We had stopped to see a herd of bison (!) at the the Mud Volcano Trailhead parking lot on Grand…read moreLoop Road on the east side of the lower loop. (Jul 2026) We found the park had placed waterless outhouses on either side of the south end of parking lot here. Traveling as a large group, we nearly always send at least one person in. Like every other one we saw this weekday, the outhouses were clean and had all necessary supplies. (3pm)

There are waterless vault-style outhouses in the Fountain Paint Pot parking lot. It was a nice hike…read morearound the trail, and we were staying hydrated in the hot weather (Jul 2026). Like the others so far, these were clean, and had the necessary supplies, around 9:20AM on a Wed.

There are several pulloffs near the parking at Bunsen Peak Trailhead north of Swan Lake, with a…read moreview to the south across Swan Lake Flats. The Flats open up an unobstructed 10-mile view to South and North White Peaks, and it looks like Echo Peak, nestled behind Dome Mountain. We later looked at a topographical map and other posted photos to identify these peaks.

West Yellowstone is a busy summer town, and a much quieter winter town. We were part of the summer…read morecrowd (Jul 2026). We saw street parking everywhere, and for many people, everything in town is close enough for walking, through it can get pretty hot. Stay hydrated! I think we found only one more-upscale restaurant in town, and many good casual restaurants. Only one fast-food place! We had some great steaks, including bison steaks, in town, at reasonable prices. We found many less-expensive still-good steaks, too. We also found excellent BBQ! The bars we found were casual, with only one or two towards the divey end. There's a good handful of cafes and ice cream shops. We shopped at number of clothing and jewelry and souvenir shops of all sorts. We only saw a few towards the upscale end, several focussed on local traditions. There are hotels and motels and rental properties everywhere, priced out of the range of locals during the summer. Just about everything is western-themed in one way or another. There are fishing guides and shops, and lots of ranches and such near West Yellowstone for rodeos, riding, and more. The park itself is magnificent, full of amazing sights and wandering herds of wildlife, plus of course solos we saw such as black bears. There's other towns outside Yellowstone National Park in different directions. We drove through Gardiner to the north, which is much smaller than West Yellowstone. I can see staying there or in one of the other surrounding towns and some future visit.

We followed N Entrance Rd as the roadside features thinned out north of Mammoth WY. At this small…read morepulloff, and nearby along N Entrance Rd, we saw terrific views of Gardner Canyon in the area of Boiling River Hot Springs. For us, this was our wind-down at the end of our drive through Yellowstone National Park.

This small pulloff on the east side of N Entrance Rd caught our attention because we liked the…read moreglimpse of Slide Lake. There are several more pulloffs just north of here, but this was the view we got the best photos from. Pro tip: Lift your camera higher to get more of the lake in the frame.

You can find the outhouse at the turnoff to the Nez Perce Picnic Area from west Lower grand Loop…read moreRoad. The Lat-Lon for the outhouse is 44.5778055556, -110.8296111111 The Yelp map location was not correct as of Aug 2026.

About 7.5 miles east of the West Entrance of Yellowstone National Park, just a little north of…read morewhere the Madison River crosses US-20 West Entrance Road at 7 Mile Bridge, we saw the Madison River Picnic Area. In our case, we had driven further than this, found a herd of elk, took a bunch of pictures, then doubled back to this picnic area for the outhouse. The outhouse was clean, and the necessary supplies were well-stocked, around 7:20AM on a Wed (Jul 2026). It's the waterless vault-style outhouse that the park tends to use. Yes, any outhouse is smelly. And it's a good idea to have your own supplies, just in case. There were around 6 picnic tables with parking around a pulloff loop, with a nice view of the Madison River. I believe this is within the area of the park where fishing is allowed, with a license required over age 15, allowing possession of up to five brook trout, with catch and release of native fish. But be sure to check current regulations.