Seeing Yellowstone Park in One Day

Ok, to be quite honest with you. It is nearly impossible to see everything in Yellowstone Park in a single day. It's so beautiful and enormous that you'll quickly wish you had a few more days to visit. This July, my husband and I were driving from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Fresno, California. I wanted to see Yellowstone, since we would be passing through on our way home. We decided to take an entire day to sight-see and relax from our long drive.

When planning your trip, please take the time to visit the official government website for road closures at the park. This is absolutely required for a smooth visit. Don't be like us and arrive with around 45 miles to reach a crucial junction that closes in a rapidly approaching 30 minutes. Talk about a jolt after driving for 13 hours that day already. If we hadn't made the turnoff in time, we would have faced three additional hours of driving to get to our hotel room. Luckily, we did make it through that night. We were the last car permitted before they put the road block in place. (Click here to visit information on road closures, construction, and other park details at http://www.nps.gov/yell/travelalert.htm.)

Get a good night's rest and start your day early in the morning. Have breakfast outside the park. It will taste much better and save you several dollars as well. We like to stay at Holiday Inn's to enjoy their free breakfast. If you have a large family, like we do, this option might satisfy your budgetary needs as well.

Old Faithful is a site every Yellowstone visitor needs to see. There's much to do in this area as well, so if you arrive after the geyser has already erupted, you will still find plenty to entertain you during the average, 92 minute wait between eruptions. Make sure to visit the inn and visitor center after you walked the grounds viewing geysers and steaming pots. There are many day hiking trails in the surrounding area that invite up close experiences with a variety of geysers and the morning glory pool. It's a wonderful walk on a raised boardwalk through steaming, hissing suspense.

We asked a Park Ranger what route through Yellowstone they recommended if you only had one day and they directed us to the Canyon area from Old Faithful. We followed their guidance and were fortunate enough to experience lots of wildlife and gorgeous sites from fields and lakes to bubbling beaches and tall canyon vistas. On our route, we were stuck in traffic jams because of irritated Buffalo and hordes of amateur nature photographers, or rather, other visitors with cameras and simply joined in the fun, gaining lovely photos of mule deer, beavers, buffalo, and a moose. I wanted to see a bear very badly, but did not get a chance this trip. Perhaps the next time I go this will happen.

Spend some time planning on the official, Yellowstone website at http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/index.htm. You'll be glad you checked out all the things to know before you come. Make sure you bring your camera so that you can capture some of the gorgeous photographs even an amateur can be proud of.