The Hall Family Travels Blog

I think when most people think about Yellowstone, the first thing that comes to mind is Old Faithful and all of the other incredible hydrothermal features. That’s what we knew about the National Park before visiting, but after five nights camping outside the East Entrance of Yellowstone, we discovered there was so much more to this enormous park—and, in our opinion, some of it was even more impressive than the famous Old Faithful.

Fun Facts About Yellowstone National Park

I’m fairly certain everyone has heard of Yellowstone National Park, but before I get into our experience there, I thought I’d share some interesting facts about the park that you may not know.

• First, Yellowstone was established in 1872, making it the first national park in the world.

• The park covers more than 2.2 million acres, making it larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined. While it is located primarily in Wyoming, it also extends into Montana and Idaho.

• There are more than 10,000 hydrothermal features inside the park, including more than 500 geysers. Yellowstone contains more than half of the world’s active geysers, with Old Faithful being the most famous.

• Yellowstone Lake sits within the Yellowstone Caldera, one of the largest supervolcanos in the world. It is still an active volcanic system and an eruption of this supervolcano would be catastrophic, but fortunately, another massive eruption is considered extremely unlikely in the foreseeable future.

• Yellowstone experiences between 1,000 and 3,000 earthquakes each year, making it one of the most seismically active areas in the United States. Most of them are so small that nobody ever feels them.

• The park is home to the largest bison population on public land. In recent years, the population has ranged from about 3,000 to nearly 6,000, with the current population estimated at nearly 5,300. Even more incredible, in 1902 only about 23 bison remained in Yellowstone after decades of hunting and poaching.

• And then there’s Yellowstone’s very own Grand Canyon. Carved by the Yellowstone River, the canyon stretches roughly 20 miles and reaches more than 1,000 feet deep.

Wow! Those are some crazy interesting facts, and hopefully at least one of them taught you something you didn’t already know. Yellowstone really is an amazing place with so much to see, so much history, and so many different landscapes packed into one enormous park.

While there is a road that loops around the entire park, it would be a huge undertaking and a lot of driving to try to see it all in one day—or even a couple of days. We wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to experience each area at our own pace, so we planned to stay near each entrance for five nights, starting on the east side.

Camping Outside the East Entrance

There are plenty of campgrounds inside Yellowstone, but we opted to dry camp at a Forest Service campground just outside the East Entrance. Camping outside the park was much cheaper and, in our experience, much less crowded.

We stayed at Newton Creek Campground, and it was great! Situated among the pine trees along the North Fork Shoshone River and just about 20 minutes from the park entrance, it was a beautiful location that gave us easy access to Yellowstone while also providing a peaceful and enjoyable place to spend time when we weren’t exploring the park.

And honestly, our campground ended up being part of the adventure itself.

Wildlife in Yellowstone

One of the first things we were excited to do in Yellowstone was wildlife viewing. Yellowstone is home to 67 species of mammals, including elk, bison, wolves, bears, mountain goats, and moose. The best chances of seeing wildlife are generally around dawn and dusk, so we decided to do both—just not on the same day because that would have been exhausting!

We got up early one morning, left camp around 5:30 a.m., and headed into the park toward Hayden Valley, breakfast and snacks in tow.

Almost immediately after entering the park, we saw a small grizzly bear cross the road in front of us and head up the mountainside. We were all so excited, and it made for a very promising day!

Throughout the rest of the day, we saw elk, bison, deer, pronghorn, and plenty of smaller critters like squirrels, chipmunks, yellow-bellied marmots, and birds. But nothing quite took our breath away like that first bear.

On another evening, we headed back into the park hoping to see even more wildlife. It was a completely different experience from our first trip.

The bison we had seen the day before were mostly single animals scattered here and there. This time, the entire herd was gathered in the valley. We watched them from a distance for a while before continuing down the road.

A little farther along, we spotted another bull elk grazing just off the side of the road. We were incredibly close to it, and his antlers were impressive!

By the time we made our way back through Hayden Valley, the herd of bison had moved out of the valley and begun crossing the road to the other side.

And there we were– stuck in a bison traffic jam. It was the best traffic any of us had ever been in!

Seeing the whole herd from a distance was incredible, but being up close and personal with them right next to our vehicle was something else entirely. We could hear their grunts and deep bellows, watch the males rutting and battling with one another, and see the sheer size and power of these animals up close.

The kids stood with their heads out of the sunroof, staring in awe as we slowly crept along the road, taking in all the action happening around us.

