Review and report of the ABD Wyoming trip, August 17, 2025

[Eastridge]

Visitor Center

After the bike ride, the bus continued north and stopped at a nice visitor center for a rest and bathroom break.

 

[Eastridge]

Lunch at Jackson Lake Lodge (Mural Room)

We had lunch in the historic Mural Room at Jackson Lake Lodge. I think this is a relatively new addition to the ABD Wyoming itinerary and a very welcome one. The views from the hotel and dining room are stunning.













The food was ok but the views are amazing. The Mural Room is named for several murals hanging in the restaurant.



This hotel hosted an annual meeting of the Federal Reserve later in the week. There was a major speech by the head of the Fed on Friday, but we were at Brooks Lake Lodge by that point.

 

[Eastridge]

Day 3 pin

During lunch, they handed out the Day 3 pins:







I never did see a Jackalope during the trip, though.

 

[Eastridge]

Yellowstone

We then headed north into Yellowstone. We got our only bear sighting during this drive. A small black bear crossed the road right in front of us, then disappeared into the trees. Lili and Eileen said it was their first bear sighting of the entire season. None of us were fast enough to take a photo while it was on the road, but we did get photos of its backside...



There was a photo stop with the Yellowstone sign

The leaning tree of Yellowstone​

 

[Eastridge]

West Thumb Geyser Basin

This afternoon and tomorrow were spent in Yellowstone. We drove most of the main loop in the park. The first major stop was at West Thumb Geyser Basin, a collection of thermal features adjacent to the West Thumb of Lake Yellowstone.



The first rule of Yellowstone is: Don't step off the boardwalk.
The second rule of Yellowstone is: Don't step off the boardwalk.

Every site had a large sign warning about this, in six languages.



The local guide mentioned more stories than I cared to hear about a bison cooking itself in a hot spring (becoming bison hot pot), and a dog, and people...

ABD provided binoculars (that didn't work well) and thermometers that could measure the temperature of the hot springs. Other people not in our group got curious and asked about those.

Abyss pool is deep. The uniform blue color means it is hot.​

 

[Eastridge]

Old Faithful Inn

Our hotel this evening was the historic Old Faithful Inn. Not all ABD Wyoming groups get to stay here. Many others stay at different hotels in the area. It has a stunning lobby and is adjacent to the Old Faithful geyser and many others.

So the hotel staff doesn't have to answer your question about when the geyser is erupting​

The feature at the top of the lobby is the "Crow's Nest." But since the support beams were damaged in an earthquake, they block guests from climbing all the way to the top.

If you have visited the Wilderness Lodge in Disney World, this may look familiar. The Wilderness Lodge was inspired by this and other historic National Park lodges.

 

[Eastridge]

Old Faithful Inn (room)

The original rooms in this inn have communal bathrooms. Fortunately, ABD provided us rooms in a newer wing.







And you could see the Old Faithful geyser from the room!

View of the geyser from our hotel room, in the morning when no tourists were around. Somebody forgot to turn off the geyser overnight.​

This hotel was a mix of pros and cons:

Pros

• Can't ask for a better location or to be closer to the geyser and visitor center. We saw the geyser erupting multiple times.
• Historic hotel

Cons

• No TV (but hey, we have tablets)
• No WiFi (ok, the tablets don't help so much)
• Poor cell reception with Verizon. The bandwidth improved in the morning when the thousands of day tourists were gone but it was still slow
• The plumbing seemed to have a mind of its own. I had to constantly twiddle with the water temperature.
• No AC. The room got hot and stuffy. We did have a fan. I should have left the window open. I had a tough time sleeping.

While it was an interesting experience, I'm glad we were there only one night.

Old Faithful, right on time​

There are many other geysers in the area besides Old Faithful, but we didn't have time to explore.

 

[Eastridge]

Old Faithful Inn (dinner)

For dinner, the ABD guides made individual reservations for each family group in the main restaurant. You could either choose the buffet or order a la carte. We heard that the food was better if you ordered a la carte. So that's what we did. Since I could pick any entree, I picked the $60 rib eye.

Then we waited an hour for the food to arrive. The ribeye was huge, but lacked flavor. I only ate half. Pick the buffet instead.

 

[georgiagirl2]

Lunch in the Mural Room is a really nice addition to the itinerary! Our ABD group had a picnic beside String Lake. We didn't go to Jackson Lake Lodge at all.

Our family went back to the Tetons and Yellowstone when the kids were teenagers and stopped there to eat at the Pioneer Grill lunch counter. The views from the Mural Room and the porch out back were stunning!

That's great that you got to stay at the Old Faithful Inn and what an incredible view from your room! Our group stayed at the Snow Lodge, also not air-conditioned, although it was pretty cool the night we were there.

 

[toesmom]

Old Faithful Inn

Our hotel this evening was the historic Old Faithful Inn. Not all ABD Wyoming groups get to stay here. Many others stay at different hotels in the area. It has a stunning lobby and is adjacent to the Old Faithful geyser and many others.

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So the hotel staff doesn't have to answer your question about when the geyser is erupting​

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The feature at the top of the lobby is the "Crow's Nest." But since the support beams were damaged in an earthquake, they block guests from climbing all the way to the top.

If you have visited the Wilderness Lodge in Disney World, this may look familiar. The Wilderness Lodge was inspired by this and other historic National Park lodges.

Thank you for posting these photos. Old Faithful Inn looks exactly like Wilderness Lodge. Sounds like it was a great trip

 

[sayhello]

• If you aren't willing or able to do the activities (whitewater rafting, hike a couple of miles at high elevation with significant climbing, horseback riding, fishing, bike 8 miles) then I don't think it is worth the expense.

