The Gardiner Chamber of Commerce is located in a shopping center right across and right outside the…read moreentrance of Yellowstone. There is plenty of parking. If anyone needs to use the restroom , I recommend coming here and using these nice clean restrooms. These are just to relive yourself , absolutely NO grooming yourself like a sink bath or anything like that . They had signs prohibiting that. There are lots and lots of magazines , maps , and pamphlets here that are free. There are also lots of little information areas inside. They had information and displays on the rocks and fossils in Yellowstone. They had the nicest volunteers who were ready to help with all the publications I was filling my arms up with. I explained that the tourist books are what helps me be Yelpful on Yelp ;) I would stop here if you have younger ones that need a cool spot to walk around on warm days for a few minutes or if you need to inquire about permits for anything from fishing to camp spots. They can answer your questions.

We liked Gardiner MT at the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park. It's a very small town,…read moreand we found it easy to walk everywhere. There were cute and rustic places to eat and to shop. Some of them have a good number of years of history behind them. The next time we come to The Yellowstone national Park, maybe we'll stay in Gardiner.

Roosevelt Arch is located at the North Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. It's a beautiful…read morehistoric arch and a great place for a quick stop, especially because there are often lots of elk in the area. The arch has the famous inscription: "FOR THE BENEFIT AND ENJOYMENT OF THE PEOPLE," created by an Act of Congress on March 1, 1872. Seeing this historic message made me appreciate the effort to preserve Yellowstone for people to enjoy. It's amazing to think that the idea of protecting this beautiful place goes all the way back to the 1800s. I salute those early efforts to preserve Yellowstone for generations to come.

Roosevelt Arch is a grand entryway, named because The President was visiting the park, just this…read moreone time, in 1903. It's 50-ft tall, made of local columnar basalt. It was built to welcome travelers from the Gardiner train station to Yellowstone National Park, which starts right here. It was very cool to walk through the short narrow tunnels through the arch. And we saw several elk on hillsides to the west.

Driving north on the east side of Grand Loop Road, still about 2-mi south of Tower Junction, we saw…read morea bunch of cars parked at the Tower Falls Scenic Overlook parking area, next to the Tower General Store. There was a fairly flat trail that took us around 400 feet up Tower Falls Trail to the overlook, with a great view of the 132-ft falls. It was an easy walk to a nice scenic sight, roaring with falling water. Thomas Moran's 1871 painting of Tower Falls was instrumental in the establishment of Yellowstone National Park the next year. There are flush-restrooms at the north end of the parking area, outside of the Tower General Store, at the Tower Falls Trailhead.

Nice stop to stretch your legs, use the restroom, grab a bite, buy a souvenir and see a waterfall…read morefrom a distance! We were on our way back to West Yellowstone and decided to stop here. It's one of the nicer stops with a gift shop, food and flushing toilets. The waterfall view was further away than I expected. It was still cool to see and a short walk from the parking lot, but we have many super cool waterfalls in the PNW, so it's hard to impress me I guess. We did use the facilities and they were nice and clean. The gift shop was larger than expected and had a nice variety of merchandise. The snack bar was a first for me! You had to order at a kiosk, pay, take your receipt up to the counter and get your food. Their menu was limited to bison brats, hotdogs, ice-cream scoops with cups or cones, and beverages. Prices were pretty normal for inside Yellowstone NP. Overall we were happy we stopped. It was nice to get out of the car for a bit and grab a bite. Would recommend.

We saw the Liberty Cap Hot Spring Dome south of the Mammoth WY historic district. The dome is just…read moreto the west of a parking area on Grand Loop Road at the Lower Terraces North Trailhead. It was an unusual sight: a 37-ft tall narrow standalone ski-cap-shaped formation created over hundreds of years by calcium carbonate deposits from a stationary spring in this area of constantly-shifting underground channels. The Lower Terraces North Trailhead lies south of the dome, and curves north between the dome and the terraces. The dome is easily seen from a parking area just east of the road. There's more parking a few hundred feet north on both sides of the road, and a public restroom west of the road a few hundred feet further north.

