Yippee-ki-yayRV: Yellowstone Arrival and Day1

After two days in Helena MT to get provisions and RV maintenance, we headed to Yellowstone. We arrived on Sunday, August 19th. We entered at the North Entrance of Yellowstone at the Roosevelt Arch and had to drive approximately 55 miles to our campground at Fishing Bridge. The park is enormous and we were experiencing culture shock! We aren't in Glacier anymore! Visitors and buffalo were everywhere in Yellowstone (especially Hayden Valley). I was not expecting traffic jams in the park but that is exactly how we found ourselves upon arrival!

Blocked traffic to get this bad boy!

I believe Yellowstone is 2.2 million acres and has 310 miles of paved roadways. On average, we drove 100 miles/day to see different features throughout the park. If you ever visit the park, please be alert when driving! We waited a couple of hours on one roadway because of a head on collision ahead of us since there are no alternate roads. We saw numerous accidents including a car in a tree next to a river bed. When traffic slowed and stopped we were looking for wildlife and saw the car in tree!

Not how you want to spend vacation!

Haze and wildfire smoke clouded the views at Yellowstone. The only day we didn't have haze/smoke was our last day. The pictures reflect our experience!

We spent a majority of our time visiting all the geological features of the park. The first full day we went to see the Upper Geyser Basin. The Upper Geyser Basin includes Old Faithful. We saw numerous pools, geysers and springs. Based on ranger predictions we were able to see several geysers erupt during our visit to the Upper Geyser Basin (Old Faithful, Daisy and Riverside)!