Yellowstone - West Entrance KOA

This is a review of the campground (Yellowstone Park/West Entrance KOA) that we stayed at "in" Yellowstone.  I am sure that most people plan their Yellowstone vacation way in advance, but since we just bought our truck and 5th wheel in February and March, we had to plan sorta last minute. What I learned is that the camp spots in Yellowstone can be reserved over a year in advance and that there are not that many spots that can accommodate a rig of our size, which means that spots fill up quickly. When I finally got around to looking for a spot in April, everything was completely filled. EVERY SITE regardless of size or type was full. When we got there, there was a sign at the entrance that said that every site in the park was taken, even those that you can't reserve in advance. 

So, I went into panic mode. I didn't know how many other campgrounds there were outside of the park or where they were. When we searched, the West Yellowstone KOA came up, and it seemed GREAT. The pictures show this great park with plenty of space and trees and a "real" camping experience. We chose a premium spot because, since this was our first time doing a big, multi-state trip, we wanted to make sure that we would fit everywhere we went. A premium site meant that it was a pull-through, with a concrete patio, a wooden porch swing, and a mountain view

.

Premium spot #119

Well, we did get most of that, although I think a mountain view is questionable. We could sorta see past the cabins to see a cattle ranch and some hills in the background.  We also did get a couple of trees, but it was not exactly the "camping" experience I thought we were getting. As you can see we were fairly close to our neighbors. Once we got there, got set up, and I realized what the camping experience was going to be like, I was pretty happy with our situation (especially after seeing some of the other "campgrounds" in the area).

Premium Row

Since we were at a KOA, there were a ton of amenities that are really nice (which is good since we paid $75 a night to camp here!). There is an indoor pool and hot tub (with a nice patio out in the sun attached to it). I made use of that hot tub every night after we got back from our hikes in Yellowstone. The pool was great if you had kids!!

Indoor Pool and Hot Tub

The KOA had a playground, a mini golf course, basketball court, horse shoe pits, "fun" bicycles to rent, a coffee shack to get a latte in the morning, 24 hour laundry facility, a game room, and an outdoor restaurant that had a pancake breakfast in the morning and a BBQ dinner at night (not free, of course!)

KOA inspired Bison statue

Our site was really nice, although not as private as I had hoped. We were very close to the bathrooms/shower house, which was definitely not the case for most spots in the park. I think there were only 3 in the whole park, and we happened to have one just a little way away. Also, even though this park is not in Yellowstone, it was only 6 miles away from the town of West Yellowstone which had restaurants, shops, gas, and groceries. West Yellowstone is also where the West Entrance was, so we were actually very close to the park itself. 

PATIO SWING!!

If we ever go back to Yellowstone (and I hope we do!), I think it wouldn't be bad to stay here again for all that you get and how close it is to everything. I think it would be great to actually stay in the park where you are in the middle of things AND it feels like real camping, but that would be a very different experience. I might need my hot tub after our hikes! 

Yellowstone - All the Geology Things!

Brace yourselves....you are about to be taken on a mini geology tour of Yellowstone National Park. I LOVED seeing all the animals, but that doesn't even compare to how excited I got about all the cool geothermal activity as well as the volcanic evidence. I am so lucky that I get to teach what I love!! 

I organized the pictures by the region that they were in. I wish I could post videos instead because in all of these situations, a picture just doesn't quite capture the movement, the sound, the smell of what is actually happening. Jason took a bunch of videos, but until we get home and get on our home internet, I can't get them from him. In the meantime, I hope that the pictures help show some of the amazing geology of Yellowstone National Park! 

MADISON AREA:

On our first day in the park, we decided that we were going to go in and just look around and get a feel for the park and what to expect. But, we immediately got consumed with how cool the park is! The first thing we did was take the Firehole Canyon Drive, which is a little road through, well, a canyon. It was beautiful and I am so glad we took the drive. We also got to see the Firehole Falls, which was our first waterfall of the trip. 

Firehole Falls

After that drive, we found another little off-shoot road called Fountain Flat Drive. As we were driving, I noticed that there was steam coming up from the river area. So we pulled over and I essentially ran over to this little pond where we discovered our very first geothermal area. If I had known what all we would see later in the trip, I may not have gotten quite so excited by this little pond, but as it was, I was pumped! 

