Staying Well While Visiting Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park is a truly magical place. The first national Park in the world, it’s like nothing else on earth. You can see the Earth transform in front of your eyes. You can see the clearest, bluest water you’ve ever seen in your life. You can see clay like structures in the Earth bubble. You can see bison cross the road, feet from your car. They might even eat the bugs off your car like one did to ours. You can watch pronghorns graze in the valleys. If you look close, you might even see a bald eagle in a tree. It is truly a once in a lifetime experience of the natural world you won’t want to miss.
It’s also a pretty unforgiving place, where everyone must take good care of themselves to stay healthy and safe. Here’s what I’ve learned.
Where to stay
To reduce the travel, and maximize your time in the park, you can stay in either West Yellowstone or Gardiner. The former put you close to old faithful and Grand Prismatic Springs while the latter put you close to Mammoth Springs and the Lamar Valley, where wildlife viewing is plentiful. West Yellowstone has limited amenities, Gardiner has much more though the food and drink options are less likely to be accommodating for those who need more specialized diets. These places are also likely to be more expensive for not great accommodations. Many folks stay in Bozeman, Livingston, pray, or Emigrant. Our favorite area to stay in is Pray With it, stunning views, and relative, approximate distance to Livingston, Bozeman and the park. We tend to stay in airbnbs because they give us a full kitchen which is great for healthy snacks, light cooking, a refrigerator for my medicine and a living room to stretch out in. Book the nicest place you can afford. You’ll appreciate coming back to restful accommodations at the end of a long day.
While these places offer Airbnb’s where you can cook, and a better selection of restaurants and cafés, they do mean driving at least 40 minutes if not an hour or more just to get to the park’s entrance. From there, you’re at least another half hour or more to the closest sites. On top of that, if you want to avoid big crowds or see animals, you are likely getting up at 5 or 6am. By the time you get home, the day can easily be 10 hours long. This can be very strenuous, especially for those with health issues.
Packing for the park
Given the long day, be sure to bring plenty of water and snacks. While there are food options in the park like Canyon Village and the Snow Lodge at Old Faithful, they will be expensive and the food may not be appropriate for those with specialized diets. When we go to Yellowstone, we take care of all of our food and drink needs before we enter the park. We bring our own water bottles, which can often be filled at rest areas or the restaurants and welcome centers The we also bring at least 1 gallon of water with us. We also stop by Whole Foods beforehand and pick up sandwiches, chips, and snacks like cheese, trail mix and midday squares so that we have enough fuel for all the walking and sightseeing. We just find a nice place to park and sit by the side of the road and eat our lunch while taking in the beauty. The time goes by fast with all of the driving and walking to see various sites, you’d be surprised at how hungry you will get. More than once we found ourselves squabbling only to realize that we haven’t eaten in five hours. Having food at the ready resolves the issue immediately. We stopped squabbling and have enough fuel to go to the next sight. If you have any kind of specialized food needs, definitely bring food with you into the park though I highly recommend everyone bringing plenty of water and some sort of snack at a minimum.
While you’ll be driving between big sites, there is a lot of walking to see the features. For example, to see the many geysers and spring around Old Faithful you’ll need to walk at least a mile or more. If you have limited mobility, you’ll want to plot out which sites are most important as well as the routes at each site as there are some that are much further away. For example, the artist paint pots are a half mile each way just to get to the trailhead and then likely another half mile around the trail. Not a lot of walking for an average person, but if you have less stamina, just be aware. You’ll also want to make sure you’re wearing very comfortable clothes, and sneakers or boots that you can walk in and also tromp around in wet or even snowy weather.
Staying safe
Seeing wildlife is one of the best parts about going to Yellowstone. It’s amazing how close you can get to them. However, be wise. The bison will cross the road quite suddenly. Make sure to give a very good distance, and if you are outside of your car when they begin crossing the road, get back in your car immediately. The park rangers told me that every year somebody gets tossed by a bison because they got too close. This past year when we were there, there were many foreign tourists who were standing within 30 feet of bison and their calves taking selfies with them. This is very dangerous for you and for the wildlife. If a mother bison is fearful for her calves safety, you can bet she will move to protect them. The best way to stay well in this situation, is to give the animals a wide berth and whenever they’re moving in close proximity, stay in your car. This is not an amusement park, this is a national park where wildlife are free to roam. Stay alert.
Also note that it is a mountainous region and whether is bound to change. One year we hit a fair amount of snow as we crossed the continental to divide. The next year it poured rain all day. Even if the weather in Livingston or Bozeman looks nice, be sure to bring a warm jacket, rain gear and good footwear. While a hat will keep the sun out, be careful for strong gusts of winds. The last time we visited grand prismatic springs, there was a park ranger crew who were there just to pick up hats off the hydrothermal mats. They go once a week and told us they find typically 20 or 30 hats. So hold onto your hat, and if it blows off, do not leave the boardwalk to go get it. The thermal fields are very fragile and dangerous. Also, if you get close to a geyer or springs, do not put your hands in the water as you may scald them. This past summer, there was an incident where a bison got too close to one of the hydrothermal mats, tripped, and fell in. The temperatures in these pools are so hot that in some of them no forms of life can survive. Again, this is not an amusement park, it is a wild and dangerous place if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Other ways I stay well in Montana
Even though visiting Montana and especially Yellowstone is one of the most strenuous trips we take, with a bit of planning, I’m able to stay well. One of the things we do is make sure to have an off day in between going to the park. During our most recent trip, we had an 18 hour travel day and then the next day we went immediately to the park. The day after that, we had a lazy day in Bozeman at our favorite café Treeline Coffee Roasters where we had yummy drinks and I even got to see a fantastic pottery show at an exhibition around the corner. This day allowed me to sleep in, fuel up and give my body a much-needed break. We also make reservations at restaurants where we know there will be food I can eat. This trip that was Blackbird in Bozeman, Yellowstone Valley Grill in Pray and Campione in Livingston. Montana has a fantastic art scene with many art galleries in both Livingston and Bozeman. One of my favorite galleries is Visions West which tends to specialize in animal art. The owner has curated an incredible collection. I know it may not seem like it, but art is so rejuvenating and good for the soul. It’s one of my favorite ways to stay well while I travel.
There are also several hot springs in the area. We went to the ones in pray. They’re fairly affordable, but not that relaxing. You may want to check out the ones in Bozeman, which seem like a much more serene setting. We didn’t have time to do it this trip, but we look forward to going there in the future. There’s something about Hot Springs that is just so rejuvenating for an aching body.
Knowing that my body will be strained by the end of the trip, we try to have our last day be as slow and rejuvenating as possible. This trip that meant a relaxing day at Treeline Coffee Roasters where we read and checked email. We stopped for a nice dinner in Bozeman before heading to our accomodations in Belgrade which is 10 minutes from the Bozeman Airport. Being this close was especially important given that we had a 6am flight and a four hour layover in Minneapolis. We also booked an airbnb where we were able to help take care of the horses and goats. As animal lovers this was the perfect way to end our stay in Montana.
