Artist Paintpots

 

Artist Paintpot is a smaller thermal feature in Yellowstone National Park. It is not as popular as Norris Geyser, or the Grand Prismatic Spring, or the Old Faithful. It only has a short 1 mile trail that goes towards the paint pot.  The trail has some elevation gain near the end but it is overall very easy to hike.

We got to Artist Ptainpot around 10AM in the morning. The parking lot was quite small here and we had to park on the side of the road. There was a restroom here but there was a super long line up. Seemed like everyone wanted to go to the restroom here.

We walked towards the Artist Paintpots right after we got off the car. The trail was mostly flat and wide. It is quite suitable for family with younger kids. As we were close to the end, the trail splits and forms a loop. We took the left fork first but the distance is the same.

From the top of the hill, we had a great view over the basin. It was actually quite a nice view really. When we got to the Artist Paintpots, we saw a muddy clay like pot that was bubbling hot. It was so hot that small batch of clay was popped upwards . It was pretty cool.

As we head back to the hotel, we heard that someone dog went missing around Artist Paintpots area. It was a big black Goldenpoodle that ran away into the woods. The owner was worried that the dog may get hunt by other wild animals such as wolves or bears. Luckily, the dog was found alive after 14 days without any injuries.

Overall, Artist Paintpot is a good place to check out. It would probably take about 30 minutes.

Norris Geyser Basin

 

Norris Geyser Basin is one of the large major thermal feature at Yellowstone National Park. It is located on the West side of Yellowstone. Other than just the thermal features, there is actually a small museum there showing the volcanic activities. Due to its popularity, the parking lot at Norris Geyser Basin is quite large. There is also an overflow parking lot on the road just for people visiting Norris Geyser Basin.

We got to Norris Geyser Basin at 8AM and there was still plenty of parking space. As we entered the parking lot, we were notified that the largest geyser, Steamboat Geyser, could potentially damage the car if it erupts. We did see few cars covered up the whole car to prevent any damage.

The first place we went to was towards Porcelain Basin. From the overlook, we could see the entire basin with smoking steams coming out. The basin was so white just like porcelain. It was quite pretty but at the same time also seemed dangerous with all the steams coming out of it.

We then headed towards Steamboat Geyser, which was the largest here. Unfortunately, it is difficult to predict when Steam Boat Geyser will erupt. We were there for few minutes seeing all these steams going up into the air.

After that, we made our way around the board walk. The board walk seemed to be about 2 miles in total length. It was not that long. However, the board walk that goes around the back was less interesting. The thermal features there were just like hot springs with steam coming out. Many of the hot springs were dry and really not much to look at. Although it was still early in the morning. the sun was already high up and getting quite hot.

After hiking the board walk trail, we also checked out the museum. It was quite a small museum, probably the smallest museum that we have ever seen. The museum goes over the volcanic activity and the way how this landscape was formed.

When we left Norris Geyser Basin area, the entrance was already blocked off to prevent additional car coming in. The new visitors could only park on the side of the road and the overflow parking lot.

It is still worth a visit, but just make sure to visit Norris Geyser Basin early.

Haagen Dazs

 

Haagen Dazs is world famous ice cream. Not only you can see tubs of Haagen Dazs ice cream in the stores, but there are also many Haagen Dazs shops around the world. Haagen Dazs ice cream is usually regarded as premium ice cream brand and usually a little bit more pricy. Its ice cream bar with chocolate coating is also a signature item known to many people around the world.

We were at West Yellowstone and happened to run into Haagen Dazs ice cream shop. Since the day was extremely hot and we were already looking for a handmade ice cream shop that that we could not find, thus we decided to try Haagen Dazs.

We have never had ice cream directly from Haagen Dazs store. The menu item offered by the store differed a lot from what we see with the Haagen Dazs ice cream tubs in the super market. Most of the items focus on the blended ice cream and sundaes. In other words, it involves some labor work to make the ice cream, like Coldstone ice cream.

We ordered a Chocolate Cookie Sundaes that was under the special menu item and waited at the pick up window for it. It took about 5 minutes to get our order.

The ice cream was kind of blended which chocolate cookie crumble and placed in a large transparent plastic cup. On top of that, a lot of whip cream was added. We did not like the whip cream that much. We were already eating ice cream, don't really need any more whip creams. The ice cream was good, but we felt that the ice cream did not fill the entire cup. So that was a bummer. It looked like only half of the cup was filled with ice cream.

Overall, it was an okay experience with Haagen Dazs ice cream shop. If we were to go again, we could probably order something else like smoothie instead of ice cream.

