Yellowstone National Park marked my final stop in Wyoming as a road-trip bucket-list item to check off.
Like so many places it was hard to leave my Buffalo Family who had been so welcoming and made my stay so amazing. A special thanks to Ray, Heidi and their kids.
A morning departure lead to a scene drive over the mountain into parts of Wyoming most wouldn’t know was there unless they ventured off Interstate 90. Some stunning landscape as you come down through the pass.
I arrived in Coty and filled quickly given I was on fumes (few gas stations along the way). Though I had a location to park with a friend of Ray’s 20 miles north of the city, I elected to stay at the airport where I had wifi at the FBO. This enabled me to handle some business, edit some video and plan these next several days.
Sadly a mishap occurred with one of my drones out on a job so I didn’t get much sleep, but I got an early start and drove up to Yellowstone and quickly forgot about my business woes (especially without phone reception) and enjoyed the route through Buffalo Bill state park before entering Yellowstone National Park. Seeing my truck & hat I got the usual questions about if I was working & reminders that drones aren’t permitted in national parks. At least this kiosk lady realized that as FAR 107 pilots we automatically know better.
I had originally planned 2-3 days for the park, but with the COVID lockdowns still in place in Montana and Idaho, the northern loop was closed. Additionally, since the park had only just reopened, there weren’t the usual crowds or traffic jams and with the early start, I was able to cover a lot of ground very quickly and check off 4 of the 7 key sites I had planned to see in one day.
- Old Faithful
- Grand Prismatic Spring
- Norris Geyser Basin
- Mud Volcano
Morning Glory PoolCastle GeyserJackson Hole
The photo above is a pretty cool phenomenon called a Cloud iridescence (sometimes called a Sun Dog). It happens when it’s cold enough for moisture to crystallize. When light hits those crystals at a specific angle, you get a sundog.
I took nearly 300-400 pictures through the park that day and even did a time-lapse video driving through the park. Below are the 5 additional favorites. Be sure to see my top 30 pictures in the Travel Timeline Album on Facebook.
Definitely watch the time-lapse video of 10 mins from my whole day.
