15 ways to escape the crowds in Yellowstone!

hey everyone my name is matt with we're in the rockies and i just returned from spending two full days in yellowstone national park after the floods of 2022. i visited by myself and did a ton of things including hiking biking geyser gazing getting stuck in bison jams and more some of the things they did were far off the beaten path so if you want to get away from the crowds check out some of these underrated things to do in yellowstone national park so to get this video started we're gonna go to madison valley on the west side of yellowstone this is the madison river here right beside me it's a very underrated little valley here now you drive through this if you come in through the west yellowstone gate but for those of you that don't come in through the west yellowstone gate a lot of people don't think about it but just about every time i come through here i see wildlife i see elk coyotes buffalo this is a wonderful little valley that's quite underrated now this little river here the madison river actually flows out of the park into the missouri river it actually helps start the missouri river there's three rivers a little place called three forks montana is where the missouri river begins this one flows into it named after president james madison it was named by lewis and clark as they came out west the madison river begins right here in yellowstone at madison campground and it's just a lovely river a beautiful little valley not to be confused with madison canyon which is outside of the park at hebgen lake and was the site of the 1959 yellowstone earthquake okay the next thing to do is to visit lower geyser basin so lower geyser basin is really cool in yellowstone because you can see all four types of geothermal activity here or geyser activity so there's steam vents there's mud pots there's gorgeous blue hot springs and then there's geysers and the cool thing about this is you're guaranteed to see a geyser go off you know why because this is called seizure geyser and it never stops erupting it started in 1959 during that yellowstone earthquake of 1959 and it has not stopped erupting since which is insane very fun and a really really cool scenic place to walk around don't forget about lower geyser basin okay the next thing to do is to ride a bike yellowstone's not really known to the biking park but i have found a lot of joy recently in bringing our bikes to the park there are plenty of areas kind of short little trails where you can ride on the bike including around here at the upper geyser basin let's hope i don't fall over while i'm doing this at the upper geyser basin there is a road like a paved track here that goes out to the end of the basin where you can see morning glory pool and it's a great way to get around and see some of the geysers here remember that there are more geysers here at the upper geyser basin than just old faithful there's plenty erupting as you're walking around you'll see them going off all over the place so bike is pretty fun way to get around pretty quickly and by the way you can rent these at the old faithful lodge while you're here in the upper geyser basin and that would be a great little family activity okay the next thing to do is to visit kepler cascades this is one of many waterfalls located on the grand loop road super easy to get to yellowstone is full of waterfalls like this easy to check out if you know how to fit them into your schedule okay the next thing to do is to watch lone star geyser erupt this is about a five mile round trip hike to get here which means it's very secluded there's only a few people here watching this it erupts every three hours so you don't really have to wait that long to see an eruption and the bonus is you can ride your bike out here which is what i did it is a pretty ride it's a pretty geyser it's pretty fun to be out here with just a few people watching this thing go off okay the next thing to do is to stop and see the continental divide here so what this is is any water that falls on one side of this line will go to the pacific ocean empties out the pacific ocean any water that falls on the other side of this line will make its way to the missouri river to the mississippi river and out to the atlantic ocean so the rocky mountains are like the rooftop of the country what's really weird about this is the continental divide actually intersects the lower loop road twice and that's because it kind of squiggles around a little bit the other strange thing about this is nearby there is a river called two ocean river the river actually divides into two one will end up going to the pacific one end up going to the atlantic so they call the two ocean rivers crazy it's just a little roadside stop here it's really nothing much but you can say you've been to the rooftop of america okay the next thing to do is to visit west thumb geyser basin this is located right along the shore of lake yellowstone and for that reason it's a very popular geyser basin to visit it has some really deep beautiful blue hot springs and then you get to walk right along the edge of the lake and some of the geysers are actually in the lake which is kind of cool you get some good views of the mountains across the lake really wonderful little geyser basin and if you really want to get away from the crowds consider two hikes near west thumb one which leads through some meadows to an overlook of yellowstone lake and another densely wooded hike ending in duck lake just make sure to bring bear spray if you do either of these hikes okay so the next thing is to camp in yellowstone there are i think 12 campgrounds in yellowstone and i have done a whole video on what you need to know about camping in yellowstone as well as an article with all the detailed information so make sure to check that out in the description but i wanted to show you i camped here last night at bridge bay campground and check it out we've got a couple of bison actually there's a couple of them just roaming around the campground this is yellowstone for you okay up next is natural bridge so this is not one of the main attractions in yellowstone this is a nice chance for me to go around and explore some of the off the beaten path attractions in yellowstone so you know my thoughts about this are first of all the hike is very easy to get here it's flat and paved and it's short it's located by lake yellowstone so right after this i'm gonna go on a boat ride on lake yellowstone and then i'm kind of amazed we always say yellowstone is like many parks in one yellowstone kind of has everything yellowstone even has arches so that's pretty cool it's not a huge attraction but one of the fun things is you get to walk up on top of the arch and it's got a nice little waterfall and stream coming through it so natural bridge is another thing to put on your list oh and another thing i forgot