Yellowstone and Teton Grand Adventure
- Vicki Wilmarth
- 13 hours ago
- 8 min read
The National Park System represents America at its best. Each park contributes to a deeper understanding of the history of the United States and our way of life; of the natural processes which have given form to our land, and to the enrichment of the environment in which we live. -- George B. Hartzog, Director of the NPS, 1964-1972
Rohn and I decided long ago that we wanted to visit every National Park in America. They really are America's best idea. They demonstrate that this democratic country belongs to all of us and that the most beautiful parts should not be restricted, privatized or destroyed for profit. As John Muir said, "Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul."
We still have just over half of the 64 official national parks to visit. But the urge to return to Yellowstone and Grand Teton 15 years after our last journey there was just too strong to resist in 2025.
Those two parks are our favorites, which is not an easy thing to say when the National Park System also features the grandeur of Glacier NP, the isolated and warm waters of Dry Tortugas NP, and the hoodoo heights of Bryce Canyon NP. But we were just as stunned by the beauty and wildlife of Yellowstone and Grand Teton in 2025 as we were in 2010.
We were so fortunate to share the journey this time with Lee Ann and Tim Watson. Lee Ann and I have been camping together since we were Bluebirds and then Camp Fire Girls in Arlington, Texas. Our husbands are like twin sons of different mothers--they both enjoy astronomy, geothermal features, weather, rocks, and towing our campers to beautiful spots. Sharing adventures with friends like these means doubling the enjoyment of the travel.
All four of us were awed by the majesty of Grand Teton for three nights. We dry camped in Colter Bay, foregoing electricity and wi-fi for incredible views and cool temperatures. Then we moved on to Yellowstone for six nights, staying in a campground in West Yellowstone.
Of course, when you visit Yellowstone, you have to start with Old Faithful. It erupted a few minutes after its predicted time on our first evening there. Castle Geyser, my favorite, soon followed and erupted across the river from where we were hiking.
While we were enjoying the geyser show, we experienced our only animal attack of the trip. Our pickup was cruelly and indiscriminately ambushed by the appropriately-named "conspiracy", "treachery" or "unkindness" of Common Ravens. The Watsons' brand new soft-sided cooler was torn into and at least 11 Ravens got to feast on nuts, cheese sticks, granola bars, cookies, and the rest of our intended dinner snacks. A French tourist was kind enough to send us a picture of the marauders in action. Fortunately, this was our only unpleasant animal experience, and we immediately learned to use a hard-sided cooler to carry our meals for the rest of the trip.
Of course, like most people, we came to Yellowstone and Grand Teton hoping to encounter wildlife. We just weren't expecting our first significant encounter to be with ravens.
These parks have been described as the last of the "American Serengeti", where one can still see pronghorns, wolves, bison, grizzly bears, and moose. Less than 200 years ago, these creatures existed all over the Great Plains in such abundance that Audubon wrote, "It is impossible to describe or even conceive the vast multitudes of these animals." In the 21st Century, the western parts of Montana and Wyoming are the only places that can provide most modern Americans a glimpse of our country's glorious wilderness past. If you can't take an African photo safari, at least you can experience something similar in these two breathtaking national parks.
Our one disappointment in the past has been that we had never seen a Gray Wolf in the wild. But we were hopeful this time. The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone in 1995 helped balance the elk overpopulation. There are now about 120 wolves (up from 41 in 1995) and the elk herd numbers in the northern part of the park have decreased from about 20,000 to a stable 8,000. According to National Geographic, the wolf kills have provided food for scavangers such as coyotes, eagles and our friends, the ravens. Grizzlies have benefitted from the fact that the elk aren't eating all of the berries and other vegetation that these omnivores crave. Riverbank trees like aspens and willow have had a chance to regenerate without the elk munching on them all the time, which has increased the songbirds and provided cleaner water for the beavers.
But these magnificent, beneficial canines are elusive. Fortunately, we had two opportunities during this visit to see Yellowstone's Gray Wolves. Seven of the Wapiti Pack were lounging on a far-off hill in Hayden Valley early one morning. We could only see them through the spotting scope, and we had to repeatedly dodge Bison to observe the wolves. But it was still a thrill to see so many.
However, Rohn and I also had another wolf encounter. We spotted a "bear jam" (lots of people pulled off of the road with cameras and spotting scopes) in Hayden Valley, and I was able to get great shots with a long lens and a teleconverter on my Nikon Z8. The Wapiti Pack had killed an elk the day before, and this lone wolf was searching the area for any leftovers. What he found was the spine of the elk. He happily laid down in front of the crowd of people to munch on his treat.
