Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks

November 7, 2026 | Dave | USA

Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks

September 2026 ..

We had high expectations of the much-hyped Yellowstone National Park – after all, it is probably the most famous of all the parks. It did not disappoint. We set off before sunrise and got to the West Gate at around 7am – and a queue was forming even then, despite it being the shoulder season.

Our first stop was the Norris Geyser Basin – the home of 193 geysers. There are trails, on and off boardwalks, that take you around the basin. If you are lucky, you might see an eruption. The famous ‘steamboat’ geyser, the world’s tallest active geyser, reaching 90–120 meters during major eruptions (last one over six months ago) is here. Alas is was sleeping during our visit.

We doubled back (moving around Yellowstone often involves joining a traffic queue) to visit the Artist’s paintpots, parking on the side of the road and walking in, as RVs were prohibited. The area features a collection of over 50 thermal features, including colorful hot springs, steaming fumaroles, small geysers (such as the active Blood Geyser), and bubbling mud pots. And again a boardwalk leads you around and stops you wandering off piste.

Continuing back we visited the Gibbon Falls briefly before turning around again and heading off to visit Mammoth Hot Springs. It was then the end of a long day and we exited out of the north entrance to camp up in the hills above Mammoth town.

We re-entered the park early the next morning and made our way to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, after a brief stop at Tower Falls. The Canyon is quite magnificent with water falls and yellow rock walls that give the park it’s name. We hiked along the southern rim and then drove the north rim, stopping at the look outs.

From the Canyon we headed south, stopping to hike around Dragon’s Mouth Spring, to stay inside the park at the Grant Village campground. The next morning we made another early start and made a beeline for the Upper Geyser Basin – home of the world famous ‘Old Faithful’. But this basin has many geysers – 410 of them! The park service monitors six of the ‘predictable’ geysers and predicts eruption times. Old Faithful is very regular, but had just ‘gone off’ as we arrived and so we had breakfast in Big Bertha whilst we waited for the next “show”. Then later, we returned to watch the main event, before hiking around the rest of the basin. There was a great deal of geyser activity going on and we felt we had seen a lot, including a docile bison which was quietly chomping on the grass near to the loos! Before leaving, we saw that Grand Geyser was due to blow between 2pm and 7pm. It being 5pm we decided to wait. More experienced viewers than us had taken comfortable camping chairs, drinks and snacks with them, but many gave up with the geyser inactivity and didn’t wait it out. Fortunately, standing behind us was a “geyser guru”, who had seen this geyser (and many others) erupt countless times and knew exactly what activity was the precursor to the eruption. In fact, he was so accurate that we had our video going just before the actual event! Well worth the wait! After another exhausting day, we retired back to Grants Village campground thoroughly satisfied with our day.

The next morning we hiked around West Thumb basin before exiting the park at the south entrance. We really enjoyed our three days exploring the park and the weather had been very kind to us. Well worth the hype!

But wait, what’s this just down the road? Why, it’s Grand Teton National Park! At the visitor centre we met Urs and Franca from Switzerland and had a good chat. After a short hike, we continued to the picturesque view over the Snake River to the mountains and then on past pastures of grazing bison and horses to our campsite. Urs and Franca came later and we set up our chairs to enjoy sundowners with a lovely view over to the mountains.

After a late start the next day we headed out to explore Jenny Lake at the foot of the Grand Teton mountains. We hiked along its shore and admired the stunning views, before returning late to our campsite.

Before leaving Grand Teton NP, we visited the old buildings of a Mormon settlement at the southern end of the park for some photo opportunities. We really enjoyed Grand Teton and we think it is a ‘must see’ add-on to a Yellowstone visit.