to mention is that you can also bike here to this bridge so that's what i did to cut off some of that hiking time okay the next thing to do is a boat ride on yellowstone lake so i am here at bridge bay marina this is the main marina and there are a number of different options that you can do here you can rent your own boat and take it out there you can bring your own boat take it out there you get kayaks and and go around the bay here yellowstone lake is considered like the the largest high elevation lake in the nation and it is huge it's 20 miles long 14 miles wide it's pretty rough waters it's not a place you want to go swim in necessarily but but going out boating and fishing and all that is popular what i did was a scenic cruise it's a one hour cruise they take you out to stevenson island they take you around lake uh hotel and lake lodge and they tell you all the stories about it they'll tell you stories about the insane mr ec waters who ran the early boat tours here and actually was banned from the park for bad behavior this is back in the 1800s and early 1900s and he built a massive ship that he after he got banned it was just stranded out there at stevenson island it ended up getting shipwrecked and crashed on the shore of the island so you can actually see the wreckage there the great way to see yellowstone lake which is one of the main attractions in yellowstone but a little hard to actually experience it except just from the coast unless you do a boat ride okay so the next thing to do is to visit the lake area so there is kind of a little village along the edge of yellowstone lake and there's quite a bit going on here so there's lake yellowstone hotel which is a yellow building that's quite elegant it was built in the early 1900s it does have some little yellow cabins out back as well that you can stay but it's got fine dining and kind of upscale hotel although keep in mind in yellowstone everything is rustic so there's no tvs no air conditioning at any of these hotels they are pretty rustic no internet so you're kind of off the grid that's the point of it here now i am sitting at the lake lodge so this is a more rustic approach and this is also in the lake area again food lodging and cabins here then they have a little general store where you can get something to eat as well i got nachos and an ice cream so if you'd like take a little time to walk around the edge of the lake here and sit in some chairs and just enjoy some really nice views [Music] up next is the hardy rapids again not a main stop in yellowstone but kind of a cool thing to do what's really cool about this is there are yellowstone cutthroat trout this is a native species here and then what they do is they migrate upstream so here you can see them leaping out of the water as they're traveling upstream now cutthroat trout and yellowstone's the whole story in and of itself there are non-native species that are kind of damaging the yellowstone cut throughout trout and they are working on improving that and getting rid of the non-native species and restoring the cutthroat trout here this a pretty cool place to see them plus off in the distance you can't really see it in this video here but there are some harlequin ducks here so a pretty cool place to come and see some fowl and some fish okay the next thing to do is to visit mud volcano this is another geyser area one of the few that are on the east side yeah this one's a little sort of maybe underrated a little bit or maybe not as popular and that's because most of these as the name implies are kind of mud pots boiling mud pots this thing is crazy though this is churning cauldron behind me look this is just like a boiling just a boiling mud pit here so this area is really stinky okay it smells like rotten eggs all over the place here the early explorers were quite fascinated with the mud pods most people today tend to like the beautiful blue deep hot springs over these but the other thing you can see here is dragon's mouth which is a steam vent and there's a very nice beautiful loop that you can go for a walk on here um if you take a little bit of time and give them a chance i think you'll kind of like some of these mud volcanoes okay the next thing to do is a horseback ride so in yellowstone national park there is a concessionaire zanterra that operates horseback rides they do it from two different places roosevelt and canyon just a little bit about the horseback rides real quickly i did the one hour ride it does take you through some really beautiful meadows and some overlooks looking at some panoramic overlooks now if you come to yellowstone expecting to see beautiful mountain scenery on something like this probably be a little disappointed that's because most of the mountains were actually blown away by that volcano that volcanic eruption 650 000 years ago or something like that so you don't tend to get that if you want that you go down to grand teton national park that's probably the more famous and better spot to do some horseback riding but i will say this was really nice yellowstone you get more beautiful meadows and greenery and stuff like that it really was a pretty ride this is also a ride for beginners so they do the what they call nose-to-tail writing that means you're all in a line and they read us a list of rules about the length of my arm before we left so it is very controlled it's very much for beginners if you want something a little bit more uh maybe intense or a little bit more maybe exciting then there are plenty of options around yellowstone and there are also a number of concessionaires their base of operations is outside of yellowstone but they're but they do right within you so they're not quite as regulated by the park system as this company is okay the next thing to do is to see mount haynes right here this is in madison valley i stopped here to see mount haines but right there in those trees is a black bear right now which is such a cool coincidence real quick about mount haynes this is named after an early park photographer named frank j haynes who looked like ron swanson on parks and rec and was a super cool guy and he made one of the very first guides to yellowstone national park which means a lot to me because when i made my guide for yellowstone i designed it after the haynes guide of the late 1800s early 1900s so stop and say hi to frank j haynes for me at mount haines here very cool mountain peak named after this very cool guy if you are thinking about visiting in 2022 my verdict is you still should do it there's so much to do you're gonna have a great time thank you so much for watching until next time go west young traveler [Music]

Channel: We're in the Rockies

Views: 34,420

Keywords: Yellowstone, Avoiding crowds in Yellowstone, yellowstone hidden gems

Id: z1XPHhl2Rag

Length: 14min 21sec (861 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 24 2022