Let me start out by saying that you definitely should spend way more than 2 days in Yellowstone National Park. You will NOT see everything, or even more than 20% of the park with such a short time. That said, I had two days, so two days is what I’m writing about. Here’s my tips and tricks from someone who flew through it all way too fast. This Yellowstone 2-day guide explores the must-see spots.
How I approached this park with only 2 days and why
I didnt use any type of plan when approaching the park. That means I stopped a lot of places I shouldn’t have, and missed places I would have loved to hit. I figure this should help you navigate through the highlights efficiently.
Quite a few factors contributed to such a limited time here. Let me tell you about them.
I had one week to leave Texas, road trip Wyoming, and get back to Texas.
I had JUST purchased my cargo van and was itching to get on the road with it for the maiden voyage.
I timed this trip to coincide with the 100% totality for the 2017 eclipse.
Being short on time does not mean you have to exclude this park from your plan. You can make it work with this Yellowstone 2-day guide!
Being short on time does not mean you have to exclude this park from your plan. You can make it work with this Yellowstone 2-day guide!
For those planning a trip, this will help maximize your experience in the park.
Also to note, I did not get to see the whole park. I had to pick and choose where I stopped due to the time crunch. Not so much because I didn’t personally have the time if everything went as planned, but because you WILL get stuck in traffic. You WILL run into full parking lots. You WILL be surrounded by people and need to walk slower than you want at all the popular stops.
Don’t look at this as “my map says this drive takes an hour”. It could take 3 hours due to everything from a herd of bison in the road to a car that won’t drive over 2mph in front of you.
Getting to the park
There are different directions you can come from to get into Yellowstone National Park.
There are 5 entrances. North, South, East, West, and Northeast.
Having so many points of entry means you have quite a few options for airports if you are flying in. The cheapest flights would probably be the bigger airports like Salt Lake City (about 5hrs drive).
That said… Bozeman would be a much better option (1.5hr drive), or Jackson Hole (an hour or so). Idaho Falls is a much smaller airport in a cute town with a 2 hour drive, and West Yellowstone will probably run you the most amount of money but it’s just minutes away from the park entrance.
MAKE SURE if you want accommodations inside the park you look into how far ahead you need to plan. Some of those places fill up a year in advance!!
I personally took the east entrance in. I stayed the night in the town of Cody, and then drove straight in the next morning. (By straight in, I do mean it was a straight line… but it took close to 2 hours to get from point A to the start of point B).
I also knew I was camping, and that means I’d have less time in the park each day in order to find a place to camp by dark.
Day 1: Going north on the east side
My Yellowstone National Park itinerary for day one.
I drove in on the east from Cody, then started heading up and up and up out the north gate.
I did not get off the main road here besides viewpoints.
Yes, this means I 100% missed SO MUCH.
No exploring of Yellowstone Lake.
No seeing the wildlife of Lamar Valley.
No hiking towards the grand canyon of Yellowstone.
That makes this itinerary less than ideal. Again though, we only have 2 days for this, and each has to be spent in a direct line north and then south.
This is ideal if you have a family who isn’t full of hikers.
This park is majorly accessible if you must stick to the roads, parking lots, and boardwalks.
What did I do?
I stopped at as many viewpoints as possible.
Going in, I stopped for a glance at Sylvan Lake and Lake Butte Overlook.
I then started heading north and stopped at LeHardy Rapids, Mud Volcano, Dragon’s Mouth, Hayden Valley Overlook, Canyon Overlook for upper/lower falls and all the surrounding points I could fit, Petrified Tree, then Mammoth.
Honestly, we could have stopped at more little overlooks than this, but they all blend a bit and I’m not 100% positive where else we pulled over because it felt like a constant start and stop.
Canyon Overlook is one area you’ll want to spend a lot of time.
Mammoth is another place you’ll want to spend quite a bit of time (and get some ice cream).
Day two of the Yellowstone 2-day guide will take you to the South exit.
The last stop of the day was at the Roosevelt Arch on our way out north towards Gardiner.
If you’re interested in where I camped for the night, I wrote about the boondocking I did that night over here. It’s crazy how easy I was able to find something so close to the park!
Day two of the Yellowstone 2-day guide means going from Mammoth all the way down to the South exit towards Grand Tetons National Park. This was a packed day, covering a bit more ground than day 1.
Day two of the Yellowstone 2-day guide means going from Mammoth alllll the way down to the South exit towards Grand Tetons National Park. This was one heck of a packed day, covering a bit more ground than day 1.
I started the day stopping for breakfast in Gardiner, MT at Yellowstone Grill. Highly recommend. The food was hot, cozy, and absolutely delicious.
By this point in the trip, I was starting to get sick of whatever camp foods were packed into the van, so honestly, I would have been happy with anything.
Silver Gate and Golden Gate were the first places I stopped for a quick photo.
Then down to Sheepeater Cliff.
