Amazing Yellowstone Road Trip @ April, 2014

During Easter long weekend, we took a road trip and drove to Yellowstone National Park. It was totally a last-minute plan (a sunbae and I); with the rest of them still busy with the finals, that however did not deter their enthusiasm to join us! For me, it was definitely an experience of a lifetime. My initial thoughts on the 1650km drive was total madness…considering it was only for a couple of days. Anyways, five of us made it and having to look back, it was so much fun and scary at times ...

(Adapted from Google Map). We used the North Entrance, as it was the only entrance open since it was early season.

So, for those folks out there who are not familiar of Yellowstone, some quick facts on it :

1. It is the oldest national park in the States 

2. It sits on a dormant supervolcano where some believe it is time for eruption within this lifetime. If it 

does erupt, the whole of North America might be affected. So pray hard!

3. It has the most geysers, hot springs and waterfalls more than anywhere else in the world. 

4. Majority of the park is in Wyoming but also extends into Montana and Idaho. 

5. The strongest earthquake was recorded just the week prior to our road trip; which definitely added to the scariness and doubts on it!

Honestly, I did not know much about Yellowstone except the fact that its a national park. So, we had to do quite an amount of research on it beforehand; I found this website particularly useful because it has all the information you need such as road opening/closure, hours of visit, maps and places of interests. We were lucky that a majority of the major roads were open on April 18.

(Adapted from www.nps.gov). We covered the red line as those were the only roads open at that time. 

To cover completely the whole park loop, you might need up to 3 days. Since we only had one full day, it does not really matter to us with the road closure and all since a majority of their top attractions are covered within roads we took. But make sure you check the map beforehand, there will be lots of driving eg you need 2 hours to drive from North Entrance to Old Faithful.(A GPS would definitely come in handy). Some of the major attractions that we went to :

1. Old Faithful geyser (most famous)-remember to check for eruption schedule. You will curse if you drive all the way only to find out you just missed one and have to wait for another 1-2 hours. 

2. Upper falls and lower falls (Lower falls is twice the height of Niagara!)

3. Grand Prismatic Spring-largest hotspring in Yellowstone *Must not be missed!

4. Excelsior Geyser-once the largest geyser in the world, this is now dormant and forms a deep blue crater *Super mysterious! (3 and 4 is located at Midway Geyser Basin-I liked these the most; largely due to the fact that there were rain, hail, mist, fog, wind (you name it…) when we were there, which added to the whole creepiness and excitement (mad!)

5. Grand Canyon of Yellowstone (please do not get confused with the one in Nevada because someone did @__@ ;P)

6. Mammoth Hot Spring-Easily spotted because this will be the first major attraction that you will see

Plan your trip properly if you are driving from Canada because you will need to reach the US border by 6pm. If you missed this, you will have to bunk in your car till 9am the next day!

Monchy-US/Canadian Border *Excited!!Perfect timing, thanks to a perfect planner *wink-not me

First town (!?) after the US border..Deserted far far away land..kinda scary but that didn't stop us from stopping by the road to take a photo ;p

Billings, MT
We were not mad enough to drive all the way to Yellowstone at once, so we planned it in such a way that we will be able to explore Montana along the way. We drove through Morgan/Monchy crossing and arrived at Billings (East of Montana) close to 10pm. Supposedly the largest city in Montana; development seems comparable to Saskatoon though ;P. We spent a night in Billings and explored the city the next day.

Super 8 Billings. Not the best location but considerably good. 

Right : Rimrock; Far left : Sacrifice cliff. The two major attractions of Billings. You will see the whole of Billings from these 2 spots.

Perfect weather, perfect tree and perfect rock ;P

Brunch at Stella's Kitchen & Bakery, Billings (previous post)

Yellowstone National Park, North Entrance

We made it to North Entrance Yellowstone National Park (2.5hrs from Billings)!

Closest major attraction to entrance : Mammoth Hot Springs. Smell of sulphur everywhere (smells like boiled egg actually ;P)

Loved these photos very much because they came out so nicely on my Nex-3!

Camwhoring like 'sakai'(curiously silly) at the border of Wyoming and Montana

There were Bisons everywhere…..end of Winter/early Spring…skinny bisons

Left : Poop size 5 ? Right (photo courtesy of Awang): Kena kejar (chased) bison ?

Since we had limited time, we stayed in Gardiner, closest town to the North Entrance. There are not many hotels (as in cheap hotels) here despite it being the closest gateway to Yellowstone. You will definitely have to book in advance especially during long weekends and peak summer. Anyway, I was lucky enough to book 2 rooms in Yellowstone Gateway Inn. This place is fairly new so not much review on it. Since we were on 'desperate mode' (Super 8 just beside was fully booked!), I tooked the chances with this. No regrets! Price was good, location was good, room (suite) was superb! Rooms are limited so make sure you book in advance!

(Top left photo courtesy of Awang). One bedroom suite for less than $100! Loved loved this! I wish we could have stayed here for more nights!

