Vanlife Guide: Yellowstone
You know, to be honest, when I started this website and sharing my life more publicly I specifically said “I don’t want to be one of those people who post ‘guides’ of places they’ve visited once and pretend like they know everything” but here we are. So in that vein of now becoming something I previously detested, I will state a very large disclaimer. I’ve been to Yellowstone for 3 total days, so this is by no means a definitive guide; I just want to share some things that I think would be worthwhile specifically if you want to get away from other humans (which is a very, very good idea in the times of COVID). So here we go!
Want to see what it looked like touring Yellowstone realtime? Check out my Instagram highlight!
I’m not going to give you a rundown on Yellowstone history because I’m no buff and there are about a million articles written about it if you do a quick Google search. What I can say is that since international borders are closed, people are fed up with being quarantined in their homes, and gas is cheap: there are SO many people out traveling the US right now. I expected to see a fair number of people at Yellowstone because it’s so popular and the height of summer…but I was wholly unprepared for full-on hoardes of people to be literally rubbing elbows with strangers on narrow boardwalks without masks on (it’s not required in Yellowstone to wear a mask and only encouraged if you can’t do social distancing / are indoors). I should also say that most of the license plates I saw in parking lots were from Florda, Utah, and Texas; you can make your own assumptions based off that. Anyways, it’s absolutely appalling that so many people are so cavalierly going to national parks in the midst of a pandemic without taking any proper precaution. So I’m going to share some ways that I discovered in my whopping 3 days there to get off the beaten path, avoid other human beings, and still see some nature and outdoor beauty while within or around Yellowstone.
Camping
Prior to visiting Yellowstone I hadn’t paid for a single night of camping while in the van - so I’m obviously partial to free spots on public land. Since Yellowstone is bordered primarily by National Forest land, there are a lot of options. I stayed on free public land both east of Teton National Park and north of Yellowstone National Park - links below. I also encourage you to do your own research using apps like iOverlander, Free Camping (their desktop version is called Free Campsites), and FreeRoam - all of their UI’s are a little wonky but between all of them they usually have a good representation of what’s available in the area.
Camping south of Yellowstone NP entrance, east of Teton NP (I stayed here)
Beautiful sunset view from camp
Camping north of Yellowstone NP entrance, near Gardiner, WY (I stayed here)
I take pictures of my van like people take pictures of their dogs.
Camping directly south of Yellowstone NP entrance (I did not stay here but drove by it)
I stayed one night at the Canyon Campground in Yellowstone which was a bit of a federal case to secure. First, if you’re prepared you can make reservations beforehand but they often fill up a year (or more?) in advance so that’s not great for someone like me who makes plans approximately 24-48 hours in advance. Luckily they have a portion of campsites that are not reservable and are first-come, first-served. Yellowstone has both Android and iOS apps that allow you to check Geyser times, view park maps, and most importantly for me shows what campground are open and when they filled up both the current day and the day previous. I stalked these ‘fill-up’ times for a few days prior to when I was going there and knew they filled around 7:30 am so I got up at 5:00 am and drove into the park so I could get to the campground office by 6:45 am (I went to the Grant Village campground location but simply because it was closest to where I was, any of the campgrounds can make reservations for any of the other campgrounds in the park). Once you speak to a camping attendant, they will ask how big your rig is, check availability, and hopefully they have something that fits your needs! If they don’t, you’re SOL. The camping attendant I got didn’t seem too insanely bright but I eventually got a reservation…
“What size is your rig?” - Camping Lady
”It’s a sprinter van so it’s about 15 feet long, I fit in a normal parking spot just fine.” - Me
”Well we don’t have any spots available in the whole park for a van, we only have tent camping spot.”
”Okay I’ll take one of those, that’s fine, I don’t need RV hookups or anything I’m self-sufficient in the van with water and power”
”You can’t do that”
”Why not?”
”Tent camping spots are just for tent camping”
”Okay so don’t people drive their car next to the tent camping spot? I can do the same thing, I fit in a normal parking spot”
”You are not allowed to sleep in the van”
”Isn’t sleeping in the van technically more bear safe than sleeping outside in a tent?”
”It’s not allowed”
”Okay, I have a tent in the van I’ll just sleep in that then, please book me a tent camping spot” (Note, I had absolutely zero intention of actually sleeping in the tent I just wanted that reservation)
”Let me call my boss and see if that is OK if you sleep in a tent next to the van”
Meanwhile I’m thinking ‘HOW IS THIS ANY DIFFERENT THAN REGULAR PEOPLE WHO DRIVE IN WITH A MINIVAN AND TENT CAMP AND WHY DOES THIS REQUIRE A SUPERVISOR??? She calls her boss, he says it’s totally fine if I sleep in my van. Which, duh, of course it is.
Once I paid for the camp site she gave me a small slip of paper and told me that check in was at 1:00 pm. I got to the campsite around 5:00 pm that afternoon and it took about 15 minutes to check in because the lovely man behind the counter took his sweet time explaining every single rule and regulation in the campground (probably because idiot tourists know basically nothing about how to live outside and throw their food scraps all over the place and then bears maul them.) Overall the camp site was pretty nice - running water in the bathrooms, potable water spigots everywhere to fill up fresh water, and a dishwashing room so that you can clean all your dishes in a safe place before storing them at night (again, bears are real). As you can imagine - I utilized the crap out of that dishwashing room and cleaned everything in my van, took a poor man’s shower in the bathroom (washcloth + soap), and filled up every conceivable water vessel I had. As you drive out there is also blackwater disposal sites, more fresh water fill up spigots, and trash and recycling bins. Honestly those are the things I struggle with the most (where to shower, where to get fresh water, where to dump my trash, where to dump my cassette toilet) so I was in heaven when all of those things were provided to me. I guess that’s why I paid $29 for a single night of camping.
