24 Hours in Yellowstone National Park
Are you the type of person that likes to squeeze as much as possible out of a vacation? Or maybe you’re just passing through Wyoming on a road trip and have limited time to sightsee. If that sounds like you and you’re interested in seeing the best of Yellowstone National Park in 24 hours, read on!
Before I mislead you into thinking that we traversed all 2.2 million acres of Yellowstone, let me just say this: we absolutely did not do ALL or even MOST of Yellowstone in one day! While it isn’t the biggest national park, it is certainly expansive, so my friends and I knew we’d have to keep our sightseeing list very targeted and be open to pivoting our plans.
Despite only scraping the surface of this park, at the end of the day I felt compelled to document our itinerary because it truly seemed like our experience touched many of Yellowstone’s highlights.
Itinerary at a Glance
We stayed in Victor, Idaho at Teton Valley Resort and therefore, had a bit of a drive before getting to Yellowstone. That in mind, below is an overview of our day with a map linking to our sightseeing locales.
4:00am: Leave Teton Valley Resort with the goal of getting to Yellowstone for sunrise. From Victor to Yellowstone is a little over 2 hours.
7:00am: Arrive at the Grand Prismatic Spring, accounting for a few stops to hop out of the car and admire distant geysers and early morning bison sightings. With more than one photographer in our bunch, we spent a solid 2 hours here.
9:00am: Start the drive to Mammoth Hot Springs. On the way there, you’ll want to stop by Roaring Mountain. Trust me, you won’t miss it!
12:00pm: Arrive in Lamar Valley to hike and check out the nation’s oldest herd of bison.
6:00pm: On the way back through the park, stop by to see more geysers. This time, fighting the crowds was worth it because the springs were not foggy and you could see the vibrant colors.
7:15pm: Swing by Old Faithful, one of Yellowstone’s most iconic geysers. We didn’t plan to see it erupt but somehow got lucky!
8:00pm: Head out of the park to grab dinner in the nearby town of West Yellowstone.
And now, if you want to stick around for a visual journey of our day, read on!
Yellowstone at Sunrise
I’m not quite sure how we mustered the energy for two early morning wake-up calls in a row, but I guess when the motivation is there to see some epic things, your body somehow finds reserves.
My friends and I drove to Idaho from Colorado the day prior, starting our day at about 3:00am and knowing we wanted to do Yellowstone at sunrise the next day. But adventure beckoned and we left our tipi at Teton Valley Resort at about 4:00am.
We drove through the park as the early morning mist mingled with the steam rising from distant geysers and geothermal pools. The park, otherwise teeming with tourists, was completely still and silent. We saw our first buffalo grazing near Snake River and pulled over to watch the sky turn pink and purple as the sun rose.
Grand Prismatic Spring
I don’t like being a sucker for “touristy” things. I’ve seen countless photos of the vibrant blues and orange hues of this spring, which happens to be the largest hot spring in the United States, usually flanked by tourists all pushing ahead for photos. But, my friends convinced me that Grand Prismatic was an absolute must-see. To beat the crowds, we decided we’d try to get there as early as possible.
After parking at the Grand Prismatic Spring Parking Lot, you’ll cross over Firehole River Bridge and come upon this sight:
While I want to tell you this is the Fiery Waterfall of Magic, it’s just called the Midway Geyser Basin Runoff. It can be viewed from a short boardwalk that then takes you past all of the other geysers and springs. The entire area was shrouded in a hazy mist, made even more eerie by the fact that we were initially the only ones there. That being said...it was quite the experience seeing a hot thermal waterfall on a cold, quiet morning in Yellowstone.
There was both an upside and a downside to our arrival on a cold morning. The upside is that we got creative with our photography, getting shots like these:
The downside is that this is all we saw of the Grand Prismatic Spring:
As the morning warmed up and the mist cleared, we could see a bit of color peeking through — but at that point, the hoards of tourists had rolled in and it was time for us to bounce.
Roaring Mountain
Our ultimate destination was a hike in Lamar Valley, but there were a few pit stops we knew we’d make along the way. One of these was unplanned, but it was hard to miss: Roaring Mountain is located just off Park Loop Road and it was impossible to pass by without stopping.
While it doesn’t quite roar, it hisses. Fumaroles dapple this gray cliffside, which are little openings in or near a volcano that let out sulfurous gases. Here is where the cold morning air worked in our favor as it intensified the cloudy vapors that escaped the mountainside.
On the Road Again…AND THEN WE SAW A BEAR!
We hit the road again, our sights set out Mammoth Hot Springs as our next stop to hop out for some sightseeing.