Unnamed geothermal pond

LOWER GEYSER BASIN/FOUNTAIN PAINT POT AREA:

Next up we noticed that there was a LOT more steam off the side of the road. That is where we discovered that Fountain Paint Pot Area, where we got our first real taste of some of the crazy geothermal activity, like the fountain paint pot itself, which is a pit of bubbling mud. 

Fountain Paint Pot

Next to the bubbling mud, was this cool thing called the Red Spouter. It was created in the 1950's when there was an earthquake nearby that changed the area and opened up this vent. It pours out steam and makes a LOUD hissing noise.

Red Spouter

Continuing along the boardwalk, we came upon our first geyser, the Spasm Geyser. It was continually erupting while we were there!!  We were really lucky because there were hardly any people at the park so we were able to lazily walk around and take our time looking at things. 

Spasm Geyser

OLD FAITHFUL AREA:

We had gotten a late start on our first day, so it was later when we made it all the way down to Old Faithful.  And since we got there just as it finished erupting, we were able to easily get a parking spot. We lazily made it through the visitors center and saw that it would erupt again in about 45 minutes, so we decided to just go out and find a place to sit and wait.

The steam behind me is where Old Faithful erupts. 

Even before it erupts, it is continually putting up steam.

It started erupting exactly when they predicted it would (6:06 pm). 

The whole eruption lasted for about 4.5 minutes. It was really amazing to witness! 

Old Faithful at its highest point. 

On the last day I really wanted to go back to Old Faithful to see the other geysers that are in the area (there are a bunch!). We also spent more time in the visitors center. While we were in there they made an announcement that Beehive Geyser was predicted to erupt in the next 30 minutes. So we hoofed it up to it and got all set up to watch it. It was supposed to be bigger than Old Faithful and shaped differently, so we were excited. However, it never did erupt while we were in the area. This is the most it did while we waited for it. 

Beehive Geyser

The whole Old Faithful area is crazy with cool geysers. This one pumped all this steam out of it constantly while we were there. It is sorta eerie to have this happening all around you. I could totally imagine dinosaurs to be cruising around!

If you are interested, this link will take you to Old Faithful Geyser Live!, which is a live feed webcam on the whole old faithful area.

MUD VOLCANO/SULPHUR CAULDRON AREA:

On our second day we made a long drive around to Yellowstone Lake to have lunch at the hotel there, to check out the RV park inside Yellowstone (Icky! I do not recommend - VERY cramped), and then we continued on to Mud Volcano/Sulphur Cauldron area. 

Just like at Fountain Paint Pot and Old Faithful, there is a boardwalk that you follow to see all the different geothermal areas. This was called the churning cauldron. A picture doesn't really explain how cool this is. It seems like it is boiling, but it isn't hot enough. There are earthquakes under the ground that force different gases to bubble up through the hot water, which causes it to bubble and roil. 

Churning Cauldron

Further on was Black Dragon's Cauldron. 

The cauldron sprang up in 1948 completely unexpectedly spewing mud 10 to 20 feet in the air. It has since both moved 200 feet away from its original location and it has become more of a mere bubbling pool. It sorta reminded me of a muddy backyard pond with an aerator. 

Black Dragon's Cauldron

This is the Mud Volcano that the area is named for. It used to be a big volcano of mud, but has since collapsed and is now a bubbling cauldron of mud. 

Mud Volcano

Our favorite thing we saw in this area was this geothermal feature called Dragon's Mouth Spring. It rumbles and steams and it pushes out waves of water from the spring.

It was Jason's favorite thing that he saw in the whole park! 

Dragon's Mouth Spring

Across the street, there are more bubbling mud pits (called Sulphur Cauldron) and a pond that has a pH of 1 or 2!

Sulphur Cauldron

GRAND CANYON OF THE YELLOWSTONE AREA:

We continued on the road until we got to the canyon area. We first saw the Upper Falls, which are formed from lava flows and erosion.

Upper Falls

Then we hiked up to Artist Point to get a picture of Lower Falls. Both falls were beautiful and then canyon was amazing as well. We hiked literally right along the rim of the canyon the entire way. 

Our first view of Lower Falls on our hike

Cool panorama of our hike, the falls, and the canyon

View of Lower Falls from Artist's Point

MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS AREA:

The next day we ventured into the park we went north to the Mammoth Hot Springs. We, of course, had to take a picture of Liberty Cap. 

Liberty Cap - looking awfully, err, alert. 

Then, we took the path to Minerva's Terrace, which I believe was my favorite thing that I saw on our trip (it is SO hard to choose!). 

