The Dream
I worried about this for our summer holiday to Yellowstone. I’d wanted to go for as long as I could remember. I’d watched the documentaries, read the books and spent my days in my previous job trying to plan it to see if we could ever afford it. I’ve also loved putting itineraries together for clients and although I suffer from holiday envy a lot, as I'm sure you can imagine, the envy for trips to Wyoming were always more than most.
This trip was only made possible by a Virgin sale fare. When the email alert came through and I saw Denver on the list. Even though it was indirect and from Heathrow, it made it possible. I immediately started to run some dates and within a couple of hours, had them held, Sally called, and the trip was booked.
Yellowstone is the world’s oldest National Park. It’s home to some of the most amazing wildlife and diverse scenery on the planet. It has the greatest temperature swing in the world from the mid 30’s in the summer to -30/40 degrees in winter. It was these sort of unimaginable figures, the photos and the stories and a little bit of Yogi Bear that had this firmly on my bucket list.
It is remote and hard to get to. Denver and Salt Lake City are the nearest international cities, both in other states. Yellowstone finds itself in the state of Wyoming, bigger than the UK with a total population like Leeds! Space is something they have a lot of! So, from Denver you must plan the drive. We decided on a more leisurely drive, with the kids in mind, taking in the Wild West town of Cheyenne and the stunningly gorgeous town of Thermopolis, famed for its dinosaur bones and state park. We then headed to the real wild west in Cody. A frontier town with a nightly Rodeo, cowboys and horses everywhere and proper saloons with swinging doors.
Our stay here was made even more special by our decision to stay on a ranch in the middle of nowhere. The UXU ranch took all our breaths away and was a completely unexpected treat.
From here we drove north and into Montana. I had always dreamed of entering the park via the infamous Bear Tooth Highway. This involved driving across a mountain range on a windy road with a sheer drop off. The girls did squeal a bit and I’m sure Sally had her eyes closed for long periods, but it was exhilarating. What an entrance.
We needed the park to come good quickly to keep the kids onside! As we descended from the Bear Tooth Highway the Lamar Valley opened and we came face to face with Yellowstone's biggest inhabitants, the Bison. 200 years ago, there were 5 million. But in the 1800’s they were slaughtered to almost extinction for their coats and meat. Now only a few thousand remain and we were looking straight at a large herd of them grunting and majestically moving to where ever they wanted.
As if that wasn’t the best start, around the next corner was a bear jam (traffic jam caused by a bear sighting). After a little patience and sharing of the binoculars a small black bear was spotted and this was the first two hours!
Accommodation in the park is limited. We'd chosen the Yellowstone Lake Lodge, a basic, but beautifully positioned lodge surrounded by large herds of Elk. This included Elk right outside our front door on arrival and all around the hotel grounds. Elk are like deer but twice the size, as everything is bigger in America!
We woke early the next morning with a full day planned starting with the scenic drive to the iconic Old Faithful. A natural auditorium surrounding it with geysers and hot springs dotted all over the horizon. Old Faithful was just that, setting off on time and as expected. The hour walk to Morning Glory, the almost as famous hot spring with its bright blue water and colourful patterns was as picturesque and beautiful as in the pictures I remember in the Geography books at school.
The driving around the park was an absolute joy. The change in scenery around every turn was something to behold. On the drive to the top of the park we went through mountains, forest, open plains and lakes to the gorgeous village of Mammoth. Each area has its own visitor centre with knowledgeable staff to help guide you. In Mammoth we listened to rangers talk about park safety and safe distances, 100m for bears and wolves for the record.
As we returned to the hotel in the distance I thought I saw a bear but didn’t want to call it too early to avoid the never-ending family mickey taking. But as we got closer it was moving down an open field towards the road. We stopped and watched the most humbling of sights of a huge black bear walking alongside the car and casually to the other side, we created the bear jam this time.
Not to be outdone the Bison then put on a show. A herd of 100’s crossing the only road in the park meant only one thing, a two hour wait. As a park ranger explained to an annoyed driver behind us ‘it’s their park and they can go where they want maam!’ which we just loved. Without question the best traffic jam we’ve ever been in. Then it was the turn of the grizzlies. Perfectly placed on the other side of the stunning Hayden Valley we watched as a huge grizzly walked along the riverside.
But the best sighting was to be the morning after. Taking the advice from the park rangers we headed out early to a specific area on the eastern side. After an hour’s drive we were rewarded with a bear standing on the roadside. He had just popped out from the treeline as we passed. I shouted ‘BEAR’ Isabelle dropped everything, Lucy screamed, and I swung the car around as we parked up, realising very quickly we were nowhere near the 100m rule. The bear stopped on the other side played in some logs and we had memories that will last forever.
After the joy of Yellowstone, we headed back to Denver, with a two night stop in the Grand Teton National Park. The Teton’s are a hidden gem, and for that reason I won’t spoil it and will wait for you to find out for yourselves, but the picture I now have in my office of the beautiful mountain range says it all. We even managed to squeeze in a baseball game before we flew home.
The trip of a lifetime turned out to be just that. So, it may be true about meeting hero’s in terms of other people letting you down but not this place and not this park. Family memories that we will treasure forever.
When those sale fares do come out, grab them with both hands and make it happen. I will be!