Discover America 2025

The day was spent in Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park, and both were worth the time. In Yellowstone, I drove into the West Entrance and turned onto the Grand Loop, heading south. There were many, many turnoffs for scenic views, all of which were fantastic. The park has a vast array of rivers, small lakes, large lakes, geysers, valleys, mountains, and wildlife. Unfortunately, the only wildlife I saw were a number of bison, some very close to the road. For a while, the road parallelled the Madison River, one of the tributaries (along with the Gallatin which I saw previously) which form the Missouri River. I also once again came across signs identifying the Continental Divide within the park.

In addition to many turnoffs for photos, I made two stops, one at the Grand Prismatic Spring and the other at the Old Faithful Geyser. The former is the largest hot spring in the United States, and the third largest in the world. The park constructed a boardwalk to allow tourists to overlook the spring, which creates many colorful formations from the spring water leading to the river.

Old Faithful is clearly the main attraction in the park, with a lodge, many shops/cafes, a Visitor Center, and a very large parking lot. I walked the dogs by the parking lot and then walked towards the geyser ten minutes before the next predicted time for an eruption, which they say can happen plus or minus 13 minutes from the prediction. There were easily a thousand people in the area around the geyser waiting, cameras in hand. The prediction was off by more than 15 minutes, which was unfortunate because my phone battery died before the eruption, but a woman standing next to me texted her video of the eruption to me.

I then drove 90 minutes down to the Oxbow Bend in Grand Teton National Park to see the view identified by many as the best, with the snowcapped mountains beyond the large Jackson Lake in the middle of the park.

To get to my campsite, I had to drive back up to Yellowstone and out the East Entrance. This trip took me around the eastern and northern sides of the very large Yellowstone Lake. Passing the lake led me to a 27-mile drive to the exit through the mountains, which again were stupendous. Upon exiting the park, I drove for an hour towards Cody, Wyoming and Buffalo Bill State Park. This drive again was through the mountains, this time mountains which are similar to the Red Rocks in Colorado, just not quite so red.

Buffalo Bill Cody founded the town (named after him) in 1896 and contributed to a great deal of the area’s history, including his “Buffalo Bill Wild West Show,” which included performances of the sharpshooter Annie Oakley. So, there is now a Buffalo Bill River, Buffalo Bill Dam, Buffalo Bill Reservoir, and Buffalo Bill State Park. My campsite was in the state park alongside the North Fork Shoshone River, with mountains on the other side of the river. This was a very nice campground.

Photos include a bison, the spring, Old Faithful (before the eruption), the large Yellowstone Lake, an overlook view of a river valley in the park, the “red rock” mountains on the way to Cody, and the campground. I also posted the video of Old Faithful erupting. I apologize for the many postings, but there were just too many gorgeous sites from which to pick.