The ultimate 4 days itinerary to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park

The ultimate 4-days itinerary to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park

Hello everyone,

By now, everyone would know in detail about my National Parks road trip which we went during September 2018. This post is long pending and I wanted to write a separate blog post about our itinerary.

We started from Pittsburgh and flew to Salt Lake City, Utah. We reached Salt Lake around midnight and we stayed in an Airbnb in the same town. We started very early the following day and drove towards to Yellowstone National Park from Salt Lake City. It was 8 hours’ drive and the entire drive was so beautiful along the farmlands of Utah with cattle grazing around the fields. We reached the west entrance of the park around 5 PM. Since the Yellowstone Park is very vast, we decided to explore Madison and Norris basin on arrival.

Day 1, Evening

On arrival, we drove along the Firehole Canyon drive and explored the Firehole falls at the end of the drive. We then visited Gibbon falls and Artist paint pots. After exploring Madison basin, we decided to explore the geyser basin in the Norris Geyser Basin area. By the time, we completed visiting Geyser basin in the Norris area, it was completely dark and we drove towards Livingston, where we decided to stay for the night. We chose to live in Livingston as it is near to the North entrance of the park.

To read more about the Madison and Norris Basin area, check out my blog posts here – Madison Area and Norris Basin

After our visit to the Madison and Norris Basin area, we drove towards Rexburg and decided to stay there in an Airbnb for next two days. Rexburg was close to the West and the South entrance. Rexburg is also a pretty cool place with all the basic amenities.

Day 2, Morning

We started earlier from Livingston and reached the North entrance of the park around 8 in the morning. We drove through the Highway 8 which is known as Paradise Valley and I should admit that the entire drive is really a paradise which passes along the Yellowstone River and farmlands. We visited hot Mammoth springs on morning and to read about our visit to the Mammoth Springs, check the blog post here – Hot Mammoth Springs Area.

Day 2, later part of the day

We were so excited to see a bear, hence we took a drive on the Black Plateau mud road. But we couldn’t see any bear but then the entire drive was so beautiful. We then decided to visit the Tower Roosevelt area and Canyon Village. We also visited Hayden valley and waited to see wildlife. We saw a herd of Bison in the valley.

When we were about to leave the park, we visited Pelican valley and saw a group of Elk. We also watched the scenes of Mother Elk feeding her younger one. To read in detail about our visit to the park, check out the blog post here – Mammoth Springs Area and Tower Roosevelt, Canyon Village & Fishing Bridge Area

Day 3

We saved the best for the last. We visited the most famous and beautiful Old Faithful area on day 3. We wanted to watch wildlife and hence we started so early in the morning. While we were on our way to Old Faithful area, a coyote crossed our path. We drove straight to Pelican and Hayden valley to view wildlife. We saw elks and we were so excited to witness Elk so close to our door. And they stood still until I captured its beauty through my lens.

We visited Old Faithful area on our day 3. We visited the visitor center and noted down the eruption time of the geysers to plan our day according to the eruption schedule. We watched the eruption of Giant Geyser, Old Faithful Geyser, Daisy Geyser and watched the phenomenon behind the volcanic eruption in Anemone geyser. We walked along the geyser hill and visited every single geyser on the area.

We then visited the most famous and the most visited spot in the park – Grand Prismatic Springs. It was around evening we completed our visit to the Old Faithful area. By evening, we visited the West thumb basin and explored the geysers along the Yellowstone Lake. The route to Old Faithful area from the Canyon village will be usually be covered with wildlife crossing the roads. Hence, expect delays and plan accordingly.

To know more about the old faithful area and my recommendations, check out the post here – Old Faithful Area and West Thumb Basin.

We then drove to Rexburg and stayed there overnight.

Day 4

Our plan was to visit Grand Teton National Park on day 4 and we started our day earlier from Rexburg. We took the Tetonic scenic highway and reached the Grand Teton National park around 9 in the morning. I highly recommend driving through the scenic highway – Highway 33 and enjoy the beautiful vistas of the Teton Range. The day was very cold and misty. The entire Tetons were covered with thick fog and it was continuously raining throughout the day. Hence, we couldn’t see the Tetons and enjoy the beauty of the park. We drove along the Park loop road and decided to drive to Glendale, where we decided to stay for the next two days.