There are a lot of shops in this little touristy town! We ate at Firehole BBQ Company which was ok…read moreand then had ice cream at another place. Just about every shop has souvenirs of all sorts for you to buy. *West Yellowstone Visitor Information Center is in town, this is not located in the National Park - very helpful and informative staff *The entrance to Yellowstone National Park is really close-by, about ¼ mile away or so. *Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center - small admission fee, but well worth it and tickets are good for two consecutive days. We went for part of one day, but wished we had time to go again. *Museum of the Yellowstone - there's a small fee to enter. We didn't go in, but we did walk along the front to view the vehicles, buffalo and bear sculptures. Nice small town with plenty of things to do before & after visiting Yellowstone National Park!

+ Idyllic neighborhood rest town before you head in to Yellowstone…read more + Lots of shops and restaurants and gentle sightseeing around town in preparation for your big trip. - Traffic slightly different here. For Yellowstone Ave (leads directly into the park), instead of numerous street lights to keep traffic steady, it's a 25 MPH speed limit. But thus, if you're trying to get on to this street, you gotta carefully look all 3 ways farther down (not just left and right, but also across the street if someone else is also trying to get on to this street); don't have any red lights to hold the traffic for you, like at the Electric St intersection.

Madison Junction is a mountainous part of Yellowstone, on the west side of the park, just within…read morethe west entrance. It's the confluence of the Madison and Gibbon Rivers, where they go from snow melt and hot springs through the park, to ultimately merge into the Yellowstone River. This area is full of wildlife- including the great American Bison! They're out here in numbers. There's so many of them. Fortunately, there's lots of pull off opportunities to get a good gander at the bison without jeopardizing the traffic. Madison offers a smaller visitors center, but the real visitors center is in West Yellowstone. Madison Junction has become one of the more major entrances to the park since the floods washed out the roads from the North Entrance. The campgrounds here looked nice, lots of shade.

My favorite part of the park I start at the west entrance and travel to the Madison junction and…read moreback to entrance I see almost every animal in the park beautiful area

The United States Government, as they say, is the worst form of government. Except for all the…read moreothers that have been tried! -1 star for the electoral college. Would sign social contract again.

Wonderful and helpful personnel who located and forwarded my missing mail. Thank you, folks!read more

Bunsen peak is a lovely hike that I would consider to be moderate. I received the rec to do this…read morehike from a ranger at the station near West Geyser after I'd asked about Mount Washburn trail and Avalanche peak (recs from a friend). The ranger told me that the peaks were actually still covered in snow (per cameras they have) and that the trails would be icy even though it was the end of May, so they wouldn't be recommended. But she said that Bunsen offers a lovely landscape peak at the top and had almost no snow at all so it would be a good option. I'm glad I went! The trailhead has a small parking lot, there were a couple spots available when I came around 10am. It took me about an hour to go up the trail to the peak, and I did encounter some snow and slippery areas because of how steep they were near the peak, but it was navigable with just my hiking boots (I didn't have chains or crampons on). The view at the top was totally worth it, it was just stunning! You get a 360 view depending on where you're standing, and the weather was excellent too - clear skies with just a few clouds and a cool breeze but it isn't cold since you're moving around. Was a great place to stop for a snack, and I actually had 2-3 bars of signal so I FaceTimed my mom to show her the view. Would rec this trail to anyone visiting Yellowstone who wants a moderate hike with a gorgeous sweeping view of the park, including all the way into mammoth lake area and Montana!

Remember the old days in high school where you got to use a Bunsen Burner in science lab? Well this…read morepeak is named after the guy who invented it - German chemist Robert Bunsen. He was responsible for early work on volcanic geyser theories and got a mountain named after him for it. When I visited Yellowstone, my goal was to do a hike everyday. This one was probably my favorite. It's relatively short and gives you amazing panoramic views. The hike to Bunsen Peak summit is 2.1 miles (4.2 miles roundtrip). You can get there and back in 3-4 hrs. But you don't have to go all the way to the top to get great views. You can see Mammoth Hot Springs in the far distance within the first hour of the hike. The beginning part of the hike is filled with a lot of trees until you make a turn at Cathedral Rock. Then you hit a lot of switchbacks until you get to the top. You can continue on to Osprey Falls from the summit if you want to make your day a little longer. Parking for Bunsen Peak is right off Grand Loop Road. The lot is pretty small and fills up quick. There is another parking lot across the street and down the road a little bit if you don't mind the short walk. This hike was a lot of fun! I highly recommend you fit it in your day if you are visiting Yellowstone.