The Ice Lake trail at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
Credit: Ashwin Rajagopalan
It’s almost midnight and I woke up instinctively reaching out for a bear spray can next to my sleeping bag. Our designated campsite was at Ice Lake on the edge of a pristine lake in the heart of the World’s First National Park. It turned out to be a false alarm; I mistook the snoring of my fellow camper for a hungry bear. This was one of the fun yet anti-climactic moments in a camping adventure that was always high on my travel ‘to-do’ list. Yellowstone National Park is a bear country, home to a large population of grizzly and black bears. But that’s not the only reason to add Yellowstone to your US travel list. It’s one of the best adverts for America’s outdoors, a nation that was built by some of the world’s most fearless adventurers. Luckily, exploring the outdoors is a lot easier in 2023.
The prep
My camping adventure — with two of my school buddies who now live in Los Angeles, began in Boseman, Montana, one of the closest airports to Yellowstone. My fellow happy campers will argue that it began in LA when they started putting the camping gear together even before I flew out of India. The key to camping is preparation. You make a list, revisit that list and carry a few extras even if they might add to the heft of your massive backpack.
Your list ought to include essentials like tents, sleeping bags (I’d also recommend sleeping pads that add a layer of support under your sleeping bag) and freeze-dried meals that are easy to cook — all you need is boiling water. Aside from the right apparel for the season, you also need the right footwear that can cope with uneven surfaces and sheets of ice; surfaces that I encountered during my trip between fall (autumn) and winter. This is backcountry camping at its very best and Yellowstone is one of the best National Parks in the US for your first trip. This is where it all began.
A 150-year-old legend
It was a fascinating period, a time when the Gold Rush had begun to taper off and yet the great push to the West continued in the US. It’s what makes the decision of the US Federal government (to designate Yellowstone as the first National Park on March 1, 1872) a path-breaking move.
The Yellowstone National Park Protection Act deemed the entire Park as a “reserved area withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale and dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people”. America’s National Park Service was formally underway.
Size does matter
Spread across 2.2 million acres and three states — Wyoming, Montana and Idaho in the western United States, Yellowstone is also one of America’s largest green lungs. Yellowstone National Park maintains 293 designated backcountry campsites. Each designated campsite has a maximum limit for the number of people (up to 12 people per campsite) allowed per night, while the maximum stay per campsite varies from 1 to 3 nights per trip.
Always shows up on time
To call it the world’s most famous geyser may not be an exaggeration. First discovered in 1870 by the Washburn Expedition, the Old Faithful geyser earned its name for its frequent and predictable eruptions. It keeps showing up approximately once every 75 minutes even after a million eruptions since 1872.
Located in Yellowstone’s Upper Geyser Basin, Old Faithful can vary in height from 100-180 feet, while the eruptions typically between 1.5 to 5 minutes. This is also Yellowstone’s most visited spot and can get crowded during peak seasons and weekends — one reason I picked a shoulder season and got there early. I’d urge you to be there before noon if you want a vantage spot — do remember to capture this magnificent sight in time-lapse mode. The site is more crowded from 12 to 6 pm when most bus tours and visitors arrive.
Great for the gram
It might have been Old Faithful Geyser that first brought me to Yellowstone but it was the Grand Prismatic Hot Spring that made a big impression. This is my favourite spot at Yellowstone, the most photographed thermal feature at the park and the third-largest spring in the world; The multicoloured layers get their psychedelic colours from different species of thermophile (heat-loving) bacteria living in the progressively cooler water around the spring. I suggest taking the Grand Prismatic Overlook trail for the best views of this multi-coloured spring and Midway Geyser Basin. You need to be ready to clock those steps if you’re at Yellowstone.
Some tips for the road
You need to secure a permit for backcountry camping. Our campsite — Ice Lake, was about 5 km from our parking lot. Backcountry camping is different from backpacking — it refers to carrying all that you need and arriving at your campsite by foot. Backpacking is just how you get to your backcountry camping site. Backcountry camping requires a basic level of fitness — enough to lug 30kg backpacks as you walk through winding trails that can also include an incline. All campers need to sign in at one of the Park offices and view a video that helps you prepare for bear ‘interactions’. One of the backcountry essentials is bear spray (that you always keep holstered) to create a quick cloud of spray to divert the bears. The other trick is to drop down and play dead with your backpack serving as a shield against the bear. These tips are invaluable and one reason why only 44 people have been injured in bear attacks since 1979 (Yellowstone has hosted over 118 million visits during this period).
My only bear encounter was a grizzly, a safe distance away that we spotted from the highway on our way back. Maybe a closer encounter awaits on my next trip to Yellowstone. That’s the thing with Yellowstone National Park, it grows on you.