Maybe because I was unsure if it was sheep eating a cliff or a cliff eating sheep, I was let down to not see any sheep here.
Obsidian Cliff Kiosk, Beaver Lake, Roaring Mountain, some of the smaller geysers along the way like Frying Pan.
Then hit the Norris Geyser area. There are TONS here, including Steamboat.
Artist Paintpots, Gibbon Falls.
Further south is where you hit what I thought was the gem of the park, the Grand Prismatic Spring. You HAVE to stop here. You’ll be able to walk the boardwalk next to it and get to a viewpoint as well.
Last but not least, the day ended at Old Faithful.
There were other stops along the way out that could have been made, but at this point, I was hightailing it to get down through the Tetons to the Moose area to find a campsite before the sun went down.
Top 5 MUST visit Locations in Yellowstone National Park
Out of every stop we made, here is my own personal list of the top 5 stops I enjoyed the most.
Please note that some places (like Lamar Valley) didn’t make the list that probably should have just because I didn’t have time to go there. I’m only picking from my top 5 stops.
- Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook
That is number one by FAR.
The other 5 are not in any particular order.
- Sheepeater Cliff / Roaring Mountain
- Canyon Village
- Mammoth Terrace Boardwalk
- Hayden Valley
Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook
This is number one. Number one. Do I need to say it again? If you like pretty colors that blow your mind to find in nature, this is it!
I am such a sucker for bright colors. All the geysers and springs with that very piercing blue color that you can’t replicate outside of nature had me obsessed. But this? This was the motherload of color.
First, if you’re going north to south, you will come across the actual boardwalk for this spring first. It’s the Midway Geyser Basin. You can try to find parking in the bumper to bumper parking lot (or have to park on the road half a mile down the dang road like I did), then walk the boardwalk around the spring. It’s pretty magnificent.
While you do need to stop here and take the boardwalk along the path, depending on the time of day you might not really get to see much color from this angle. You’re too eye level with it. Still magnificent, but wait until you see what’s next!
First, if you’re going north to south, you will come across the actual boardwalk for this spring first. It’s the Midway Geyser Basin. You can try to find parking in the bumper-to-bumper parking lot (or have to park on the road half a mile down the dang road like I did), then walk the boardwalk around the spring. It’s magnificent.
While you need to stop here and take the boardwalk along the path, depending on the time of day, you might not really see much color from this angle. You’re too eye level with it. Still magnificent, but wait until you see what’s next!
TIPS:
Try to visit around midday if possible. This spring has a habit in colder weather and earlier mornings of having a very misty fog coming off it. It can make for a cool look or photo, but it really mutes all the color. It typically burns off by the end of the morning, and you’ll have better luck catching the spring clear in warmer weather too. That means busy August instead of slower October, for example.
Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook
Canyon Village
This is one of those areas you’ll want to spend more time.
Not only will it be a little busier than some other areas, so you’ll have to navigate more traffic and people, but it’s a pretty big space and you’ll want to wander around quite a bit here.
This area is known as the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
Artist Point is here.
Go.
This is the spot where you’ll come across one of the most popular images in the entire park. A painting by Thomas Moran helped not only make this spot popular… but it’s one of the coolest pieces of history EVER for a national park buff. This painting he did?It helped establish Yellowstone as the world’s first ever National Park. Not just the United States, but the first in the world. I knew it was the first in the country… but until visiting I didn’t know it set the precedent for the creation of one of the best systems to ever be established.
You’ll be able to see and experience different parts of the Lower Falls here, either seeing it from the first area or doing the mile-ish round trip steep walk to the overlook directly above it. You can also see the upper falls, and if you want to throw in a hike, you can do the longer, harder hike to Inspiration Point.
Mammoth Terrace Boardwalk
Mammoth Hot Springs is one of the most popular spots in the park for traffic. There are many tourist-geared things to do in this area beyond just “walk and look,” so be prepared for it to be busy. You’ll find a visitor center, hotel, and more. The park’s headquarters are here.
You might find elk walking down the road, even with plenty of traffic around.
There are restaurants as well.
I stopped here and had ice cream, then wandered into a shop and picked up a case of beer that highlighted Montana Craft Breweries.
The impressive part of Mammoth for me was once I walked the terraces. The boardwalks bring you around to see the limestone cascades. The colors are out of this world with how gorgeous the white and coppery hues contrast.
There are over 150 hot springs just in this one area!
A little under 2 miles of boardwalk that you can walk all of or part of.
Hayden Valley
I didn’t get a chance to do the popular Lamar Valley for wildlife viewing since I only had 2 days to do ALL of Yellowstone.
I settled for Hayden.
I consider this a pretty good consolation prize.
Hayden Valley is one of the premier spots for wildlife viewing. The valley is flat, and everything is wet. All the ponds and low-lying wetlands are just begging for animals and birds of every shape and size to come hang out.
