This Yellowstone Road Trip Guide is sponsored by Moon Travel Guides but all thoughts and opinions are my own.
As a kid, my family went on a lot of road trips so as an adult, I’ve always gravitated to travel by plane. Flying has always felt like a more efficient way to have more time in the city of my choice; however, Covid-19 has changed my perspective on travel. I now feel safest traveling by car in order to minimize contact with other travelers. My first big travel excursion of 2020 was a cross-country road trip to Yellowstone National Park! Now, I am sharing everything I learned about how I planned my with Moon Travel Guides.
With travel outside the US limited, this is the perfect time to explore the beauty right within the states starting with our National Parks. When my collaborator and I decided we wanted to visit Yellowstone National Park, we were faced with a 27-hour drive totaling over 1,600 miles. We relied on to make sure we made the most of the mileage.
Why Travel With Moon Guides
Since 1973, Moon has been advocate for independent travel. Although they started with Asia travel guides, they are now known for the books exploring the Americas. All of Moon’s authors have experienced the destinations firsthand so they write from experience. True to journalistic standards, brands cannot pay to receive coverage in Moon so you can be assured that what you see listed in an unbiased recommendation. They even list selfie tips and playlist recommendations!
We started our planning with Moon’s by Becky Lomax. She has a sentimental and personal connection to Yellowstone: her grandparents traveled there by carriage in 1904 for their honeymoon. Lomax grew up hiking Yellowstone and Grand Teton making her a natural adventurer and author for this guide.
We also utilized Moon’s . This guide details a 14-day Yellowstone road trip through to Glacier National Park. Although we didn’t have time to go to Glacier National Park, we found this guide to be helpful in locating places to stop along the way between locations.
The final book in our trifecta was Moon’s e which is also penned by Becky Lomax. Our guide features tips on 59 parks; however, there’s set to release on October 13 that features 3 more parks for a total of 62 National Parks. The National Parks Guide breaks down the parks by region so you can see how easy it is to hit more than one at once.
If you are looking for the best guide for a Yellowstone road trip, I suggest . This guide breaks down everything you need to know specifically about visiting this National Park.
Driving Through Yellowstone
Yellowstone is the country’s first designated National Park and remains the largest intact ecosystem in the continental United States. It covers a massive 2.2 million acres so without a doubt, the best way to see Yellowstone is by car. With negative Covid-19 tests in tow, we set out our our Yellowstone road trip. We spent two days driving from Ohio through Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and finally arrived at our . Honestly, 27 hours of driving in two days with only two drivers was A LOT. I would recommend splitting it up into at least three days if you are going that far.
Yellowstone is situated in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. There are five total entrances to Yellowstone and our hotel was about a 40 minute drive from the Yellowstone West Entrance in Montana. Although the actual mileage may not look far Yellowstone is complete with winding roads and corresponding low speed limits so getting across one end to other will take some time.
On our first day of our Yellowstone road trip, we had made a plan to go to located about ten minutes outside of the North Entrance of Yellowstone in Gardiner. Although we didn’t have much time to stop, Gardiner is a super cute small town of 875 permanent residents. With some snow and a girl returning home from the big city, I could see Gardiner being the site of Hallmark Christmas movie.
Our route took us along the Madison River by the Norris Geyser Basin along Roaring Mountain and Obsidian Cliff. In total, this drive from the West to North Entrance took us around two hours with multiple stops for pictures of course. We passed Mammoth Hot Springs and even saw Elk casually grazing. We exited the park through the iconic Roosevelt Arch.
Yellowstone Hot Springs
Although Yellowstone Hot Springs is located outside of the park, the drive there itself is picturesque. This was the best way to see sights in the park while heading to a destination.
We sang “Wide Open Spaces” while twisting and turning along the roads. Once at the Yellowstone Hot Springs, we relaxed in warm waters enjoying the Montana views surrounding us.
Yellowstone Must See: Grand Prismatic Spring
With an affinity for all things rainbow, the main site I wanted to see at Yellowstone National Park was Grand Prismatic Spring. There are two hikes to get there – both are detailed in Moon’s Yellowstone and Grand Teton guide. We opted for the less challenging hike. If you are up for the trek to the overlook, be prepared for an incline of 105 feet to get there. The signs and GPS (if you can get it to work in the park) will direct you to the lower entrance. Make sure you have your Moon guide handy to navigate to the overlook.
This spring is the third largest in the world and honestly, pictures standing in front of it don’t really do its size justice. The bands of orange, yellow, green are the culmination of different heat-loving bacteria. There’s no fence or anything keeping you from walking right out onto it but let me tell you, no one was walking out on the colorful bacteria. I was almost happy to be !
Seeing Grand Prismatic Spring was the highlight of our Yellowstone Road Trip. We drove over to see Old Faithful but it was clear that social distancing guidelines weren’t being strictly enforced there. Multiple people were not wearing masks. So we drove by, waved from the car and kept moving. It wasn’t worth risking our health and safety to see this landmark. Just means we need to take another Yellowstone road trip again soon!
Final Thoughts
Traveling by car is the best way to see Yellowstone. The park is massive so with only two days, we only saw a portion of the park. Moon Travel Guides was SO important to make sure that we saw everything we could in two days.
Have more questions about how we planned our trip? I’m happy to answer based on my experience but Moon is the real expert!