Exploring Yellowstone National Park, The Grand Teton Mountains, & the Town of Dubois, WY.

Yellowstone National Park meets every expectation and preconceived notion of what a great National Park should be. The first national park created some 150 years ago by an act of Congress has it all. Geysers, mud pits, soaring mountains, glorious multicolored canyons, fantastic wildlife, and astonishing TRAFFIC. Sorry to say but all those rumors are true, the national parks are becoming overcrowded during peak season. This fact became painfully obvious as we tried to make our way south and through the park. On paper this seemed like an easy drive of only 255-miles, moving the camper from Ennis, Montana, north of Yellowstone, to Dubois, Wyoming, south of Yellowstone. There were not that many route options, and the route we were taking would have us driving directly through Yellowstone with the camper.  How thrilling would that be? Yeah, not that thrilling. My route did not foretell the amount of traffic I would encounter on a midweek drive through the park during peak summer season. Holy Crap! I wish I had done just a bit more research before I picked West Yellowstone as my point of entry to the park. Notoriously the busiest entry point into the national park. So, our first impression of the park was the 50-minute, miles long line of traffic we encountered as we hit the small town of West Yellowstone. Bumper to bumper with hundreds of other cars, buses, and RVs also trying to enter the park. What should have been an amazing 5-hour scenic ride through Yellowstone, across the Grand Teton Mountain range, and through the Shoshone National Forest, ended up being a miserable, stop and go, construction related, delay filled, 7-hour, OMG can I please get there already, kind of drive. 

So that was the first and only time we drove ourselves through Yellowstone. Thankfully we had the forethought to prebook an 8-hour tour of the southern loop of Yellowstone, with a professional tour company.  We have found that sometimes sightseeing is enhanced with an experienced & knowledgeable local guide. (Knowing when such a guide will be required is the key to a more fulfilling experience, and one we are attempting to master). There we were, just 32 hours later, early in the morning, being picked up by a very comfortable 12 seat tour van, with a licensed tour guide and driver, negotiating the traffic and parking so that we were able to see all the fantastic sights of the southern section of Yellowstone. As an example, our guide knew where in the park the cell service was, so that he could call the “Old Faithful Geyser Hotline” to get a better idea of when we needed to be at the geyser. Wouldn’t you know, he dropped us off in the parking lot just 3 minutes before the event. We walked the path towards the geyser, whilst the van moved through a maze of cars in an overly crowded parking lot. We got a great view of the eruption, and some time to wander through the timber-framed Old Faithful Inn.  A 300+ room historic lodge that is more than 100 years old, located in the park at Old Faithful, and is actually owned by the National Park Service. That’s how our wonderful tour started, watching Old Faithful erupt before 10:15 am, and the awe & magic just kept on coming all day.  Yellowstone is absolutely amazing, and I could fill pages with pictures and descriptions of the sights, beautiful landscape and wildlife we saw in just 8 hours. Instead, I will encourage you to visit Yellowstone for yourselves and experience the wonder of it all firsthand. For those who have visited already, I’m sure there is every intention of returning again one day.

Grand Prismatic Overlook, Yellowstone 

Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park

Professional Guide John P & Judy

I would just like to add that the stories and videos you may have seen on YouTube, or other such platforms, of remarkably stupid tourists getting way too close to the wild animals, are true.  We saw for ourselves, firsthand.  After lunch we headed through the Hayden Valley, a lush green valley known to attract the buffalo. And the males were in “rut”, so they were more aggressive, and visitors were warned by signage, as well as the National Park personnel, to watch out for the buffalo. “Don’t pet the fluffy cows” is our affectionate expression. Through the windows of our van, watch a video we took and listen to our tour guide react to a tourist making a run for the safety of the car, after lingering too long near a male buffalo who clearly had his sights on a female. Wow. Not staged, and I do not think the woman realized she was playing hide and seek with a 1 ½ ton male buffalo. 