We didn’t get back to camp until after 10:00 p.m. We were tired and exhausted, but it was completely worth it.

Hiking the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

In addition to the wildlife, we of course wanted to do some hiking as well.

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was not something we were particularly familiar with before visiting the park, but it quickly became one of our favorite areas—and it’s one of the major attractions that is easily accessible from the East Entrance.

We drove to Artist Point and from there hiked to Point Sublime. The hike was only about 1.2 miles each way, but the views were incredible.

The trail wound through pine trees on one side with the canyon’s edge on the other, giving us remarkable views of the canyon and Yellowstone River almost the entire way.

It was definitely a bit daunting at times for the boys and me, since we are not nearly as comfortable with heights as Dustin is. There were a few spots where we were hugging the trail a little closer than he was!

Even so, we couldn’t get over the incredible views.

Standing on the Brink of a Waterfall

After that hike, we drove on and hiked down to the Brink of the Lower Falls.

Wow. Another incredible viewpoint!

The hike down is less than half a mile and zigzags back and forth down the mountainside. At the end, you are quite literally standing at the brink of the falls, looking down as an enormous volume of water crashes into the canyon below.

The power of the falls was astonishing. Standing that close to the rushing water and hearing it roar below us was an experience that is hard to describe.

A few more miles up the road, we did another hike to Inspiration Point. This was on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, whereas Point Sublime was on the South Rim. It was a pretty hike through the forest, but honestly, it wasn’t quite as impressive as the South Rim hike.

Bubbling Mud Pots and Hot Springs

Throughout the rest of our time on the east side of Yellowstone, we also visited the Mud Volcano Loop, West Thumb Geyser Basin, and Old Faithful.

We walked part of the Mud Volcano Loop with a Park Ranger as part of the boys’ Junior Ranger program requirements, so we got to learn a little more about the strange and fascinating hydrothermal features as we explored the mud pots.

One of the most interesting features was Dragon’s Mouth Spring. It was a deep opening in the mountainside with waves of water gushing in and out, accompanied by a deep rumbling sound that really did sound like a dragon breathing.

The mud pots were cool, but they weren’t nearly as beautiful as the West Thumb Geyser Basin.

Some of the hot spring pools were amazingly vibrant, with shades of turquoise and orange that almost didn’t look real. They looked so inviting—like a tropical pool—but we knew better than to take a dip!

As we walked along the boardwalk, we could feel the heat coming off the hot springs and watch steam rising from the pools. It was both beautiful and fascinating to see the volcanic activity happening right beneath our feet.

The Famous Old Faithful

Old Faithful wasn’t something we had originally planned to see while we were on the east side, but once we got to West Thumb Geyser Basin, it was only a little farther to go and the kids were eager to see it.

We ended up arriving just two minutes after it had erupted. Of course.

So, we walked the loop around the other geysers and hot springs while we waited for the next eruption. When it was finally time, we found a seat and waited eagerly for the famous geyser to erupt.

And when it finally blew, honestly… we were a little less than impressed.

It’s not that Old Faithful itself wasn’t impressive. It absolutely was! But I think all the hype surrounding it had made our expectations almost impossible to meet.

Truthfully, we enjoyed the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and the other geyser basins so much more.

Life at Camp

On the days we weren’t exploring Yellowstone, we had a great time relaxing at camp.

During our morning walks, we saw deer and even spotted moose a couple of times. We also saw bear tracks on multiple days. One morning, we even found fresh tracks right in our own campsite!

Dustin fished the river a few times while the boys and I splashed around and stuck our feet in the mud. He caught one brown trout and two good-sized cutthroat trout, which we brought back to camp and ate for lunch.

One afternoon, we walked up the road a bit and floated down the river in tubes.

The river gets pretty shallow in some areas, so our butts took a little beating the first time down. But it was so much fun that we did it a second time—and this time we knew to lift ourselves up a bit through those shallow sections!

It was one of those simple afternoons that ended up being just as memorable as anything we did inside the park.

Our First Yellowstone Adventure

Overall, our time at camp was almost just as enjoyable as our time in Yellowstone.

We drove into the park three different times during our stay, and each visit gave us a completely different experience. One morning was all about wildlife. Another evening was filled with bison and elk. Another day was spent hiking through the Grand Canyon and exploring waterfalls, geysers, and hot springs.

And somehow, every one of those experiences was equally impressive in its own way.

This was only the beginning of what Yellowstone had to offer, and by the time we left the east side, we were already excited to see what we would discover from the other sides of the park.