Mammoth Hot Spring

 

 

Mammoth Hot Spring is another special thermal feature located in Yellowstone National Park. It is located at Northwest side of Yellowstone National Park. It is not far from the North entrance. Its special thermal feature has formed many strange looking rock formations. The board walk at Mammoth Hot Spring also allows visitors to walk around the hot spring area to check out all the cool looking features.

The Mammoth Hot Spring has the Lower Terrace and Upper Terrace. We first got to the Lower Terrace by 7AM in the morning. Once we parked the car, we saw many elks in the hot spring area feeding off the grass. We walked closer but only saw female elks. Not sure where the male elks were. There were about 10 female elks in the area and they were having fun together. They actually walked up really close to us and making weird sound.

We continued to walk towards the Upper Terrace to check out the entire Mammoth Hot Spring. The main thermal feature of Mammoth Hot spring looked silky smooth with steam coming out of it. The golden color rock was a beautiful sight under the early morning sun light. It was really cool.

As we kept going, we walked across an area with nothing but dead trees and white sands. The Cupid Spring was beautiful with yellow and pink color. It almost had the color of rainbow across the rock surface.

When we got to the Upper Terrace, there wasn't much other stuff to see. Most of the thermal features were at the Lower Terrace. We were initially thinking of driving around the Upper Terrace, we decided not to do that anymore since we had seen everything we wanted.

Overall, Mammoth Hot Spring was pretty cool to visit and did not take much time. It is also very close to the historic district where people can shop and rest. It is definitely worth a visit.

Beartooth Highway

 

Beartooth Highway is said to be the most beautiful highway in the United States. It crosses Wyomings and Montana, and goes over the mountain ranges. The high takes you through grounds shaped by glaciers all the way up to the top of the summit. The winding road is also a feature at Beartooth Highway. There are many sharp hair pin turn to take you through the steep road all the way to the top.

Since we were in the area, Beartooth Highway scenic drive is a must. We exited Yellowstone National Park from the Northeast entrance and headed towards Beartooth Highway. As we just get started driving on Beartooth Highway, there was construction going on. Thus only a single lane is open for both traffic directions. We had to wait for 30 minutes to get through this construction zone.

Once we are through the construction, we started driving through the landscape shaped by glacier. This has reminded us of driving in Norway. It was so beautiful. The lake on the side of the road was so clear and calm. The water was icy cold.

We then drove all the way up to the top of the mountain to the Beartooth Overlook. From the overlook, we could see the the entire region of Beartooth Highway. The winding road, the lakes, and the mountain, it was beautiful. Although it was quite windy up there at the overlook, we still spent a considerable amount of time there to enjoy the view.

As we head back down the highway, we stopped by the Top of the World Shop. This was the only rest stop along Beartooth Highway and it sells all kind of drinks and snacks. When we got there, there was a lot of motorcycles there. There was also a sign in front of the shop showing the distance to other major cities. It was quite interesting.

Overall, we definitely recommend to do a scenic drive through Beartooth Highway. We definitely think it is the most beautiful highway in United States.

Lamar Valley

 

Lamar Valley is another famous wildlife viewing place within Yellowstone National Park. It is located at Northeast corner of Yellowstone National Park and its size is also much larger than Hayden Valley. Visitors can spot elks, pronghorns, bisons, wolves, and bears here. Many wildlife enthusiasts come here before dawn and wait for wildlife to show up just so that they can get a glimpse of them.

Lamar Valley is quite far from where we stayed at around Old Faithful. It took us nearly 2 hours to get to Lamar Valley. It was already 8AM in the morning when we arrived and the sun was already high in the sky. As we drove through Lamar Valley, we could already see herds of bisons on the side of the road. It was a beautiful sight. These bisons were simply not afraid of humans or cars. As we proceed further, there were bisons crossing the road and thus we had to stop the car. One bison calf actually started feeding on its mom and thus the road was blocked for a long time.

We continued on to drive through Lamar Valley. On one of the pull outs, we pulled over and saw several pronghorns running across the field. We were told these pronghorns are one of the fastest mammals in Yellowstone National Park. They did indeed run very fast across the field. Unfortunately they were quite far and we could only spot it with our binocular.

As we got to Lamar Valley Overlook, many people have been here trying to spot other wildlife animals. There is a wolf den just down the valley by the river. We quickly moved to the top of the hill where everyone was and trying to see if we could spot a wolf or 2. Then we saw a Grey Wolf showing up on the field. It was running back and forth freely. Not quite sure what it was doing but it was an amazing sight to see a wild wolf for the first time. The wolf was quite far away, we wish we had super zoom lens with us.

