Hello everyoneOffboard faggot here, I'm going to montana in October of this year. Gonna be staying in redlodge, which is an hour away from yellowstoneAnyone have advice about the best spots to visit? It's a huge park and while it won't be the only thing I'll visit, Im definitely going to try to spend maybe 3 or 4 days there. I'm going for 7 in total. I'd also appreciate any suggestions for other things to do in southern montana, mostly, but I am open to seeing parts of wyoming, tooI'd like to be able to see some kind of big lake and go on a boat or something. Hotsprings would be cool. I assume there are atleast some spots as it's a le supervolcanoSome things I've looked up already are>bear tooth senic drive>a couple trails around red lodge>a senic dinner train I couldn't get tickets for :(>a zoo in billings to be able to see all the yellowstone animals in a more controlled and safer settingAny suggestions and advice would be appreciated!
>>2876588I've never been to Yellowstone that late in the season but I know they keep the north valley plowed all winter and I would assume they keep the road south to old faithful plowed pretty late. There's tons of geysers on that road, and also I think the falls lookou is on that road. That's 75% of the must sees. Yellowstone lake will probably be open but that's farther down south. The one big touristy "mountain" hike will probably be snowed in by then. The real fun stuff in Yellowstone is the back country stuff so check with your bougie resort if they do horse trips.
>>2876588Beartooth Highway usually closes around mid October. Meaning you'll be driving much further than you think from Red Lodge to get to the park.
October is a great time as long as the roads stay open since crowds are a fraction of what they are in summer. Try to see other predictable geysers besides Old Faithful, most of them are way better but you might have to wait a few hours. Grand Geyser is probably the best bang for your buck, fairly reliable and super impressive. Imperial Geyser is a nice hike, takes you past the super popular Grand Prismatic overlook and Fairy Falls, but very few continue to the pretty geyser and pool. Lone Star geyser is cool. Can't go wrong with the usual hotspots, Yellowstone Falls, Norris Basin, West Thumb, Mammoth Springs, especially with the smaller crowds. It's a huge park and Red Lodge is actually pretty far, like 3 or 4 hours probably, if Beartooth Pass is open at least it'll be a nice drive and you'll likely be passing Lamar Valley in the morning and evening, which is great for wildlife.Probably way too late in the season for any boat tours or rentals anywhere, just seeing a big lake though Yellowstone Lake is beautiful. Only hot springs I've actually entered in Yellowstone were deep in the backcountry in the Bechler area. Boiling River used to be the accessible place but it's unavailable now due to floods. There are some hot springs near Gardiner, or you can go all the way down to Thermopolis, which is a pretty cool place.consider Bighorn Canyon for a day too.
>>2876629I'll be there 9-16. Hopefully it will be open>>2876634>3-4h, well, the place I'm staying is outside of red lodge more towards it, and google maps says the distance to the entrance to the park is an hour. I assume that it will be 3-4 to get to whatever destination I wanna get to in the park, but surely there's tons of stuff to see on the wayI'll look into those spots and work them into my itinerary. I'm going with family and we're gonna have two separate cars, so planning things will be a bit of a pain, but it should be fun>>2876609Is it really gonna be that snowy already? I live in shitcago and during the fall sometimes I go up to wisconsin in october. That's around when the colors start to change. Dont get snow here until december usually. How much futher north is yellowstone compared to me? Doesn't seem that much on the map
>>2876637Yellowstone is 7-8000 feet higher than wisconsin. Every 1000 feet is like being 300 miles further north.
>>2876637It's high elevation bro. Beartooth pass might be open if you're lucky, but at least the pass being closed wouldn't actually make your drive into most of Yellowstone much if at all longer (time wise) since it's a windy mountain pass. But it's the most convenient and scenic and best for wildlife
>>2876588Early October is the best time. Nice and cool and nobody there.Required: Go to the porcelain basin. If you like animals go to Lamar valley.Walk right by Old Faithful its tourist trash.IDK about boat rides, there's a cool boat ride in Lake Jenny (Tetons) the drive down to the Tetons is pretty too. Staying outside the park will add a lot of driving, camping saves a lot of time.