Minerva's Terrace

With all the steam and the crazy colors, it looks like it was sculpted for a movie - or a ride at Disneyland. I could totally imagine this being part of the set of the Matterhorn!

So amazing!

Minerva's Terrace

Another spectacular terrace formation was called the Mound Terrace (at least that is what the sign said. Things change so rapidly around there that it is hard to figure out online if that is indeed what it is called). It is the most beautiful colors of orange, yellow, grey, and white caused by the different types of minerals, rocks, and bacteria. 

Mound Terrace (I think)

There is even almost a fountain type thing at the top where the spring originated.

Mound Terrace

It would look totally at home at some high end resort as part of their landscaping or something. Amazing.

NORRIS GEYSER BASIN AREA:

This area, of all the areas we saw in Yellowstone, kept making me stop and look around and wonder if we somehow were taken back in time or onto a different planet. So completely alien. This area has some of the lowest pH in the entire park. Also, I took so many pictures that my camera battery died partway through our time here (lucky for you!), so I only have a few pictures.

This geyser is called steamboat geyser. It was constantly throwing up large amounts of water and steam. Apparently it erupts 2-3 times higher than Old Faithful and the eruption lasts for 24 hours. It doesn't erupt on a schedule, though. It can erupt anywhere from 4 days apart to 50 years.

Steamboat Geyser

Then we came upon just one of many beautiful steaming pools of water. They all get their colors from the different colonies of bacteria that thrive in the minerals and the heat of the pools. This particular pool is called the Cistern pool. I really like how you can tell how hot and volatile it is based on how the surrounding forest has all been killed recently. 

I love some of the names of the different geothermal areas. This one is called puff-n-stuff geyser. It regularly "puffed" out steam, so I guess the name does make sense! 

Puff'n Stuff Geyser

ARTISTS PAINT POT AREA:

The last place we went after the Norris Geyser Basin was Artists Paint Pot Area. It is a short hike, although a bit steep to get on top of this hill!  Once again there were a variety of different types of pools and bubbling pots to see. The area has a bunch of different colors because of the different minerals and bacteria present. It was a pretty cool way to end our day!  (And again, since my camera ran out of battery, I didn't take that many pictures).

Artist's Paint Pot Area

Between the animals, the geology, and the hiking, we had an amazing time in Yellowstone National Park. I cannot wait to go back and see even more! We only really saw 50% of the park (based on the roads -  obviously not by square miles because we didn't even come close to seeing the whole park).

My favorite picture of us from the trip - with Old Faithful erupting behind us on our last day in the park.

In my last Yellowstone blog post I will post about our campsite and other random stories that don't fit in here! Look for that post later today or tomorrow! 

Yellowstone - All the Living Things!

Jason and I have never been to Yellowstone - and after our trip, I seriously can't believe that I have never been there. I also can't believe that visiting the park wasn't on my top 10 - even top 5 list of places that I MUST visit. Quite simply, Yellowstone National Park is amazing if you love nature, animals, and geology. 

I really didn't know much at all about Yellowstone - except that it is a "super volcano." I didn't really research it before we left; all I really knew is that there was potential to see some animals in their wild environment, and that I might be able to see some geothermal activity (like Old Faithful).  I am actually happy that I didn't do much more research because discovering everything without expectations made it much more enjoyable for me. 

I took over 500 pictures from the 5 days that we were in West Yellowstone. I tried to pare them down to a manageable amount, and I broke that down into 3 blog posts (animals, geology, and our camping experience).  I LOVED my time in Yellowstone and I can't wait to go back!!

This particular blog post is dedicated to the many (MANY!!!!) animals we saw. I thought we might see an animal or two, but we saw hundreds (thousands?) of animals during our stay. The first "living thing" (as we called them) that we saw was this pair of elk as we made our way in to the park from the West Entrance.

ELK!!!

We were like everyone else who sees an animal for the first time - we totally pulled over and I jumped out to snap pictures before they might spring away. heh.  We later learned that if you see only one elk, that is actually a rare event (especially if you go through the majority of the park - not just the Old Faithful area).  We saw several herds of elk on our different drives. This one was on our way north to Mammoth Hot Springs. We saw a MUCH larger one another day, but those pictures were just too far away.

A HERD of elk!! Ooh!!

Once we got to Mammoth Hot Springs, the elk were everywhere near the hotel and the other buildings. They were close enough to touch (or PET and HUG!!), but there is a law that you can't get within 25 yards of prey animals (and 100 yards of predators). 