As we were so focused on looking at the lone wolf, a lone bison sneaked up on us on the side. We did not even noticed until it got so closed. We were surprised by it and didn't know what to do. The bison seemed to be waiting for us to move away so that he could pass through. Thus we all moved backwards by 20 meters or so. The bison then started moving forward and crossed the field right in front of us. We were so worried that the bison was going to charge at it and luckily it didn't. It was our first time being so close to the bison and could see every single detail of its body.

We then went back to look at the wolf. The wolf was still there, just running around its wolf den. Not sure if there was any pups in there. After a while, the wolf headed over to the river and disappeared in our sight.

It was a great experience at Lamar Valley. We were really glad to see the wolf there. Compared to Hayden Valley, there were really a lot more wildlife here, just that the scenery is not as beautiful.

The Griddle

 

The Griddle is a brunch place located at Boise, Idaho. It opens from 6AM to 2PM only. It is located near the heart of Boise downtown and thus it has been pretty popular with high ratings. It serves all kinds of brunch menu items such as omelet, crepes, and sandwiches. It has been having great reviews on web and thus we wanted to give it a try when we pass by Boise.

When we got to The Griddle, it was always 12:30PM and the restaurant was nearly full. As we walked in, we did not know what to do because there was no front desk or anyone to lead you to the table. The waitress told us we could just sit anywhere and they would bring the menus to us. So we picked a table by the window.

After few minutes the server came with the menus and glasses of water. The menu was quite simple and straight forward. We like this kind of menu so that we wouldn't need to spend too much time to go over each item. We ordered a scramble egg and an omelet. Each of this item comes with harsh brown and toast. The toast has choices of white, brown, and sour dough. We also ordered an ice latte and it was quite good.

When the food was delivered to us, we were also given choices to select what kind of jam we would like to have. There was strawberry, blueberry, and mango. We chose to get the mango jam. When the jam was given to us, it was given in a small iron bowl. We were expecting a pre-packaged jam and did not expect this. The mango jam was quite good however, it went really well with the toast.

The omelet and scramble eggs were very similar in terms of the ingredients used. The ingredients included ham, bacon, onion, and green pepper. The only difference between omelet and scramble eggs were the shape of the egg. We liked the scramble egg a bit more even though they were similar. It was probably because we liked the texture of scramble egg a bit more.

Overall, it was a great brunch for us after a long road trip. We really enjoyed it and felt energized again to get back on the road.

Grand Prismatic Spring

 

The Grand Prismatic Spring is the signature of Yellowstone National Park. It is the largest hot spring in the park with beautiful colored ring within the pool. The pool is filled with the colors of a rainbow, which makes it look so spectacular. Grand Prismatic Spring is located on the Southeast side of Yellowstone National Park and with an overlook on the mountain on the South side.

The parking lot at Grand Prismatic Spring is super small. You can choose to get there super early in the morning but there is a problem. In the early morning the air is cold, and thus a lot of steam will be coming out of Grand Prismatic Spring and thus you will not be able to see much. The color will not be as bright in the early morning either.

If you wait till noon, the steam will be mostly gone but there will be no parking space available. Most people have to park on the side of the road and walk to Grand Prismatic Spring. Some people actually have to park super far due to the amount of crowd.

We chose to visit Grand Prismatic Spring in late afternoon. The temperature is hot and sun is bright. There was less crowd but we still had to park the car on the side of the road. It was not too far from the trail however.

The trail is on the board walk that goes around the spring. Before reaching Grand Prismatic Spring, we could see the hot spring water flowing down into the river. The rocky side of the river has this orange glow color. As we walked further, we came to this other hot spring which was also huge. There was a lot of steam coming out of it and seemed to be hotter than Grand Prismatic Spring.

When we got to Grand Prismatic Spring, it was less of a wow because it was difficult to see the whole thing from the ground. All the pictures that we have seen was taken by the drone from above. We could see various color of the spring, but we could only barely see the surface of it.

When we were there, we also saw a Black Labrador there who was extremely excited.

Since we didn't have a proper view of Grand Prismatic Spring, we decided to head to the overlook. The trail to the overlook starts at Fairy Falls parking lot. When we got there, there weren't that many cars and there were parking spaces available at overflow parking. The distance to the overlook was only about 0.8 miles with some elevation gain.

When we got there, there were already quite a lot of people there taking photos. The view from the overlook was much better and we could see the entire Grand Prismatic Spring. It was gorgeous. We really enjoyed the view.

Overall, it was a great place to visit but the board walk around Grand Prismatic Spring was less interesting. We recommend to visit in late afternoon to avoid the crowd and be able to have the best view of Grand Prismatic Spring.