Signed into existence on March 1, 1872 by President Ulysses S. Grant, this park had a relatively slow start. In fairness to the government at the time, they recognized that the Yellowstone area needed to be protected but since it was the first, they didn’t really have a blueprint describing how to proceed. After all, the surveys and reports from formal explorations were barely available when the legislation was introduced.<\/p>\n
![\"Mammoth](\"http:\/\/hiddenmesa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/BDX36200.jpg\")
<\/a>Mammoth Hot Springs was originally an Army post when the US Army managed the park. Image by Bonnie Fink<\/p><\/div>\n
At the time that Yellowstone was created, there was no \u201cPark Service\u201d in the United States. In fact, the park was left basically unmanaged and unprotected until the U.S. Army took over its management in 1886. Up until that time, people were free to hunt and kill any wildlife they came across in the park. In 1883, the US Secretary of the interior did issue regulations prohibiting the hunting and killing of some park animals, but that regulation did not include most predatory animals, like bears, wolves, mountain lions, and so on. When the Army took control in 1886, Captain Moses Harris \u2013 the first military superintendent \u2013 banned any hunting in the park, including predatory animals. Unfortunately, even though the ban was enforced by the Army, there was no legal authority for prosecuting violators. Persons found poaching were simply escorted out of the park.<\/p>\n
In 1894, Congress passed the Lacey Act of 1894, which gave the Department of the Interior the authority to prosecute violators. This Act eventually became the cornerstone of current law enforcement policies that are used in US Parks today.<\/p>\n
How to travel there, where to stay<\/strong> –<\/p>\n Camping in Canyon Village Campground, Yellowstone National Park. Image by Donald Fink<\/p><\/div>\n Our recent trip to Yellowstone was a tent camping affair, so we’ll base this article on our experiences from that point of view. We’ve also visited the park in an RV and traveled there in a car, staying in hotels. All of it was a good experience. It just depends on the kind of trip you want to make. If you do consider making a tent camping trip, you should think about traveling in the summer. While I will recommend visiting the park in the fall later in this article for better animal viewing, it gets a little cool during that time of year, and tent camping may not be for everyone. Summer temperatures were still a little brisk in the evenings and early mornings, but they were generally tolerable. Also, be sure to get [tippy title=”reservations” header=”off”]Reservations at any national park during peak times is important. Campgrounds can fill up every morning before you have a chance to even get there, and you’re likely to be out of luck. Here’s a link<\/a> that will get you started with the reservation process.[\/tippy] ahead of time at one of the campgrounds that accept them. Many of the park’s campgrounds are \u201cfirst come, first served\u201d, but unless you like having your plans disrupted, we recommend that you pass up this frustrating experience. We had reservations at the Canyon Village Campground so our experience was great, but nearly every campground we drove past in the park that didn’t use a reservation system was completely full by 9:30 in the morning. Since normal check-in times are 11:00 AM, you can see how a vacation without any pre-planning would go.<\/p>\n The main reason to go in the summer is that the weather is usually better. There will be rainy days and cold days, but they are mostly just \u201crainy periods\u201d, not involving the entire day. Also, while the weather does change drastically, it’s an opportunity to see the park in many different ways.<\/p>\n As we mentioned earlier, we have traveled to Yellowstone in many ways. We’ve made several trips with our 5th wheel trailer and stayed in the Madison Campground inside the park. We’ve also stayed just outside the park in West Yellowstone. Both locations were good for the time of year we chose then (the fall) because they gave us close to proximity one of the park’s best elk viewing areas along the Madison River. Also, staying on the west side of the park gave us good access to the Norris Geyser Basin area, which is a great place to spend time.<\/p>\n Bears are common in Yellowstone National Park. Image by Donald Fink<\/p><\/div>\n If you’re thinking of renting an RV (without a tow vehicle), keep in mind that parking for them will be an issue in parking lots and turnouts. That’s not to say that you’ll have no parking at all, but your options will be limited. Our \u00be ton Dodge diesel with its eight foot bed was doable, but it was just about at the upper limit for comfortable travel around the park.<\/p>\n Many people seem to fly into local airports and rent cars to view this park, judging by the large number of rental cars that can be seen here most of the time. A good inexpensive way to do this might be to bring in your basic backpacking gear when you fly in, then car camp with that. If you\u2019re camping at a campground that\u2019s around some of the larger establishments, like Canyon Village, you can even eat at the restaurants and cafeterias to ease the cooking burden from a small backpacking stove.<\/p>\n Crowds<\/strong> –<\/p>\n Crowds gather any time of the year at attractions like Old Faithful. Image by Bonnie Fink<\/p><\/div>\n We’ve always read that crowds in the summer at Yellowstone are nearly unbearable; that the constant crush of people make a summer experience not worth the effort. While we admit that Yellowstone is indeed busy in the summer, we were surprised at how accessible everything was. For the most part there was usually parking and turnouts to view animals. Sure, there was the occasional \u201cbear jam\u201d, and most often the famous \u201cBuffalo Jam\u201d, where cars would back up on the road for a bit while everyone got a good look at whatever animal was grazing along the roadway. After all, that’s why all those tourists (and presumably you too) are there.<\/p>\n To put it another way, we are originally California natives. We spent our working years going to Yosemite National Park, usually in the winter to avoid the crowds. When we did finally go in the summer, it was absolutely wall-to-wall vehicles in the valley floor and not worth the effort. Consider that Yellowstone is probably 100 times larger than the valley floor at Yosemite, and it usually receives slightly fewer visitors each year than Yosemite, Yellowstone truthfully wasn’t bad. Of course, don’t think you can ever go to a world class popular attraction and have the place to yourself, but our overall assessment of the crowds was that they didn’t significantly impair our experience. We’ll probably not go back in the summer, but it’s not because of the crowds. More on that later.<\/p>\n Activities<\/strong> –<\/p>\n So, what’s to do in Yellowstone? Being as big as a small state, there are many different ways you can approach seeing it. You’ll most likely drive from where you are, or rent a car at an airport (usually Salt Lake City Airport, or Denver International).<\/p>\n There are literally too many great sounding activities in Yellowstone to effectively cover in a small article like this. We’ll be writing more soon covering specific places to visit in the park, but here’s an extremely abbreviated list of what you might expect to do while visiting the park. But first, a word about how long your stay should be. We usually plan a week or more in the park. This year, even though we were tent camping, and therefore had ready access to the places we wanted to see because of our proximity, we had planned about seven days. We had originally planned another three days in Grand Tetons to do some photography, but since local forest fires had made that not practical, we added our time at the Tetons into our time at Yellowstone, preferring to shoot animals instead of scenes of smokey obscured mountains. It was still not enough for us.<\/p>\n Our principal activity usually includes:<\/p>\n General sightseeing – Driving around seeing the unusual landscapes.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Wildlife Viewing – Same as sight seeing, but with a pointed interest in seeking out where the animals are an being there to view them.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Geyser viewing – About half the world\u2019s geysers are in Yellowstone. Don\u2019t miss this opportunity to see them. This includes the mud pots, springs, and so on.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Other activities that are popular are:<\/p>\n Horseback Riding<\/a> – You can do anything from day trips with or without lunch to multi day expeditions into the backcountry. Didn\u2019t see any llama trips though. Might have something to do with the wolves and grizzly bears in the park.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>\n
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