Itinerary Check-In

Hi! I would love to get some feedback on our itinerary for May 29-June 5, so we have 6 days to spread things out. It is just my husband and I, and we are in great shape to be doing really active days. But we also like to take the scenery in, so while we want to do a lot every day, we also are flexible as to the timing and prepared if there are traffic jams (animal or man made), long lines, etc.

Yellowstone Itinerary

 

Day 1:

·      Fly into Bozeman (arrival 12:30)

·      Pick up rental car / lunch

·      Museum of the Rockies (if decide to)

·      Pick up supplies / groceries / etc.

·      1.25 hour drive to rental

*I purposefully made this a chill day but I'm nothing if not easy to be convinced to add things! haha.

 

Day 2:

·      Leave rental by 6:00AM to North Entrance. Park at Albright Center?

·      Mammoth Hot Springs

o   Lower Terraces Boardwalk (Liberty Cap, Minerva Terrace)

o   Upper Terraces Drive (Orange Spring Mound, Canary Spring, Palette Spring)

·      Norris Geyser Basin

o   Goal is to arrive by 10:30 and do:

o   Porcelain Basin, Black Basin, Steamboat Geyser (saw that parking gets rough after 12:30).

·      Calcite Springs Overlook (20/25 minute drive if no traffic)

·      Back to rental

 

Day 3:

·      Leave rental *EARLY* for peak Lamar Valley wildlife hours

·      Slough Creek (First Valley Hike)

·      Tower Fall (20/30 minute drive)

·      Canyon North Rim (40 minute drive)

·      Dinner – perhaps Lamar Valley in the evening again?

 

Day 4:

·      Leave rental by 5:30AM (maybe we need to do earlier?)

·      2-2.5 hour drive to see Old Faithful (check eruption time when arriving)

·      Walk portion of upper Geyser Basin boardwalk

·      Grand Prismatic (15/20 minute drive)

·      Firehole Lake (10/15 minute drive)

·      Potential add ons if time/energy allows: Biscuit Basin, Black Sand Basin, Madison River on the way back out.

 

Day 5:

·      Leave rental by 6:30

·      Canyon South Rim (Artist Point, Lower Falls View)

·      Maybe mud cauldron?

·      Hayden Valley in the evening

 

Day 5:

• Lamar Valley (maybe another AM visit if we want to see more wildlife / haven't had much luck)
• Cache Creek (15-20 minute drive)
• Trout Lake Loop
• Petrified Tree

(I took this one from allmightysquirell's itineary)

Day 6:

Floater day to either catch up on a day we overestimated time on, revisit something we really enjoyed or do further research to see additional wildlife/sites/etc. Open to recommendations for this one! I can space out the previous days or add on new things here.

Day 7:

Fly out 

 

As far as food, our plan is to do a lot of packed breakfast / lunches / snacks. Eating dinner out most days, depending on how we feel. There’s so much to see that I feel like I’m cramming the days, but also not doing enough. I've looked at a lot of other itineraries and tried to pick out advice that I read in the comments, but it's still hard to really understand what lines up well etc. without ever having been there...the map is confusing to me! haha. Thank you all so much for your feedback!