An elk up close and personal

The park rangers work hard to protect the animals. Here at Mammoth Hot Springs, they were putting up cones to block traffic and walking around to make sure people stayed far enough away. 

Look at all those silly elk. 

Even though I have seen plenty of elk over my lifetime, I still loved seeing them, especially so close and so cute. I saw a pair of baby calves getting their lunch from mom, but couldn't get a picture as we drove by (I did a lot of drive by pictures out the window on this trip!). But, I did get a picture of this gal getting ready to take a nap in the grass (you can see the park ranger in the background).

SO CUTE! Just look at that face!!!

Another animal that we saw ALL OVER THE PLACE was bison. Just like the elk, we totally pulled over the for the first one we saw and took pictures. But, just like the elk, we soon learned that you will see them everywhere if you journey around the park at all. In fact, we came across this herd and their young as we made our way to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. 

Even though these pictures don't show it, there were hundreds of bison here. And a poor Park Ranger trying to manage all the people pulled over and running after them to take pictures. 

"Yo, What up?"

We "safely" just stayed in the truck while I took pictures from the windows. This fellow (gal?) was eyeing us down quite a bit. I think he liked our truck cause he did let us pass, while giving us a nod of the head. Later on as we tried to leave the park, there was another bison just cruising down one lane of the road with a park ranger slowly driving behind it trying to get us out of the way. It was like a one bison parade! 

"I like your truck. Give it to me!"

We also spotted this deer on our interpretive walk at the mud volcano area. 

We didn't just see ungulates (hoofed mammals) on our Yellowstone adventure. We also saw birds! This is an amazing picture of a ton of Canada Geese!!!  Ok, you may have seen a ton of Canadian Geese before, but this is one of the living things we saw that I got a picture of, so you're welcome!

Those blobby things in the field are actually a ton of Canada Geese

We also saw this cute little guy while we were waiting for Old Faithful, which is not a chipmunk as I originally thought- it is a Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel.  You just learn something new every day! 

"I'm cute. Now give me some food!" 

The first couple of days we had great luck with crowds and wait time. But for some reason, Monday and Tuesday were the busiest days for us. We came upon lines of cars like this one several times on those days. Usually a line like this meant that there was either an elk or a bison near or on the road (and, I don't blame people for slowing down or stopping to see them 'cause we got excited the first times we saw those animals as well).  

Huge line of cars. Our typical conversation: Jason: "I bet its a bison". Me: "I bet its an elk." And then we would wait to see who won. More than once it turned out that it was BOTH an elk and a bison, so I guess that would be a draw. 

But once, a line of cars were stopped because of a grizzly bear! By the time our truck had slowly made its way to a spot where we could view it, it was too late to see much because the bear had laid down in the grass and it was hard to really see it anymore. But, we did spend one day not going into the park and instead went to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, so I was able to see a grizzly bear anyway (although I did NOT get to hug and pet a bear like I had hoped - lol). 

"Look at me climbing this tree!"

They are a non profit organization that takes in bears and wolves that otherwise would have been killed because they had become a nuisance/danger to the human population. They did a great job there - every 45 minutes or so they bring out another pair of grizzly bears to the viewing area. The caretakers hide food all over the place and under rocks/logs/etc. in between the pairs of bears. Then, when they bears come out, they run all over looking for food, flinging logs all over to get to it. Very cool!

Digging for hidden food

In the park, we also saw lots of humans, of course. Although for the most part our time in Yellowstone was not NEARLY as crowded as I thought it would be. Even here, waiting for Old Faithful, I never felt crowded or cramped. 

We also saw a lot of animals in the park that I didn't get pictures of, like:

Trumpeter Swan

American White Pelican

Clark's Nutcracker

There were others I couldn't really identify because I couldn't see well enough or it was too quick - like some sort of deer type animal jumping in front of the truck, or a rodent/small mammal type animal I saw near the creek (Marmot? Squirrel?).  I really REALLY wanted to see a moose in the wild. I don't think that I have ever seen a real live moose -in nature or in a zoo, but we were skunked (lol) in the moose department. O-well - next time!!

I was overwhelmed with the amount of animals in the park. I had no idea that we would see so many roaming wild. Even though all of them were not new to me, it was still overwhelming and very cool to see them so close/so many/in the wild.

My next post will be about the geological formations at Yellowstone, so look for that in a day or so!