortest but dreadful. It was pitch dark outside and the road was uneven with lots of gravels. We had to drive carefully as there were many potholes too. We did regret taking this route. We would not recommend this route if travelling at night, instead take a longer but much nicer route via Jackson Hole. Around 8:45 PM, we finally reached our hotel “The Inn at Jackson Hole“.

We immediately rushed to a Thai restaurant nearby, as it was about to close. We grabbed some food for to go and ate it in the room. Taste was good. We watched TV for a while and wen to sleep. This was another day when we got adequate rest.