Yellowstone National Park 2-Day Itinerary

Yellowstone National Park as the America’s first national park that is located in Wyoming. There’s two airports close to it which are the Bozeman Airport or the Jackson Hole Airport. You can also have a long drive from Salt Lake City, Utah or Rapid City, South Dakota. Here’s our Yellowstone National Park – 2-Day Itinerary.

The entrance fee is $35 per private vehicle valid for 7 days. We flew from Fresno to Bozeman Airport, and buy our ticket at the airport. Stayed in AirBnb in Bozeman to rest, and leave early the next day.

Day 1

From Bozeman, the closest spot is the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces. We filled our gas tank before going in the park, cause it’s cheaper. After an hour and 30mins drive we arrived in Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces. There’s a pathways and just choose whenever you want to start ? .

When we’re on our way on our car, we saw some deer, picture time, but of course, remember to have a distance of 25 yards from the animals, and 100 yards from bears wolves. We have long lens so we’re good. When ranges are around, they will warn the people to not get close to the animals, especially if they see one.

Time to head to Lamar Valley to see some Bison. You can choose or visit both Hayden and Lamar Valley. It’s in here where you can spot bison, elk, etc.

There’s one bison, that was pretty close to the car, and tried to take a picture of it, at the same time being careful too ? that’s why you can see the window, being rolled up ?

It’s past lunch time, but we decided to ate some snacks and head to The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. We got confused on where to go, just to see the over look view. We almost went down to the South part, then we went back and check the map. And go to North way instead, where we can find the Lookout point. We hike for like 15 mins to the Lookout point, just to find out that there’s a parking area to that area.

You can go down to see the falls in eye level. We went down to see the view from there. It’s a little bit tiring going back especially during summer, so don;t forget to bring your water. The walk is like, another 15-20 mins.

After all the hike and long walk, we decided to go to Canyon Lodge to check in and rest, and get something to eat. But the room is not yet ready, so we just went to the Canyon Lodge Eatery to check what’s in it, and had some Huckleberry Ice Cream. Since we have a dinner reservation in Canyon Lodge which is in M66 Grill Restaurant.

Day 2

It’s time to see the Geyser Basins. From Canyon Lodge, we left early again with only granola bars, snacks and water, with a hoodie cause it’s chilly in the morning. Checked out from the lodge and went to Norris Geyser Basin first.

So I just found out, that the geyser smells like a rotten egg because of the sulfur. Science huh.

Time to check the Lower Geyser Basin or the Fountain Paint Pot. We got a little confused, cause we were looking at Lower Geyser Basin in our offline map, and direct us in old faithful, so when we checked the map, we tried to check the Fountain Paint Pot, which is we think the Lower Geyser Basin.

And the Middle Geyser Basin or the Grand Prismatic Spring, the one that we’ve been waiting for to see. The queue to the parking can get too long, in the afternoon, so just be patient ? 

As usual, just follow the pathways, and you will be able to see the stunning color of the grand prismatic spring. The Yellowstone Super volcano last eruption was 631,000 years ago If it erupt, it will be a great disaster in for the continent of North America. But don’t worry, there’s no sign that it will erupt and there’s a low chance of eruption.

Now, time to see the top view of the Grand Prismatic Spring which is in Fairy Falls. But we got lost because our offline map, direct us to different direction. It felt wrong, cause there’s only 5 cars, and then we saw, it’s like an hour walk to Fairy Falls, so it was a trail head. We went back to Middle Geyser Basin, and slowly, we check where is the Fairy Falls, and then my boyfriend that time, saw there’s a lot of cars, not that far from Grand Prismatic, so we just follow and check the signs. And there it is the Fairy Falls, and so many cars too, we were just grateful we got a parking slot.

The walk to the Fairy Falls is like 15 mins or maybe 20 mins. But the view from the tops is just simply stunning. I can’t even stop taking pictures, cause I want to capture every angle. Not to mention, there’s also other people taking pictures. This is an unforgettable place to me, cause you’re just amaze with the view, and your then boyfriend decided to propose, and now he’s my fiance! I was caught of guard, and we even forgot to take a solo picture, oh well ?

I still can’t believe what happened, but we need to go to our next stop, which is the Biscuit Basin (now I’m not quite sure if this is the Upper Geyser Basin, I just assume or it might be the Old Faithful Geyser). The 3 Geyser Basins are pretty close to each other.

Time to head to our cabin which is the Old Faithful Lodge. But before that, we need to look, watch and wait for the Old Faithful Geyser to erupt. The Old Faithful reception always display when will be the next eruption, the timetable can change, but the range that it erupts daily is 17 times. You can see how much people are waiting around the Old Faithful, you can also watch it from the roof top of the Old Faithful Inn Dining Area.

We checked in our cabin, and went back to the Old Faithful Inn Dining Area to ask if we can have an early dinner instead of our reserved time. Thankfully, there’s still slot for 4:30 pm, since we haven’t eat any meal yet.

And that’s how we end our 2 days in Yellowstone. We still had enough time the next morning, so we head back again to the Fairy Falls, for another photo, but it rained yesterday, so it was really foggy the next morning until past 9:00 am.

We didn’t wait until the fog is gone, cause it’s like it’s not gonna clear until 11:00 am. So we left and head to Salt Lake City for our flight home the next day.