3 Days in Yellowstone National Park; How to Get The Most Out of Your Time in The Park!

I’m sure you’ve all heard about Yellowstone National Park; it was technically the first National Park way back in 1872. It’s also one of the largest parks with over 2 million acres of land to explore in so many different forms.

Yellowstone has more than half the Geysers in the world (500) that’s insane! Not included in that number, is 10,000+ hydrothermal areas such as springs, mudpots, and fumaroles.

No matter whether you love to hike, bike, drive, animal spot, or simply relax at a lake all day – Yellowstone has something for everyone!

I visited for my first time in June 0f 2023 and spent almost three days hiking all around the park and then again just a couple of weeks ago and explored what I didn’t get to see the first time around. There is still so much to see throughout. This itinerary starts from West Yellowstone, so adjust as needed to your plans!

Where is Yellowstone National Park?

Located mainly in Western Wyoming, with some of the park spilling into Southern Montana. Depending on where you’re coming from, there are a few different entrances and gateway towns into the park. Some nearby towns are:

West Yellowstone, MT – 1 mile from the West Entrance
Island Park, ID – 37 miles form the West Entrance
Jackson Hole, WY – 47 miles from the South Entrance
Cody, WY – 52 miles from East Entrance
Gardiner, MT – 1 mile from North Entrance

Getting Around Yellowstone

You can fly into quite a few smaller airports near Yellowstone, however you’ll want to get a rental car on your way in unless you’re booked with a hotel or company that is driving you through the park. That is the easiest way to get around, it is such a huge park as I mentioned above.

A couple of nearby airports you can fly into:

North Entrance: Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport
East Entrance: Yellowstone Regional Airport
South Entrance: Jackson Hole Airport
West Entrance: Idaho Falls Regional Airport

Gas Stations in Yellowstone

Since Yellowstone is such a huge park, driving through a lot of it can be challenging – something the NPS did was make sure every main section of the park has a small Sinclair pump or two. Along with convenient stores and gift shops.

Places to Stay

Day 1: Old Faithful Area & Gibbon Falls

Start your morning at Old Faithful and Upper Geyser Basin. The upper geyser basin loop is a 3.5 mile loop rated as easy. It’s mostly boardwalks and paved walkways. Old Faithful goes off about every hour to hour and a half plus or minus 10 minutes. Be sure to check the visitor center for the updated times day to day.
If you’re hungry after all that excitement or need a boost of energy, the Old Faithful Lodge Cafeteria has some coffee and small bakery and breakfast items!
After witnessing all of that, it’s time to take in some more of that sweet sulfur smell at the West Thumb Geyser Basin Trail. This is a one mile loop that has a boardwalk the whole way through and rated as easy. Recently part of this trail has been staying closed due to aggressive elk in the area. You can still see quite a few geysers and get just as good of an experience with some of it inaccessible.
Make your way back towards West Yellowstone and see one of the other show stoppers, Grand Prismatic Spring – an option to walk the lower boardwalk or hike the 1.5 mile overlook of the spring. I highly recommend doing both if you’re able to! Grand Prismatic is Yellowstone’s largest hot spring sitting 121 feet deep and 200-330 feet in diameter (how cool). It’s also the most colorful and the most photographed, in fact, you’ve probably seen a picture of it in a National Geographic book or throughout websites over the years. It is pretty dang neat.
One last stop for day one, heading back towards the Madison intersection, stop for a quick viewing of Gibbon Falls. The paved path is a short .5 of a mile to a good viewing platform and some information regarding the falls and how it came to be.
Once you’ve had your wildlife and hot springs fun, head back to West Yellowstone for some diner style dinner at Outpost Restaurant – It’s not the best spot in town, but you’ll find more solitude and some genuine hospitality from the folks working!

Day 2: Lamar Valley & Mammoth

Today is a day you definitely want to get an early start on, since this is the furthest away from West Yellowstone. Start by making the nearly 3 hour drive to the Lamar Valley. You will be absolutely blown away by the wildlife opportunities not only in the Lamar Valley, but on the way to it as well. You’ll find just about anything you want to see here; bears, pronghorn, badgers, wolves, long horn sheep, elk, and specifically bison. We seen over 1,200 bison near the Lamar Valley and if you’ve ever been to Yellowstone, you know right where I’m talking about. Remember to keep your respected distance from all of the wildlife you come across. Bring your binoculars and telephoto camera lenses to get the “up close” feel!
The Lamar Valley will take a lot of the first half of your day and you might even find enough wildlife to keep you there all day, but to see the most in a short few days, you’ll want to venture back towards Mammoth. Stop at Petrified Tree, an old Redwood tree trunk that has withstood the tests of time. They’re used to be a couple more sprinkled throughout the area, but they have slowly fallen due to weather over the years. The tree is behind a cage so nobody can damage it. This is a great stop to stretch the legs after all the driving.
Next up is one you do not want to miss, Mammoth Terraces, a 2.5 mile boardwalk and stairs (lots of stairs) to some of the most unique features in Yellowstone. Resembling somewhat of the structure inside of a cave, the hot water and carbon dioxide mixes together to create a carbonic acid – which over time, has dissolved calcium and formed travertine. Which is what we see on the top, the “terraces”. A super neat and very popular area, stopping on the way to the Lamar Valley can be a good idea for more solitude and softer lighting.
After hiking through the terraces, take a scenic one-way drive on Upper Terrace Drive where you’ll find more parking, terraces, and some that once might’ve had water flowing, but do not anymore.
Make your way back into West Yellowstone for some dinner at Taqueria Malverde, a quant little Mexican food place a little bit out of downtown, so you’ll have some more solitude.
Last stop of day 2 is at the Fountain Paint Pot Trail. This one could easily be squeezed into day 1 or earlier in day 2, but we wanted some sunset lighting, so we came back into the park around 7:30pm to enjoy the sunset and geysers with more solitude.

Day 3: Grand Canyon of Yellowstone & Hayden Valley

Start your morning off with grabbing some coffee and pastries from Mountain Mama’s Café before making your way to the park.
Make the drive to the Canyon Village and Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone where the scenery changes drastically, I guarantee you will say “wow” at least 50 times…
Start your time here by driving the North Rim Drive, where you can stop at the brink of the lower falls, grand view, and Inspiration Point.
After the North Rim Drive, head towards the Hayden Valley where you’ll find lots of elk and bison and if you’re lucky some other fun animals. We seen a huge bald eagle here.
Stop by the Sulphur Caldron real quick, it is one of the most acidic in the park and you can definitely tell by the odor.
Right around the corner from the Sulphur Caldron is the Mud Volcano area where you can hike around some bubbling and very smelly geysers and springs. You can go further than the .8 of a mile loop and see Churning caldron and Black Dragon’s caldron which are super neat as well!
After some short hiking, head down to the Fishing Bridge Area to check out the log built bridge, museum, and other fun activities.
To end your time in Yellowstone, stop by the Artists Paintpots Trail – a 1 mile round-trip trail with stunning views and loads of color! This trail starts off on a dirt path through the trees and eventually you come to an old burn area with geysers, springs, and paintpots mixed in! Part of the trail is a boardwalk and then it has a dirt trail with some stairs to go up to a viewing platform.
Feeling hungry after all that exploring? Treat yourself your last night to a bison burger from The Buffalo Bar. You will not be disappointed! And their Huckleberry (Spiked) lemonades are delicious.

Enjoy this Yellowstone National Park Itinerary? Pin it for future travels!

Let’s Get Adventuring!

Mariah

Mariah Adventures