Yellowstone National Park in 8 Hours
There's nothing quite as mesmerizing (and truthfully, grounding) as a place where bison herds flock together for a drink of water five miles away from where a gray wolf devours a carcass—and the backdrop to it all are these sweeping mountains, lined with pine trees and laced with the last remaining piles of snow. We stayed in Big Sky, Montana in May and did a day trip to Yellowstone (hence, the little but still evident snow)—here's everything we did.
This is the perfect National Park to visit with friends/family that are not able to hike intense trails but still want to experience the beauty of a national park.
Good to note: Many "trails" are simply walking paths and several viewing points can be reached by car without much walking at all. It's also a fairly accessible park with ramps on many of the path walkways near geysers.
The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone/Lower Falls
When you think of these beautiful sweeping mountain views and breath-taking waterfall vistas—that's the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We went in late April, where the weather was much more snowy than anticipated for the season so we didn't doing much hiking here, but driving toward the lower falls will bring you right to this stunning view. There was parking and everything to walk up to the vista!
Grand Prismatic Springs
This was a fun boardwalk loop that circled all kinds of springs and geysers, each beautiful in their own way (look at the three above pictured!). At times, the steam covered the enter geyser, but sitting & waiting for the moment it blew away was well worth the picture. There are ramps, making this an accessible site too—it was about 1.5 miles total.
Fountain Paint Pot Trail
This was another loop, boardwalk trail full of different colored and kinds of geysers! From crystal blue waters to deep orange and red colors, this was a fun stop that proved very beautiful—it was only about a 0.6 mile loop.
Old Faithful Geyser
While I found Old Faithful to be underwhelming, the geysers and springs surrounding Old Faithful were absolutely stunning! If you plan to see Old Faithful in action, I recommend looking up the times online—they have the timing of its spurts down to almost a science. It goes off about every 90 minutes and generally lasts about 5 minutes; there's seating around the area for everyone to get a good view (the set-up almost makes it feel like a Disney show).