We saw this wolf and the Grizzly that swam across the Yellowstone River while we were out birding. That is one of the things I love about seeking out birds--besides the treasure hunt aspect of looking for birds I have never seen before, I see so many other animals too. Just getting out in nature provides me with adventures that I never experience behind my telephone, computer and conference table at my law office.
And yes, I saw lots of great birds in Yellowstone and Grand Teton. I had several lifers, including the Ruffed Grouse and the Harlequin Ducks.
One of the coolest birds in Yellowstone, and a lifer for me, is the Clark's Nutcracker. This bird is so useful that the park shows a movie about it in all of the visitors' centers. The movie is called The Bird and the Tree and was produced by Cornell Lab of Ornithology to tell the story of this remarkable species. The whitebark pine and the Clark's Nutcracker are "evolutionary soul mates". At high elevations in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, whitebark pines depend entirely on nutcrackers to disperse their seeds. The bird can hold up to 150 whitebark pine nuts in a pouch under its tongue. The pine nuts contain more calories than butter and provide food for more than 100 species. The nutcracker caches tens of thousands of whitebark pine seeds each year. The Clark's Nutcracker also disperses seeds of pinyon pines and ten other conifers, rejuvenating Yellowstone's forests.
Trumpeter Swans are one of Yellowstone's most beloved birds, but we also found them frequently in Grand Teton. They are the heaviest bird native to North America, weighing as much as 30 pounds. We spotted this beautiful example of a Trumpeter Swan on the appropriately-named Swan Lake between Norris and Mammoth in Yellowstone.
One of the most exciting bird encounters for me was the discovery (with the help of other birders) of a Golden Eagle nest high on the cliffs overlooking Slough Creek in the Lamar Valley area of Yellowstone. The Golden Eagle had one chick in the nest, who had to have been less than one month old based on the presence of its downy white feathers.
Another thrilling bird for me at Yellowstone and Grand Teton was the striking Barrow's Goldeneye. I have seen them in prior years from a distance at Lake Meredith and near Clayton, New Mexico, but these beautiful ducks were easy to spot in these two national parks. They summer almost exclusively in Canada and Alaska instead of the lower 48, but they make an exception for the impressive riparian areas of Yellowstone and Grand Teton.
We also had a close-up view of the iridescense of Violet-Green Swallows when they landed near us in the cliffs of Yellowstone Canyon. We were supposed to be admiring the Upper Falls (and we did), but we definitely got side-tracked by these stunning little swallows.
Parts of Yellowstone are very hostile to wildlife. While we were there, reportedly a bison fell into one of the thermal pools and died. We kind of thought the animals would know how to navigate around the dangers of Yellowstone. But we saw a killdeer enjoying the travertine terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs, where the water surfaces at about 170 degrees F. The bird was not hot-footing around and seemed undisturbed by its sauna-like environment.
Of course, no trip to a national park would be complete without a look at a Bald Eagle (or as the diner next to us in Gardiner, Montana, repeatedly called it, a "Bald-headed Eagle". It took all of my self-control to resist correcting him). Yellowstone Lake provided this magnificent specimen for us on one of our last days in the parks.
We discovered that there is no better place in Yellowstone for birders than the Fishing Bridge Visitor's Center. The park service provides an incredible bird museum there. Many of the specimens are almost 100 years old. The ability to compare sizes of birds, see details up close and really study the birds that I love seeing in the field was fascinating for me.
As we do after any great trip, Rohn and I are already trying to determine when we can return to these two national parks. Rohn wants to wake up to a view of Mount Moran in Grand Teton and stare at it while he unhurriedly drinks his coffee. I want to camp at Fishing Bridge Village in Yellowstone and spend more time in the bird museum and chasing wildlife in the Hayden and Lamar Valleys. We'd like to encounter a Mountain Goat on the Beartooth Highway and maybe fish for Yellowstone's native cutthroat trout. We want to photograph the Milky Way overhead while Grand Geyser is erupting. If a coronal mass ejection occurs, we could see the northern lights from atop Mount Washburn. We'd love to spend September cozied up in our camper at night and enjoying the aspens changing to yellow during the day. We doubt that we could ever get our fill of Grand Teton and Yellowstone, but we are willing to give it a try!