Next up, Grand Teton National Park.  How is it that the one state of Wyoming has just an amazing collection of National Parks, National Forests, and Wildlife Sanctuaries? I don’t think it’s fair to some of the other, smaller states. My gosh, there I am standing at the Jenny Lake Visitor Center about to start a 7 ½ mile hike around Jenny Lake, and I’m just mesmerized by craggy stone peaks of the Grand Teton Range. Staring up at Grand Teton Peak, soaring 13,775 feet above sea level, as well as Mount Owen, Teewinot Mountain, Middle Teton, and South Teton. Some of these peaks still have snow visible, and I’m quite sure that the many streams we encountered on our hike around the lake were being fed by the snow melting at much higher elevations and running down the mountains.  And the canyons that have been carved between the mountain peaks, like Cascade Canyon, are so green and picturesque, it is almost impossible to describe or capture. We packed a picnic lunch and spent the entire day walking the Jenny Trail Loop, even being fortunate enough to spot a moose languishing in a shallow cove of the lake.  

Moose in Jenny Lake

Cascade Creek, Jenny Lake Trail, Grand Teton National Park

And it wouldn’t be a trip “out west” without going to a local cowboy rodeo. Every Friday night, for 8 weeks in the summer, there is a rodeo in Dubois, featuring many local, talented cowboys & cowgirls. Just great family entertainment. First off, I have never seen kids try to ride a fuzzy lamb before, but there they were, saddled up bareback on a sheep, usually with some type of helmet, trying to stay on the uncontrolled animal. We saw some barrel races, some bronco riding, and team calf roping. Neither Judy nor I had ever seen any type of rodeo in a live setting, and we thoroughly enjoyed the evening. 

Dubois, Wyoming is also home to one of the finest military museums we have ever visited. The National Museum of Military Vehicles is amazing and it’s like BRAND NEW, being established in 2020. The building is enormous, at 160,000 sq ft, and contains more than 500 military vehicles and an entire vault of firearms of all shapes and sizes. The Weapons Vault Gallery is home to the rifle used to fire the first shots at the Battle of Bunker Hill. The museum houses three additional galleries which display armament and equipment used in the 19^th century.  There was so much to see that we had to return for a second day. Each day we joined a different guided tour of the major galleries led by an assistant museum curator. Following the curator’s storyline we weaved our way through the museum whilst he reviewed the major issues related to fighting the Korean, Vietnam, and WWII Wars. So much to see, we could have returned for a third day to see the outdoor pavilion which showcased another 50+ personnel and armament vehicles. Wow! This museum is epic and should be considered as good as the National Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH.

National Museum of Military Vehicles

We spent a week in Dubois, WY and barely scratched the surface of all the available sights. I probably should have booked a 2, maybe even 3-week stay, as there is just so much to see and do. We scarcely had any time to explore Shoshone National Forest, although we drove through the 2.4-million-acre forest on every trip into Yellowstone. So much more to see, so many trails to hike, and there were definitely places in Yellowstone I would have liked to have visited after our guided tour.  And we never got a chance to visit Jackson Lake, or even visit Jackson Hole, WY. We will just have to return! A very easy decision and something to plan for in the coming years. In the meantime, our 7-day stay has come to an end, and for the first time in over 2 months our traveling direction is starting to turn ever so slightly in an easterly direction. Our next destination is a small city 175 miles or so due west of Salt Lake City called Vernal, Utah. Vernal is situated in the northeastern corner of Utah, abutting the western Colorado state line. This promises to be a very exciting drive as we will be navigating our way through the Flaming Gorge National Recreational Area, Red Canyon and across the Flaming Gorge Dam. The “Beast” will pull “Neil the Northpoint” up and down steep terrain and in and out of narrow canyons. Amazing views around every corner as we travel the old federal highway route 191 south.  So look for my next blog post as we tell… the Rest of the Story.