Yellowstone

On This Route

Yellowstone comes in July, after Glacier. Every road is normally open, and every lot is full by mid-morning. The park is huge: the Grand Loop is a 142-mile figure eight, and two nights won’t cover it. Pick a side and accept it.

Plan the Day

From a base at Canyon Village, near the middle of the loop:

• Sunrise: Hayden Valley, 15 minutes south. Bison herds, often in the road. Stay in the car.
• Morning: Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Artist Point and the Brink of the Lower Falls, a 308-foot drop.
• Midday: south and west to the geyser basins. Grand Prismatic Spring, then Old Faithful, which erupts roughly every 60 to 110 minutes. The park predicts the next eruption, so check it before you sit and wait.
• Optional dawn trip: Lamar Valley, about an hour north over Dunraven Pass. It’s the best wolf and bear watching in the Lower 48.

Rules That Catch People

There’s no timed entry. Road construction moves around every summer, so check the park roads page the night before. Keep at least 25 yards from bison and elk and 100 yards from bears and wolves.

Yellowstone is one of 11 parks with a $100 per-person surcharge for visitors who aren’t U.S. residents in 2026.

Where to Stay

Canyon Lodge is in the park and central, so it saves an hour or more of driving a day compared with the gateway towns. It books up 13 months out. The fallback is West Yellowstone: more rooms, but a long way from Canyon.