Thank you!

Did you fly into the area? Or drive?

akaggie said:

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Thank you!

Did you fly into the area? Or drive?

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We live in Denver and drove. My parents were road tripping in their class C from Houston, and they were there as well. They rented a highlander so we could all 6 fit in one vehicle as I have a truck with center console.

Def. do NOT have more than 1 car for your party, it would make it very difficult to do things together.

62strat said:

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Day 3 we went up to tower falls, then drove through lamar valley, turned around, went on north loop over to mammoth springs, then back home. We wished we skipped lamar valley and spent more time in mammoth springs area.

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Is that based on how far it is to drive from West Yellowstone to Lamar Valley?

To me, Mammoth is the ghost town of thermal features while Lamar is the wildlife jewel of the park.

To me, Lamar Valley is ground zero for Yellowstone.

We hired a wildlife guide that took us out to Lamar Valley. It was some of the best money I've ever spent. Spotting scopes, Bino's, lunch, and all the knowledge. We also went to a few other spots to see Peregrine falcons, coyote pup dens, and bears. It was the highlight of the trip.

62strat said:

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akaggie said:

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Thank you!

Did you fly into the area? Or drive?

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We live in Denver and drove. My parents were road tripping in their class C from Houston, and they were there as well. They rented a highlander so we could all 6 fit in one vehicle as I have a truck with center console.

Def. do NOT have more than 1 car for your party, it would make it very difficult to do things together.

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We live in Houston, so I'm thinking we would fly to Denver and rent a car.

We just got back a week ago and did the same...it was amazing. I just haven't gotten around to putting together a picture post for it....but here are a few I have on my phone.

Lone wolf took down bison yearling at the confulence of Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek....adult bison scared it off....yearling got up and stumbled off about an hour later

I thought the canyon was the heart of it. The beauty there blew away anywhere else. I guess I'm a sucker for canyons, waterfalls and rivers. I wish we spent an entire day in that area.




Lamar Valley was great don't get me wrong, but we didn't stop and get out due to time constraints, and while seeing herds of buffalo along a river is very majestic, we had seen so many buffalo at that point, including one arms length outside our vehicle, it just didn't have the wow factor as it should have.Also, we went looking for bears, and saw none, so that negatively impacted our opinion of the area when maybe it shouldn't have.

Then we circle back home through mammoth springs, and while we told ourselves, you seen one geyser/spring you've seen them all, mammoth proved us wrong and we were surprised at how the area just seemed like yet another unique area of the park.
We got out twice, very quickly, but wished we had more time to check it out.

You may want to consider Salt Lake City as well or Idaho Springs. If you haven't secured lodging, you should get on that, this will define your in park itinerary.

That's incredible. That one was a lot closer than the wolves we saw. Ours had taken down a bison the day before and we're finishing off the carcass when we showed up. Pretty awesome stuff.

akaggie said:

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62strat said:

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akaggie said:

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Thank you!

Did you fly into the area? Or drive?

---

We live in Denver and drove. My parents were road tripping in their class C from Houston, and they were there as well. They rented a highlander so we could all 6 fit in one vehicle as I have a truck with center console.

Def. do NOT have more than 1 car for your party, it would make it very difficult to do things together.

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We live in Houston, so I'm thinking we would fly to Denver and rent a car.

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It's ~12 hour drive to west yellowstone, maybe 10 and change if you're booking it.
This also cna vary a lot with Denver traffic. I25 north can be backed up a lot all the way to wyoming because it's been in expansion mode for many years now.

Check WYS airport; I was surprised at how cheap it was from Denver.. tons of flights for like $100 and change.

You'll spend $300 in gas round trip, plus the rental for those two days, so you're looking at ~$400+ off the bat. that you could take off flights to compare apples to apples.

BQ2001 said:

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I loved Black Canyon of the Gunnison and I've only scratched the surface of it. The night skies are amazing there.

Rocky Mountain NP is up there too but it can get crowded. Good mix of views and lots of wildlife

Volcano NP was nice as well. Nothing like you can really see on the mainland.

