In the famed Lamar Valley … bison. In the middle of the two-lane road … bison. In the middle of the parking lot??? Yep, bison. Bison, buffalo … bah! Whatever you call them, they’re everywhere at Yellowstone National Park.

What a wondrous, diverse place – some parts composed of serene forest and lakes, other areas a roiling, boiling, bubbling muck of a landscape. 3,500 square miles teeming with animals and plants of all flavors, waterfalls that capture the imagination, a backcountry that’s larger than multiple U.S. states, and – oh yeah – the largest volcanic caldera on earth.

Our intrepid tour group attempted to tackle Yellowstone’s top sights in a jam-packed two days and one night. Even with the advantages of staying inside the park overnight and leaving the driving to someone else (more about Eric later), we still missed several key spots. The park is easily worth three days to the casual traveler sticking to the roads. To dig deeper into the jewels of the backcountry requires a week at minimum.

Heading north and west from Cody, we found the poorly-marked turnoff for Wyo. 296, the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway. The 47-mile highway is named for the Nez Perce leader who cleverly outran the U.S. cavalry for three months in the summer of 1877. The road features dramatic vistas, Wyoming’s highest bridge (Sunlight Gorge), and a series of switchbacks evocative of a Tour de France mountain climb. The Byway ends just east of Cooke City, Mont. – 10 miles further on got us to Yellowstone’s Northeast Entrance. See our route here.

The remote northeastern quadrant of the park contains the Lamar Valley, the best place to view wildlife. The winter and spring belong to the predators, bears and wolves. During our trip in late August, the prey were at play – first a lone buffalo, then a couple of pronghorn antelope, then 70 bison off in the distance. At one stop we viewed 50 bison about 50 yards away, got back on the bus … and then noticed the 10 bison on the opposite side right next to the roadway!

Yellowstone’s Grand Loop connects the eight developed areas of the park. Tower Junction is the first of the eight stops and houses Roosevelt Lodge, complete with the park’s most popular tour – chuck wagon rides. Turn south from here and you ascend to the park’s highest road at Dunraven Pass.

Our route took us west instead to Mammoth Hot Springs, the park’s year-round hub of activity. For four decades after the park’s creation in 1872, the US Army held command of the park from Fort Yellowstone – now home to a visitor center and historic site. Across the meadow, I stole off on my own for a few minutes when I noticed a dirt trail leading up the perimeter of the hot springs, well away from the boardwalk-tromping tourist crowd. It’s amazing what you can find when you take one step out of the ordinary.

The hot springs were an appetizer next to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Words can barely describe the natural beauty of the 309-foot Lower Falls meshed with the golden-colored surrounding rock from Inspiration Point. Trust me, you need to see this for yourself! The neighboring Canyon Village boasts a wonderful interpretative exhibit on the Yellowstone Caldera, the world’s lone active supervolcano, as well as a plethora of souvenir and sundry stores.

South of Canyon our group experienced its one animal jam – a 2,000-pound bull buffalo that was not in a hurry to get anywhere. Fifteen minutes later, the bison pulled over into the other lane to let us zoom by. Seriously, plan on an average speed of 30 miles an hour tops when figuring travel times.

Having trouble seeing wildlife? Many of the park’s species are crepuscular – e.g. most active at dawn and again at twilight. (Insert vampire movie joke here.) After passing the lake for the first time, we pulled next to Old Faithful just as it was erupting. Many oooh’s, some ahhh’s and in a couple minutes it was over, waiting to be predicted upon again.

Speaking of beating the tourists, there is nothing like having Old Faithful to yourself! I woke up at 6 am, calculated the next eruption time, then trundled over to the south side of the geyser and waited (for those of you scoring at home, walk out of the Inn, go towards the geyser, then hang a right and stop when the benches end). Not a soul I could see was up at this ungodly hour on a Sunday morning, the dawn breaking on a mostly cloudy day. Suddenly, a fountain of boiling water reached for the sky fifty feet high and I had no steam to obscure my view. More impressively, the dawn revealed a cast of forty, maybe fifty other geysers puffing away in the distance like backup singers at a concert. For four minutes I was treated to my own show – what an absolute treat! That right there is what makes Old Faithful such a mythic figure in the National Parks’ pantheon of sights.

Old Faithful is at the head of a series of geyser basins along the west side of the Grand Loop. The most spectacular of these are the Fountain Paint Pots, halfway between Old Faithful and Madison Junction. All four types of geothermal features are found within 200 yards of each other – hot springs (pools of water), mudpots (bubbling brews of sulfuric acid eating away at the surrounding silica), fumaroles (all hot air and kinda loud) and geyser (either fountain or cone varieties – go look it up). I like the mudpots best – naturally bubbly, like me!

A road closure forced us to backtrack past Old Faithful, over 8,000-foot-plus Craig Pass and the Continental Divide to arrive at Yellowstone Lake. During the winter, the 136 square miles of lake is completely covered in three feet of solid ice – it’s often the coldest place in America on a given night four months out of the year. Due to time constraints we skipped West Thumb and its geyser basin as well as Grant Village, another supply hub and camping venue. The road out to the East Entrance is a prime example of Yellowstone’s firescapes, areas decimated by fire that are left alone to rebuild as if humans were not present. Lodgepole pine dominates the park – its cones release their seeds only when heated by fire! Xanterra, Yellowstone’s concessionaire, offers informative tours on a wide array of subjects. During the winter, the little yellow buses gain army tank treads to morph into snowcoaches. We were fortunate to have a former community college biology professor as our tour guide. Eric Genz-Mould effortlessly translates his 24 years of visiting and working at the park into an entertaining, considered narrative that left us uttering words like serotinous and diurnal in a happily-informed daze. If you’re getting a group together to go to Yellowstone and decide to take a Xanterra tour, ask for Eric by name … you’re welcome in advance! The drive back to Cody out the East Entrance on the Buffalo Bill Scenic Highway even brought a surprise. The road was lined with red rock canyon for a stretch and we stopped for a photo. Silhouetted in the distance was Duck Rock, but to me, it looked like a certain famous, mischievous cartoon character. You be the judge! Overall, the trip to Yellowstone was absolutely amazing – hope to see you out there next summer!