I Visited Yellowstone National Park the Day it Opened Post-COVID-19 Quarantine, This is What Happened

Most of the world has been locked down for at least 8 weeks for social distancing, the National Parks in the USA are slowly opening on a limited capacity.  I happened to be isolating in Billings, MT when I heard the announcement that Yellowstone National Park would be opening at noon on Monday, May 18^th.   I decided to make a trip over to the park for a day on May 19^th, the first full day of opening.

What is open?  As of late May 2020, only the Wyoming entrances are open  – those from the south thru Grand Teton Park and east from Cody, WY.  Montana and Idaho have quarantines for non-essential out of state visitors, therefore they are discouraging tourists from going through their states.  Within Yellowstone National Park, only toilets, trails, and gas stations are open.  All overnight accommodation, including campgrounds, are currently closed.   Check the Yellowstone NP page under nps.gov for latest updates. 

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First, a bit of my history – I have been to Yellowstone previously four or five times in my life, the first time visiting on a family road trip in 1988, which was highly impacted by the major wildfires that summer.  I have also visited several times during my adult life – always in the shoulder seasons of May or September.    While I love the sights of Yellowstone, I don’t love the crowds – recently over 4,000,000 visitors in a year.

Yellowstone closed for the COVID-19 pandemic on March 24, 2020, so having the chance to visit on the first full opening day after a nearly 8 week closure, also on a weekday, was my hope to see the park without the crowds.  I was hopeful and cautious that the wildlife would be more abundant than usual – as car traffic often scares the animals to the more remote places in the park.

After a 3 hour drive to the park, we arrived at the east entrance around 9:00 am.  There were two entrance booths open and about 6 cars waiting to enter the park.  After a short wait, I flashed my $80 annual national park pass I obtained in Denali National Park last year, and we were given a map.  There is no physical contact with the park rangers, they have fashioned a contact-less swivel pad, with an attached credit card machine (they are encouraging use of credit and debit cards instead of cash to pay the $35 entrance fee). 

What Did We See?

We started the ascent to the top of the Yellowstone caldera – most of the attractions in Yellowstone are at the top of a super volcano.  With the outer north and west sections of the park closed, you can only drive the circular drive through the middle.  We chose to make the drive counterclockwise, but it looked like over half of the cars were heading clockwise around the circle, by heading straight towards Old Faithful.  Along this counterclockwise route we saw the following:

• Yellowstone Lake – The lake was vastly covered in ice with polka dots on May 19^th, but the ice was retreating fast!  Many feet of ice had disappeared between our drive by in the morning vs. the late afternoon.
• Mud Volcano – this isn’t shaped like your typical conical volcano, but the mud is super active here.  You can also see the Dragon’s mouth spring.
• Hayden Valley – this is supposed to be one of the premier spots for wildlife but there wasn’t much fauna during my visit.
• Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and upper and lower falls – from Artist Point and Inspiration point.  Artist Point is the classic view of the waterfall. Inspiration point has great views of the colorful canyon.
• Artists Paint Pots – we had a brisk 1 mile hike, some uphill, to view the colorful, muddy pools
• Fountain Paint Pot – about a half mile walk to see small geysers and a beautiful pool
• Grand Prismatic Spring and Excelsior Geyser
• Black Sand Basin
• Old Faithful, and other geysers in this area.  Old Faithfull used to erupt more frequently, but now it goes off about every 90 minutes.   Usually you can find out what times the geyser are expected to erupt, but there were no such signs with the limited opening of YNP.  If you have some time to wait, it’s worth taking a walk to visit other geysers such as Castle or Grand Geyser.  If you have a little more time, you can hike over to the morning glory pool. 

Was the Wildlife Spectacular?

It wasn’t long after entering the park before we pulled over for a seasonal waterfall from snow melt and we spotted three Bighorn Sheep on the hillside.  A bit further, we were driving along the partially ice covered Yellowstone Lake when we spotted our first Bison along the roadside – we would later see 100s of Bison (sometimes called American Buffalo) throughout the day.   Near Grand Geyser, we saw two yellow-bellied Marmots playing as the geyser erupted.  But the biggest wildlife highlight of the day was seen just a few miles west of the eastern entrance, just as we were leaving the park.  We saw a few cars pulled over and folks with big lens.  So we joined the few people to see a Grizzly Bear having a spring feast – digging something from the ground and eating it.  It’s a good think the bear was occupied by food because the spectators were much closer than the recommended 100 yards from the bear.

I recommend you get a camera with a great zoom so you don’t have to be so close to animals, yet still get decent shots.  All photos in this post were taken by me with a FZ80 Panasonic Lumix Superzoom Camera.  I recommend this camera if you want a good balance between quality, zoom, and a reasonably small camera size and weight.

Was Anything Closed at Yellowstone?

Yes – much of Yellowstone park was closed – including most of the shops, all of the visitor centers, restaurants.   All of the short, one-way, scenic drives around the main road were closed – I could see the roads full of animal feces and fallen tree limbs.   Other spots at higher elevation were still closed due to snow cover, but it looks like the snow will be quick to melt this year.

How many visitors were in the park?

Not many.  While it seemed there were quite a few cars entering around the same time – about 8 of them were pulled over to see those first Bison along the road, the total number of cars was by far the fewest I’ve seen in the park.  It was amazing to stop at a parking lot that normally allows 50-100 parked cars and there were three.  The only parking area that was a bit busy was the small lot at Grand Prismatic Spring.  Thanks to this being a major Instagram spot, it gets many visitors.  This lot was about 1/3 full on the day of my visit.    But the people came from all over America – I saw license plates from California, Washington, Kentucky, Minnesota, Michigan, Maryland, and more.

Is it possible to Social Distance in Yellowstone?

There are signs at most trailheads and viewpoints to be vigilant in the days of COVID-19.  The signs remind us to recreate responsibly – Stay on Trail, Cover Your Cough, Wear a Mask if you can’t keep 6-feet distance, and Don’t Touch your eyes, nose and mouth.  Other spots simply have a sign reminding you to keep 6 feet distance.  At some of the trails, there were one-way signs so you wouldn’t have to cross so many people.  The peoples’ reactions were mixed – many people without masks would say a quick ‘hi’ as I passed, others started up conversations, and a small percentage seemed to wear masks on every trail.  People did their best to maintain distance but one lady did angrily point at the 6-foot sign as I crossed a boardwalk to get a picture. 

Any other recommendations?

While there weren’t many visitors so early in the season, I can see the numbers increasing greatly, especially after school lets out and people get sick of staying home.   Bring a Face Mask if you are some of the more crowed walkways, such as Grand Prismatic Spring. 

Bring Hand Sanitizer – it’s easy to put your hands on a railing and most of the toilets in Yellowstone are of a vault toilet type – so no sinks to wash your hands.  There are sinks at the bathrooms of the major visitor centers, but I imagine these will eventually be busy.

If you are visiting from the eastern side of the park, absolutely DO NOT MISS a visit to Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area.  This is an absolutely beautiful park that is little visited (except the marina which can be moderately busy).  But it’s possible to do short hikes to viewpoints where it feels like you have the park to yourself.  It’s also possible to see wildlife such as Bighorn Sheep and wild mustangs.  It’s super easy to social distance here. 

Since accommodation is closed in the park, consider staying in Cody, WY.  (Check Rates and Availability Here).

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