Dinner at Wokking Panda Chinese Food, Gardiner

Wokking Panda is a Chinese restaurant almost like a version of Wok Box (yeap, those noodle/rice boxes). As it was late ( 9-ish pm), they were about to close so we ordered for take-out. Among us, we had chow-mein (stir-fry noodles), shrimp fried rice, stir-fry cabbage and General Tso's chicken. We wanted something else, but the lady owner recommended us General Tso's chicken instead. For those who are not familiar, this is a North Chinese cuisine-slightly sweetish, spicy with deep-fried chicken. We told her we wanted it spicier and she really gave us super spicy ( to the point that I didn't really taste the 'sweet' part! The chicken was really really good and tasty and basically the only dish worth mentioning. The rest were mediocre (The noodles tasted like rubber-bands?Might just be the type of noodles they used). I can't remember the exact prices but overall, we paid $50 for everything including rice. We also had some pop and guys, please do remember to check the expiry date before leaving the shop @__@

Making use of the dining area we had in our suite :)

Address : 906 Scott St W Gardiner, MT 59030

As much as we prayed for it to not rain, it DID rain on Good Friday; the first day of opening for some major roads in Yellowstone. We left our hotel after 8am due to the rain ( behind schedule but came out to be right on track :). Fee for a 7-day pass is $25/vehicle. Maps and brochures were handed out as well and they turned out to be super-useful. We drove all the way to Old Faithful Geyser first because it was the furthest ( 2-hr drive) but the view along the way was just amazing! Couldn't help but to imagine the boiling magma far below us (lols!)

Eruption lasted for a few minutes and thats it. You will have to wait for 1-2 hours for the next one. So remember to check the schedule! (Top right and bottom photos courtesy of Awang)

All hooded, raincoats, windbreaker, proper shoes!

I can't remember which thermal pool was this but the color was just amazing

Grand Prismatic Spring : Where we had the rain, mist, fog, hail, wind and we could hardly see what was in front of us; let alone taking a photo!

Excelsior Geyser Crater : The deep blue color was just beautiful. The water must be super-burning hot! It was so misty that you have to wait for a good chance to see the blue bottom.

Upper Falls

Lower Falls (Photo courtesy of Awang)

There were many many more attractions that I did not cover here in my post which included Boiling River (bring you swim wear and take a dip. Its like hot spring pool!), Gibbon Falls, Norris Geyser, and many more lakes, geysers, hot springs and waterfalls. The sceneries are nothing like the Canadian Rockies so definitely worth a shot to drive all the way there! I'm sure summer will be even more beautiful but the downside would be the throngs of tourist. As the roads are narrow, winding and going uphill, there would definitely be more vehicles as well. We came here just as winter ends; less visitors and we practically have the whole place to ourselves apart from Old Faithful. So, you might just consider coming off-season or early season instead. Just remember your jackets, boots, and gloves because it gets cold at times. Bring some food/snacks/drinks along but if you want, there is a souvenir/cafe at Canyon Village Centre for you to get a snack, hotdog, coffee and even instant noodles cup (superb idea especially on a chilly day!).

Helena, MT
It was perfect timing and we were right on track to leave the park and continue our journey back up north. We drove north west towards Helena, the capital of Montana where we stayed overnight. It was another 4-hour drive from the Park; no easy task but with cheery companions, it didn't seem that tiring. We stayed in Super 8, Helena (sorry, no picture) but hotel room was quite similar to the one we had in Billings. The free breakfast was slightly better because they had a few types of omelettes as well (no complaints!).

Late night supper at Shellie's Country Cafe

We arrived at Super 8 almost 11pm so not many restaurants were open and we were starving because the last we ate was late afternoon before we left the park. A nice lady at the first restaurant we went in recommended us Shellie's a cafe which opens around the clock! I had one of the specials; Holy Cow Chicken Chop (supposedly as big as my face-not really, my face is still bigger..lols!). Not sure why they served the boiled beans but not to my liking. Food was just ok; nothing to shout-about; loved the mash potatoes (but then again, how wrong can you with it) maybe because we were dead tired from the long day. They have quite a variety in their menu and waitress was sweet enough to give us recommendations etc (nice girl even though she was doing the late-night shift!). 

Holy Cow Chicken Chop and Beef steak (huge portion-not recommended for small eaters), Salmon, and Eggs Benny

Address : 1612 Prospect Ave Helena, MT 59601
Website : Shellie's Country Cafe

Great Falls
The last stop we made was Great Falls, MT. A town with dams as attractions. Not much to see except for Ryan Dam. Skip the rest. On return to the Canadian border, we used the Turner/Climax crossing, which was closer to where we were. Again, schedule have to be well-organized in order to reach the border by 6pm!

Pit-stop at a town full with dams. Ryan dam

Hardee's for lunch. Nice fast food. I finally understand why US is 'fast food.obesity'  ;P