The Visitors

More than three million people visit Yellowstone National Park each year. July and August are the busiest months by far. That’s when things get almost frenetic afternoons at the Old Faithful Inn. It is said that something like 30,000 people visit the Old Faithful area daily during the summer. Most stay just long enough to watch an Old Faithful eruption and buy a t-shirt or ice cream cone.



Old Faithful Inn Lobby, from the Mezzanine

A small number of visitors have the time to linger longer, and have planned ahead enough to spend at least one night inside the Park. It is an entirely different experience for them. By 6:00 pm or so, most of the day visitors have departed, driving to get to their dinner and lodging outside the Park. Evening time in the Park and here in the Upper Geyser Basin are quiet and serene. So go the mornings, too, before the next surge of day visitors arrive. Geyser steam hangs in the cool morning air, and the slanting morning light adds texture and color to the landscapes. When you stay outside the Park, you lose 4-6 hours of daylight experiencing the Park at its best.



Regardless of their individual timetables and motivations, I thoroughly enjoy greeting visitors at the Inn’s Front Desk. They walk slack-jawed into the Inn’s lobby, necks craned upward to the towering log beamed frame and ceiling ninety feet up. The Inn inspires awe, respect and admiration for the remarkable craftsmen who built it in just one year’s time more than a century ago. And, the NPS commitment to historic preservation that keeps it here.

Backroads Cycling Tours

Tauck tour bus

On any given day, one-fourth to one-third of Inn guests is with a tour group. Big-name bus tour operators like Tauck and Caravan; smaller specialty tours enjoying a niche of the Park experience; family/association reunions. I snapped a few representative photos the other morning in the back parking lot on the way to breakfast.

The hectic summer season ended palpably last week with Labor Day. School session ends family vacations, the days have shortened and cooled, and most of the blathering motorcycles are back home. The end of the season has already begun for some Park operations. Labor Day was the last day for Roosevelt Lodge, and many of the activities (horse/stagecoach/boat rides) have already ended too.

YNP Park History Buffs

World Outdoors Hiking Tour

This is a wonderful time to be at Yellowstone. It is much more enjoyable getting around the Park with fewer visitors and lighter traffic. The bison and elk are returning from the more remote parts of the Park and are more visible. The elk rut has begun, quite a show. The rapidly changing Rocky Mountain weather adds drama to this time of year too. There is snow in the forecast for Friday…then sunny and 60’s on Saturday.

Season's closed for Roosevelt Lodge

The season’s end is in sight, but I have five more weeks here. And, the fishing will only get better as the Madison and Firehole come back into play.