Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park

Jackson Hole is the perfect home base to visit an outdoor treasure – Yellowstone National Park. We teamed up with BrushBuck Wildlife Tours for a day of excitement. 

Tour guide Daniel arrived at our hotel doorstep at 6am as we joined the rest of our team in the BrushBuck van to begin what was to be a day to remember. We had booked their Yellowstone “Old Faithful, Waterfalls and Wildlife” excursion – twelve hours of outdoor fun that included stops to see Old Faithful geyser, Yellowstone Lake, the Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, a vast array of park wildlife, and even grab a little lunch. 

We headed north and were immediately rewarded with stunning vistas as the morning sun rose over the mountain peaks. Daniel hopped out and set up his high-end scope – a tool that would be put to excellent use in the coming hours – and we immediately zeroed in on a landscape that included huge wild moose and graceful native elk in their natural habitat. 

Yellowstone National Park’s South Gate is a leisurely two-hour ride from Jackson, so we hopped back onto the tour bus and settled in for a scenic trip. Daniel spent much of his time pointing out native animals, often pulling over so we could get up-close views of majestic bison, pronghorn sheep, mule deer, and more. Daniel’s years as a tour guide have keenly honed his vision and awareness – he spotted animals on the far horizon regularly and eased our bus in those directions to facilitate up-close viewing.  (Continue reading below photos). 

While the fauna of the area is stunningly beautiful, much of the richness of our Yellowstone experience came from being wrapped in its scenic beauty. The park covers almost 3,500 square miles, making it larger than the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. It is home to over 500 active geysers, as well as thousands of hot springs, many of which can be seen bubbling and steaming from the roadside.

Natural geothermal springs such as Sapphire Pool, Emerald Pool, and Grand Prismatic Spring reflected incredible colors from their amazing depths as we traversed wooden walkways that wove through the steamy landscape. The contrast between the stark flat pools and the vibrant colors that they mirrored was stunning to behold. 

The park is also home to over 250 waterfalls, many located on the winding Yellowstone River. At a height of 308 feet, the Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is the tallest in the park, as high as the great Niagara back east. 

No visit to Yellowstone would be complete without viewing the greatest attraction of them all – Old Faithful. This world-famous geyser is one of the few that erupts on an incredibly dependable timetable. Folks gather about every 90 minutes at the Old Faithful Visitor and Education Center, where rows of benches circle one side of the geyser’s vent hole. There is a sign in the Center that predicts the time of the next eruption. During our visit, it erupted within two minutes of this prediction, shooting about 5,000 gallons of water more than 150 feet in the air. It was breathtaking to see this take place in person after hearing about it since we were children. 

As we headed back to Jackson Hole, Daniel had one more surprise for us. His team had spotted a wild grizzly mama bear and her three cubs in a meadow just off a side road. We pulled up at a safe distance and watched for an hour as the bears played and tumbled, oblivious to our curiosity.

We returned to the hotel after sundown, reflecting on the amazing journey that BrushBuck Wildlife Tours had taken us on, making memories and plans to return. 

BrushBuck Wildlife Tours specializes in excursions in Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Alaska, Africa, and more. 

www.BrushBuckTours.com 

1-307-200-2355