Travel Tips & Adventures

If you think you have seen everything worth seeing at Yellowstone National Park, well, you haven’t!  We have one more major sight to share – the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Actually, there are two different falls that visitors can get fairly close to.  And we do mean close! – The sound of the water rushing is almost deafening at one location!

After you have visited the other locations we’ve told you about, it is definitely worth a ride to the Canyon Village area, which is in the vicinity of the Canyons and the falls (Upper and Lower).

The walks at each location are fairly short and you might have to jostle for position in some locations to get a good photo, but do take the time to see the falls! (more…)

Yellowstone, the first National Park in what later became a National Park System, is an incredible place to explore.  Sometimes, just driving can give you amazing views of the wildlife and natural wonders available.  The 2.2 million acres of Yellowstone are located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with some of its land spilling into Idaho and Montana.

Yellowstone National Park southern entrance

Getting there

Entering Yellowstone from the south via Grand Tetons (more on that park another week) we drove in on Route 89/191/297.  We had paid for a park pass at Grand Teton that was good for both parks for seven days.  ($25 in our case, an annual pass is $50)

In late May, as we headed past Lewis Lake, the water was still frozen and it was still cold outside, as evidenced by our need to use the car’s defroster.  According to the map, the road on which we entered was actually closed until mid-May.  Apparently, only the two east and one north entrances are open year round.

First stop: Old Faithful and more

Everyone has heard about Old Faithful, (more…)

And the travel winner is…

(Okay, we have not been blogging recently.  Our internet connection was very iffy, but now we seem to have resolved those issues.)

After reviewing travel options for our nine-day excursion, we have decided to choose -   ta da da da dah da!-

IDAHO!

Our choice of Idaho was for the following reasons:

1. We have never been there.
2. They sent us information very quickly – we like responsiveness!
3. We know images can be enhanced, but the stunning views of mountains and lakes were irresistible.
4. After living in the Arizona desert, an abundance of lakes, waterfalls and rivers will be a welcome change.
5. The scenic byways sound entrancing and the diversity of climates is always a great idea if you want to see a lot in very little time.
6. Boise sounds like our idea of a great city to visit.  A university town, that always seems to add something special to the life of a community.   “A vibrant downtown bordered by a 25-mile greenbelt and seven grand parks, line the city’s waterfront.” (Although there is a punctuation/grammatical error there, we get the point.)
7. My husband wants to get some golfing in.  Idaho has an abundance of that.
8. Towns with names like “Bliss,” “Eden” and “Cascade” are so evocative we can’t resist.
9. We once met a Coeur d’Alene resident who couldn’t say enough great things about the city.  We want to see Coeur d’Alene – scenery, culture and golf – sounds almost too good to be true!

10.  After looking randomly at the Idaho Web site, I was hooked! www.visitidaho.org

More to come as we refine our travel adventure!