Yellowstone and Chico Hot Springs

Even though we had to drive the long way around from Jackson Hole to the northwest entrance of Yellowstone, it didn’t take that long. And, as is generally the case out in this part of America, it was scenic. Heading back into Idaho from Wyoming, we passed along the misty, icy Palisades Reservoir on the Snake River and then into Swan Valley. Further north, our surroundings started to remind us of the Grand Canyon. The town of West Yellowstone was real cute but looked pretty deserted, and we cruised through the park’s west entrance. From there, it was about 50 miles to our next stop, Old Faithful. Of course, that’s if you don’t run into a bison jam. That’s right, it’s not uncommon for cars to get caught up in a herd of bison wandering one of the park’s roads, and it happened to us not long after we entered the park. Even if we had been in a hurry, I don’t think we would have cared. It was awesome having Franklin surrounded by these giant beasts, their coats dusted with the falling snow.  

The jam didn’t last too long, and soon we were again on our way to Old Faithful. After we turned south at Madison Junction onto the park loop we continued to see small herds of bison and caught glimpses of steam rising up on both sides of the road. When we arrived at Old Faithful, we found out we’d use missed its eruption, which meant we had about an hour before the next one to explore the area around it. We crossed the Firehole River just below the geyser and climbed to a boardwalk loop that looked down over it and took the walk around Geyser Hill. This cluster has over 40 geysers, including Beehive, Giantess, and Anemone that often erupt, but we were unlucky in our timing. They were all still incredible to see, each one different, some consisting of cones nearly as tall as use, others stinky, and some just fantastic pools of blue gurgling water. We completed the loop and climbed back down the hill to find a seat on one of the many benches in the viewing area. Along with the rest of the crowd, we anxiously awaited any sign of the steaming spout, and leaned forward with camera-phones ready through several false alarms. Then the water and the steam surge built up steadily into the real deal – over a hundred foot tower of roaring, hissing volcanic water. For almost 5 minutes we all oohed and ahhed and filmed with our phones. 

Once we’d witnessed Old Faithful do his thing, we started back up the road we’d come in on. Not too far up we stopped at Grand Prismatic Spring, which is probably one of the most photographed features in the park. The magical blue water in the spring is surrounded rainbow bands of orange, yellow, and green. The hot spring is the largest in the US and third largest in the world – it’s 120 feet deep and bigger around than a football field. To really get the full effect of the size and the colors, you’d need to have a sunnier day than we had and also have time to climb up above the spring. Also, because it was so cold (it was actively snowing throughout the whole day), the springs and geysers were really steamy, so it was hard to see the actual pools from any view. We were still impressed by everything we had seen so far, though, despite the snow and the steam. So, after parking Franklin, we crossed the Firehole River bridge and climbed up alongside steaming hot water surging back down into the river. Like around geyser hill, this area had a boardwalk that allowed us to walk through the clouds of steam alongside Grand Prismatic and several other hot pools: Excelsior Geyser and Opal and Turquoise Pools. Steaming pools surrounded by desolate landscape that seems to have no life on it (but we learned there are abundant extreme exothermal life forms in and around the pools) with snowy mountains and flowing rivers in the distance. It is so hard to explain because it really looked like we were on another planet. Hopefully our pictures give you at least a taste of what we saw.

After that excursion, we realized we better get headed in the direction of where we were staying that night because  the rate we were going driving through the park ogling at the scenery and bison, it would take us hours to go the 80 miles we had left. And indeed, that is exactly what happened. Driving from the geyser area of Yellowstone north through the park, along river valleys and through mountainous passes, past the Mammoth Hot Springs and the quaint small town that has the parks historic buildings and old hotel (with grazing bison and elk on the lawn). It was a windy drive to the north entrance in Gardiner, MT that was stacked up along the Yellowston River just outside the park with their iconic stone Roosevelt Arch that has welcomed visitors since 1872. We were visiting during the elk migration season, which did not disappoint. There were Elk all along our ride through the Yellowston River valley into Paradise Valley and the town of Pray, MT where we staying at Chico Hot Springs Resort.