Well, that pretty much answers that. Maybe. I don't mind whitewater rafting (and this looks pretty mild with such a huge raft) or the hike, but the horseback riding would probably be out (unless it's mostly a horse walk), I'm not really into fishing (although I could try it, I guess) and I don't think an 8 mile bike ride I *have* to finish would be happening.

I was actually thinking of *maybe* doing this trip next year as I'd like to stay domestic, but I'm thinking probably not at this point. I keep hoping they'll introduce another domestic trip next year...

I had considered arriving a day early to spend a day here, but decided against it because a prenight at the Wort would have been over $1600 and Snow King wanted over $200 per person for a day pass. Hm, at those prices I can go to Disneyland instead...

YIKES!! I don't think so!!

Staying at the Old Faithful Lodge does sound cool, but I agree -- it's a one night thing!

Sayhello

 

[aggiedog]

Old Faithful Inn looks exactly like Wilderness Lodge.

Because the OF Inn is the OG of park architecture. The Wilderness Lodge was modeled after it, as were several other iconic NP lodges.

I'm enjoying the trip report because I love this area of the country. I can't help thinking that this is one trip that would absolutely not be worth it for me, though. It's a lot of money to get a bare taste of the parks. The OF geyser basin is really pretty, and an easy walk along the boardwalk. It's unfortunate you didn't have to time to explore it more.

The majority of the rooms at OFI have their own bathrooms, though they are all in the newer, much larger wings. I've stayed in the shared bath rooms. They are quite charming, and the bathroom was just down the hall, always clean, and always empty. Each room has its own sink, which helped. It's not what I'd want for a pricy ABD trip, but it was perfect when we were there for a few nights to explore that section of the park.

Jackson is stupid expensive. I'm not at all surprised that hotel was so much. Even the basic "cheap" hotels are $300+/night. As gorgeous as Grand Teton is, I did not like Jackson for the "billionaire playground" vibe it gives. Most locals can't afford to live there, and many of the houses are empty because they're vacation homes for the ultra-rich.

Sorry, back to gorgeous western scenery. Looking forward to more YS pics!

 

[Eastridge]

Jackson is stupid expensive. I'm not at all surprised that hotel was so much. Even the basic "cheap" hotels are $300+/night.

Besides the Wort, I did check other hotels and they were more than I wanted to pay. E.g. a Marriott chain hotel was about $800 as I recall... But I was looking on fairly short notice. Maybe it is similar to Alaska where the summer season is short.

 

[Eastridge]

Day 4: Yellowstone Journey

We got an early start today. Luggage was out at 7am and we had to board the bus at 7:45am. Breakfast was in the main dining room and we got the buffet to avoid delays.

There is a company in Yellowstone that has a monopoly on guides. Lili and Eileen were not allowed to officially do guiding activities while in Yellowstone. Of course they still accompanied us, explained things on the bus and took photos. And ABD is unable to pick which local guide they use. They just get assigned whoever the monopoly provides.

Unfortunately, our local guide did a poor job. It's not worth getting into details since you won't get the same person if you go on this trip. But ABD couldn't control that part, and the same problem exists with any other guided tour in Yellowstone. Lili did say they had some excellent local guides on previous trips.

Today, we basically finish most of the grand loop around the main area of Yellowstone. Overall, ABD did a good job of covering some highlights of Yellowstone. Obviously you can't cover a park this large in one day, but I was satisfied with what we saw.

We first drove by Biscuit Basin. There was a large explosion here last year, which some tourists managed to record.

I can't seem to link to the second, so go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGI3U5ExyGU in your browser

 

[Eastridge]

Midway Geyser Basin

Our first stop was Midway Geyser Basin, early in the morning so Wade didn't have problems finding parking.



Excelsior Geyser used to be huge. Today it sends thousands of gallons of boiling water per minute into a nearby stream.







The crown jewel of hot springs is Grand Prismatic Spring. We walked by the edge. You can see some of the rainbow-like coloration, caused by variations in the water temperature enabling different microorganisms to grow. But to really appreciate it, you need to see it from the air, which we didn't get to do.

Someone didn't stay on the boardwalk​

 

[Eastridge]

Third rule of Yellowstone

The third rule is: Don't stand next to a bison to pose for photos.

Found this video while searching for the others. It amazes me that some people want to win the Darwin Award.

You can get a selfie with this bison​

 

[Eastridge]

Fountain Paint Pots

The next stop was at the Fountain Paint Pots, which has examples of every type of thermal feature: fumaroles, hot springs, geysers and mudpots.



They have "bobby socks trees" which died and then act like big straws, sucking up the minerals and turning the bases white.

Mudpots​

Fumaroles​

Hot spring​

Geyser​

By this point in the day, parking was difficult. People who shouldn't be parking in bus spots were parking there. An advantage of the ABD tour was I didn't have to worry about any of that. Wade and the guides dealt with the situation...

The competition is here, too​

 

[Eastridge]

Madison

We drove by Givens Falls:



And then took a rest break in an area called Madison. Apparently this was the spot where an expedition got the idea to create a National Park

 

[Eastridge]

Canyon Village

The lunch break was at Canyon Village. We got preprepared lunch boxes. The facilities had a visitor center, restrooms and a nice gift shop.



After this we headed to the nearby Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The visitor center had a model. Our hike there covered only a tiny fraction of the length of the canyon.