There are a handful of pullouts along the valley to stop for a view. I didn’t get to see anything when passing through besides some birds and bison, but maybe you’ll get lucky and spot some wolves or bears!
I’m always happy to see bison. I live about an hour away from a wildlife sanctuary full of them, but they never cease to amaze me when I see them elsewhere too. You probably could have guessed that based on my blog and brand name, eh?
The lack of bears made me go “womp womp” on this trip. I didn’t see a single one!
I was camping, so by the end, I was frying bacon close to the van, hoping one would stop for dinner. Nope.
It did attract an older man camping nearby who smelled the bacon and asked if he could exchange some of his coffee and biscuits for some of our bacon.
Sheepeater Cliff
This section is going to be small.
There’s not much here.
I just REALLY like cool rocks.
And this cliff is full of rocks that look really cool.
That’s all.
No sheep or sheep-eating cliffs.
Roaring Mountain
I’ll let this photo speak for itself.
This is just a simple stop and look viewpoint, but it is VERY cool to see the ground come alive and ‘breathe’.
Cool facts about Yellowstone
- Yellowstone sits on a supervolcano.
- It has the highest concentration of geothermal features of ANYWHERE ON EARTH!!
- Need land? Over 2 million aces of it here.
- On that 2 million acres are:
- over 1000 miles of hiking trails.
- over 10,000 hydrothermal features.
- over 1500 archeological sites.
- over 300 active geysers. Yeah. Active.
- Dang near close to 300 waterfalls
Most Popular Stops
We discussed my top 5 stops. Here are the ones the internet insists are ACTUALLY the most popular places to stop.
- Lamar Valley
- Old Faithful
- Mammoth
- Yellowstone Lake
- Grand Prismatic
- Canyon Village
My list and the “most popular” list overlap quite a bit. I know Old Faithful is at the top of the list for most people. I did stop there. See the above photo I took, and understand the reason that I just wasn’t as impressed is represented there. Just too many people!
It was cool to see the geyser go off, but at the same time, ehh. I did go up front and walk around, but everyone around was loud and pushy. Quite honestly, it was like that in a lot of the main parking lot or boardwalk areas. On the boardwalk for Grand Prismatic, I had a couple move in with a selfie stick right where I was standing and literally shoulder shove me out of the way.
It’s not surprising that my favorite areas were where the crowds seemed thinner.
Are you a hiker? If so, it looks like Mt Washburn is a very popular hike for views.
Looks like I’ll have to go back to do that…
Places close to Yellowstone
Grand Teton National Park
Grand Teton National Park is just a hop, skip, and jump away.
If you leave out the south entrance, you’ll drive right into it. Spend a few days there.
I couldn’t; I only got to really see it from the main road.
I did get to camp for the night there, though. Funny enough, I’m in the passenger seat for this part. My road trip buddy and I are going to a dispersed camping site at Shadow Mountain.
Picture me staring at my phone trying to get enough service to search for a location:
Me: “I don’t have cell service, but in the morning as soon as we get to a place I pick signal back up, we need to find Mormon Row.”
Stephen: “What’s Mormon Row?”
Me: “That super famous shot with the barn and the mountain backdrop of the Tetons.”
Stephen: “Uh, that?”
I look up and yep. It is. You have to pass it to get to where we were camping. I accidentally found Mormon Row.
Beartooth Highway
The other highly recommended close by attraction I didn’t get to visit:
Beartooth Highway.
This is supposed to be one of the most scenic drives in the country.
If you’re coming or going through the northeast entrance, make sure you add that to your list.
Extra tips for the park
You do have to plan ahead to visit this one.
It’s one of the most visited parks in the country, with a smaller time frame that people can drive through. Lodging fills up fast. If you’re camping, they have a few first-come, first-serve campgrounds, but while I was there, the line to get into one was clearly a few hours long. Most of the roads shut down in the winter as well, with access really only being Mammoth.
That doesn’t mean it’s off-limits in the winter, just that you can’t drive it. There are tours you can take or snowmobiles you can rent if you thrive in chilly weather! If you’re not a cold-weather junkie, stick to visiting between June and September.
Get up early. No really, you have to. If you want to watch any wildlife, your best bet is dawn (or dusk). Take into account how long it takes to get to the viewing spots because it’s a drive. You would want to be up before the sun for better chances. The middle of the day is the busiest, just like any park. Those early birds battle fewer people. During the middle of the day when it’s slam-packed, find a hike or somewhere to hang out. Then, stay out later if you can to enjoy once some of the tourism drops off from people leaving the park to find dinner.
If you do the whole National Park Passport thing, there are around 20 places in the park to get different stamps for it!
If you head south past the Tetons, make sure to visit the town of Jackson Hole. It’s cute! Persephone Bakery had my heart for breakfast. I loved the name, and the food/coffee lived up to the high expectations I set for it.
Utilize the tips in this Yellowstone 2-day guide to enhance your visit.
