YELLOWSTONE

It’s almost a given that anyone with an American vacation bucket list has Yellowstone National Park in the top ten. I can enthusiastically say that it will not be a disappointment. We just finished a 14 night stay and it took all that time just to see the highlights. We didn’t even attempt any of the backcountry hikes. (There’s bears out there-big ones!)

For anyone planning a visit, I would encourage making reservations early for any of the campgrounds or lodges and boat tours of Yellowstone Lake. There are many options both inside and outside the park for lodging, many tour buses if you don’t want to drive and lots of other activities like rafting if you get tired of geysers. I would also encourage a lot of pre-planning and research. I had no idea how much driving would be required  to get from one feature to the next.

We stayed at Fishing Bridge Campground, the only full service campground in the park. It’s a good base for making the rounds of Yellowstone but there are no fire rings or picnic tables. The sites are only big enough for your camper and a vehicle and all are back-ins. It’s supposedly (we saw nary a one) in a high traffic area for bears, so only hard sided vehicles are allowed.