4D/3N in Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park is one of the most unique and beautiful travel destinations in the US and probably around the globe where one can find deep forests, deep canyons, hot springs, geysers, and a wide variety of wildlife ranging from grizzly bears to pronghorns. Located in the northwest corner of Wyoming extending to the neighboring states of Montana and Idaho, it is the first national park in the US (like in the world) established in 1872. 

Here we are sharing our trip to one of our favorite National Par. After checking the prices of flights, rental cars, and hotels, we visited Yellowstone for 4 days/3nights a week before the Labor Day weekend in 2021.

Summary of our Itinerary

Flight Information: United Airlines, Aug 28th – LAX (9:00 AM) to JAC (12:10PM); Aug 31st – JAC (4:40 PM) to LAX (6:00 PM)

Rental Vehicle: Mid-Size SUV from Budget car rental, for 3 days

Stay: West Yellowstone (Day 1 and Day 3), Gardiner (Day 2)

Day 1: Flight from Los Angeles to Jackson Hole, Mormon row viewpoint, Boat ride in Jenny Lake ($25 per person),  Hidden falls and Inspiration point hike, Sunset at west Thumb Geyser basin

Day2: Fountain paint pot trail, Grand prismatic spring, Overlook point hike (MUST DO), Old Faithful geyser, Yellowstone lake, Hayden valley (wildlife), Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Drive to Gardiner Montana

Day3: Roosevelt Arch, Lamar Valley(wildlife- bison, Pronghorn), Undine falls viewpoint, Mammoth Hot Springs, Palette spring, Steamboat Geyser, Drive to West Yellowstone

Day4: Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center(MUST DO if you missed grizzly sighting in the park), Flight from Jacksonhole to LA

Day 1 (Saturday/ Aug 28th)

Our trip started with a flight from Los Angles airport to Jackson Hole, WY. You can fly either to Jackson Hole, WY (JAC) or Bozeman, MT (BZN) as both airports are around 2 hours from Yellowstone national park. We deiced to fly to JAC as the flight prices were similar for both from LAX but, it was easier and cheaper to get a rental vehicle at Jackson Hole airport. During the flight, we had some amazing views of the green and blue landscape of the Grand Teton National Park below. Jackson Hole airport is located inside the Grand Teton National Park, the only commercial airport inside a national park in the US, and is surrounded by the beautiful snow-covered Teton peaks. It is a small airport as the baggage claim and rental car counters are next to each other. We quickly got the keys for our vehicle, picked it up from the parking lot across the terminal, and headed out excited to explore this amazing place.

Our first stop was Mormon Row, view point is across the parking. We spent 15-20mins taking pictures and absorbing the grandeur of Teton peaks.

Our next stop was planned to be Jenny lake which is around 20-30mins from Mormon row. We took a boat ride in Jenny lake to reach the west dock from where we hiked to Hidden Falls and Inspiration point. This is a short and easy hike, recommended if you have just a day to explore Grand Teton NP. The same boat took us back to the east side where you can also visit Jenny Lake Visitor center. We had less time so we skipped going to the visitor center and instead took some pictures from some overlook point right next to the jenny lake visitor center parking.

After leaving Jenny lake plan was to head towards Yellowstone National Park as the drive was around 1.5-2 hours to reach the West Thumb Geyser basin. We stopped at a couple of viewpoints along the route and had lunch at Leek’s Marina Pizzeria. We spent only half a day in Grand Teton National Park, although it’s much bigger to explore, at least 3-4days even if you want to just explore the most visited points.

Witnessed sunset at West thumb geyser and then headed towards our stay at Three Bear Lodge in West Yellowstone.

Day 2: This day was one of the most memorable days of our multiple NP trips as we were lucky to witness the amazing colors of Grand Prismatic Spring on a clear sunny day. We have been planning to go since we saw the first youtube video and photos of its vibrant pools and springs. This was our 2nd stop of day 2, earlier we started by stopping first at Fountain paint pot. Here we saw multiple geysers around the paved path with different colors.

After consuming nature’s play of Grand prismatic and colors that are caused by bacteria with the sunlight striking from the top, we wanted to have a top view of this spring and we headed for a short 1mike hike towards the Grand prismatic overlook point. A MUST do if you have just a couple of hours to visit this park. The rainbow colors of this spring are just amazing and we think there is no photo that can define what eyes can see on a clear sunny day.

