Up until this
past weekend I had a deep, dark, dirty secret. Something to really be ashamed
of… I am a 5th generation Montanan, and spent the last ten years
living in Wyoming… and I had never been to Yellowstone. That’s right. Never. I
know, I know – you are all reading this, with gaping wide open mouths, trying
to regain your balance, asking “WHY? HOW does this happen?! Some travel agent!”
To be fair to my parents – when I was younger my mom and dad managed the
Frontier Town restaurant, and were handcuffed to the job. In the winter months
when Frontier Town was closed, we took off to seek out warm weather in Mexico
and Hawaii - which is where most of my travel background is. We moved home to
the treasure state in August 2012, and I am really just now getting to explore
my own backyard. So, although I had seen many beautiful pictures of our
country’s first national park, nothing would prepare me for what it was really
like! 
I planned this trip almost a year out, as I wanted to make
sure we could stay in The Old Faithful Inn. The Inn features a multi-story log
lobby, flanked by long frame wings containing guest rooms. With its spectacular
log and limb lobby and massive (500-ton, 85-foot) stone fireplace, the inn is a
prime example of the "Golden Age" of rustic resort architecture, a
style which is also known as “National Park Service Rustic”. It is also unique
in that it is one of the few log hotels still standing in the United States. It
was the first of the great park lodges of the American west. Initial
construction was carried out over the winter of 1903-1904, largely using
locally-obtained materials including lodgepole pine and rhyolite stone. When
the Old Faithful Inn first opened in the spring of 1904, it boasted electric
lights and steam heat.
The structure is the largest log hotel in the world;
possibly even the largest log building in the world. In 2007 the American
Institute of Architects conducted a survey to determine the 150 favorite
buildings in America; the Old Faithful Inn ranked 36. The Inn, which was
designated a National
Historic Landmark in 1987, is itself part of the Old
Faithful Historic District. Old Faithful Inn is a member of Historic Hotels of
America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
I chose for us to stay in the historic wing, as I wanted the true experience.
The rooms were modest, with only wash basins. A community bathroom was located
at the end of the hallway.
I planned for a spring trip because I was hoping for mild
weather, less crowds, tons of wildflowers and lots of baby animals. Less than
three miles into the park we hit a buffalo traffic jam, with hundreds of
buffalo backing up cars, and campers miles down the road. I loved seeing all of
the baby calves being nudged and ushered by their mom or dad to move quicker.
We also saw a couple of big horned sheep, deer and elk. One of my favorite
animal sightings was watching a brand new baby elk learning how to walk. Although
there were some bear sightings, we were too late to each gathering to catch a
glimpse of one. 
My favorite part of the park was all of the geysers, hot
springs, fumaroles and mudpots! It seemed like everywhere you looked there was
something bubbling up, spouting off, or steaming up the atmosphere. Yellowstone
is home to some 10,000 thermal features, over 500 hundred of which are geysers,
Old Faithful being one of the most famous and iconic, erupting every
90+minutes.
We loved sitting on The Old Faithful Inn’s deck, drinking a cocktail
and watching it blow it’s top. Yellowstone Lake was beautiful. The water was
completely still, and a perfect mirror reflection of the cotton ball clouds
overhead. It was gorgeous. Yellowstone
I planned for a spring trip because I was hoping for mild
weather, less crowds, tons of wildflowers and lots of baby animals. Less than
three miles into the park we hit a buffalo traffic jam, with hundreds of
buffalo backing up cars, and campers miles down the road. I loved seeing all of
the baby calves being nudged and ushered by their mom or dad to move quicker.
We also saw a couple of big horned sheep, deer and elk. One of my favorite
animal sightings was watching a brand new baby elk learning how to walk. Although
there were some bear sightings, we were too late to each gathering to catch a
glimpse of one. My favorite part of the park was all of the geysers, hot
springs, fumaroles and mudpots! It seemed like everywhere you looked there was
something bubbling up, spouting off, or steaming up the atmosphere. Yellowstone
is home to some 10,000 thermal features, over 500 hundred of which are geysers,
Old Faithful being one of the most famous and iconic, erupting every
90+minutes. We loved sitting on The Old Faithful Inn’s deck, drinking a cocktail
and watching it blow it’s top. Yellowstone Lake was beautiful. The water was
completely still, and a perfect mirror reflection of the cotton ball clouds
overhead. It was gorgeous. Yellowstone
Falls is such a famous waterfall, it has
been photographed and painted a hundred million times. But, nothing really
prepared me for the magnitude of the canyon and the power of all of that water.
Absolutely awe inspiring. It was a fundamentally educational experience for me,
with memories to last a lifetime with my family. I’ll be back much sooner than
later!
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