Nestled in the foothills of Emigrant Peak and the Custer Gallatin National Forest, the hotel was built in 1900 with the hot springs as the main attraction. We arrived that evening at the hotel to see passenger vans and signs pointing “Extras” to another location up the road and realized they were filming something here, and we could see why. The hotel looked like the quintessential olde west out on the olde frontier. Turns out, the movie production built an entire set on the property with a little town and were currently filming some horse riding action there. After ogling the giant mounted elk and buffalo heads in the lobby and dropping our things in our room, we headed for the pools. We wound our way through the old hallways and down a flight of stairs into a courtyard dominated by a large, uncovered pool. Tucked beside it under a roof we found a smaller, hotter pool. Everything is white with green trim. And under the roof beside the small pool was a walk-up window to the bar inside where we could order drinks to sip in the pool! We got as much of a soak in as we could before dinner and heading to bed. 

The next morning, Jess wanted to get started before 7, but with a teen and a tween, that proved to be just too much to ask. Early is when the animals are up and about, and the best place to see wildlife in the park is in Lamar Valley. We made our way in Franklin back down into the park through the north entrance and turned left when we reached Mammoth. Like our drive through the park the day before, this one wound around and up and down surprising us with incredible views, herds of bison, and sheer drop-offs with no railings. We dropped down into the valley and came across a cluster of cars parked along the road. Gathered just off the road was a group of park visitors peering toward the hills just to the north. Some of these folks had really impressive devices that looked like one-eyed binoculars. We slowed and asked someone what all the fuss was about and found out that a wolf family had been spotted! Try as we might, we just couldn’t see the wolves as they were waaayyyy up in the hills and we only had some tiny binoculars. We continued on along the Lamar River keeping an eye out for more wolves and bears, but no luck. We did see a coyote and lots more bison, some elk, and some pronghorn sheep (antelope-like sheep). 

We headed back toward the park exit and stopped in Mammoth. After a quick lunch in Franklin, we checked out the gift shop and wandered up the road toward the springs hoping to find a short hike. We’d discovered to our minor dismay that having only a couple of days to explore Yellowstone involved a lot of time in the car. The park is larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined, and the park speed limit is 40mph but that is an ambitious speed with all the wildlife, twists and turns, and beautiful scenery. Thus, we spent a lot of time driving. We were ready to climb around and explore out of Franklin and we found Beaver Ponds Trail and started climbing up along the river. We didn’t make it very far, however, before Cramer mentioned he had not strapped on the bear spray. After some debate as to whether we should continue, we decided we would instead explore the hot springs, which were more polluted and on boardwalks up and down the Mammoth Hot Springs. Only the lower terraces were open for exploration, so we passed Liberty Cap, a 37 foot tall hot spring cone, and then climbed the stairs to Palette Spring and Devil’s Thumb, which is a tall, terraced hot spring cone. Much later we were happy we did not venture further up the Beaver Pond Trail as a park visitor was attacked by a bear on that trail! We were appropriately cautious throughout our trip, especially since Henry loved to find books about all sorts of disasters, deaths and accidents in the bookshops in each region we visited. We all are rule-followers and these stories were stark examples of what can happen in these wild and remote places! 

We were all tired of driving around after 5 hours, so even though we all wanted to keep going, we decided that we would head back to Chico for some more hot springs time. The hotel is situated on almost 200 acres of rolling foothills and after a relaxing swim, we decided to explore some of the grounds. They have biking trails, hiking trails and a disc golf course. We decided that we could do hiking and disc golf and the weather had cleared up and was a beautiful spring day, so we wandered around their disc golf course under the snow-capped Emigrant Peak (elevation 11,000ft). We saw lots of birds and ground squirrels (or prairie dogs?), and worked up an appetite for some local pizza at Emigrant Outpost, which several employees and regulars at Chico had clued us in to. Since it was such a nice day, they opened up their patio and we dined al fresco with some very friendly locals who were happy to chat with us and give us lots of local knowledge. After some delicious Montana pizza (who knew?), we of course had to finish our evening with another soak under the stars.

The next morning we ate in the hotel dining room and then had a horseback ride scheduled through the stables at the hotel, the Rockin HK Outfitters. The women who were our guides were super friendly and we had another beautiful day to ride in Paradise Valley. The horses took us around rolling hills with the mountains stretching off into the distance under sunny skies. Sadly, after our ride, it was time to head out of Montana and start heading east for the first time. We did not have a destination set for that day but wanted to drive as far east as we could, since the following day we were hoping to be in South Dakota’s Custer State Park, about 500 mountainous miles to the east.