>>2876654>>2876671Damn that's pretty cool mountains are so fvcking cool bros>>2876672How far away is the tetons? I've heard of that place too when my dad was doing some basic research. Unfortunately I won't be able to camp prolly because half of my group are older (parents and cousin's parents) and none of us really have any experience with it. Especially not wintercamping. If I were alone or just with my cousin we'd be more inclined to try it out
Also, do you guys know of any place I can steal some SAND?this is some sand I stole from the black sand beach in icelandI'd like to steal and collect sand from across the world wherever I go
>>2876674>How far away is the tetons?Yellowstone is a huge park, so it really depends on your itinerary. If you're going down to West Thumb (some cool geysers and a great lake view) then you may as well go to the Tetons and make it a whole day trip. There's also Jackson Hole down there which has plenty of hotels and restaurants. There's a very picturesque farm there to visit as well (Mormon Row). > I won't be able to camp prolly because half of my group are older (parents and cousin's parents)Fair enough, if you have a big group it's probably better to find something in the park or West Yellowstone or something just so that you're not driving the same route every morning.>Especially not wintercamping. I wouldn't call this winter yet really. It'll be a bit chilly bit but no worries about snow especially this year.
>>2876588I was literally just there, the east half is fantastic, grand canyon is sick and especially the lamar valley. bring some good optics/camera. I thought the whole west half was basically lame, geysers suck (smelly steam and you cant see much) and are full of fat people. east half is awesome. the tetons are an hour south and definitely worth checking out, some of the prettiest hikes on earth
>>2876710Well lucky for me I'm staying east of it!
>>2876710I think geysers are extremely cool. Old Faithful is relatively quite lame though.>my geyser rankings that I've seen 1. Great Fountain. even the normal bursts are great but the rare superburst is the coolest thing I've ever seen, especially since the day I saw it the road to it was closed to vehicles and it went off early in the morning and I was the only one there. Also, just the pool is pretty, pic related.2. Beehive. It's like Old Faithful but a million times better, mostly because you can see it from so close, but it's also just bigger and better too.3. Grand. The biggest reliable geyser.4. Fountain. Pretty5. Imperial. "backcountry" geyser, it's almost constantly erupting/bubbling and is situated in a pretty and colorful pool. It's not very powerful though.6. Lone Star. "backcountry" geyser, it's a super easy hike or bike to get there but that's enough to keep most (perhaps all if you're lucky) tourists away7. Cliff. It's cool8. Castle. Good9. Riverside. Scenic10. Anemone. Funny9001. Old Faithful. have to be 400 feet away, surrounded by massive hordes of people, tons of infrastructure around you, nothing feels natural, and the geyser isn't even that big or impressive.Still so many more to see, mostly unpredictable ones though.>tfw first visited Yellowstone in 2018 when Steamboat and Giant were very active (still unpredictable and only like once a week)The two tallest active geysers in the park/world, the me of today would absolutely wait for them for multiple days. I've been visiting Yellowstone pretty regularly since 2021 but as I get more into geysers and willing to wait for them these two have gone back to extremely unpredictable states where they won't go off for months or years, that's a lot harder to wait for.Also, the Bechler area is in the west half and is great, tons of amazing waterfalls, mostly deep in the backcountry and away from any crowds.East half is great too. Fuck I love Yellowstone
>>2876676>sandThose are rocks
>>2876762There's sand under the rocksAlso I have a little bottle with excess sandQuite gay, I know>>2876749Thanks for this yuge listGonna look into these and their locations, hopefully I'll be able to plan an itinerary to get as many of them as I can
I have heard from a source today that glacier national park is better than yellowstoneIs this true??
>>2877108"better" is subjective. Its depends on what you like. Glacier has much more scenic mountains and is much more of a true alpine setting. Yellowstone is not as scenic tho it does have mnts but its does have the largest collection of geysers and thermal features in the world as well the largest collection of fauna as its the center of one of the largest intact temperate ecosystems in the world. They different but both amazing
Bring winter gear just in case. I used to work at Grand Teton to the south. Sometimes October was lovely, other times we would get blizzards.
