We had a fantastic honeymoon at Yellowstone National Park.
Lodging:
We stayed at the Days Inn in West Yellowstone. Unfortunately there were no hotels in West Yellowstone that corresponded to my hotel points (at the time I didn’t have Wyndham points), so we paid cash at $200 a night. We had wanted to stay in the park, but by March all of the in-park hotels and lodges were already full for our September trip. We could have camped, but we didn’t want to do that for our honeymoon. I would highly recommend planning your Yellowstone trip at least a year in advance if you are planning to visit in the summer and stay in a hotel. Park lodging is limited and books out quickly.
It was exactly what you would expect from a Days Inn: outdated and not the nicest, but clean. The hotel was a five minute drive from the park entrance, but the park is very spread out, so to see the attractions we had to drive anywhere between 0.5 to 1.5 hours each way. Therefore, I would recommend staying in the park at least for part of the trip, if you can swing the high prices and plan far enough in advance.
Food:
We decided to splurge and eat dinner at the fancy restaurants in the lodges. I was highly impressed by the quality of the food. I had the most amazing trout at Canyon Ranch and Mammoth Lodge. Mammoth Lodge has a beautiful dining room as well as the best ambiance of all the lodges we visited. Canyon Ranch’s restaurant felt a bit like you had stepped into the 70s, but the food was fantastic. The only bad experience was when I had a salmon salad at one lodge (can’t remember which), and it was awful. So if you want fish, trout is the way to go! Most of the lodges have long waits in the evening, generally 45 minutes to 1 hour. You can sit in the bar and order drinks and appetizers while you’re waiting, which is what we did. It was very pleasant and relaxing. If you don’t want a fancy dinner, there are a variety of food options at the lodges – it’s not all greasy fast food. At Canyon they had an Asian noodle place, and there is a large cafeteria at Old Faithful. Old Faithful also has a nice breakfast to-go café, which is a perfect place to start your morning at the park. You can eat breakfast while watching Old Faithful erupt if you time it right. I think by sheer virtue of coincidence we saw Old Faithful erupt 3 times.
Shoshone Lake Hike:
Shoshone Lake is the largest backcountry lake in the lower 48 states, and it is enormous! It’s about 4 miles long and it looks like Puget Sound. The word “backcountry” is used somewhat liberally here, because you can get to the lake via a one-way 3 mile hike. Someone who worked at the park recommended this hike to us. He said once you get reach the lake, continue on the trail on the side of the lake to the Dogswood trail/Lewis river. He said that he saw wolves, elk, bears, all sorts of animals on this hike. Guess what we saw? Nada. That’s not to say the hike isn’t worth it – the 3 mile flat hike (6 miles roundtrip) to the edge of the lake is absolutely gorgeous. You walk through beautiful golden meadows and forest.
However, our mistake was that we continued on past the edge of the lake for another 4.5 miles to the intersection with Dogswood trail and the Continental Divide Trail. The trail enters a thick forest and goes up and down with no rhyme or reason. It’s not very close to the edge of the lake, so you can’t see much besides the trees. We were also beset by horrible biting flies. For some reason they loved me, but Tim escaped relatively unscathed. My butt was covered in dozens of flies that bit me through my pants. I was swatting them for all 4.5 miles, which totally ruined the experience. In retrospect, we would have rather done the 6 mile roundtrip hike in the morning, and hiked somewhere else in the afternoon.
Seven Mile Hole Hike:
This was our absolute favorite hike! The hike is neither 7 miles nor does it involve holes. To park, you have to head to Inspiration Point parking lot. When we visited, the road to Inspiration Point was closed. There is a small pullout that fits about 4 cars – we were lucky to get a spot! Otherwise you have to park at one of the nearby parking lots, which could add another mile to your hike. The hike is about 10 miles roundtrip and descends into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (not to be confused with the Grand Canyon in Arizona).
The hike starts out in a shady forest for the first 3 miles or so and has some rolling hills – it feels mostly flat. Then you get to the edge of the canyon and have a steep descent. There is less shade at this point. I would recommend bringing hiking poles, but it can definitely be done without them. You go through several changes of landscape on the way down – my favorite was a section that I thought looked like Mars. There are also several unexpected geysers. Finally, you make it to the bottom to a beautiful river. At the end you will see that the trail continues across a small creek. However, I would stop at the creek because the trail only continues about 0.3 miles and then ends abruptly – there’s nothing there. The way back up is not as bad as you might think. We actually went slightly faster on the way back.
Boardwalk Hikes:
A quick summary: too hot, no shade, too many people, underwhelming. We hiked about 8 miles around boardwalks starting at Old Faithful and going to Biscuit Basin. After seeing a few geysers you feel like you’ve seen them all. I didn’t like hiking in what felt like a theme park. I did think that the Grand Prismatic Spring was amazing, and I loved seeing Old Faithful erupt. Morning Glory and Biscuit Basin were also beautiful, but the hiking experience was subpar.
Mammoth Hot Springs:
I thought these were the most impressive water feature in the park. They’re huge hot springs with beautiful colors and textures. Though it is a little out of the way, it was my favorite place in the park. Plus the restaurant is amazing.
Roosevelt Lodge:
We didn’t get to do this since we didn’t have time, but Tim has fond memories of a cowboy cookout in the woods that is held at the lodge.
Lamar/Hayden Valley:
Don’t forget to pack your binoculars for wildlife viewing! I was really hoping to see some bears or wolves, but alas, they did not appear. A couple we ran into on the Shoshone hike said they had seen a grizzly the day before in Hayden Valley, but we didn’t see anything. We ran into some park employees who had been working at Yellowstone for 3 months, and they said they had only seen a bear 3 times.
We did see an unreasonable amount of bison though. The baby bison are so cute! There are giant herds of bison roaming throughout Lamar and Hayden. Just take a drive through and stop whenever you see other cars stopped. In addition to the bison, we saw a mountain goat from very far away, giant white swans, a few elk, and a coyote. Lamar Valley is absolutely gorgeous even without the wildlife, and is worth the drive.
WanderLiz 