We were about to cross a bridge over Yellowstone River when we noticed several parked cars, a group of people staring off the side of the bridge, and a few park rangers keeping watch. We learned quickly that when you see a scene like that in Yellowstone, YOU PULL OVER.
I began to really hype myself up, thinking I'm on the verge of witnessing something epic. I had never seen a bear before and was absolutely dying to spot one on this trip.
But as we got out of the car, I saw a few people heading back. A couple passed me and saw my eager expression, holding a camera lens bigger than my head, and told us that "there was a black bear, but he's already LONG gone." My heart sank.
But then I thought...you know what bears do? They move. And how can these people be so sure? So we walked a little bit along the bridge to see if he'd return.
And then something happened that made me SPRINT.
I saw a few heads turn in the direction of a patch of trees and bushes, waaaay on the other side of the bridge. I knew that if I'm going to spot anything, even with my zoom lens, that I HAVE to get a little closer. So I haul ass towards a safe spot to see the bear. And by safe, I mean literally behind the park ranger who had his bear spray out.
When I saw this little bear pop out of the bushes and run across the road, my heart just about stopped. Seeing an animal like that in its natural habitat, not behind a cage or any kind of protection, not knowing what they'll do as you cross into their territory, their home...it's just something indescribable.
Mammoth Hot Springs
After that exhilarating encounter which left me giddy for hours, we arrived at Mammoth Hot Springs. This part of the park had some of the most incredible textures of varying colors and shades. I saw it described online as an inside-out cave, and I can attest to the accuracy of that description!
The boardwalk near this beautiful little photo opp spot does get quite crowded and touristy, so we left to find a few picnic tables to eat our lunch. And on that note, I highly recommend bringing a packed lunch with you on a day like this so that no time is wasted on crowded restaurants.
Lamar Valley
After another hour of driving from Mammoth to Lamar Valley, we arrive at our hiking destination!
Chances are, at this point you will have passed by some wildlife but you are almost guaranteed to spot bison in this part of Yellowstone. These big guys just wander the valley in a huge herd, not seeming to pay the tourists any mind. Sometimes they decide to cross the road and cause a bit of a traffic jam, giving us major safari vibes.
Hiking in Lamar Valley, if I’m brutally honest, was not my favorite part of the day and for one main reason: the smoke. We were here in early September of 2021 and a big plume of wildfire smoke had settled into the region, creating a haze across the landscape, burning my eyes and making it generally unpleasant to breathe. You can tell a bit from the photos that there was dust all over my lens and low visibility.
That being said, there are so many trail systems in this area and it’s a prime spot for seeing wildlife and the vast beauty of Yellowstone. We hiked along the Lamar River Trailhead before the smoke and wind motivated us to turn around and head back to the car.
Hot Springs and Geysers: Round 2!
At this point, it was late afternoon and we still had a bit time left over — so we decided to swing back to see the colorful hot springs near Grand Prismatic that we didn’t think we’d have time to see earlier that morning.
We decided to stop by an area called Fountain Paint Pots, where we saw several intriguing, colorful geysers and springs — one of which looked like bubbling mud!
Old Faithful
You may be able to tell, but my travel companions and I are a spontaneous bunch, making decisions on the spot and going with the flow. I think we were all just happy to be there, in the great outdoors, enjoying each other’s company. We all lead busy lives, our days structured with work, so the goal of this trip was to explore but also relax. We knew that packing our days with activities that you absolutely MUST do can inadvertently lead to a stressful vacation, and on trips like these you never really know what you’ll actually feel like doing in the moment.
So it was slightly serendipitous that we arrived at Old Faithful at sunset, precisely five minutes before it erupted. A crowd of people sat around the viewing point and waited, some seemed to have been there for quite some time. In fact, Old Faithful erupts only about 20 times a day, with an average 60-110 minutes between eruptions. We felt awfully pleased that even with a day so loosely structured, sheer luck led us to see the eruption of the world’s most famous geyser — just in time.
The rest is a bit of a blur…
I’ll admit, after Old Faithful my brain began to shut down a bit. I vaguely recall passing a sign that said “You Are Now Entering Montana” and having a collective meltdown that we were accidentally driving north, towards Canada, and that we’d end up trying to cross the border without our passports before we realized we were going the wrong way. On our way back to Idaho, we stopped by a spot called Slippery Otter Pub and I tried my best to look alive as I ate a dinner of hot wings and soup at 10:00pm. There are no photos documenting this event.
Between the two hour drive back and my nighttime skincare routine (a CRUCIAL step), I would say we were in bed by 3:00am — turning this TRULY into a full 24 hours in Yellowstone!
Well, this is where our adventure ends! Have you ever been to Yellowstone? If yes, what highlights would you add that we missed on our trip?
