Greater Yellowstone area Fall 2026
In Mid September my travel companion and I spent 8 nights in the greater Yellowstone area driving over 1500 miles and staying in 5 different towns. The towns, some key locations and our general route can be found on the embedded map.
Arriving to Gardiner later than expected we checked into our hotel and got some dinner before turning in early for our first day in the Park
Day 1 - Gardiner MT to Red Lodge
This was supposed to be a pretty straightforward forward day drive from Gardiner through Yellowstone to Cooke City then over the Beartooth Highway to Red Loge MT for the Night. However one of our bags was delayed so we knew we had to loop back to Bozeman in the afternoon to retrieve it.
Up at 5am to head into Yellowstone and drive to Lamar Valley for Sunrise and hopefully some wildlife.The weather was cloudy and overcast and although we saw several groups of people with spotting scopes, they told us that there was a bear on a grassy hill across the valley. I wasn’t able to find it with my camera or binoculars so it turned into a Bison morning.
A pair of bison crossing the road.
A cow with her Red Dog in tow.
Bison on the edge of a bank right along the road in the sagebrush and wildflowers.
After some time with the Bison in Lamar Valley we doubled back and checked out the Slough Creek area before heading to Tower Falls
Slough Creek on an overcast moody morning
A small group of Bison on a hill near Slough Creek Campground
A Black bear spending the morning foraging for snowberries.
Tower Falls
Some interesting lichens along the trail.
The Yellowstone River Valley near Tower Falls
A mountain goat resting across the Yellowstone river canyon.
A mountain goat, shot at 1000mm and heavily cropped. At the time this was the best shot I ever got of a mountain goat, but that would change later during the trip.
Surprisingly the only Big Horn sheep we saw on this trip laying on the bank directly across the road from where I took the Mountain Goat photos.
Day 2 - Red Lodge to Cody via the
Beartooth Highway and the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway