Yellowstone National Park is amazing for many, many reasons. Stellar cellular coverage, however, is not one of them. Add to that my refusal to purchase WIFI by the hour since it’s no longer 1993, and you go a few days without a blog update! Tonight, we’re at the Grouse Mountain Lodge in Whitefish, MT, and their free WIFI is excellent, so here goes.

As I said, Yellowstone was amazing. All of God’s creation is beautiful, but when it comes to Yellowstone, there is no question that He was just showing off. At every turn, there is another stunning view, and we did our best to enjoy them all. Perhaps the only thing that even rivals the beauty of Yellowstone in terms of being awe-inspiring is the capacity of a pre-teen girl to act as if she is completely unimpressed. We love her anyway, however.

We stayed in the park for a total of three nights, two at the Lake Lodge cabins and one at the Snow Lodge by Old Faithful. Whichever inside-the-park accommodations you choose will likely be fine, just be sure to choose something inside the park. On our way out today, we saw lines of traffic full of people who had stayed outside the park trying to get inside. The park is huge, maximize your time by staying in the park and taking in its beauty rather than spending hours staring at the back of the car in front of you.

Over the three days we were in the park, we took almost all of it in, at least everything you can reach by car. We didn’t hike specifically, but we did take in all of the “boardwalk” points of interest. Besides all of that, we had time to take in a couple of night wildlife drives as well as an evening guided fishing trip. Someone who wanted more hiking time could easily spend 5 or more days in the park and not grow bored by all it has to offer. That is, unless, nature’s stunning beauty bores you like a pre-teen girl!

A visit to take in Yellowstone should be a bucket list item, no matter who you are. Here are some of my favorite pics!

Excelsior Geyser Crater near Grand Prismatic

Old Faithful erupting during sunset

Grand Prismatic at Middle Geyser Basin – The parking here is a zoo, but very worth it!

Firehole Lake – Part of a two mile scenic loop that includes several geysers, two that erupted while we were there!

Josh had the only catch during our fishing trip, a 20″ Cutthroat Trout. This the lake’s native fish so they are catch and release only. The trip was A LOT of fun, even if the fish were a little slow to bite.

The lower (taller) falls at Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon. This was taken from Artist’s Point, which is aptly named. If I could paint, you might have found me there.

Sunset over the Yellowstone River

Phelps Lake

Lewis Falls

Bear fresh out of the Yellowstone River