Geysers
Maybe I’m being cynical but I expected a lot more from Old Faithful and all the other geysers in the park. There are multiple different thermal areas around the park and I of course thought I needed to stop at every single one since it was my first time in Yellowstone. After stopping at about 5 separate areas, I got the gist and I do not ever need to see another geyser, bubbling pool, or thermal area in my life. If I were to do it over again for the first time, I would simply go to the Upper Geyser Basin area (where Old Faithful is located) and do the 2-3 mile boardwalk loop around that entire area; I believe it is one of the areas with the highest concentration of geysers and other thermal features. With that being said - it is PACKED full of people, and especially right after Old Faithful blows since everyone comes to see Old Faithful then wanders along the boardwalk. My suggestion would be to time it so that you’re meandering along the boardwalk while Old Faithful is going off to avoid as many humans as possible.
Now that I’ve sufficiently thrown shade on the main reason that Yellowstone is a national park - there is one geyser that absolutely blew me away. Lone Star Geyser was incredible for me likely because I was the ONLY PERSON THERE! It’s definitely not on the beaten path but is really easy to get to (see Hiking/Biking section below.) The biggest issue with Lone Star is that the park doesn’t record when eruptions happen so it’s all a gamble! They do know it erupts about every 3 hours, for a total of ~30 minutes; I was super fortunate and arrived as it was shooting up about 50-60 feet in the air.
Lone Start Geyser
Biking in the park
There are not a lot of areas in the park that bikes are allowed but since I love two-wheel powered adventures I tried to hit up a few.
Lone Star Geyser Trail - 5 miles, 140’ of elevation gain, out and back
This is the trail that took me to the Lone Star Geyser (amazing); it follows one of the most beautiful little rivers I’ve ever seen, is mostly shaded, and when I went I only saw 2 other people who were hiking it.
Old Faithful > Morning Glory - 3.4 miles, 81’ of elevation gain, out and back
This trail follows the paved part of the trail system in the Upper Geyser Basin (where Old Faithful is located) and it’s a nice way to see some of the thermal features without having to walk all of it. You also get to zoom by all the tourists who probably have COVID. There are bike racks at each of the boardwalk entrances (bikes aren’t allowed on any boardwalk) so I left my bike at each of those intervals and strolled along the boardwalk. There is also a spur trail about 3/4 of the way down the trail which also allows bikes but isn’t listed on MTBProject.
Fountain Pot Family Loop - 14.2 miles, 356’ of elevation gain, loop
I didn’t ride this loop but did drive the portion of it that is on pavement which was a lovely little detour road off of the main highway which doesn’t allow RVs or buses so it was significantly less crowded than the main attractions.
Mt. Washburn - 5.9 miles, 1,443’ of elevation gain, out and back
I didn’t ride this loop because this section of the park is closed for all of 2020, but it’s something I wanted to ride and would definitely consider coming back to do again. It climbs an old forest road up to the top of Mt. Washburn then seems like a fun, fast descent back down.
Bunsen Peak - 12.6 miles, 1,396’ of elevation gain, out and back
I didn’t ride this either but I parked at this trail head for my Electric Peak hike and saw a handful of other people hiking this trail.
Getting off the beaten path
Staying on the main highways and visiting the attractions on those highways is going to be the most congested way to see the park but I found a few road offshoots (only open to cars, not open to RVs, campers, or buses) that had way less people.
Firehole Lake Drive - about 3 miles long and takes you to a few pretty thermal features where there are only 3-4 cars parked in front rather than 200-300 at the major attractions on the highways.
Firehole Canyon Drive - about 2 miles long and meanders along the Firehole River with good options for getting out and swimming.
Virginia Cascade Drive - about 2 miles long and leads to a pretty impressive waterfall with only about 3 spots to pull off on the side of the road so very low traffic. At the end of the drive, there is also a really beautiful meadow with picnic tables that would be a good place to get out and read a few chapters from your book and try to look for wildlife in the meadow.
Other ‘must do’ things (that are unfortunately going to be busy no matter what)
Hayden Valley - located on the main road on the east side of the park between Canyon and Grant villages and known for the impressive amount of wildlife that can be seen there. I spent about 2 hours stopping at various roadside pulloffs and using my DSLR to spy on wildlife including elk, bison, blue herons, common geese, mallards, and all kind of hawks.
Mammoth Hot Springs - really huge, impressive thermal feature by the northwest entrance of the park.
Electric Peak - if you’ve got the time and the lungs, I would highly encourage this either as a long day hike (~20 miles) or as an overnight trip - campgrounds 1G3 and 1G4 are the best but must be reserved via the backcountry office in advance)
Other Tips
I got into the park around 6:00 am each day and it was literally empty - zero cars at Mammoth, zero cars at the pulloffs, zero cars anywhere. It was really magical and I would highly suggest trying to enter the park right at sunrise so you get a few hours of the park to yourself.
All of the roads that offshoot from the main highways are one-way only (very clearly marked) and do not allow RVs, campers, or buses (so it’s great for us vanlifers!)
Bears and wildlife are very real - do not even think about trying to get near them and always carry bear spray and make noise when you’re on trails that aren’t heavily trafficked
If you really want to avoid humans, use a trail app like Hiking Project or All Trails to find trails that are more than 5 miles long. A large majority of the park’s visitors don’t ever leave the main areas along the highways so it’s a great way to get out into the Yellowstone backcountry and avoid other people.
Be a good steward of the park - pick up trash when you see it, keep other people accountable for staying on boardwalks near thermal features, don’t throw food or drinks outside of your car (it attracts wildlife), and treat the park like a place that your grandchildren will visit someday. As Dorinda would say, ‘make it nice’.