posted
been to all three. yellowstone is nearly back to form after the 1988 fire. it is by far the most amazing of the three to experience. stay at, eat at, and generally live and breathe the old faithful lodge. while not detoxing in there or sitting in front of the stone fireplace, go find the most surreal hydro/geo/thermo features that the park has to offer, inbetween trailheads to the less-travelled, more geothermically stable majesty of nature
and if you're in the grand tetons in the summer you can sign up with some Jackson Hole horse and mule train outfitters and it is not impossible depending on who you go out into the tetons with, that the literally-armed-for-bear woman guiding the pack while riding a nine hands high horse is literally my mom, which will provide endless 'samprimary's literal mom' jokes
also there's fishing and or hunting so there's that
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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much like my father's desire to work eight hundred million hours a week forever always, my mother is not content to just be an international baccalaureate teacher, because there's three whole months where she isn't automatically overworked by the educational system
so like any sane rational person the second the pencils drop in the finals she hauls off to wyoming and drives horse trains full of expeditioneers and heavy duty camp equipment up to game expedition grounds
once there her duties mostly pertain to
1. don't let bears eat the meal tickets 2. feed everyone bacon, beans, and galantines
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Um...holy schitte dude...that seems like a very personal share mostly out of nowhere...you okay Tom? There is no concerned smiley.
Posts: 6683 | Registered: Jun 2005
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A great trip! We go on our motorcycle frequently and never tire of it. Yellowstone is endlessly fascinating-- and the most user friendly of all the parks-- and we have been to almost every national park in the US. It is high in elevation, so can be cold even in the summer-- and can get hot too. It is very bright light, be sure to have sunglasses and sunscreen. It is beautiful, and interesting-- and so are the people!
The Tetons are majestic. We always plan on a chuckwagon dinner near Jackson and love the cowboy singers... Bar J Wranglers (I think.)
The Highway to the Sun in Glacier leaves you speechless. Have food and drink in your vehicle-- no place to really eat on the road.
Be patient with people at all 3 parks-- they are on vacation too. You will love it at any age.
Posts: 24 | Registered: Nov 1999
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Glacier was actually the park i wanted to spend the most time at. But the more I hear, I'm thinking of moving some days over to the two Wyoming parks. This will probably be my only time over here for many years so I want to see as much as I can. And I want to experience glacier while it's still glacier.
Also, anyone know if they do anything special for the Fourth of July?
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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All 3 parks are fantastic for hiking, with many levels -easy to difficult- They are all just beautiful with a camera worthy place around every corner.
I think Yellowstone has the most variety-- the geologic sites, geysers, variety of animals everywhere-- if I was a 1st timer, that is where I'd spend the most time.
All 3 can be crowded in the summer, but you don't feel it too much as it is all just so big. All 3 are really clean too. As much as I like Yosemite, you felt the over-crowdedness there and it seemed dirty...just too much use.
It is just funny to watch people and vehicles when an animal is spotted... all sense of keeping traffic laws go out the window. It is frightening on a motorcycle when a buffalo is walking down the center of the road-- absolutely happens regularly.
July 4th- one year we stayed in Silver Gate (little town north,just barely outside the park, in Montana)on the 4th. Wild and I do mean wild. The short main street had cowboys at each end shooting bottle rockets AT EACH OTHER. ...And laughing maniacally. The 'festivities' went on and got more extreme as the night wore on, (and the alcohol flowed.) We retired as, well, it just felt so UNSAFE to us. Next morning we found spent fireworks in the SPOKES OF OUR MOTORCYCLE. Nothing was hurt, but sheesh! What could have happened-- We left pretty early and the town was absolutely still. We hoped they all were sleeping it off and were not all dead.
Posts: 24 | Registered: Nov 1999
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Like, the ranger trying desperately to get people to care about the fact they're being pursued by f'ing bears while they keep stopping to take pictures.
Posts: 2222 | Registered: Dec 2008
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Once upon a time, my family did the road trip and hit all three of those on the same drive. Glacier was by far my favorite, even at the tender age of 9. I would love to go back and experience it as an adult who isn't more concerned about convincing Dad to get a puppy than about remembering the scenery.
Yellowstone was fun. We saw a moose. But of the three, Glacier gets my vote.
Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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In Yellowstone, besides the geo-thermal sites like Old Faithful and the West Thumb Geyser Basin and Mammoth Hot Springs, I really like Uncle Tom's Trail which gives a really nice view of the falls.
In Teton, I enjoyed renting a boat from the Colter Bay Marina and just tooling around the lake and swimming and stuff. The hike over to hidden falls behind Jenny Lake is also really nice.
I haven't been to Glacier since I was a kid, but I still remember feeling completely awed by the Highway to the Sun road. I don't think I've ever felt more like I was standing on the rooftop of the world.
Posts: 2926 | Registered: Sep 2005
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I keep waffling between spending an extra day in Glacier or in Yellowstone. We'll hit the geothermal stuff in Yellowstone, and I want to do a hike in Grand Teton, but I'm leaning toward the extra day in Glacier as it seems there's more "can't miss" stuff.
Although the decision might be made for me since I've dithered for months and a lot of places are long past booked.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote: The Highway to the Sun in Glacier leaves you speechless.
This. But the Highway to the Sun doesn't open until a certain amount of snow has melted. I went at the end of June once and it was closed. The next time I went in August and it was open. This link says the earliest it will open this year is June 19th, so with a July date you'll probably be okay, but you might want to have it be at the end of your trip to be safe.
Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
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I'm pretty pumped! Still 5 more weeks of work to get through.
I'm especially excited for the last night of the trip. My room mate loves fireworks and we wanted to get a nice room for the last night right by them. I had wanted to do one of those glamping things where you pay (what turns out to be a ton of) money to have them set up everything with a kind sized bed and it's all fancy but still out in the wilderness. Well, it ended up also being the only place that night that wasn't booked but was still inside the park, so I was all ready to book it. At the last minute I saw another hotel that was just south of Grand Tetons (where we were going to hike the next day anyway), so I ended up booking a nice room in a 5 star ski resort outside of Jackson Hole for cheaper than camping would have been.
Finishing a 9 day cross country road/hiking trip at a luxury spa with top notch 4th of July fireworks sounds like the perfect way to cap off this trip.
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