After this beautiful spot, we headed towards one of the most visited points in Yellowstone NP, Old Faithful geyser. When we reached there the geyser was not coming out and was expected to show activity in like an hour or so, we had enough time to get lunch from the nearby restaurant before getting our eyes ready for this unusual activity that we had never witnessed before. A quick tip: you can check out the timings of geyser eruption on the NPS app, this is quite accurate, and definitely helps in planning if you are planning to visit a lot of geysers in a day as a few explode a couple of times in a day but some shows up like every few hours or minutes. Old Faithful erupts every 35 to 120 minutes for 1 1/2 to 5 minutes. Its maximum height ranges from 90 to 184 feet, so definitely a must to do during your visit.

We headed towards Hayden valley to witness wildlife and enjoy the landscape we have just seen in videos. Along the way, we had a quick stop along Yellowstone lake to get some pictures. We saw bison all around the valley and also one passed right by our car.

Hundreds of them were by the roadside, some relaxing, playing, and grazing the grass. Definitely, you can never miss sighting Bison while visiting Hayden Valley. Be patient and do expect delays because of Bison crossing the road. We even expected that we might encounter a Grizzly bear but we weren’t lucky that day to witness one. After relaxing in this beautiful landscape we headed toward another most visited and amazing spot, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

It was almost sunset time and we decided to drive towards our stay in Mammoth Hot Springs. On our way saw Bull Elks fighting on road. Took some pictures and headed toward our stay at Absaroka Lodge as we were quite tired after a beautiful long day.

Day3: This day also started expecting to witness a Grizzly bear 🙂 maybe in Lamar Valley as the valley is known for wildlife and beautiful landscape. After getting heavy breakfast we headed towards Lamar Valley where we saw Bison, Pronghorn but missed Grizzly again 🙁

If you want to do wildlife photography or get some beautiful landscape shots, don’t miss visiting Lamar & Hayden Valley during your visit to this NP. After Lamar, we headed towards Mammoth hot springs and on the way, we stopped for 15-20mins to capture Undine falls which is a short stop, you can hike too but unfortunately, the hike was closed at that time so we enjoyed the view from the parking stop only. It took us about an hour to reach Mammoth Hot Spring. This is famous for its terrace-like cascade of steaming pools.

There were multiple springs along the path. You can park at the upper terrace loop parking spot and from there you can visit nearby springs or you can just drive through the loop if you have less time to visit each spring. After spending around 1hr here we decided to have lunch and then proceed. Our next stop was not planned and was looking for some stop on our way to West Yellowstone. as from Mammoth it was around 3.5 hours. We suddenly saw Norris Geyser Basin along the way and tbh it was an amazing decision to stop here as we saw a steamboat geyser that was erupting every 10mins. So you don’t have to wait for much to see eruption from this geyser. Norris Geyser Basin is the hottest, oldest, and most dynamic of Yellowstone’s thermal areas. Steamboat Geyser, the tallest geyser in the world at 300–400 feet, and Echinus Geyser are the most popular features.

We were quite tired after this and thus went straight to our stay in West Yellowstone, Three Bear Lodge.

Day 4: As we were a little disappointed that we were not able to see Grizzly and this was our last day at Yellowstone so we were trying to get any way out to see Grizzly. Surprisingly we got to know about Grizzly and wolf discovery center, where we ultimately saw Grizzly, Wolves, and plenty of other wildlife that are unable to live in wild and are kept in this center. It was amazing to watch multiple Grizzly Bears here. Even though we weren’t able to capture shots in the wild but at least we were able to see them close.

As we had a flight to catch from Jackson hole airport, we left after an hour or so and headed toward the airport. On our return, it was completely foggy and we weren’t able to see Teton peaks which were crystal clear on Day 1 when we landed. As the sky was not clear, we decided to head towards the airport instead of visiting the stops where we planned on taking some Teton reflection photographs. These are one of the most visited stops by photographers in Grand Teton and we will definitely visit Grand Teton NP again as this trip was dedicated to Yellowstone only.

Other Grand Teton photography stops that we missed on our trip – were Oxbow Bend, Schwabacher Landing, and Snake River Overlook, something to look forward to the next trip to these amazing national parks!!