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I do love me some Black Canyon. It may be my favorite national park.

https://npf-prod.imgix.net/uploads/shutterstock_176085914.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=80&w=1600
Canyonlands National Park

Not in the top 10 by visitor count but is a hidden gem in Utah.

I've also recently been to South Korea and wandered to 2 stunning parks.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ffb58cdd7c44740fac40fc0/4741880f-cbe6-41e3-823c-e69fc83f72c6/Ulsanbawi+Rock+-+Seoraksan+National+Park+-+South+Korea.jpg?format=500w
Seoraksan National Park in South Korea is a truly beautiful and picturesque destination.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/dd/3d/90/dd3d900d4c49ffd91f2f55fca81783f6.jpg
Jirisan National Park is another breathtaking natural gem in South Korea.

[Oops, the pictures are not showing. Please click on the image links so you can see the images]

There are still many other National Parks to visit in South Korea. Hope I could go back one day. Anyway, if you're considering a guide to set your plans, may it be National Parks or other areas in SK, this might help you https://gowithguide.com/korea

Just spent 4 nights in Colter Bay Campground inside GTNP. Great time except for the rain. Not sure I've seen that much consistent rain outside of a tropical storm. Still did the Jenny Lake hike though. Took until today to be able to see the tops of the Tetons. Definitely will be going back.

Where'd y'all spot the moose? That's one thing my wife wanted to see , but didn't this time.

That moose we saw on Wilson Road on the way to Phelps Lake in GTNP.

Rain was brutal the last few days of our trip, same as yours. Just an all day rain soaking everything under cover or not.

Congrats....enjoy Glacier, its one of my favorite places on earth!

We're in a similar boat but I'm not at a point in my career where I can do that yet but we have already bought our spot in the mountains for when that day comes....I'm gonna hike the heck out of Rocky Mountain NP

I think we saw that Osprey nest, as well. Firehole Canyon?

That's the spot!!

Heading to Olympic on Friday.

Enjoy!

It's probably one of the most diverse parks

Rocky Top Aggie said:

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I love Mammoth Cave NP. If you've never been I encourage you to visit.

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Plan a trip to Carlsbad Caverns. You'll love it. The scale is amazing. Guadalupe Mountains and White Sands NPs are close also.

Headed to Miami for the game and staying a few extra days. Have Dry Tortuga trip booked.

Any recommendations for Everglades and Biscayne?

In the Everglades do an airboat tour.....we did a private one that took us further out and it was pretty awesome.

Also hike the Anhinga Trail (it's a path/walkway)....TONS of gators.

And go all the way down to the marina at Flamingo. We saw crocodiles at the inlet and manatees in the marina (this was around New Years so the water temps may not be the same).


Key Biscane is beautiful.....but almost entirely water. We took a boat ride out to a small key with a lighthouse. Great pictures but an eh experience. I'm sure the snorkeling and scuba here is good but thats not my family's thing.

The Anhinga trail is pretty awesome. Especially during dry season when all the gators congregate there. In April we saw about 25 gators. We went in June (rainy season) and only saw one. Technically it's still rainy season right now but if you want to see gators, this is the place. There's a boat tour down at Flamingo that is worthwhile, too. They'll point out the crocodiles. I think those are year round. We've always seen them.

We like the airboats on the north side of the park better, as it's more out of the way of civilization. Do private if you can. It's longer and you go deeper into the Everglades than the regular tours.

As far as Biscayne, we enjoyed the snorkeling. It's no Caribbean, but it was fun. There's a shipwreck snorkel we were scheduled to do but some weather came in and it got cancelled. Those book up early.

One other thing we did was a morning of deep sea fishing just about a mile off the coast of North Miami Beach. We caught a ton of good fish (but gave them all to the crew since we didn't have a cooler to fly back with)

Here is some add'tl info on the Florida parks....enjoy!

https://npsfamilytravel.com/category/florida-national-parks/

I don't know what I was expecting, but I was suprised at how beautiful it was