The last time I got the chance to travel west and see more of this beautiful country was all the way back in March of 2024. On that trip, I visited the Redwood National Park and saw much of the Oregon Coastline. A trip just two months later would take me to the Mississippi River for the solar eclipse, but since then, I’ve been sitting right here at home in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.
Just after that trip last April, my best friend packed his bags and moved to Montana. I followed him as far as Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, before saying goodbye and promising to come visit. He is one of the many reasons I am as into the outdoors as I am today, and he is well versed in my photography obsession. I finally made the trip to visit in late July, and this trip would take me back to where the National Park Service started.
Image: NPS
I consider myself a purveyor of National Parks, although most of my visiting just started within the past couple years. Growing up near the Great Smokies has been great, but I have expanded my visits to include 8 National Park units with at least 3 more planned by the end of the year.
Yellowstone National Park was first designated as a public park in 1872, well before the National Park Service was brought into existence by Woodrow Wilson in 1916. Since then, the NPS has grown to manage 430 different sites of natural and cultural significance. Georgia is home to 10 of these sites, including Cumberland Island National Seashore. The NPS also helps manage the Appalachian Trail.
Yellowstone is the 8th largest National Park coming in at a whopping 2,219,791 acres or 3,471 square miles. The park is mostly in Wyoming, though small bits reach into both Idaho and Montana.
My flights out there took me through the Denver Airport where I saw my first snow of the trip high on the distant peaks. The views from the plane on the way to Denver were lacking due to clouds, but near a sunset landing in Billings I was witness to some beautiful cloud formations and eventually the mighty Yellowstone River that I would be following for the next few days.
Our trip would start from the industrial town of Billings, Montana. Despite being the largest town in the entire state, Billings seems incredibly small compared to our cities locally. It is around the same size as Asheville, NC, although it has a very different feel. The numerous mountains and buttes around the region are truly spectacular.
Jimmy Buffett fans will recognize one of the towns we drove through as we exited the interstate to start south into Yellowstone. Livingston, MT was the inspiration for “Livingston Saturday Night”. We were there on a Wednesday this trip, and didn’t have time to stop.
As the road winds south towards the park, the views get increasingly spectacular. You follow Highway 89 past numerous ranches and cabins and parallel the mighty Yellowstone River.
You leave the river behind as you head into the small town of Mammoth that marks the North Entrance to the park. On this particular day the crowds weren’t too bad, and we made a quick stop to pick up our back country permits that would allow us to camp in the further reaches of the park for the next 2 nights. Our trip was just getting started, and from the visitor’s center we could see the first steam on the hillsides: the ground seemed to be on fire…..
