Joyride with the Joneses
Follow along on our family journeys!
Yellowstone National Park 1
We have made it to Yellowstone National Park, what a trek across Wyoming, I can’t tell you how beautiful this state is, you must see for yourself.
We are staying at Shoshone Lodge and Guest Ranch, this is located about 3-4 miles east of The East Entrance of Yellowstone. What a great place!! I honestly think this is a place you just come to and stay put, maybe venture to Yellowstone a few days during a week long trip but this place has tons of things to do or you could just stay and relax, depending on how you like to travel. Us?? We put in 2, 14 hour days to get everything we wanted done at Yellowstone, and only used our cabin to sleep and shower. The first evening we arrived we hung out by the campfire, played some baseball with other guests and chatted with some folks hanging out by the fire, relaxing! This is the way to do it.
The next morning we were up and going by 7 am. I heard that the park gets busy fast and parking lots are usually full by 10 am. Our first stop was 4 minutes away at the entrance sign. Luckily another family was right there with us and took our photo. It turned out fantastic! Everybody is awake and ready to go!
We got our map and park newsletter and were off on our 1st adventure. When you enter the park from this end, it is quite a drive to any of the frequent tourist stops so be prepared to be in the car for a good 30-60 minutes, depending on how well you manage curves and if you get stuck behind RVs. It is a beautiful drive so just sit back and enjoy. We drove the East Entrance Road all the way to the T intersection and took a right to follow the Grand Loop Road, this follows the Yellowstone River and there are plenty of wildlife to keep you occupied on the long trip. Our favorite were the buffalo, it was amazing how big these guys were and you were practically on top of them. We got some great pictures just sitting in the car!! On the way back that night we even got to watch one swim through the water and get out to cross the road! This was by far one of the coolest things we saw!
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South Rim Drive
Just up the Grand Loop Road was the South Rim Drive. We turned here to get some pictures of the Artists Points. This place was starting to get really packed by 10 am and was almost nearly impossible to get a picture. Be patient, those pictures here are worth it 🙂 See!!
Next up was Uncle Tom’s Trail, it was closed for construction 😦 Looks like we will have to come back 🙂 LOL!!!
We headed up a little further to the North Rim Drive. Here we checked a few things off of our Itinerary! Lots of great viewpoints along the way and interesting educational signs to go with.
Brink of Lower Falls
We hiked down this trail to see the waterfall from the top. Pretty, but packed, we expected this. Yellowstone is not for people who don’t like crowds, esp. in July/August. Just be prepared and plan well.
Lookout Point
Park your car and walk a few steps to this. Puts in to perspective how gorgeous and huge this park is.
Grand Viewpoint
Ever wondered why it’s called Yellowstone. One glimpse of the Grand Viewpoint and I am betting you figure it out! The kids loved it here! We got to see a golden eagle flying over this, pretty sweet and a memory we won’t soon forget.
Canyon Visitor Center
This place was fantastic. We watched the short film, wandered around the exhibits, got our Junior Ranger booklet (here it costs $3 but instead of a pin you get a patch). Visited the gift shop, purchased a few items, including Yellowstone Passport Stickers and got our Canyon Village Cancellation. There are lots of things to do in this village. Shopping, education, and food. Great place to stop!! We didn’t take too many pictures here because we were busy enjoying 🙂
Tower Falls
We did the short hike to the top to get an overview of the Tower Falls. Beautiful as far as the eye can see. Our pictures don’t do this justice. We did not do the lower trail to see the falls, this group was getting hangry!
Next up was our lunch stop!
Roosevelt Lodge Dining Room
We got hungry at a bad time, lunch time. We had about a 45 minute wait until a table was ready. We wandered over to the gift shop and looked around, then we found a seat on the porch and worked on our Junior Ranger books. The time went by fast and we were seated. The food was really good and the wait staff fabulous,. This place was gorgeous to look at! In no time at all we were full and on to our fun-filled afternoon!!
We took a quick stop off at the Tower Junction Ranger Station for yet another cancellation for our passport! This one had a Tower Falls stamp as well! Kinda hard to see but I love when there are extra stamps. ❤
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I’m going to end here for the day now and do a separate post on the afternoon, otherwise this post will get very long. We put in 2 very long days here and there is so much information I don’t want to bog you down with. Let me know if you have been to Yellowstone and have must do’s that I may have missed! We tried to get everything in on this trip. Check back for Part 2, and Part 3. This park is huge it will take awhile to get through everything. Enjoy!
Joyride with the Joneses 
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